This is an unusual and interesting account of the many phases of human reproduction, based on a series of lectures given at the University of Louvain. Bouckaert approaches the subject from a broad point of view, in which he tries to combine the data of physiology with the findings of social statisticians, to provide the basis for a biologically correct ethical approach to sexuality, marriage, control of conception, etc. The physiologic data are derived mostly from the literature on human beings, and supplemented with the more abundant material based on animal experimentation.
The first half of the book is concerned with the primary and secondary sex characters, sex determination, the sex instinct, rhythmicity and human sex behavior. Then follows a chapter on conception, the fetus, the physiology of pregnancy, of labor and of lactation. In chapter 4, called the "Aim of Reproduction," Bouckaert discusses the causes of fertility and sterility,