Noah's Ark      
Cheeky illustration for the chapter on “Human Sexual Behavior”
Origin of the Species       Gnostic illustration for the chapter on “Life and the Origin of the Species”




From a review of the 3rd (and “cleaned up”) edition:

The first edition (1972), was published by CRM Books, had no designated author but was attributed to fifty-four “Contributing Consultants” (including seven Nobel laureates), a team of thirteen persons listed under “Special Consultation,” and a “Book Team” of sixteen people including John H. Painter, Jr., Publisher, who wrote the preface. That edition was ablaze with stylized artwork, references to the humanities, photographs, colorful representation of biology at the sub-cellular level, and explicit materials on human sexuality and drug abuse. Such illustrations as that of heroin administration, insertion and placement of the diaphragm, two aging prostitutes on the streets of New York, diagram of the human male and female sex organs during coitus, and the painting “Noah’s Ark” outraged some educators, parents, and reviewers to such an extent that large-scale adoptions were few. That book might now be considered a “classic” for it is hardly likely that such a fine humanistic biology textbook will be published again. (If you have a copy, hold on to it.)

(William H. Yongue, Jr., The American Biology Teacher, Vol. 43, No. 2, Feb. 1981, pp. 108-109)




Here are more examples of the textbook artwork from A Journey Round My Skull’s Flickr site:




It’s pretty obvious what these biologists were on. (Lucy in the sky with diamonds…) The tests must have been a trip.