This 1905 work discusses the natural sexual impulse, normal sexual habits and propagation, together with sexual physiology and hygiene. Topics include the physical and mental changes of puberty, love at first sight, the biology and physiology of sex, and more. His contention that the book was necessary for the education of the public was contradicted by the courts of Minnesota when they charged the author with distribution of obscene material.

Charles William Malchow (born 1864) was professor of proctology and associate in clinical medicine at Hamline University College of Physicians and Surgeons, president of the Physicians and Surgeons Club, and a member of many medical societies. For his book,The Sexual Life, he was fined and sent to jail for one and a half yearscharged with circulation of lewd, lascivious, and obscene matter in the United States mail system.