Bad Sexology: The Scientific Publications of the University Press (Watford and London), 1897–1901.

This article examines the history and impact of the University Press of Watford, operated by the enigmatic George Ferdinand Springmühl von Weissenfeld, which played a pivotal role in publishing early English-language sexological works in late-Victorian Britain. Notably, the press issued the first English editions of Havelock Ellis and John Addington Symonds's *Sexual Inversion*, a book central to the 1898 obscenity trial of bookseller George Bedborough, which heightened public awareness of modern sexology despite legal suppression. The University Press also produced English translations of French sexological texts and original works by authors such as Walter Matthew Gallichan (writing as Geoffrey Mortimer), contributing significantly to the dissemination and popularisation of sexological knowledge across social strata. Despite von Weissenfeld’s criminal background and the press’s eventual closure following police raids and prosecutions, the enterprise exemplified the complex interplay of scientific publishing, censorship, and radical sexual politics in Britain, influencing subsequent sexological discourse and publishing practices into the early twentieth century.