When published in 1948 this volume encountered a storm of condemnation and acclaim. It is, however, a milestone on the path toward a scientific approach to the understanding of human sexual behaviour. Dr. Kinsey and his fellow researchers sought to accumulate an objective body of facts regarding sex. They employed first hand interviews to gather this data. This volume is based upon histories of approximately 5,300 males which were collected over a fifteen-year period. This text describes the methodology, sampling, coding, interviewing, statistical analyses, and then examines factors and sources of sexual outlet . Alfred C Kinsey joined the faculty at Indiana University after receiving a doctorate from Harvard University in 1919. He established a solid reputation for his biology texts and his research, and was listed as a starred scientist by ‘American Men of Science’ in 1937. While teaching a course on marriage at Indiana University, Kinsey was approached by students with questions concerning sexual behaviour. Finding little scientific data, Kinsey saw the need for a comprehensive survey of sexual behaviour based on interviews with thousands of people. The National Research Council and Indiana University supported his project and between 1938 and 1956 more than 17,000 interviews were conducted. His study resulted in the largest and most detailed set of data on human sexual behaviour collected to date.Wardell B Pomeroy was one of the earliest colleagues to join Dr Kinsey on his sex research project. He left the Institute to go into private practice as a marriage counsellor and psychotherapist, and in 1976 became dean of the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco. His service to the field includes terms a president of the society for the Scientific Study of human Sexuality, president of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy and board member for the Society of Sex Therapy and Research. In recognition of his work, Dr Pomeroy was elected tot he International Academy of Sex Research. He has authored or co-authored more than 25 publications, including ‘Sexual Behaviour in the Human Female’ and ‘Dr Kinsey and the Institute for Sex Research’. Pomeroy received a PH.D in psychology from Columbia University.Clyde E Martin began working for Dr Kinsey while still a student at Indiana University. In 1941, he joined Dr Kinsey’s project full-time, converting all the coded hand-written sex history data to punch cards, processing the cards and creating figures in the original two Kinsey volumes. He went on to obtain a PH.D at Johns Hopkins University and to join the staff of the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Ageing, Gerontology Research Centre, National Institute of Health. His work, relating the sexual lives of men to other aspects of their lives, found that age of first coitus was an important predictor of later aspects of individuals’ sexual/medical histories.