History of Sex Research

Greeks to 1900
*Early knowledge gained from watching animals
*400 B.C. Aristotle, "History of Animals, Parts of Animals, and Generation of Animals,"
-foundation of western sexology
-developed classification system: reproduction by sexual, asexual, and spontaneous generation
*During this period, believed male contributed the seed, the woman brought to fruition.
*Plato - wandering uterus causes hysteria in women
*1600: Vesalius
-discounted wandering uterus theory
-female anatomy still misunderstood
*1653 William Harvey: discovered importance of female egg to reproduction by studying animals…