ABSTRACT
A surprising number of Americans seem to hold that forefathers had no sex at all except for the purposes of procreation. Open discussion of sex still distresses large numbers of people, and the fact that old attitudes seem to be disappearing is looked upon with fear and anxiety. In Western culture, one of the more obvious sources of information was observing sexual reproduction in animals. In spite of such assumptions, Aristotle was an outstanding observer of sexual practices. One of the surprising finds of their discovery was that unicellular organisms could also reproduce by sexual reproduction. In the process, Masters, in collaboration with Johnson, was able to answer many of the questions associated with the physiology of the sex act. Since the invention of writing, there have also been uncounted numbers of manuals purporting to teach the art of love. These early manuals, whether Greek, Indian, or Chinese, indicate considerable experimentation in the sexual act.
