Sex & Morality

Title styled as Sex & Morality on title page and as Sex and Morality on dust jacket.

A sex-advice book by British eugenics proponent Thomas Bowen Partington, Sex & Morality is addressed to parents whom the author urges to undertake sex education with their children, as well as to unmarried young men and women and those about to marry.

The book argues that sex ignorance opens the door to supposedly pernicious practices such as masturbation among young boys and leaves teens of both sexes prey to the consequences of uncontrolled sex impulses.

To lay the foundation for healthy marriage, Partington insists that young men and young women must be held to the same standards of continence, self-control and purity. Further chapters denounce the dangers and female sex work with its accompanying risks of spread of sexually transmitted infections.

The final sections answer questions from the author's readers and from audiences at his talks, with topics ranging from what he claims are intrinsic differences in the erotic impulses of women and men to the effects of old age on the sexual drive.

Offered here is the first edition, first printing. A second printing—identified as a "second edition"—appeared not long after the first. The only change is a notice indicating: "The Publishers of 'Sex and Morality' have had their attention drawn to the fact (of which they were not aware) that a substantial portion of it has been taken without permission or acknowledgment from Dr. Douglas White's booklet 'An Open Letter to Young Men.'" A revised edition appeared in 1939.

NOTE. Book: minor denting to outside corners and to head & foot of spine; slight discoloration to cloth on upper 3 cm of front board. Dust jacket: moderately soiled; wear, chips and short tears to upper and lower margins; significant chip (2.5 cm x 5.5 cm) to inside upper corner of front panel with loss to top of first letter of title; closed diagonal tear (2.5 cm) to front panel.