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DR. LAIDLAW: At a round-table meeting on Tuesday evening of this week Dr. Ewing Cameron, the Moderator, spoke of the origin of the concept of these round-table discussions. He said that they originated years ago when Dr. Samuel W. Hamilton felt that it would be helpful for a few members who were interested in certain topics to meet informally around what was really a round table, and spend time together in informal discussion without having to have an eye on the clock.
The other night Dr. Cameron, with great skill, was able to maintain that atmosphere of informal give-and-take with a group of some 40 or 50 individuals. I think that here, however, we are posed with a greater problem, and I believe that the best that we can do tonight is to consider ourselves a round table on a giant screen.
Now, as to our procedure at this round table, I will first call upon each member of the panel in turn, asking each to speak for a maximum of about 10 minutes. Dr. Kinsey will then speak, and as he will have considerably more material to discuss from the contributions of the previous speakers, we will not limit him so strictly as to time. Following this, the discussion will be thrown open to the floor. In order to make it easy for everyone to see and hear, I will ask that whoever wishes to address a question to any member of the panel, or who wishes to make some comments himself will raise his hand, be recognized, and come forward to speak at this floor microphone. In this way we will all be able to see and hear, and I will ask that such remarks be limited to a total of three or four minutes. So far as the panel is concerned, we will try to promote the atmosphere of informality by leaving it to each individual speaker as to whether he will sit or stand during his talk.
The topic announced for this evening is “Psychiatric Implications of Surveys on Sexual Behavior.” We would like to make it clear, however, that although several speakers may allude to other sexual studies which have bee