Nineteenth-Century British Pornography: Sources and Materials

This volume focuses on the entanglement of pornography and science. Although both categories became better defined during the nineteenth century, they intersected in various ways. Documents in the volume illustrate how medical and pornographic writing were treated as companionate genres in the emerging pornography trade, which together furnished customers with what they needed to enjoy healthy, happy sex lives; how medical and scientific writing could be used as a form of entertainment, and informed sexual fantasies in pornographic fiction; and how pornography was used in the making of sexual-scientific knowledge. They also illustrate challenges that these intersections presented for state authorities and scientific fields.

Sarah Bull is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at Toronto Metropolitan University. She is the author of Selling Sexual Knowledge: Medical Publishing and Obscenity in Victorian Britain (Cambridge University Press, 2025).

Volume II: Pornography and Science Edited by Sarah Bull Table of contents Acknowledgements Chronology List of Illustrations General Introduction Volume 2 Introduction Bibliography Part 1. Sexual Freedom Introduction 1. 'Advertisements', Era, 2 June 1844, p. 2. 2. Ward's New Catalogue of Parisian Novelties (Strand: W. Ward, [n.d., c. 1850]) 3. Charles Knowlton, Fruits of Philosophy, or, The Private Companion of Young Married People [1832] (London: Dugdale, Russell Court, Drury Lane, 1838), pp. iii-x, 1-59 4. On the Use of Night Caps, or, Seven Years' Experience on the Practicality of Limiting the Number of a Family, By the Best Known Methods, Including Some Valuable and Novel Information, Never Before Published, by a Married Man with Six Children! (London: J. Turner [William Dugdale], n.d.) 5. Intercidona [pseud], The Connubial Guide, or, Married People's Best Friend (London: John Wilson [Edward Duncombe], [c. 1840]) 6. 'Late Extraordinary Charge Against a Tradesman to Poison His Wife', Lloyd's Weekly London Newspaper, 45, Sunday, October 1, 1843, pp. 6. Part 2. Medical Eroticism Introduction 7. Title Pages of Three Medical Works Published by William Dugdale Conjugal Love; or, the Mysteries of Hymen Unveiled ([s.n.]: H. Smith, 37, Holywell Street, Strand, [n.d.]) A Lecture on the Generation, Increase, and Improvement of the Human Species (London: [s.n.], 1840) On Impotence and Sterility; or, Private Advice to those Married Ladies Who Have Been Hitherto Unable, But are Eagerly Desirous to Have Children ([s.n.]: H. Smith, Printer, 37, Holywell Street Strand, [n.d.]) 8. The Secrets of Nature Revealed (London: Printed for the Booksellers of Town and Country, 1832) 9. A Hybrid Reconstruction of The Surprising Adtentures [sic] of Bigenio, an Hermaphrodite, or Man-Woman, and Woman-Man (c. 1840s) 10. Seduction by Chloroform (London: J. Turner, [c.1850]) 11. James Campbell, The Amatory Experiences of a Surgeon (Moscow: Printed for the Nihilists, 1881) Part 3. Science and the Law Introduction 12. Two Statements by Edward Duncombe Following an Arrest, April 1856 13. 'Court of the Exchequer', Reynolds's Newspaper, 13 July 1856, p. 16. 14. Three Newspaper Reports on Medical Works in Court, 1857-8. 15. Title Page and Introductory Advertisement from Revised Edition of the Works of Aristotle, the Famous Philosopher (1857). 16. 'Mr. Justice Coleridge on Obscene Publications', Beverley and East Riding Recorder, 14 November 1857, p. 3. Part 4. Imperial Pornography Introduction 17. A. C. Swinburne, 'The Cannibal Catechism' (1863) reprinted in A.C. Swinburne, Major Poems and Collected Prose, ed. J. McGann and C.L. Sligh (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2004), p. 413-15. 18. Two Papers Read Out by Members of the Cannibal Club at Anthropological Society Meetings Richard Burton, 'Notes on an Hermaphrodite', Memoirs Read before the Anthropological Society of London, 1865-6, Vol. II (London: Published for the Anthropological Society by Trubner & Co, 1866). Edward Sellon, 'Remarks on Indian Gnosticism', Memoirs Read before the Anthropological Society of London, 1865-6, Vol. II (London: Published for the Anthropological Society by Trubner & Co, 1866). 19. Two Letters to Richard Monckton Milnes (c. 1860) Letter from Richard Burton to Richard Monckton Milnes, January 22, 1860 discussing Birchiad, signed Hadji Abdullah. Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge, Houghton Papers, 228.14. Letter from Studholme John Hodgson to Richard Monckton Milnes, Arlington Court, Barnstaple, December 25 [c.1860]. Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge, Houghton Papers, DF2/3. 20. The Kama Sutra of Vatsayayna, [excerpts], trans. Richard Burton and F.F. Arbuthnot (London: Printed for the Hindoo Kama Shastra Society, 1883). 21. Charles Devereaux [pseud.], Venus in India; or, Love Adventures in Hindustan [excerpt] (Brussels, 1889). Part 5. The Science of Books and the Science of Sex Introduction 22. Pisanus Fraxi [Henry Spencer Ashbee], 'Introduction', Index Librorum Prohibitorum: Being Notes Bio- Biblio- Icono-graphical and Critical, on Curious and Uncommon Books (London: Privately Printed, 1877), pp. ix-lxxvi 23. Pisanus Fraxi [Henry Spencer Ashbee], Catena Librorum Tacendorum: Being Notes Bio- Biblio- Icono-graphical and Critical, on Curious and Uncommon Books [excerpts] (London: Privately Printed, 1885), pp xliv-lv, 183-89, 197, 246-51, 458-76 24. Fragments from Iwan Bloch's work with Henry Spencer Ashbee's Bibliographies, c. 1900 Iwan Bloch. Letter to Henry Spencer Ashbee, 20 July 1900 Excerpt from Dr. Iwan Bloch, Sex Life in England (New York: Panurge Press, 1934). 25. Charles Carrington, Bibliotheca Arcana in Album 7: A Collection of Prospectuses and Catalogues of Erotic and Obscene Books, Pictures and Instruments. 1889-1929 [excerpts] Index