A Marriage Manual - A Practical Guide to Sex and Marriage

A. S. Stone, H. M. Stone

Description

Originally published in the early 1930s this learned work on Sex and Marriage presents in a realistic and practical manner the essential facts of mating and reproduction whilst also dealing with common sexual and marital problems which confront the average couple.Contents Include: Fitness for Marriage The Biology of Marriage The Male Sex Organs The Female Sex Organs Reproduction Problems of Reproduction Prevention of Conception The Art of Marriage Sex Technique and Orgasm Sexual Disharmonies Health in Marriage etc. Illustrated. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Home Farm Books are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Sujets

• Sexualité
• sexualité
• Sexualité

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 06 août 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 5
• EAN13: 9781528761413
• Langue: English

Extrait

A MARRIAGE MANUAL
A Marriage Manual
A Practical Guide-Book to Sex and Marriage
by
H ANNAH M. S TONE , M.D.
Medical Director of the Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau and Marriage Consultation Centres, U.S.A.
and
A BRAHAM S TONE , M.D.
Surgeon to the Sydenham Hospital and Director of Marriage Consultation Centres, U.S.A.
English edition edited, and with an Introduction by, MICHAEL FIELDING
LONDON VICTOR GOLLANCZ LTD in association with JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD 1938
T O O UR D AUGHTER G LORIA
First published April 1936
Second impression March 1937
Third impression June 1938
Printed in Great Britain by The Camelot Press Ltd., London and Southampton
Foreword
In writing this book it has been our object to present in a realistic and concrete manner and in simple, nontechnical language the essential facts of mating and reproduction. For many years we have had the opportunity in lectures and consultations to discuss with men and women their problems of sex and marriage. During the course of our work, we have become familiar with the practical and intimate sexual and marital problems which confront the average individual. This book is based largely upon the results of these experiences, and is an attempt to meet the general need for more adequate information concerning the factors of human sex and reproduction.
A Marriage Manual is written in the form of hypothetical consultations between a physician and a young couple about to be married. In reality it does represent a composite record of many thousands of pre- and post-marital consultations-at Marriage Consultation Centres, the Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau, and elsewhere. We have adopted the dialogue style because we felt that it lent itself more readily to a vivid presentation of the questions and discussions, and because it appeared to be most suitable for a graphic portrayal of the subject matter.
Our aim has been to deal mainly with the individual aspects of sex contact rather than with the social, ethical or moral problems of sex conduct. As such, this volume is offered primarily as a practical guide to sex and marriage. We have dealt at some length and detail with the structure and functions of the human sex organs because we feel that an intelligent union should be based on an understanding of the biological processes involved. We have also emphasised particularly the technique of the sexual relation and the problems of birth control because it has been our experience that an appreciation of the sex factors in marriage and reliable contraceptive information are essential for a well-adjusted and satisfactory marital union.
Though it may appear from the contents that some parts were written by one or the other of us, we have, as a matter of fact, made no attempt to divide the subject between us, but have written all of it jointly. It has been our custom for many years to exchange our medical experiences, impressions and observations and to discuss and analyse the various problems that have come to our attention. Hence all the material included represents the result of the experiences and viewpoints of both of us.
H ANNAH M. S TONE A BRAHAM S TONE
INTRODUCTION
A FEW MONTHS AGO , in reviewing the American edition of A Marriage Manual , I wrote as follows: It is a matter for some regret that, when a good book is produced, it does not automatically, by the operation of a law of progressive elimination, supersede all its inferior predecessors in the same field; for the appearance of such a work as A Marriage Manual could then immediately relieve the existing congestion among works designed to guide the general reader through the everyday problems of sex and marriage. Later, when I received the flattering request to prepare an edition for English readers-i.e. where necessary to substitute English for American material on such matters as birth control and eugenics-I was able to confirm this first impression. Not even the incorporation of my amendments and additions can alter the fact that A Marriage Manual is the best Baedeker to matrimony that has ever been published. Let me give very shortly my reasons for this opinion.
A Marriage Manual combines, more skilfully than any other work on the subject, scientific objectivity with a specific moral purpose. Drs. H. and A. Stone are not concerned merely to state facts, to answer the questions, quell the anxieties, and anticipate the difficulties of those who have undertaken or are about to undertake the responsibilities of marriage and parenthood. True, they do all these things supremely well. Accurately, with sufficient completeness and yet a delicate regard for the prejudices of the general reader, they survey what in any society which esteemed marital happiness as among the more important values would surely be the minimal curriculum for aspirants to matrimony and parenthood-namely, fitness for marriage, sexual anatomy and physiology, the mechanisms and problems of reproduction, the prevention of conception, the art of marriage, sexual disharmonies and the hygiene of sexual relationships. But though in the information they impart their standards are strictly academic, their aims are undisguisedly propagandist. They believe intensely in the spiritual value of monogamic unions, that there is something of inestimable value in the relation of a man and a woman who love each other with passion, imagination and tenderness, that a lasting union of one man with one woman is still the ideal form of human sex relationship ; and in the hypothetical consultations of which this book consists they bend all their gifts of exposition and persuasion to the one purpose of showing Mr. and Mrs. Everyman how to make monogamy a success.
The fact that in this endeavour Drs. H. and A. Stone are aided by an almost unparalleled clinical experience is not without its importance. Everyone who knows the literature in this field must recognise that it includes some admirable works by non-medical authors; but among these there are few which are not marred by a tendency to generalise widely from a very limited body of facts. Such productions are indeed not without value, but chiefly as material for the expert psychologist, who can study them as thinly disguised excerpts from their authors autobiographies or even fantasies. A Marriage Manual is autobiographical only in the sense that it summarises some thousands of consultations in which Drs. H. and A. Stone have taken part; it is an exact record of their patients difficulties not their own.
Having said so much about the value of A Marriage Manual it is proper to add a word about its limitations. I am not, nor are the authors, among those who believe that sex knowledge is of itself a sufficient safeguard against marital maladjustments. Let those who believe otherwise ask themselves if, among well-educated persons who have nothing to learn about what have been called, a little invidiously, the facts of life, unhappy marriages are altogether unknown. But though knowledge is not a complete safeguard, ignorance is none the less a grave danger. No one engaged in the practice of medicine can fail to have had experience of marriages which have been wrecked through lack of the kind of knowledge that is contained in this book; or of cases of severe nervous disorder which such knowledge might have prevented but only a long course of medical treatment could cure. If the temperamental qualities that make for successful marital adjustment are lacking, sex education may mitigate but cannot wholly prevent marital unhappiness. But the converse is also true; that without sex education such temperamental qualities may not suffice to secure the most satisfactory and enduring marital experience. I do not know any other book in which this indispensable knowledge is imparted so precisely or so decently as in A Marriage Manual .
M ICHAEL F IELDING
Table of Contents
CHAPTER I Fitness for Marriage
The Objects of Marriage: Companionship, Mating, Reproduction. Fitness for Marriage: Economic, Psychological, Physical, Sexual, Procreative, Eugenic. Fertility and Sterility. Parental Health and Hereditary Diseases. Venereal Diseases and Marriage. How Heredity Works: Chromosomes and Genes. Heredity and Environment. Tuberculosis. Cancer. Inherited Physical and Mental Abnormalities. Marriage between Relatives. Individual and Racial Eugenics
CHAPTER II The Biology of Marriage The Male Sex Organs
The R le of the Male in Reproduction. The Male Pelvis. Urinary and Sexual Organs. The Seminal Fluid and its Contents. The Testes and the Ducts leading from them. The Accessory Sex Glands: the Vesicles and the Prostate. The Penis and the Mechanism of Erection. The Ejaculation. The Spermatozoa. Glands and Hormones. Testicular Hormones and Sexual Characters. Castration, Gland Transplantation, Rejuvenation. The Male Hormone
CHAPTER III The Biology of Marriage ( Continued ) The Female Sex Organs
The R le of the Female in Reproduction. The Female Pelvis. The Ovaries. Ovulation and Menstruation. The Egg Cell and its Journey from the Ovary. The Tubes and the Uterus. The Mechanism of Menstruation. The Vagina. The External Genitals: the Outer and Inner Labia, the Clitoris, the Hymen. The Female Urinary Passage. The Breasts. Ovarian Hormones. Castration and Transplantation of Ovaries. The Female Hormones
CHAPTER IV The Mechanism of Reproduction
Asexual and Sexual Reproduction. Insemination: the Deposition of the Sperms in the Vagina and their Entry into the Uterus and Tubes. Fertilisation. The Development of the Embryo. The Formation of the Nourishing Apparatus: The Placenta and Umbilical Cord. Pregnancy: Signs and Symptoms. The Urine Test for Pregnancy. Pre-natal Influences. Maternal Impressions. The Process of Childbir