Evening star., 1949-11-24

That part OF our project, Is
coming along fine, thank you'll"
Reports the cryptic DR.. Kinsey,
who saves most of his comments
for his statistics-laden volumes.
And he means it when he
classes "The Sexual Behavior Of
the Human Female" as just an
incident In a long series, for "the
project" is the real undertaking
as he views it. It ultimately calls
for nine volumes based on more
than 100000 intimate converse
tions with people about their sex
ual experiences.
He does not expect the end
to come into sight for about 20
years, and, consequently, he is not
particularly concerned whether
the eagerly awaited volume on the
female appears in the next IL
months or later. However, the
publisher is all set for an early
date.
Interviews Nearly Complete.
And the thousands Of addi-
tional interviews are virtually
complete. DR.. Kinsey is spend
ing most Of his time here at home
and in his laboratories working
with his assistants, Wardell B.
Pomeroy and Clyde E. Martin. on
the interpretations of the infor-
nation they have been gathering.
So ponderous Is the statistical
Job that an astronomer, DR.. Frank
K. Edmondson. director Of the
Indiana University Observatory, is
helping with the mathematics.
DR.. Kinsey, who highlighted
publication of his first volume
with the dramatic assertion that
II all the Nations sex laws were
strictly enforced 95 per cent Of
the male population would wind
up in jail, still is close mouthed
rs to such general conclusions
with reference to women. but he
already hints at a few.
In the first place. he and his
tnterviewers report that the wom-
en- are not holding back" but
talk with them frankly and will
ingly. Any obstacle resulting
from the generally accepted view
that women are more reticent
about such things did not ma
terialize.
r-~l;&s D,,hIici<v
Dr.Kinsey attributes much OF
this to the widespread publicity
his first work received. Almost
every one now knows Of the pro-
tect in one way or another, and
explanations need to be less
lengthy to dispel suspicious.
The $4,000 interviews with men
that went into the first study,
T,o36 Of which, DR.. Kinsey con-
Quoted himself. took nine years.
At frst it went SO slowly that a
whole year was needed for the
first ST interviews.
At such a rate, the ambitious
project seemed hopeless. How
ever, the public's understanding,
plus improved interviewing tech
niques, Is speeding things up so
that the goal Of 20 years for the
whole undertaking is being matn-
tanned.
Ultimately, the volumes on the
male and female will be augment
ed by books on sex offenders, pri-
son inmates, prostitutes, and 9TH
or special groupings. Altogether,
the work will stack up as the most
encyclopedia ever done on the sex
life of human beings.
Havelock Ellis wrote a set OF
books but they usually are con-
sidered more literary than Stats
tical. It was the lack of scientific
studies which stirred DR.. Kinsey.
Wrote Book on Wasps.
A ttrelesS researcher with tre-
mendous reputation among his
scientific colleagues, DR.. Kinsey
nine years ago was looking for new
fields to conquer. In completing
. monumental work on an insect,
the gall wasp, he had travelled all
over the world collecting 10000
specimens.
He also has relentlessly sought
"the ancestral home" of the corn
plant, and his garden is brilliant
in the spring with the blossoms Of
rare iris, for he is famous among
botanists for his work with that
plant.
Suddenly, as he reports it,, the
fact occurred to him that while
man had probed into the sex lives
of most of his fellow creatures
like the gall wasp, corn plant, and
tris-he has been too Self-con-
scious to analyze himself in this
regard. He decided to tackle it,
and set as his goal the collection
OF 100000 specimens in the form
Of interviews.
At first it was his own personal
undertaking, but then Indiana
University took it over and finally
the Rockefeller Foundation gave
its support. The going was rough
at first, but DR.. Kinsey says that,
the rebuffs he took were no real
handicap nothing like the noun
tains, swamps and hostile natives
we encountered collecting the gall
wasps."
Includes $4,000 Histories.
The female cross section In
cludes 10000 case histories. DR..
Kinsey travelled almost continu-
ously for nine months to give it
better geographic distribution than
the male study, which he feels was
concentrated too much IN the
Northeastern States, owing to the
difficulties he had at the outset OF
getting about with little money.
Aside from his agreeable sur
prise that the women are, II any
thing, more willing "to tell all"
than the males, DR.. Kinsey hints
at forecasts on another interesting
general conclusion. He has found
,,nr;o<;oy, IN female cay be.