eface the
practical part of the subject by a concise description of the anatomy
of reproduction. In this portion of the work especial pains has been
taken to avoid anything like indelicacy of expression, yet it has not
been deemed advisable to sacrifice perspicuity of ideas to any prudish
notions of modesty. It is hoped that the reader will bear in mind that
the language of science is always chaste in itself, and that it is only
through a corrupt imagination that it becomes invested with impurity.
The author has constantly endeavored to impart information in the most
straightforward, simple, and concise manner.

The work should be judiciously circulated, and to secure this the
publishers will take care to place it in the hands of agents competent
to introduce it with discretion; yet it may be read without injury by
any one who is sufficiently mature to understand it. Great care has
been taken to exclude from its pages those accounts of the habits of
vicious persons, and descriptions of the mechanical accessories of vice,
with which many works upon sexual subjects abound.

The first editions of the work were issued with no little anxiety on
the part of both author and publishers as to how it would be received
by the reading public. It was anticipated that no little adverse
criticism, and perhaps severe condemnation, would be pronounced by many
whose education and general mode of thought had been such as to unfit
them to appreciate it; but it was hoped that persons of more thoughtful
and unbiased minds would receive the work kindly, and would readily
co-operate with the publishers in its circulation. This anticipation
has been more than realized. Wherever the book has been introduced,
it has met with a warm reception; and of the several thousand persons
into whose hands the work has been placed, hundreds have gratefully
acknowledged the benefit which they have received from its perusal,
and it is hoped that a large proportion have been greatly benefited.

The cordial reception which the work has met from the press everywhere
has undoubtedly contributed in great measure to its popularity. The
demand for the work has exhausted several editions in rapid succession,
and has seemed to require its preparation in the greatly enlarged and
in every way improved form in which it now appears. The addition of
two whole chapters for the purpose of bringing the subject directly
before the minds of boys and girls in a proper manner, a