Aristotle's master piece completed
Subtitle: In two parts. The first, containing the secrets of generation in all the parts thereof. Treating, of the benefit of marriage, and the prejudice of unequal matches, signs of insufficiency in men or women:--Of the infusion of the soul:--Of the likeness of children to parents:--Of monstrous births:--The cause and cure of the green sickness, a discourse of virginity:--Directions and cautions for midwives:--Of the organs of generation in women, and the fabric of the womb. The use and action of the genitals:--Signs of conception, and whether a male or female; with a word of advice to both sexes in the act of copulation. And the picture of several monstrous births, &c. The second part. A private looking-glass for the female sex, treating of the various maladies of the womb, and all other distempers incident to women of all ages, with proper remedies for the cure of each. The whole being more correct than any thing of this kind hitherto published..
Publisher: Printed for the United Company of Flying Stationers.
Published: 1788
Place of publication: New-York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 103
Subjects: Gynecology; Human reproduction; Popular Medicine; Obstetrics; Physiognomy
Other titles: Aristotle's masterpiece completed; Private looking-glass for the female sex.; Family physician: being choice and approved remedies for several distempers incident to human bodies, &c.
Work titles: Aristotle's Masterpiece
Notes: "A private looking glass for the female sex", pages 60-95, has separate caption title.

"The family physician: being choice and approved remedies for several distempers incident to human bodies, &c.", pages 97-103, has separate caption title.

Aristotle's Masterpiece, a manual of sex and pregnancy, first saw the light of day about 1680. It is not, of course, the work of the ancient Greek philosopher, but its true authorship is unclear: the name of William Salmon has been suggested. Other works by the same or other hands were accreted to the original "Masterpiece" until by about 1735 the four parts here published made up the canon. Banned in Britain until the 1960's, it nonetheless has had a long but mostly clandestine career as a quasi-pornographic book. Grubby copies were produced in back-street printers, sold in rubber-goods shops or Holywell Street, and passed from hand to hand until they disintegrated. Many young boys got their first inklings of sex from it. It was also sometimes given by their mothers to women about to get married; the effect it had on the mind of a virgin bride can only be conjectured. It has been read (or at any rate mentioned) by James Joyce, William Carleton, Evelyn Waugh, Anthony Burgess and many others, and probably has had more influence than is realized--http://www.exclassics.com/arist/ariintro.htm.

Signatures: A⁶ (-A1) (A2 recto blank) B-H⁶ (H6 verso blank) I⁴ (I4 verso blank).

Shipton, C.K. National index of American imprints through 1800, 45223

National Library of Medicine (U.S.). Early American medical imprints, 60

Bristol, R.P. Supplement to Charles Evans’ American bibliography, B6664

English short title catalogue, W42021

Purchase; 2001; 02-852.