Sex Problems and Dangers in War-Time. A Book of Practical Advice for Men and Women on the Fighting and Home Fronts.

Bookseller Notes

Scarce. The author wrote prolifically, largely on sexual matters (with occasional diversion into chickens) the majority of the publisher's 'Sex Education Library' was his work, including volumes on birth control (male and female), prostitution, and corporal punishment. Ryley Scott proceeds on the basis that knowledge is the best prophylactic, wishing to avoid the 'crop of misery' that had followed the Great War 'through ignorance, through indifference, and through neglect' (Preface). Though the greater part of his attention is given to the problems and dangers of sexual intercourse (the largest section of the book is that on venereal disease), the author also considers the results of the 'sociological and physiological upheavals' caused by war on, respectively, married domesticity and menstruation. The book was banned in Ireland under the Censorship of Publications Act of 1946, but the reason for its more general scarcity is unclear domestically, its frank exploration of its subject would have been unpalatable to many, even more so once the moment it addresses had passed, but the unflinching nature of Ryley Scott's account instils it with real value from an historical perspective.