the
pages of the _Medical Review of Reviews_, her essay will reach only
the profession, but we sincerely hope that this splendid contribution
will be reprinted in pamphlet form and distributed by thousands to
the general public. We are tolerably familiar with Anglo-American
writings on sexology, but we know nothing that equals Mrs. Dennett's
brochure. Physicians and social workers are frequently asked: "What
shall I say to my growing child?" Mary Ware Dennett, in her rational
sex primer, at last furnishes a satisfactory answer.

V. R.

THE SEX SIDE OF LIFE

INTRODUCTION FOR ELDERS

In reading several dozen books on sex matters for the young with a
view to selecting the best for my own children, I found none that I
was willing to put into their hands, without first guarding them
against what I considered very misleading and harmful impressions,
which they would otherwise be sure to acquire in reading them. That
is the excuse for this article.

It is far more specific than most sex information written for young
people. I believe we owe it to children to be specific if we talk
about the subject at all.

From a careful observation of youthful curiosity and a very vivid
recollection of my own childhood, I have tried to explain frankly the
points about which there is the greatest inquiry. These points are
_not_ frankly or clearly explained in most sex literature. They are
avoided, partly from embarrassment, but more, apparently, because
those who have undertaken to instruct the children are not really
clear in their own minds as to the proper status of the sex relation.

I found that from the physiological point of view, the question was
handled with limitations and reservations. From the point of natural
science it was often handled with sentimentality, the child being led
from a semi-esthetic study of the reproduction of flowers and animals
to the acceptance of a similar idea for human beings. From the moral
point of view it was handled least satisfactorily of all, the child
being given a jumble of conflicting ideas, with no means of
correlating them,--fear of venereal disease, one's duty to suppress
"animal passion," the sacredness of marriage, and so forth. And from
the emotional point of view, the subject was not handled at all.

This one omission seems to me to be the key to the whole situation,
and it is the basis of the radical departure I have made from the
precedents in most sex literature for c