BOOK REVIEWS

SEXUAL BEHAVIOUR IN THE HUMAN FEMALE. By A. C. KINSEY,

W. B. POMEROY, C. E. MARTIN and P. M. GEBHARD. Philadelphia and
London: W. B. Saunders Company. 1953. Pp. xxx + 842. £2, lOs.
Unfortunately, the advance publicity which this book has received in the
popular press in Britain has been, for the most part, so undesirable that
physiologists may easily have become prejudiced against it. The bona fides of
the investigators is established by the fact that their work is sponsored by a
committee of the U.S.A. National Research Council containing such well-known
names as G. W. Corner, W. M. Allen, K. S. Lashley, C. N. H. Long and R. M.
Yerkes. The Rockefeller Foundation has contributed grants for the work,
and Dr. Alan Gregg, a former Director of the Medical Services of the Foundation,
has given his active support.
Part I is concerned with the methods of the investigation. The data has
been collected by obtaining the histories of the sexual behaviour from some
6000 American women. Thus essentially the method follows established clinical
practice. Yet all the women were "normal" in that their behaviour had not
brought them up against the law or led them to consult physicians or psychia-
trists. It was considered impossible to select the subjects individually by any
method of random selection. Instead, the authors studied various social
groups. By winning the confidence of each group they were able to get the
co-operation of almost every single member within each group. Parent-
teacher organisations, church groups, underworld communities, local community
clubs and various others provided the data. There seems little reason to doubt
that the sample studied was a representative cross-section of the white women
of the United States. The authors have, for the most part, limited their study
to sexual behaviour which leads to orgasm. This is defined as "a build-up of
neuromuscular tensions which may culminate in a peak-from which there may
be a sudden discharge of tensions, followed by a return to a normal physiologic
state". In addition to coitus, masturbation, nocturnal sex dreams, premarital
petting, homosexual responses and animal contacts as sources of orgasm are
recorded and analysed. This definition of orgasm may sound rather vague to
physiologists, and in the figures and tables of statistical data there is no attempt
to grade the intensity of orgasm. The problems of reproduction, child-bearing
and raising a family, and the emotional problems associated with sex, are only
incidentally studied. Thus an attempt has been made to record and measure
only one aspect of female sexuality.
Part II reports the analyses of the findings. The most important new
physiological concept is that of a "total sexual output". This is the sum of all
an individual's responses and contacts which lead to orgasm. " For most females
there appears to be basic physiologic needs which are satisfied by sexual orgasm,
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74 Book Reviews
whatever the source, and the sum-total of such orgasms may constitute a signifi-
cant entity in the life of an individual." Females vary markedly in the size of
the output and in the age at which the maximum is reached. But when once
the level is reached it appears to remain markedly constant, is little affected by
the loss of reproductory powers at the menopause, and is still up to 82 per cent
of the maximum at the age of 60. By contrast in the male, as recorded in the
previous Kinsey report, the maximum output is normally reached in the 'teens
and thereafter there is a progressive fall with age. These conclusions are based
on studies of single persons and others not leading a normal married life. It is
pointed out that in marriage during the earlier years frequency of coitus is
usually determined by the male, but in later years the female may be the
dominant partner. Some 10 per cent of all women had never responded up to
orgasm at any period in their lives. The report contains much valuable
information on the problem of female frigidity.
None of the main conclusions will surprise the experienced. But for the
first time many hitherto uncertain impressions and opinions have been subjected
to measurement. These measurements show that " our openly expressed mores
and the statue law (the overt culture) are remote from the actual behaviour
(the covert culture) of the average citizen". The authors discuss the social and
psychological aspects of their findings at length. Here they are on much less
certain ground, and, as their conclusions frequently appear to be at variance
with orthodox Jewish and Christian teaching, they are bound to be subject to
much criticism. No balanced person, however, will dispute the authors'
transparent integrity or question the taste with which their findings and argu-
ments are presented.
The book records for the first time measurements of an important aspect of
human physiology. As such it is a major achievement in the biological sciences.
The accurate knowledge so acquired will be of great practical value to physicians
and others called upon to deal with problems of sexual behaviour.
R. PASSMORE.

NERVE IMPULSE. Transactions of the Third Conference, March 3 and 4,

1952. Editor, M. Houston Merritt, D.D., Professor of Neurology, College
of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University. New Jersey: Josiah
Macy, Jr., Foundation. Pp. 176. $3.50.
The transactions of the Third Conference report three sessions. The first
two dealt with the biochemical and electrical similarities and differences between
synaptic transmission and axonal conduction; in the third session the structure
of synaptic junctions was discussed.
There is disagreement on the role of acetylcholine in axonal conduction and
synaptic transmission. Bullock, Grundfest, Nachmansohn and Wilson take
the view that acetylcholine has the same function at the axon and at the synapse,
namely, to generate the small electric currents which are responsible for con-
duction along the axon and for transmission across the synapse. Acetylcholine
itself is not held responsible for synaptic transmission. According to this view,