Man and Woman (Havelock Ellis)

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

"The history of opinion regarding cerebral sexual difference forms a painful page in scientific annals."--Man and Woman (1894, revised 1929) by Havelock Ellis

Related e

Wikipedia
Wiktionary
Shop

Featured:

Rhombicuboctahedron by Leonardo da Vinci

Man and Woman: A Study of Secondary and Tertiary Sexual Characteristics (1894, revised 1929) is a book by Havelock Ellis.

[edit]

Full text[1]

Science Serie.-

Van and Woman

r--

THE CONTEMPORAR Y SCIENCE SERIES.

Edited by HAVELOCK ELLIS.

MAN AND WOMAN.

BY THE SAME AUTHOR,

THE CRIMINAL. Illustrated. (Walter Scott, Ltd. )

'* The subject with which it deals is by this volume introduced for the first time to English readers. In many a journal, from many a scientific meeting, they are likely to hear more of it in the near future." — Pall Mall Gazette,

"In der Darstellung der Resultate der criminellen Anthro- pologic giebt Ellis die beste mir bekannte Begrundung der atavistische Theorie des Verbrechers . . . das ausgezeichnete, von echt englishem common sense durchdrungene Buch." — Dr. KuRBLLA in Centralblatt fur Nervenheilkunde,

THE NATIONALISATION OF HEALTH. (Fisher Unwin.)

" Mr. Ellis always writes with a purpose, and a good one too, and in the present volume he deals with a great subject in an able manner. . . . His ideas are broad, his objects excellent, and his originality conspicuous." — Sir B. W. Richardson in Asclepiad.

MAN AND WOMAN

A STUDY OF HUMAN SECONDARY SEXUAL CHARACTERS.

HAVELOCK ELLIS.

ILLUSTRATED.

LONDON:

WALTER SCOTT, LTD., PATERNOSTER SQUARE.

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, 153157 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK.

1S94.

PREFACE.

V About twelve years ago, for my own instruction, 1 began to collect definite data concerning the con- stitutional differences between men and women. I was moved to do this because I realised that such differences lie at the root of many social questions in which I took great interest, and I knew of no

tfuU and unprejudiced statement of the precise facts. I have continued to collect, sift, and ponder over my data for some years after I had satisfied myself personally as to their general significance and drift, because I believe that there are many men and women who are in the same position as I was twelve years ago, and who will welcome this book as I should have welcomed it at that time. When I look into newspapers and magazines, and observe the reckless or ignorant statements that are still made regarding these matters, I am strengthened in "my belief To the best of my ability I have here presented an anthropological and psychological study of those secondary sexual differences which

i recent investigation has shown to exist among

, civilised human races.

VI PREFACE.

I have throughout sought the advice of acknow- ledged authorities in various countries on points of detail concerning which a specialist can alone give helpful advice; if I had not done this my work would have been even more imperfect than I am conscious that it is. I am indebted to the specialists in question for the courtesy and readiness with which they have in every case responded to my requests. I am also indebted to various friends, whose names are not mentioned in the text, for suggestions and help of a more general character.

H. R

CONTENTS.

-M-

CHAPTER I.

PAGE

Introduction --.--.. i

The Primitive Sexual Division of Labour — Man chiefly Militant, Woman chiefly Industrial — Among Savage Races Women not Inferior to Men — The Industries of Women gradually shared and then monopolised by Men — The Status of Women in Barbarism — ^The Mediaeval Attitude towards Women, and its Causes — The Physiological Mystery of Womanhood — The Modem Status of Woman.

CHAPTER II.

How TO Approach the Problem - - - - i8

The Definition of Secondary Sexual Characters — ^Tertiary Sexual Characters — Standards of Comparison — The Infantile and the Senile — The Human Characteristics of Infant Apes — The Position of the Lower Human Races — Fallacies due to Incom- plete Data and to Bias — Incompleteness of our Knowledge.

CHAPTER I XL

The Growth and Proportions of the Body • - 31

General Characteristics of the Male and Female Forms — Size at Birth — Greater Development of Girls at Puberty — Sexual Differences in Height of Adults — ^Weight comparatively unimportant —

Vlil CONTENTS.

PAGE

Sexual Differences in the Growth and Proportions of the Body —The Abdomen— The Breasts— The Chest— The Arm— The Hand— The Index Finger— The Leg— The Foot— The Future of the Little Toe— Qeneral Conclusions.

CHAPTER IV. The Pelvis - - - - - - - 53

The most prominent Secondary Sexual Character — Construction of the Pelvis— The Pelvis in Childhood— The Pelvis in Rela- tion to the Spinal Column — The Influence of the Erect Posture in Man and Woman — Pelvic Inclination — The Saddle- Back — The Evolution of the Human Spinal Column — Dis- advantages of the Erect Posture — ^Women leading Evolution in respect to the Pelvis — The Evolution of the Pelvis in relation to the Evolution of Sexual Emotion.

CHAPTER V.

The Head - - - - - - - 69

The Skull — In the Infant — Chief Cause of Sexual Differences in Skull — Early Opinions — ^The three chief Sexual Differences in Skull — Minor Differences — The Cephalic Index — The Face — Sexual Differences in Facial Development — The Eye — The Facial Angle — The Lower Jaw — The Teeth — Cranial Capacity — Sexual Differences in Frontal, Parietal, and Occipital Regions of Skull — Man's Skull approaches the Senile, Woman's the Infantile Type.

The Brain — Differences in Brain- Weight — Among the Insane — The Standards of Brain-Weight — Height and Weight — Fallacies — ^Women's Brains proportionately larger than Men's — Advantages and Disadvantages of a Large Brain — Sexual Differences in the Evolution of the Brain — Sexual Differences in the Frontal, Parietal, and Occipital Regions of Brain — Blood- Supply of Brain — The Cerebellum and other Centres below the Cerebrum — Definite Results of Study of Sexual Differences in the Brain at present small.

CHAPTER VL

The Senses - - - - - - 115

' Touch — Lombroso's Results, showing Greater Obiuseness of Women — Jastrow's, showing Greater Obtuseness of Men —

CONTENTS.

Unreliability of Tesls Adopted— Ed ucibilily of the Tactile Sense. Sensibility to Pain — Lombroso's and Jastrow's Eesulls aRaia opposed— General Argumenli brought foivxid — Disvulner- ability marked in Savages, Children, and perhaps in WamED — Women's lesser Sensibility to Pain not defiDitely proved. Smell— Experiments of Nichols and Bailey and of Oltolenghi^

Men possess keener Sense of Smell than Women- Taste — Supposed to be less keen in Women — But more keen according to Investigations of Nichols ami Bailey — This Result supported by Ottolenghi's Experiments. Hearing — Experiments on Keenness of Hearing during Health few and inconclusive — Range of Audible Sensation probably greater in Men. Sight— Blindness commoner in Men— Minor Eye-Defects com- moner in Wotnen — No marked Sexual Difference in keen- ness of Healthy Vision— Colour- Perception and Colour-Blind- ness — In range and keenness of Colour-Perception Men somewhat superior to Women — Colour- Blindness very rare in Women — Also rare among Savages — Its Origin still unex-

Colouied Hearing — This and allied Phenomena more common in

Women and in Children than in Men. Why Women are popularly supposed to possess keener Sensibility

— The Confusion between Sensibility and AfTeclabilily.

CHAPTER VH.

reater Strength of Men among Civilised Races — Riccardi's Experiments showing Maximum Energy more quickly reached by Women — Rate of Movement slower in Women — Bryan's Experiments on Rate of Motion— Rarity of Women Acrobats — Women's Slighter Muscular Energy probably an Clonic Character — Manual Dexterity —Opinions of Teachers —The General Opinion that Women have less Manual Dexterity than Men — Dexterity of Women in Various Trades — Sense- Judgments — Business Experience — Various Experiments — Women probably as well able to form Accurate Sense- Judgments as Men.

CHAPTER VIII.

The Intellectual Impolse - - - - - 1S5 ]

There is no purely Abstract Thought— Difficulty of a.

invesligaliog Intelieclual Proceaaei— Jaslrow'a Inve5ligali< iDlo Thought-Habits and Associations — Kapidily of Percep- tion— Reaction Time — Women read Rapidly— The ready Wit of Women — Their tendency to Ruse, and i Precocity — More maiked in Giils — The Invest^atioii Schoolchildren — Industrial and Business Capadly — Experi- ences of the Post Office— Abstract Thought- The Greater Independence of Men — Women as Philosophers and Mathe- maticians— Religion— Religious Sects founded by Women— Their General Character — Women's Contributions lo the Stniclure of the Catholic Church— The Inlelleclual Differ- ences of Men and Women cannot yet be accurately detet- mined — Psychology still in its Infancy.

CHAPTER IX,

MtTABOLlSM ■ - • - ■ :

The Blood— Red Corpuscles more numerous in Men— Amount of Hxmoglobin greater in Men — Spcdlic Gravity higher in Men — The Sexual Differences in the Blood coincide with the appearance of Puberty — Rise in the Specific Gravity of the Blood of Women in Old Age— The Pulse-Rate — Always higher in Small than in Large Animals— Sexual Differences in the Human and other Species — Not notably greater than Differences in Site would lead us to expect.

Respiration — Vital Capacity much greater in Men — Men produce more Carbonic Acid— Costal Respiration of Women and Abdominal Respiration of Men — Recent Investigations show- ing that this Sexual Difference is purely artlEcial — It does not exist among Savage Women, nor among those who do not wear Corsets— The Origin of Corsets— Their Influence on the Activity of Women— Temperature— No Sexual Differ- ence yet clearly shown.

Excretion — Urine probably relatively greater in amount in Women, and Urea relatively less — Special Influences affecl- ing Women.

CONTENTS.

Susceptibility to Pobons — 5exu:il DilTerences in the Selective Action of Poisons on Different Organs — Arsenic— Opium — Mercury — Special Sexual Susceplibilitiea to Poisons — Chloroform — Lead — Alcohol Ihe best example of Sexual Selective Action on Nervous System — Tends to sllack the Brain in Men, the Spinal Cord in Women,

Hair and Piementation— Sexual Differences in Distribution, elc, of tiair — The Eyes and probably Hair are darker in Women ^Possible Advantages of Pigmenlalion.

CHAPTER X, The Viscera .....

The Psychological Significance of the Viscera — The Thyroid Gland — Its Physiological and Pathological Vat ia lions in Women — Exophthalmic Goitre and its Analogy lo [he State of Terror^The Larynx and the Voice — Changes at Puberty — Relation of the Vaice to the Sexual Organs— The Thoracic Viscera— Heart — Lungs — The Abdominal Viscera — Stomach — Digestion— Liver— Spleen— Kidneys-Bladder-The Vis- cera a Factor in the Production of Emolional States.

CHAPTER XL The Functional PfiRioniciTY o

The Phenomena of Menstruation — Otigin — The Theory that Women are Natural Invalids— The Cyclic Life of Women— Its Recent Discovery— Illustrated by the Observation of Various Functions- The Heart, the Eye, etc.— The Special Physical and Psychic Phenomena of the Monthly Climax — These are intensified in Ill-health — The Legal, Scientific, and Social Importance of Women's Periodicity of Fuoctioo.

Hypnotic Phbnohsna ■ - - - - . ;

The Various Phenomena here included under this term— Som- nambulism — Hypnotism — Ecstasy — Trance — Catalepsy — Magical Phenomena — ^Womeo have played a larger pari ii nearly all.

CONTENTS

Dreams — Women as Dreamers among Ptimilise Races — In the Middle Ages — In Modern Times — Results ofatiined by Hecr- wageD, Jastrow, and Child.

Hallucinations in the Sane — iiidgwick's Investigations — Greater Prevalence among Women.

The Action of An^the lies— Nitrous Oxide— Silk's Observations— Abnormal Action under Anicsthesia occurs on Ihe whole chieHy in Women.

Meteorologic Sensibility — Suicide — Insanity — Conclusion as to Sexual Difference doubtful — Periodicity in Growth.

Neurasthenia and Hysteria — Both more frequent in Womcn^ Description of Neurasthenia — Definition of Hysteria— lis Characteristics — Su^eslibilily — Relative frequency in Ihe Sexes.

Religious Hypnolic Phenomena— Nature of the part played by Women in Religious Movements — Shakers — Tbeosophisls — Dancing Mania — Cam isards — Modem Hysterical Religious Epidemics— Christs-Skoptsy-Hypootic Religious Pheno- mena among Uncivilised Races — Nature and Causation.

CHAPTER XIII. Thr Affectability of Women . - - . 297

What is an Emotion ?— Readier Response of the Vaso-molor Vascular System in Women — Physiological and Patholt^ical Evidence— The Heart— Blushing— Affec I ability of the Muscu- lar System— Facial Expression— The Iris— The Bladder— Susceptibility to Fright- Emotional Causation of Disease predominates in Women— Destructive Tendencies— " Break- inga out— The Source of these— The Congenital Eihausti- bility of Women— The Advantages of Women's Affectability — Anamia and Affectability — The greater Affectability of Women to some extent the Result of Circumstances, to some extent Organic.

CHAPTER XIV.

The Artistic Impulse - - - - ■ -316

The Industries arose in Women's Hands, the Arts in Men's— Pottery — Tattooing- Painling — Sculpture — Music — Why Women have failed in Music— Metaphysics — Mysticism—

CONTENTS.

Poetry — Fiction — Why Women have succeeded in Ficlion — The Suptemaey of Women in Acting — The Artistic Impuke gencmily is mare marlted in Men — The Causes of this.

CHAPTER XV.

Morbid Fstcbic Fhenohbka ■ • - - 3

Suicide — Factors that Influence its Frequency— Sexual Proportions in Europe — The Influence of Age — The Causes o! Suicide — Methods of Suicide — -Men prefer Active, Women Passive Methods — Racial Sexual Differences.

Insanity— In Various Parts of the World- Causes of Insanity- Forms of Insanity — Alcoholic Insanity and General Paralysis increasing among Women — General Paralysis as a Typically Masculine Insanity — Insanity and Civilisation.

Criminality — Diflicullies in the way of the study of Sexual Differ- ences — Why Women are less Criminal than Men — The Special Forms of Women's Cnminality — Criminality and Civilisation.

CHAPTER XVI.

Thb Variational Tendbncv of Mbn - 3

Most Abnormalities mote common in Men — The Influence of the Pelvis on the side of Mediocrity- Still-bom Children- Sexual Proportion ofCongcDitai Malformations — Muscular Abnormal- ities — The Ear and its Abnormalities— Fsychic Abnormalities, Idiocy, Genius, etc. — Greater Variability of the Male Brain — The Primitive Racial Elements in a Population perhaps more dearly represented by Women — Women more disposed than Men to preserve Ancient Custom and Ancient Methods of Thought— The O^anic Conservatism of Women— No Con- nection with Politics- Advantages of this Sexual DiSerence.

CHAPTER XVII.

The Birth-rate of Males higher than of Females— Their Death-rate still higher— Causes of the greater Morlalily among M»les— The Resistance of Women to Disease— As Illustrated by

XIV CONTENTS.

PAGE

Scarlet Fever, Small-Pox, Influenza, etc. — Recent Improve- ments in the Death-rate have specially benefited Women — Greater Longevity of Women — The Characteristic Signs of Old Age less marked in Women — The greater Tendency to Sudden Death in Men— The greater Resistance of Women to Disease and Death a Zoological Fact.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Conclusion --..... 384

The Knowledge we have gained does not enable us definitely to settle Special Problems — What it does enable us to do — Women are nearer to Children than are Men — But Woman is not Undeveloped Man — The Child represents a Higher Degree of Evolution than the Adult— The Progress of the Race has been a Progress in Youthfulness— In some respects it has been a Progress in Feminisation — Absurdity of Speaking of the Superiority of one Sex over another — The Sexes perfectly poised — But Social Readjustments may still be necessary — We may Face all such Readjustments with Equanimity.

MAN AND WOMAN.

MAN AND \POMAN.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION.

THE PRIMITIVE SEXUAL DIVISION OF LABOUR — MAN CHIEFLY MILITANT, WOMAN CHIEFLY INDUSTRIAL — AMONG SAV- AGE RACES WOMEN NOT INFERIOR TO MEN — THE INDUSTRIES OF WOMEN GRADUALLY SHARED AND THEN MONOPOLISED BY MEN^THE STATUS OF WOMEN IN BARBARISM — THE MEDIEVAL ATTITUDE TOWARDS WOMEN, AND ITS CAUSES — THE PHYSIOLOGICAL MYSTERY OF WOMANHOOD — THE MODERN STATUS OF WOMAN.

" A MAN hunts, Spears fish, fights, and sits about," said an Australian Kurnai once;^ tlic rest is woman's work. This may be accepted as a fair statement of the sexual division of labour among very primitive peoples, It is a division of labour which is alto- gether independent of race and climate. Among the Eskimo, in their snow-houses on the opposite side of the globe, there is the same division of labour as among the Australians.^ The tasks which demand a powerful development of muscle and bone, and the resulting ^ Fison and HowUt, KamUaroi and Kurnai, Melbourne, 1880,

' See, for inslancc, H. H. Bsncrofl, Nati-ve Raca of ikt Pacific Slates, vol. i. p. 66.

MAN AND WOMAN.

capacity for intermittent spurts of energy, involving | corresponding periods of rest, fall to the man ; the care of the children and all the very various industries which radiate from the hearth, and which call for an expenditure of energy more continuous but at a lower tension, fall to the woman.

That is the general rule. In such matters the i exceptions are very numerous. For example, among j the Similkameen Indians of British Columbia, accord- j ing to Mrs. Allison, who knows them well, formerly J " the women were nearly as good hunters as the men," but being sensitive to the ridicule of the white settlers, they have given up hunting.^ Among the Vahgan of Tierra de! Fuego fishing is left entirely to the women ;' among the Tasmanians, perhaps the lowest human race ever known, the women alone dived for fish; and among the Tasmanians also it was the women who performed the remarkable feat of climbing the lofty | smooth-trunked gum-trees after opossums.* In all i parts of the world, in Australia and Africa, as well as among the ancient Celts, Teutons, and Slavs, women have fought at need, and sometimes even habitually. But usually the perilous and fatiguing tasks of fighting and hunting, of such great moment in early culture, are left to the men. To these might for the most part be added dancing, which is more closely related to the others than is perhaps visible at first sight ; it is at once a process of physical training and a mode of reaching the highly wrought mental condition most favourable for war ; the more even activities of primi- tive women would be impaired rather than assisted by powerful stimulants.

The Indians of Guiana, as studied by a very careful and sympathetic observer,* present us with a fairly

' Allison, "Simil'k3.meealndmas,"y0umal A»(irB/i>le^cal fnsdluti, Feb. 1892, p. 307. • P. Hyadea et J. Deniker, Missioit Sciintijiquc de Cap Horn, tome

INTRODUCTION.

average picture of the sexual division of labour among a race which has yet made little progress in barbarism. Men's work is to hunt and to cut down trees when the cassava is to be planted. When the men have felled the trees and cleared the ground, the women plant the cassava and undertake all the sub- sequent operations ; agriculture is entirely in their hands. They are little if at all weaker than the men, and they work all day while the men are often in their hammocks smoking; but there is no cruelty or oppression exercised by the men towards the women. Pottery is entirely in the hands of the women ; the men are specially skilful in basket- making ; while both men and women spin and weave. If we turn to the heart of another continent we find in East Central Africa a closely similar division of labour. "The work is done chiefly by the women ; this is universal ; they hoe the fields, sow the seed, and reap the harvest. To them, too, falls all the labour of house-building, grinding corn, brewing beer, cooking, washing, and caring for almost all the material interests of the community. The men tend the cattle, hunt, go to war;" they also do all the tailoring and spend much time sitting in council over the conduct of affairs.'

While the men among all primitive peoples are fitted for work involving violent and brief muscular effort, the women are usually much better able than the

I I

picture of Ihe sexual division of labour among a primilive people see Prof. Haddon's inletesling paper on the " Ethnography of the Western Tribes of Torres Straits," in the Journal Anlhrofalogical Imtitule, February 1S90, p. 342. "The mea fished, fought, built houses, did a litlje gaidening, made fish-lines, fish-hooks, spears, and other imple- ments, constnicled dance-m^ks, head-dresses, and all the parapher- nalia for the various ceremonies and dances. They performed all the rites and dances, and in addition did a good deal of^ strutting up and down, loafing, and 'yarning.' The women cooked and prepared the food, did most of the gardening, collected shell-fish and speaied fish or the reefs, made petticoats, hasltels, and m ■- "

MAN AND WOMAN.

men to undergo prolonged and more passive exertion, and they are the universal primitive carriers. Thus, ' among the Andombies on the Congo, according to I Mr. H. H. Johnstone, the women, though working I very hard as carriers, and as labourers in general, lead an entirely happy existence ; they are often stronger than the men and more finely developed, some of them, he tells us, having really splendid figures. And Parke, speaking of the Manyuema of the Arruwimi in the same region, says that they are fine animals, and the women very handsome; " they carry loads as heavy as those of the men, and do it quite as well."^ In North America, again, an Indian chief said to Hearne, " Women were made for labour; one of them can carry, or haul, as much as two men can do."^ Schellong, who has carefully studied the Papuans in the German protectorate of New Guinea from the anthropological point of view, considers that the women are more strongly built than the men.^ In Central Australia, again, the men occasionally beat the women through jealousy, but on such occasions it is by no means rare for the woman, single-handed, to beat the man severely.* At Cuba the women fought beside the men, and enjoyed great independence. Among some races of India, the Pueblos of North America, the Patagonians, the women are as large as the men. So among the Afghans, with whom the women in certain tribes enjoy a considerable amount of power. Even among the Arabs and Druses it has been noted that the women are nearly as large as the men. And among

■ T. H. Parke, Exptriifues in Equatorial Africa, 1891, p. 344.

' Hearne, (juQled by Bancroft, A^o/KW^OMJ, etc., vol. i. p. 117. The chief added; "They also pilch our tents, make and mend onr cloth- ing, keep as warm at night ; and in fact there is no such thing as travelling any considerable distance in this coantry without their assist-

' Schellong, " Beitt'age lur Anthropologic der Papuss," Zeilschrifl fur Elhnohgie, Heft iv., 1S91, p. 173.

Journal Anthropologisal Imlilule, August 1890, p. 61.

^^ INTRODUCTlO^r."

Russians the sexes are more alike than among the English or French.^

The miHtant side of primitive culture helongs to the men ; the industrial belongs to women. The characteristic implement of women is not a weapon, but that knife called by the Eskimo the "ulu" or woman's knife, which is used primitively for all manner of industrial purposes, and which still survives among European women as the kitchen chopping knife.* The man undergoes the fatigue of hunting, and when he has thrown the game at a woman's feet his work is done ; it is her part to carry it and to cook it, as well as to make the vessels in which the food is placed. The skins and the refuse are hers to utilise, and all the industries connected with clothing are chiefly in her hands.^

The domestication of animals is usually in women's hands. They are also usually the primitive architects; the hut in widely different parts of the world^ — among Kaffirs, Fuegians, Polynesians, Kamtschatdals — is built by women. Women are everywhere the primitive agriculturists, though the rougher and heavier work of making a clearing has usually fallen to men, and women hold their own in the fields even in the highly civilised Europe of to-day; thus in Italy, among eleven million women over nine years of age, more than three millions are employed in agriculture. Women have everywhere been the first potters ; even

' II. Schaaffhausen, " Die beiden menscliliche Geschlechte," Anih. Sluditn, Bonn, iSSj.

' See an elaborate sludy by Prof. Oils T. Mason of "The Ulu, or Woman's Knife of the Eskimo," J!ejiorl if the Unilid Stales NatiSHal Museum, 1S90.

» There are, as ever, exceptions. In East Central Africa, for example, all the sewing for their own and the women's garments is done by tlie men, and very well done ; " neater tailors than Africans it would be impossible to find anywhere," says Macdonald. Sewing is here so emphatically recognised as men's work, that a wife may obtain a divorce if she "can show a neglected rend in her petticoat." (Mac- donald, " East Central African Customs," Jnurnat Anlhropelegical InUilutt, Aug- 189*, pp- toi'lto.)

. MAN AND WOMAN.

in Europe, almost up to the present day, girls in Jutland were brought up to make pots.^ Becoming first potters, women prepared the way for Native art, but never went beyond its first inents; ornamentation, apart from use, seems ally to be peculiar to men.* Women seem to have prepared the first intoxicating liquors ; whatever we may think of the obscure Hebrew myth which represents a woman as plucking the fermentable apple, in the north the ancient legends clearly represent woman as discovering ale.'

Women are sometimes the primitive doctors ;* but this is by no means universal, probably because medicine-craft at an early period is not differentiated from priest-cratt, which is always chiefiy in the hands of men ; their more stimulating life of alternate fasts and orgies amid wanderings far afield during the hazards of the chase or of war makes them more acquainted with morbid mental phenomena, and with the more "supernatural" aspects of nature.

It is worth while to quote from tlie picturesque generalised account of women's industries among primitive races given by Prof. Otis T. Mason, Curator of the Department of E5inology in the United Slates National Museum. He is writing more especially of the tribes of North America, the primitive races of whom our knowledge is most extensive {American And- quarian^ January 1889); — "Let us follow the savage woman through her daily cares, in order that we may comprehend the significance of her part in the play. The slain deer lying before

^ See evidence quoted by Hein, "Altpreussische Wirlhschaftsges- chichle bis lur Ordenszeil," Zeiluhrifl fur Elhnologie, 1890, Heft v. p. 204. Foi an account of the primitive manufacture of potteiy by women, see Man, "Nicobar Volieiy," Journal Anlh. Institute, August 1893,

' Im Thurn stales that in Guiana, even though the women make all the pottery, yet the omamenlalion is as oflen the work of men as

' " Magic Songs of the Finns," Folk-lore, March 1892.

Among the Kurds, for instance, Mrs. Bishop found that all the

medical knowledge is in the hands of women, who are the hereditary

INTRODUCTION. y

her cave, or brush-shelter or wigwam, shall be the point of departure in the inquiry. She strikes ofT a sharp flake of flint for a knife. By that act she becomes the first cutler, the real founder of Sheffield With (his knife she carefully removes the skin, little dreaming that she is thereby making herself the patron-saint of all subsequent butchers. She rolls up the hide, then dresses it with brains, smokes it, curries it, breaks it with implements of stone and bone, with much toil and sweat, until she makes her reputation as the first currier and tanner. With fingers weary and worn, with needle of bone, and thread of sinew, and scissors of flint, she cuts and makes the clothing for her lord and her family ; no sign is over the door, but within dwells the first tailor and dressmaker. From leather especially prepared she cuts and makes mocassins for her husband. . . . Out of little scraps of fur and feathers, supplemented with bits of coloured shell or stone or seeds, she dresses dolls for her children, makes head-dresses and toggery for the coining dance, adorns Ihewallsof her squalid dwelhng, creating at a single pass a doien modem industries^at once toy-maker, milliner, modiste, hatter, upholsterer, and wall-decker. . . . She was at first, and is now, the universal cook, preserving food from decomposition and doubling the longevi^ of man. Of the bones at last she fabri- cates her needles and charms. . . . From the grasses around her cabin she constructs the floor-mat, the mattress, the screen, the wallet, the sail. She is the mother of all spinners, weavers, upholsterers, sail-makers. Counting and varying stitches, and adding bits of black, blue, red, and yellow on her textures, she becomes the first decorative artist ; she invents the chevrons, herring-bones, frets and scrolls of all future art. To the field she goes with this basket or wallet strapped across her forehead. By the sweat of her face she earns her bread and becomes the first pack animal that ever bent under a burden in the world. - . ■ Home she comes with her load of acorns, roots, seeds, etc., and proceeds to crush them in a mortar or to roll them on a stone slab. Here she appears clearly as the primitive miller. Or, perchance, she lays her seeds in a flat tray, and by help of the wind or a hot stone removes the chaff. Here begins her first lesson in threshing. . . . Perhaps with a stick, hardened and pointed in the fire, she digs the roots from the earth, or cleans or tears away troublesome weeds from useful plants, or digs a hole and drops the seeds of pumpkins, gourds, or maize therein. While we watch her working we are looking at the first gardener, fatmer, and nurseryman. It may be that on some lonely plain or alluvial river-bank there is no cave to shelter her and her babes. How long will it take this aforetime basket-maker and leather- worker to devise a shelter of grass or skin, and become the architect primeval ? . . , The primeval .s not a potter. It was not until near the polished

MAN AND WOMAN.

stone age that she became the pristine plastic artist. This i; true, however, that every form, decoration, and function o. . pottery were invented by women. , . . In the struggle for exist' nee and exaltation which takes place among many occupations, s among individuals and species, militancy no longer demands " 's waking movements. The arts devised by woman are icendency, and the man militant has glorified them by his co-operation. Her very ancient digging-stick is now a plough 1 her rude carrying- strap over her aching forehead is now the railroad train; her woman's boat, the ocean steamer; her stone hand-mill, the costly roller-mill; her simple scraper for softening hides, the great tanneries and shoe- factories ; her distaff and weA-stick, the power-loom ; her clay and smooth pebble, the potter's wheel ; her sharpened stick and bundle of hairs are all the apparatus of the plastic and pictorial arts. . . . In the early historj" of art, language, social life, and religion, J women were the industrial, elaborative, conservative half of! society. All the peaceful arts of to-day were once woman's I peculiar province. Along the lines of industrialism she was 1 pioneer, inventor, author, originator."

As a more special detailed example of the primitive sexual division of labour we may take the Central Eskimo as described by Dr. Boas (F. Boas, " The Central Eskimo," Annual Report Bureau of Ethnolo£}; 1884-85, pp. 579, 580). "The principal part of the man's work is to provide for his family by hunting, I.e., for his wife and children and for his relatives who have no provider. He must drive the sledge in travelling, feed the dogs, build the house, and make and keep in order his hunting implements, the boat-cover and seal-floats excepted. The woman has to do the household work, the sewing, and the I cooking. She must look after the lamps, make and mend the | tent and boat-covers, prepare the skins, and bring up young dogs. It falls to her share to make the inner outfit of the hut, to smooth the platforms, line the snow-house, etc. On Davis Strait the men cut up all kinds of animals which they have caught ; on Hudson Bay, however, the women cut up the seals. There the men prepare the deerskins, which is done by the women among the Eastern tribes. Everywhere the women have to do the rowing in the large boats while the man steers. Cripples who are unable to hunt do the same kind of work as

When the ethnographic knowledge of primitive races was less advanced than at present it was fre- quently stated that women are a source of weakness among savages, and that therefore their position is so degraded that they are almost in the position of

INTRODUCTION. 9

slaves. Even at the present time, anthropological writers whose faith in the future leads them to be unjustly scornful of the past, have unintentionally misrepresented and distorted the facts of savage life. A more complete statement of the facts, and the deeper insight which we now possess regarding their interpretation, enable us to assert that while among many races women have been to a greater or less extent in subordination to their more powerful mates, on the whole the wider control which women have had over the means of production, as well as the skill of women in diplomacy,^ Iiave given them influence and even authority. To these results have con- tributed in many cases no doubt factors of a different order due to certain modes of marriage and filiation which have tended to give greater dignity to women.

M'X-ennan, Lubbock, and Letourneau are probably the most prominent anthropologists who have argued, apparently from their knowledge of civilised women, that among savages women are a "source of ucakness, and in consequence liable to oppression. But, as has often been pointed out by those who possess more Chan a second-hand acquaintance with savage life, although this is sometimes the case, it is not seldom the very reverse of the truth. Thus Fison and Howitt, who discuss this point, remark, in regard to Australian women: "In times of peace, as a general rule, they are the hardest workers and the most useful members of the community." In times of war, again, "they are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves at all times; and, so far from being an encumbrance on the warrior, they will fight, if need be, as bravely as the men, and with even greater ferocity" (Fison and Howjtt, Kamilaroi and Kutiiai, pp. 133-147, 358). Buckley, who lived for thirty-two years among Australian savages, mentions that when those he lived with were attacked by a numerous hostile party, "they

' Of the women of many races it may be said, as the Rev. C. Harrison says of the Ilaidas of the Queen Charlotte Islands, "The women are great diplomats, and generally contrive to have theic own way, and it is a great mistake to imagine that ihey are treated as slaves" [Journal Anthropological Institute, May 1892, p. 472). Among the Australian Dieyerie, Curr {Australian Ra<ci) slates that the women act as ambassadors to arrange treaties, ajid invaiiaUy succeed

MAN AND WOMAN,

-ew olT their ^^H assistance of ^H of William ^^

raised a war-cry ; on hearing this the women threw a

rugs and, each armed with a short club, flew to the assist

their husbands and brothers" {Lift and Adventures of William BuckUy, p. 43). " They who are accustomed to the ways of civilised women only," remarks Mr. Fison, "can hardly believe what savage women are capable of, even when they may well be supposed to be at their weakest. For instance, an Australian tribe on the march scarcely take the trouble to halt for so slight a performance as a childbirth. The newly-born infant is wrapped in skins, the march is resumed, and the mother trudges on with the rest. Moreover, as is well known, among' many tribes elsewhere it is the father who is put to bed, while the mother goes about her work as if nothing had happened."

Man has been the most highly favoured and successful of all species, and, as Prof Mason well remarks, " If one half of this species, the maternal half, in addition to many natural weak- nesses, had been from the first the victim of malicious imposi- tion and persecution at the hands of the other and stronger half, humanity would not have survived" (Mason, "Woman's Share in Primitive Culmte," American Antiquarian, Jan. 1889). Mr. Horatio Hale, another well-known American anthropologist, in a paper read at the annual meeting of the Royal Society of Canada in 1S91 (and reprinted in the Journal Anthropological Institute, May 1893, p. 427), likewise observes, ^^^

I "The common opinion that women among savage tribes in ^^H

general are treated with harshness, and are regarded as slaves, ^^H or at least as inferiors, is, like many common opinions, based on ^^H error, originating in too large and indiscriminate deduction from . ^^H narrow premises. A wider experience shows that this depressed ^^H condition of women really exists, but only in certain regions ^^^ and under special circumstances. . . . The wife of a Samoan ^^H landowner or a Navajo shepherd has no occasion, so far as her ^^| position in her family or among her people is concerned, to ^^ envy the wife of a German peasant." Mr. Hale goes on to argue that "it is entirely a question of physical comfort, and mainly of the abundance or lack of food," and illustrates this proposition by the ditference between the position of the women among the northern sub-arctic Tinneh and among the southern Tinneh (or Navajos) in sunny and fruitful Arizona i among the former tribes "women are slaves: among the others they are queens;" women, he considers, are the comparatively weak members of the community, and are, therefore, the first to sufler under harsh conditions of life.

In a primitive and unstable state of existence, men are chiefly occupied in the absorbing duties of war and the chase. As the position of a tribe and its

INTRODUCTION,

means of subsistence become more assured, the men are enabled to lay down their weapons and to take up women's implements, and specialise women's Industries. Thus, as Professor Mason points out,^ the primitive woman handed her ulu over to the saddler, teaching him, apparently, how to work in leather; the saddler of ancient Egypt, as depicted on monu- ments, used the ulu, and the saddler of to-day still uses it. It may thus have happened that, as wc sometimes find still among races which have passed from savagery into the earlier stages of barbarism, and among whom war happens to occupy a small place, various industries are fairly divided between the sexes. Thus, among the Melanesians, a horti- cultural people who show great skill in such work, "the respective share of men and women in garden work is settled by local custom."* But an equality of this complete kind rarely seems to have been the rule. Women invented and exercised in common multifarious household occupations and industries. They were unable to specialise their work, and in consequence they could not develop it highly. Men, liberated more or less from the tasks of hunting and fighting, gradually took up the occupations of women, specialised them and developed them in an extra- ordinary degree. Why the division of labour should be a masculine and not a feminine characteristic, whether it is the result of physical and mental organisation, or merely due to social causes, is not quite obvious ; probably it is due to both sets of causes. Maternity favours an undifferentiated con- dition of the various avocations that are grouped around it; it is possible that habits of war pro- duced a sense of the advantages of specialised and subordinated work. In any case the fact itself is undoubted, and it has had immense results on civil- isation.

MAN AND WOMAN.

To speak with assurance regarding the respective status of the sexes in savagery and the early stagdii

of barbarism is not easy. There are not many races ' in an uncontaminated stage of early barbarism; it is rare to find an observer who is sufficiently intelligent and sympathetic to be able to understand the con- ditions of such races ; and it is difficult to estimate the disturbing influence of various conditions which deviate the circumstances of such races from the typical order. When wc turn to races in a highly developed state of barbarism, such as we find in medieval Europe, the difficullics are of another kind. The materials on which to found a Judgment are so ample that it is impossible to generalise in a broad and unmodified manner. Wc have before us chronicles, romances, fabliaux, conies, acta sanclontni, codes, chronicles, proverbs — altogether a vast amount of original documents — all throwing more or less unintentional light on the respective parts played by men and women in the developed barbarism of mediaeval Europe. One who has only been able to dip here and there into this fascinating mass of literature cannot pretend to speak of any definite and assured result. But there are certain points that strike one again and again. The militant element ruled throughout mediaeval Europe, and that meant the predominance of men. Thus if we examine the great French epic cycle as Krabbes has done,' we see such a state of society depicted the more veraciously because incidentally and unintentionally. The men were above all fighters, and even the women delighted in fighting; women had utter contempt for the man who was a coward in war, and at times took a sub- ordinate part in war themselves, guarding prisoners for example. The entire absorption of the men in fighting had a marked efiect on the passion of love.

' TliBodor Ktabbcs, Dit Prau iai ail/ranaiisisikcn Karl$-tpo$, 1B84. (Stengel'* SeriM of Amgahm und Aihandtun^i bus dem

INTRODUCTION.

these '

iually the

The women

wooers ; the men are generally indifferent, actively in love with the women to whom they yield; they merely respond, and often not so warmly as the women desire ; the women openly embrace the men who attract them, and only once do we read of a woman who was ashamed to kiss in public, while men are represented as decidedly less sensual than women. But notwithstanding this freedom of initiative, when the woman becomes a wife she is entirely in the power of her husband, who may address her in terms of the greatest contempt

The beginnings of industrialism were not destruc- tive of the militant spirit and its predominance. Even in republican industrial towns it was frequently necessary that the workers should also be fighters. In early barbarous societies we see men gradually taking up and specialising the industries originated by women ; in the developed barbarism of Europe only a few simple household industries were on the whole left to women. Even in the monasteries, where men and women lived under similar conditions, it cannot be said that the achievements of women in any field rivalled those of men. For women there was the home and, it must be added, the brothel ; while a vast stream of women for whom there was no other outlet — a stream including the insane and the hysterical, but certainly many who were neither — fell under suspicion of sorcery and perished as witches. This divergence of the paths of women from the paths of men had two different classes of effects : on the one hand, more marked sexual differ- ences in physical development seem (we cannot speak definitely) to have developed than are usually to be found in savage societies ; and on the other hand, the attitudes of men towards women and of women towards men were correspondingly wrought up to pitches of emotional intensity before unknown. When we look into this wonderful mediaeval literature

MAN AND WOMAN.

we never find men and women in the attitude ■

comrades and fellow-workers, as we nearly i where find them in earlier stages of society, instead, men, influenced to some extent doubtless by traditions of Christian asceticism, as well as by the actual facts of mediaeval life, regarding women as the symbols of the sensual element in life, as the force that retards progress and growth, and at the same time — a more Pagan element perhaps coming in together with a tinge of mysticism — we find that women are regarded as the inspirers of men, the spiritual and refining elements of life. Partly, it seemed, women were good to play with, partly good to worship.^ A large part of the real work of the world was women's to do — although under military as well as monastic conditions men and women were relatively independent of each other — but their work seems to have been regarded as little worth mention; work did not fit in with the medieval theory of women.

An important origin of the element of mystery which women have aroused in men and even in themselves lies in the periodic menstrual function. This function, unlike any normal physio- logical function in men, has been an everlasting source of marvel and of profound repugnance among all primitive races. They have been singularly unanimous on this point, and even seem toshow a certain amount of unanimity in their explanations. As has been shown by Ploss and Max Cartels, the snake (or occasionally some allied reptile, such as the crocodile or lizard) has been connected with this fiinction or with its mythical origin ; in New Guinea, in Guiana, in Portugal, in Germany, traces may be found of this connection, often seeming to indicate that a snake, whether from love or a hostile purpose, had bitten

' The comic Hlcrature of medieval time^—farcts, fyiliaux. contes, etc. — is impregnated with the feeling of suspicion and horror as regards women. The opposite and complementary tendency to glorify women may be found not only in the love-poetry of the epoch, but also in a liu^ but now forgotten group of prose -literature. Thomas, in his Sssai sur U caracliri. Us maruri, ct V esprit dts Ftmmes, gives an account of same portions of this literature. A contemporary picture of the fascination a.nd duplicity of the mcdiazval woman, drawn with a. psycholt^c subtlety altogether modem, ia embodied in Pilit Jikan di Saiittr/.

INTRODUCTION.

the Eexual organs of woman and so caused the phenomenon. I would add that in the Hebrew story of the Garden of Eden we trace a similar primitive connection between woman and the snake. This is still obscure, but there is no obscurity whatever with regard to the universal altitude of savage and barbarous races towards the menstrual funaion. Everywhere during the continuance of the flow the woman is regarded as more or less unclean. When this attitude is more clearly marked she must refrain from all household duties, especially from the prepara- tion of food, and to approach her is often an offence. For the time she is in exactly the same position as the medieval leper. She must wear a special garment (as in some parts of India), or call aloud to warn all who approach her that she is unclean (as in Surinam), or dwell apart either in a hut alone or in a house reserved as a common dwelling for women in the same condition (as in the Caucasus, Japan, the Caroline Islands, among the Hottentots, the North American Indians, and many other races). We are familiar through the Old Testament with the elaborate code of barbarous ritual which grew up among the Jews, while, according to some of the ancient Hindoo sacred writings, the menstruating woman was taught to regard herself as a pariah; by an early Council of the Western Church a woman was for- bidden to enter a church during her period ; and among the Christians of modem Greece she is not allowed to kiss the images in church, or lo partake of the communion. (The ethnography of this subject is dealt with in detail by Ploss and Max Bartels, Das W«i, 3rd edition, 1891, vol. i. pp. 263-285.) Asweapproach the higher levels of barbarism the custom of making a marked social difference in the treatment of women at this period gradu- ally disappears, but the feeling itself by no means disappears. Instead ofbeing regarded as a being who at periodic intervals be- comes the victim of aspellof impunty, the conception of impurity becomes amalgamated with the conception of woman. It was thus that a large number of the early Christian writers regarded woman ; she is, as Tertullian puts it, janua diaboli; and this is the attitude which still persisted in mediaeval days, though it should be added that ascetics impartially extended the idea of impurity to men also. At the same time the belief in the periodically recurring specific impurity of women has by no s died out even to-day. Among a very large section of n of the middle and lower classes in England and other s firmly believed that the touch of a menstruating contaminate food; only a few years since, in the . correspondence on this subject in the British Medical Journal (1878), even medical men were found to state from personal observation that they had no doubt what- ever on this point. Thus one doctor, who expressed surprise that any doubt could be thrown on the pomt, wrote, after

MAN AND WOMAN,

quoting cases of spoiled hams, etc., presumed to be due to this cause, which had come under his own personal observation: — " For two thousand years the Italians have had this idea of menstruating women. We English hold to it, the Americans have it, also the Australians. Now I should like to know the country where the evidence of any such observation is unknown." Women of every class preserve this belief, and stilt regard the periodic function — although it is frequently a factor of the very . first importance in their personal and social life — as almost too 1 shameful to be alluded to. I

The effect on women of the militant mediEeval organisation and its correlated conditions was pe- culiar, and may still be felt. Openly they tried to live up to the angelic ideals of men ; secretly they played with men ; unostentatiously they worked, either honestly in their homes, or by intrigue in public affairs. In the great centres of European life, during mediaeval and later times, these conflicting ideals have produced very complex and attractive feminine personalities, often much more delightful and even more wholesome than the influences which moulded them would lead us to expect, but usually more or less profoundly tinged by the unavoidable duplicity of conflicting ideals.

Many of these sexual characteristics have doubtless persisted to modern times, but the conditions which gave rise to them have in large measure changed. The eighteenth century in Europe, and more espe- cially in England and France, was marked by a wide-spread resolve to reason clearly concerning the nature and causes of things, so far as possible cast- ing off prejudice, and it could not fail to touch the questions that concerned the status of women ; such problems were no longer left to work themselves out in unobserved silence- At the same time an economic revolution was taking place which tended to with- draw women from their homes and men from their previously more independent and intermittent labour. A new industrial regime was emerging by which work became organised in largo centres, and the intro-

INTRODUCTION.

duction of machinery enabled men and ivomen to work side by side at the same or closely allied occu- pations. This is still going on to-day. It is also being recognised as reasonable tbat both sexes should study side by side at the school and the college, and where not side by side, still in closely similar fashion, while the recreations of each sex are to some extent becoming common to both. Such conditions have tended to remove artificial sexual differences, and have largely obliterated the coarser signs of superiority which may before have been possessed by one sex over another. The process of transition is still in rapid progress. It began in the lower and more mechanical fields of labour; it is proceeding to the higher and more specialised forms. Women have entered, or are about to enter, the various learned professions, and are tending to acquire the same rights of citizenship as men.

As such social changes tend more and more to abolish artificial sexual differences, thus acting in- versely to the well-marked tendency observed in passing from the lower to the higher races, we are brought face to face with the consideration of those differences which are not artificial, and which no equalisation of social conditions can entirely remove, the natural characters and predispositions which will always inevitably influence the sexual allotment of human activities. So long as women are unlike in the primary sexual characters and in reproductive function they can never be absolutely alike even in the highest psychic processes. What is the nature, so far as we can venture to tell it to-day, of these fundamental secondary sexual characters?

CHAPTER II.

HOW TO APPROACH THE PROBLEM.

THE DEFINITION OF SECONDARY SEXUAL CHARACTERS

TERTIARY SEXUAL CHARACTERS — STANDARDS OF COM- PARISON — THE INFANTILE AND THE SENILE THE

HUMAN CHARACTERISTICS OF INFANT APES — THE POSITION OF THE LOWER HUMAN RACES — FALLACIES DUE TO INCOMPLETE DATA AND TO BIAS — INCOM- PLETENESS OF OUR KNOWLEDGE.

The term "secondary sexual character" was first used by Hunter. He applied it to such a structure as, for instance, the comb of the cock, but, so far as I have been able to find, he does not anywhere define precisely what he means by the term. Darwin, also, who wrote one of his most important books. The Descent of Marty and Selection in Relation to Sex^ chiefly on this subject, refrains from defining very precisely what is to be included under the term "secondary sexual characters," only remarking that they graduate into the primary sexual organs, and that "unless indeed we confine the term 'primary' to the repro- ductive glands, it is scarcely possible to decide which ought to be called primary and which secondary."^

When we are dealing with Man it is perhaps most convenient to set aside as primary the sexual glands in each sex, and the organs for emission and reception in immediate connection with these glands. That is

I Descent of Man^ chap. viii.

HOW TO APPROACH THE PROBLEM. Ip

to say, the primary sexual organs are those that may fairly be regarded as essential to reproduction. The breast, which is not necessary to reproduction, but is an auxiliary of the first importance in the propaga- tion of the race, may be counted as the chief of the secondary sexual characters ; or else (with Darwin) as occupying a borderland between the primary and secondary characters.

The difficulty lies not so much in determining the boundary between primary and secondary sexual characters as in limiting the extension of the latter characters. Perhaps the most marked human secondary sexual characters are the difference in the massing and arrangement of the hair, so that while the man's is largely concentrated on his face the woman's is chiefly massed on her head, and the difference in the larynx and voice by which a further degree of development forms a part of male evolution at puberty, while in woman there is comparatively little development These are typical secondary sexual characters, and we may perhaps define a human secondary sexual character as one which, by more highly differentiating the sexes, helps to make them more attractive to each other, and so to promote the union of the sperm-eel! witli the ovum-cell. Other things being equal, a man is more attracted to a woman with luxuriant hair on her head than to one whose hair is sparse ; other things being equal, a woman is more attracted to a man with deep vibrant voice than to a man with a shrill feminine voice. The sexes are not greatly attracted by any purely esthetic qualities; it is the womanly qualities of the woman which are attractive to the man, the manly qualities of the man which are attractive to the woman.^ The secondary sexual characters, as thus understood, are

' AsChateaubriandsomewhcre remarks: "On sail qu'instinctivcment

■eo MAN AND WOMAN.

those which indirectly favour reproduction and whic] might conceivably be developed by sexual selection a understood by Darwin, whether or not they actually are so developed.

There are, however, other se>:ual differences which d not so easily fall into this group. These differena are less obvious ; many of them are relative, or onljd perceptible when we take averages into considerations but they are very numerous. Thus we have, for in-J stance, the much greater shallowness, proportionate]yj| of the female skull; we have the greater size arw^ activity of the thyroid gland in women and thai smaller average proportion of red blood corpusclesa and we have a different average relationship of tt" parts of the brain to each other. These differena are probably related indirectly to primary secondary sexual differences; they are not of greaM importance from the zoological point of view, but thej are of considerable interest from the anthropologics point of view, very often of interest from the patho- logical point of view, and occasionally of great interesti from the social point of view. They cannot be easily? put into the same group as the secondary sexual! characters as usually understood ; and perhaps it woulcU be convenient if we were to agree to distinguish themfl as tertiary sexual characters.

It would be desirable to have a fairly definite classification* of sexual characters into groups, but there is no distinct natural 1 division between the groups which lend to merge into each. 1 other. Professor Charles Stewart defines secondary sexual | characters as comprising those features by which we are enabled to distinguish the male from the female quite irre- spective of the esseniial organs of reproduction, and which are not concerned either in the nourishment or in the reproduction of the young. This seems to me to give an inconveniently lat^e extension to the primary group, while it allows no place for what I have called the tertiary sexual characters. Ultimately, if we take a sufiiclently broad outlook, all sexual characters, as Weis- raann points ou^ are really secondary (in the sense in which 1 have defined such characters): "Just as the differentiation of cells into male and female reproductive elements is secondary,"

HOW TO APPROACH THE PROBLEM.

he remarks, " so is that of male and female individuals All the numerous differences in form and function which characterise sex among' the higher animals, all the so-catled 'secondary sexual characters,' affecting even the highest mental qualities of mankind, are nothing' but adaptations to bring' about the miion of the hereditary tendencies of two individuals." (A. Weismana, "Remarks on Certain Problems of the Day," 1890, in Essays upon Heredify, vol. ii. p. 91.)

It is with secondary sexual characters, or with secondary and tertiary sexual characters, as I have defined them, and more especially the latter, that we have here to deal. In order to estimate the signi- ficance of each character as it comes before us we must have certain standards against which to measure it What are our standards of comparison for sexual characters in a man or in a woman ?

The reader will soon perceive that there are two standards. The first is constituted by the child and its anatomical and physiological characteristics. The second is constituted by the characters of the ape, the savage, and the aged human creature. As each char- acter in a man or in a woman comes before us for consideration we shall instinctively place it between the same characters as they appear associated with infantilism and with senility. When it is there placed we shall observe whether on the whole it tends to lean towards the one side or the other, towards infant- ilism or towards senility. Let me say at the outset that in pointing out that such and such a character in men or in women brings men or women near to children or the apes, 1 have no wish to disparage the sex in question. It is simply that thereby we may be helped to understand the significance of the par- ticular masculine or feminine character before us. The larger question of the significance of infantilism and senility themselves in the evolutionary process will perhaps become clearer as our examination pro- ceeds.

The reader will, however, perceive immediately

that these two standards of inrantiHsm senility are of very unequal value. The standarf offered by the child is comparatively simple an)

{LoHger.)

[nplicated. The child with its relatively enor- mous head, its large protuberant abdomen- — "all brain and belly," as some one defines it — its small chest, short feeble legs, comparatively vigorous arms,

' TO APPROACH THE PROBLEM.

smooth almost hairless skin, large liver, kidneys, thymus, and suprarenal capsules, presents us with a distinct anatomical picture; and the facts of the child's physiological and psychic life are a.ho fairly clear. But the compound standard, on the other side, of simian, savage, and senile characters is much less clearly defined. We encounter, for instance, the fact that the anthropoid apes at an early period of life often present characters quite unlike those they exhibit in the adult form. The young anthropoid is comparatively human in character, the adult ape is comparatively bestial in character. The young ape has a smooth globular head and a relatively small face, as man has ; the profile is more human, with little prognathism; the base of the skull also is formed in a more human way than in the adult ape; and, above all, the brain is relatively very much larger than in the adult* If we take, for example, the gorilla, we find that the fcetus differs from the adult by having relatively a much larger head, a longer neck, a more slender trunk, shorter limbs, a longer thumb and great toe; while the head is more globular, the face less prognathous, and the hand more like man's.* In nearly all these characters the fostal gorilla approaches Maa The adult male Ape has rapidly developed into a condition far removed from his early man-like state. The brain has become relatively very small, and his receding skull has become hideous with huge bony crests, sharp angles, and on its enormously enlarged facial portion prominent outstanding superciliary ridges, projecting jaws, and receding chin ; while the dark hairy body has also become more bestial in character. The female Ape remains midway between the infantile and the adult male condition. So far as

' See, for instance. Professor J. Ranke, " Ueber Beiiehuiiyiin dcs Cehims zum Schadelbau," at Ihe Dandg meeting of the Getman Anthropological Society, August 1891.

' Deaiker, " Recherches anatoiniques et embryologiques sur les Singes anthropoides," ^rdivis de Zoalogie txpiriiHenlale, 1885-86.

I The Skull's Gapaclty

nf the lOoBl imrcriart branch»»

y It aoubtl^BBly the m<-»«urlP«

|P meaaurementB. U !■ by "•' ™ ' kite muter lo obt«ln the ex»c\ in-

■'rTTh. filling cfiheakuil ""Iji;*^^" _,l or whole peas, the cnitt^ls hel"B Eerw*rf welgh-^*! to (urt>lBh ""■""" lr« Mllm»le- lu th^ """"."'^,. ' ,v k me Bfrttn AnthropfiloR*'-! "^f!'^'^

wipm for m^aaiirliiB the conieniH u. hiiiB invented t>y » msdWal ntutientof ■B*^ bX S"lva«lt,. M. poll, whlcb . ^tlfr gulcuer and withal more reliable \lTib"M"trr>ea,^'i'- Poll l"tr.do«3 Into the BkuU a rubber bag a roaterlB:. which he flUe with

TeVy mat - to m.«ur. the cubic dl-

■ . -, nf.Prward by withdrawing

""Tilted l^g"'.m th/*k..l. inserting in^o r «»duM™d vessel and reading j,T re^u" The here.otore dimeult ifldlne of the skull capacity 1b thereby -i^v^ed Into an operation which c^ iJK perfomied by anybody.

vholc, the infantile and cscmblcs. Man also in ly more and more from

the specifically human type of his early years, but the Ape in the course of his short life goes very much farther alon^r the road of degradation and premature

HOW TO APPROvW

senility. The Ape starts in life with a considerable human endowment, but in the course of life falls far away from it ; Man starts in life with a still greater portion of human or ultra-human endowment, and lo a less extent fails from it in adult life, approaching more and more to the Ape, It seems that up to birth, or shortly afterwards, in the higher mammals such as the Apes and Man, there is a rapid and vigorous movement along the line of upward zoological evolu- tion, but that a time comes when this foetal or infantile development ceases to be upward, but is so directed as to answer to the life-wants of the particular species, so that henceforth and through life there is chiefly a development of lower characters, a slow movement towards degeneration and senility, although a move- ment that is absolutely necessary to ensure the preser- vation and stability of the individual and the species. We might say that the fcetal evolution which takes place sheltered from the world is in an abstractly upward direction, but that after birth all further development is merely a concrete adaptation to the environment, without regard to upward zoological movement

We see, therefore, that the infantile condition in both the Apes and Man is somewhat alike and approximates to the human condition; the adult con- dition of both also tends to be somewhat alike and approximates to the ape-like condition. The phenomena which we find among the lower human races are in harmony with those we find among the Apes and in Man generally, although the divergencies are so wide that we cannot speak so definitely. In some respects some of the black races may be said to be more highly evolved than the white European races. Thus the short body and long legs which we usually find among negroes are far removed from the simian condition, and equally far removed from the infantile condition. On the whole, it may be said that the yellow races are nearest to the infantile con-

MAN AND WOMAN,

dition ; Negroes and Australians are farthest removed from it, often although not always in the direction the Ape ; while the white races occupy an intermediate position.' In certain characters, however, the adult European is distinctly at the furthest remove as well from the simian and the savage as from the infantile condition; this is especially so as regards the nose, which only reaches full development in the adult white. In some other respects, as in the amount of hair on the body, the adult European recedes both from the specifically human and from the infantile condition, and remotely approaches the Ape.

The variations and uncertainties are so considerable that we can never assume that because a given char- acter is simian or savage or senile, it belongs to all three groups; nor can wc base arguments on any such assumed identity of the three groups. Practically, however, wc do find that these three groups agree in various particulars to furnish characters which are removed to the furthest extremity from the child. Such characters are the comparatively small head, the large and fierce face, the long limbs, the general tend- , en cy to hairiness, the dark and wrinkled skin, the com- parative absence, usually, of fat and the exaggeration of the muscular and bony systems, a general tendency to ossification, and on the nervous and mental side a general inclination to rigidity and routine. Such characters are usually, though not quite universally, simian, savage and senile. So that wc have on the one side the group of immature characters, and on the other side the group of over-mature characters; and any characteristic of the male or female adult indi- vidual may lean in either of these directions.

Even, therefore, when the facts of secondary sexual differences are fairly established, there is sometimes a certain difficulty in arriving at the significance of the

HOW TO APPROACH THE PROBLEM. 2J

facts. It has to be added, as a further difficulty, that the facts themselves are in a very large number of cases by no means well established. Few persons have made it their business to ascertain sexual differ- ences ; such differences have most usually come to light incidentally in the course of more general in- vestigations. Again, nearly all those sexual differences which I have proposed to call tertiary are merely a matter of averages. In order to obtain reliable results, not only must the investigation be accurately and uniformly carried out, it must be extended to a very large number of individuals. By confining our observations to a small number of individuals we either reach results that are expected or that are unexpected ; in the former case we accept them with- out question ; in the latter case we suspect a fallacy and reject them. Thus, for example, Quetelet, an unreliable statistician but a man of genius who did much to open out new lines of investigation to place the knowledge of man on a sure basis, used to draw his conclusions from a few selected cases which he regarded as typical. This was a thoroughly vicious method which could only lead to expected results. Thus he prepared a table to show the comparative height and weight of men and women at all ages ; this table shows with beautiful uniformity that at no age are females taller or heavier than males. Subse- quent investigation, on a more extensive scale and in a large number of countries, has shown that during certain years of development girls are distinctly heavier and taller than boys. This fact was not suspected in Quetelet's time, and it is evident that if in his group of cases of boys and girls at the age of thirteen he had found that the girls were heavier and taller than the boys, he would have said to himself: "This result is so extremely improbable and at variance with my other results, that I have evidently committed an error of judgment here." Then he would perhaps select a fresh series of cases, and if the

result happened to reverse his previous questionabi result he would be at once reassured in his erro Again, until quite recent times it has over and over again been emphatically stated by brain anatomists that the Trontal region is relatively larger in men, the parietal in women. This conclusion is now beginning to be regarded as the reverse of the truth, but we have to recognise that it was inevitable. It was firmly believed that the frontal region is the seat of all the highest and most abstract intellectual processes, and if on examining a dozen or two brains an anatomist found himself landed in the conclusion that the frontal region is relatively larger in women, the probability is that he would feel he had reached a conclusion that was absurd. It may, indeed, be said that it is only since it has become known that the frontal region of the brain is of greater relative extent in the Ape than it is in Man, and has no special connection with the higher intellectual processes, that it has become possible to recognise the fact that that region is relatively more extensive in women. It is only in the case of observations which are carefully and methodically carried out on a large number of subjects, and without prepossession — as in the case of Broca's brain registers, which were not worked out until after his death — that results can be obtained which cannot be questioned.

We have to recognise, it will be seen, not merely the difficulties which come from too small a number of observations, where we have the resource of putting one series of observations against another, but also the more serious difficulty of inevitable bias in the investigator's mind. This bias has an unfortunate tendency to run on similar lines, so that we gain nothing by putting one observer's results against another observer's results. Or, again, the results obtained by two observers, each working in accordance with his own bias, may be so disparate that there is no comparison. Thus one conscientious investigator

nOVf TO APPROACH THE PROBLEM. 29

(like Manouvrier) may find that ail the facts of anatomy and physiology point to the superiority of women; another, equally conscientious (like Delaunay), may find that they all point to the superiority of men.

I have endeavoured to set in the clearest light those facts of sexual difference which may be regarded as fairly well ascertained by a large number of observations in the hands of numerous competent investigators. So far as possible, I have ignored or placed in the background those facts which are still unsettled. In many cases I have been able to place side by side facts which, although by no means necessarily new, had not previously been placed in a juxtaposition which brought out their significance. In other cases I have found, after much trouble and inquiry, even on matters where precise knowledge seemed easily attainable, that the results so far reached are so contradictory or incomplete that nothing can be done with them. Occasionally I have noted such results in passing, merely to indicate how the matter in question at present stands. An incom- plete or unsupported result may at least serve as the stimulus to a more conclusive investigation. With this thought I have willingly exposed the painfully barren tracts in our knowledge of secondary sexual characters.

While the present volume is, so far as I am Aware, the only attempt to deal comprehensively with the question of humnn secondary sexual characters from the modem standpoint, there arc several books of earlier date which must be mentioned in this connection. The first genuinely scientific effort in this direction with which I am acquainted is Ackerma nn's Utberdii ko rpertiche Versckiedenhcii ries Mannesvom. Weibe ausser den ^1 GescWicchtslkeiUn (Koblenz, 17S8). ^^S^nn was a'piipil of the fJlSous anatomist Soemmering, and his book, though brief sind bald (correspond I Jig with the slate of knowledge at that time), is eommendably scientific and free from speculation. Then comes Burdach. In his great woik on physiology {Die Physiologie~afs Erfahrun^swissenschaJI, 1826-40) that re- markable man dealt very fully with all the aspects of se?(ua.l

I 1

MAN AND WOMAN.

difference which at that time it was possible to deal with.

While his statements are aomelimea too bold and often require some revision, his treatment of the question on the whole is astonishingly accurate. Burdach neglected some lines of scientific advance which we now regard as valuable, anti was too much under the influence of philosophical conceptiorjs, but he faces this problem in the broadest and most genuinely scientific manner, and anticipates very many of the results of subsequent investigation. Even up to the present day there has been no belter statement of this complex problem than that of the inspired physiologist of K6nigsberg. Burdach's results were often a little ahead of his facts; inspiration is not a re- cognised modem method of scientific research, and no biolo- gist of Burdach's immense range has since his time been able to treat the problem in the same broad and assured manner. Darwin touched on human secondary sexual characters in his Descent of Ma n, but only in so far as they illustrated his general theory^f sexual selection. The great work of Ploss and Max Bartels, DasWei b in d en Na /ur- und VQlkerkunde [ yA. edition, Leipzig, 1891), although it deals primarily with aninropological and ethnographic differences among the lower human races, must be mentioned. Dr. Harry Campbell's Differences in the Nervous Organisation of Man and Woman: Physiological and Pathological (London, 1891) is interesting though discursive. Lombroso and Ferrero's La Donna Delinqtienle, la Proslilula t la Donna Normale (Turin and Rome, 1893) must also be men- tioned, because, although its chief subject is the criminal woman, the first part is devoted to the investigation of the character- istics of the normal woman ; it is the most remarkable and original study of the subject that has appeared in recent years, although its results are sometimes open to question. It was not published until my own book was almost completed, but I have been able to insert a few notes and references concerning some of the more important points in it. For the most part qu^sjjans of se xual difference have been left of recent years to m agaz ine essa y L s tS— wh oseTucubrati on 5 are generally too slight ana too pu rely literary to d eserve mentio n — and to philosophers ; of the 1 atTerXotze, Schopenhauer,anJ~Herbert SpenceTTiave perhaps touched the matter with most acuteness, though usually in an in- complete and one-sided manner.

CHAPTER III. THE GROWTH AND PROPORTIONS OF THE BODY.

GENEKAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THB MALE AND FEMALE FORMS — SIZE AT BIRTH — GREATER DEVELOPMENT OF GIRLS AT PUBERTY — SEXUAL DIFFERENCES IN OF ADULTS — WEIGHT COMPARATIVELY XIN- — SEXUAL DIFFERENCES IN THE GROWTH AND PROPORTIONS OF THE BODY^THE ABDOMEN — THE BREASTS — THE CHEST^THE ARM— THE HAND — THE INDEX FINGER — THE LEG — THE FOOT- — THE FUTURE OF THE LITTLE TOE— GENERAL CONCLUSIONS.

When we contemplate the human figure — or, if we prefer, those classic representations of it which wc owe to the genius of Greek sculptors — we note certain obvious sexual differences in form and contour. The man is larger, with a certain tendency to rugged though not unbeautiful outline which conveys an im- pression of energy; his bony prominences are usually more conspicuous, and his muscles are everywhere more clearly defined. The woman is smaller and more delicately made; the bony points are less clearly seen, and the muscles, even although they may be powerful, are softly encased in abundant connective tissue which makes them less obvious. The man's form is erect and closely knit; the woman's is more uneven, with large hips and flowing protuberant curves of breast and abdomen and flanks. While the man's form seems to be instinctively seeking action, the woman's falls naturally into a state of comparative

repose, and seems to find satisraction in an attitude e overthrow.

The sexual contrasts of this simple kind are fairly obvious, and they have their significance, A more precise knowledge of the sexual differences in the human form has only grown up during the past century. The old masters, like Leonardo and Diirer, seem to have possessed a considerable science of human proportion, but their science does not appear to have been based on a wide induction of facts, and they usually subordinated it to their art During recent years anatomists and anthropologists have been engaged in building up a detailed knowledge of the growth and proportions of the human body according to age and to sex. They arc yet far from having reached the end of their labours, but certain definite conclusions are becoming evident; and while it is here impossible to discuss fully a subject which has produced so large a mass of work, it will be possible to indicate some of the main results.

At birth male infants are already rather heavier! than female infants, and somewhat taller (about one--! fifth of an inch in England and Scotland, according^j to the Anthropometric Committee of the British T Association), and their chest-girth is greater. There 1 is also a greater tendency to variation in the height J of male infants, while the development of female^J children shows greater regularity. During the early T years of life the comparative growth of the sexes has I not been very closely studied ; both boys and girls I grow rapidly during the first two years of life, and ' slowly during the third and fourth, the boys appearing to keep ahead, as they do also from the ages of five i to nine or ten in England,' It was always suppi until some twenty years ago, that this superiority of I the male is maintained throughout the whole period of development ; this conclusion agreed with a priori

> Report of the Aniliropomelrie Commillee of the British AsBoci 1S83, p. sS8.

GROWTH AND PROPORTIONS OF THE BODY. 33

ideas' on the subject, and was supported by a few- observations made by Quetelet In 1872 Bowditch begfan to collect and publish statistics of the height and weight of nearly 14,000 boys and 11,000 girls in Boston and its neighbourhood. These investigations mark an epoch in our knowledge of human develop- ment ; they were followed and confirmed in 1876 by those of Pagliani on a large number of Italian children; in 1883 by the Anthropometric Committee's Report on British children ; in 1890 by Axel Key's observa- tions on 15,000 boys and 3000 girls in Sweden ; and in 1891 by Emil Schmidt's investigation of nearly 5000 boys and 5000 girls at Leipzig.

Bowdilch's original tables were published in the Boston Medi- cal and Surgical Journal, December 1872; his complete study, " On the Growth of Children," appeared in the Eighth Annual Report of ike State Board 0/ Healtk 0/ Massachusetts, lijy ; see also, for a summary of Bowditch's results and for the British results, C. Roberts, Manual of Anthropometry, 1878, Luigi Fagliani's first monograph, " Sopra alcuni Fattori dello Sviluppo Umano," appeared in the Archi-vieper I' Antropologia, 1876, voL vl; bis complete investigations were published in the Archivio di Statistica, Ann. i., vol iv., 1877. Professor Axel Key's paper, Die Pubertatseniwickelung und das Verhaltniss derselbenxu den Krankkeitserscheinungen der SchuljugendjiKss read at the Inter- national Medical Congress of Berlin, but was published separ- ately, 1890. Schmidt's results are briefly stated in the Corre- spondevzrblatt der deutschen Gesdlschaft fiir Anlhropolope, April 1892; in the same paper will be found bibliographical references to other recent investigations in the development of children. All the investigations 1 have named are important and instructive ; perhaps Axel Key's pamphlet is as useful as any, as it is short and is also rich in diagrams and tables which Bet forth at a glance the results of other investigators as well as those of the author himself. Other interesting and extensive investigations in which the same sexual differences are brought out are those of Jastchinsky on Polish and Jewish children in Warsaw schools, and those of Geislcr and Ulitzsch on 21,000 German children, both of which are summarised in the falires- ierickte der Anal, tmd Phys., 1890; also Dr. Sargent's investiga- tion of i6do American school children and students recorded by him in a paper on " The Physical Development of Women," Scribner's Magazine, 18S9 ; in a forthcoming book he gives the , results of a very much wider investigation.

WOMAN.

There can now be no doubt that, for a period of several years during the development of puberty, girls of European race are both taller and heavier tlian boys of the same age. The amount of the difference, and the exact age at which this predomin- ance of girls begins and ceases, vary in different races and under different conditions.

In Great Britain girls grow more rapidly than bo; between the ages of lo and 1$; and at the ages iij to 14J they are actually taller, and between the ages of I2j and iji actually heavier.than boys at the same age. The acceleration in the growth of girls seems to be coincident with a retardation in the growth of boys. At the age of 15 boys again take the lead, growing at first rapidly, and then more slowly, and their complete growth is attained, prac- tically, about the age of 23. Girls, on the other hand, grow very slowly after the age of sixteen, and attain their full stature about the twentieth year. Both in Europe and the United States the year of most active growth appears in boys to be the sixteenth, in girlal the thirteenth or (as in Sweden) the fourteenth. Thei period of active growth is preceded by a period of marked delay in growth, reaching a maximum in about the eleventh year in boys and the tenth in girlsyj in whom, however, it is less regular and conspicuous j\ this has been verified in America, England, Germany^i Sweden, Denmark, and Italy. In the United States' during the first twelve years of life boys are from one to two inches taller than girls of the same age ; at about 12J years of age girls begin to grow faster than boys, and during the fourteenth year are about one inch taller than boys of the same age ; during the sixteenth year boys again become taller. The English and American girls resemble each othi the whole more than the English and American boys. Thus both the English and American girls put on about loj lbs. during their thirteenth years, but the English boy puts on nearly ifij lbs. during his six-

m- I

nt^H

GROWTH AND PROPORTIONS OF THE BODY.

J^ irh'J ici fa $e

7«^U §

-™ 1^ —

teenth year, the American boy only I4lb3. The American boy and girl at this period (although not later on) resemble each other also to a greater extent than the European boy and giri ; the period of the developmental supremacy of the American girl is short and its degree is inconsiderable, while in Sweden it extends from the twelfth to half way through the sixteenth year; in Germany it begins during the eleventh year and extends up to the sixteenth year;' in Italy, also, it covers the same period, and is well marked in degree. This comparatively slight pre- ponderance of the American girl is no doubt due to the great developmental activity of the American boy during the whole period of puberty; from his I thirteenth to his eighteenth year he is the tallest and heaviest boy, on the average, yet produced and I measured ; during all other years, before and after, the Swedish boy comes to the top. The Swedish girl keeps at the head of European and American girls throughout her whole evolution, except, as regards weight alone, during her fourteenth year, when she yields to her American sister. In Sweden puberty both for boys and girls is a year later in reaching completion than either in America or Italy, All these variations are but minor modifications of the general rule that the evolution of puberty is more precocious in girls than in boys, being both begun and completed at an earlier age.

The development of puberty is considerably influenced by alimentation and hygiene— that is to say, by the social class to which the child belongs. But the influence of social condition seems to be strictly limited. Pagliani and Aitel Key have given special attention to this point. In Italy the differences in development between well-nourished and ill-nourished children is very marked, but Pagliani has shown that though the develop- ment of the ill-nourished is slow, this is largely compensated hy

ninalion of II,000

GROWTH AND PROPORTIONS OF THE BODY. 37^^H

its prolongation, while the development of the well-nourished is ^H rapid and precocious, but small in its later stages, (It is worth ^H

of the well-nourished classes.) While alimentation enormously ^H influences the rate of growth it has thus comparatively small ^H influence on the final result, which is chiefly affected by race and ^H sex. Axel Key does not find the compensatory process takes ^H place quite in the same manner ohserved by Pagliani ; according ^^H to him the period of puberty is delayed in children of the poorer ^H classes, but then takes place very rapidly, to be completed at ^H the same period as in the well-to-do classes. He compares the ^H development of the poor to a feather which can be strongly bent ^H

f I*

■y

only to fly back rapidly the pressure is too great largely lost, Quetelet, Axel Key seem to agree cise, climate, altitude, occ more intensity the more r stage of development, chiefly on sex and race.

Axel Key, in his invest state of health, and foun

tedfrom

when the 3r too pr agliani, that en upation n emoved The he

nations, il that in

AxelKty.)

pressure is removed; but i longed the retractility may be Bowditch, Broca, Dally, and

nodily the rate of growth with he individual is from the fina ght finally attained depends

ook into account the subjects boys the period of most rapid

•^

od of g alth incr

iir

ase, a;m

MAN AND WOMAN.

ning of pubci'ly wlitn growth is At n minimum, nnd rose again when growth is nearly completed. There are no other observa.- lions on an cqualJy large scale to check these results, which are by no means in harmony with the vul^'ar notion regarding the weakness of the growing boy. Key did not find the relation between growth and resistance to disease so clearly marked in girls ; this he attributes to the coniparaiively unhealthy con- ditions under which girls are placed. I may add that the statistics of the insanity of adolescence in girls, as recorded b^ Uevan Lewis, confirm Key's result that the period of growth is a period of resistance to disease; of 77 cases of adolescent

111

-w

'ei

^t.

-1

-i

.»

ClIAIiT SIIOWIK'O COMPAEATIVK INCREASE IN WEIGHT OF SWl

[,Ad«piedfram Axtl K'ty.)

insanity in girls between the ages of twelve and twenty-ono I only three cases occurred up to the age of fifteen, while 56 cases, 1 or nearly three-fourths, occurred between the ages of eightee and twenty-one.

A woman may be said to have reached her full 1 development at the age of twenty; a man contin to show a fair degree of development for some years after this age, especially under favourable conditions. Venn and Galton have shown by their investigations I on Cambridge students that the student's head, for 1

GROWTH AND PROPORTIONS OF THE BODY. 39

example, grows after the age of nineteen more than the average head.^ It is well known that the upper classes in most European countries are taller than the lower classes, and although this may be, to some extent, as Lapouge supposes, a question of difference of race, it cannot be entirely so; Gallon, also, con- siders that among the educated classes the average height is greater than it was some years ago. I am rot acquainted with any elaborate investigation of women students, showing to what extent the physical development of women may be prolonged under favourable conditions. Under ordinary conditions it seems to be the general rule that physical precocity la greater in women than in men, and the lower the race, generally speaking, the earlier is the full stature attained; thus among the Nicobarese, according to Man, males reach their full height at about the age of eighteen, females a little earlier.^

The average height of adult males in England is about i./CX) m. (or 67,4 ins.), of adult females about 1. 600 m. (or 62.7 ins.}; the ratio of stature of men and women is in England I to 0.930, or as 16 to 1488.^ The mid-stature of the well-to-do male members of the British Association at Newcastle in 1889 was 1. 715 m., of the female members 1.589 m. The sexual difference in stature in England, therefore, corresponds very closely with that found in neighbour- ing countries; in France, according to Topinard and Rollet, it is 12 centimetres; in Belgium, according to Quetelet, 10 centimetres; in the United States, accord- ing to Sargent, it is somewhat greater, being nearly

^ /oiii-nal Anlhropahpcal Inslilii/e, 1SS9, p. 140.

" E. H. Ma.D, Journal AHlhropological InUUule, May 18S9.

' Report of Anthropomeiric Committee of British Associntioo, 1S83. As exprcESpd by Galton {Natural Inheritance, 1889), aboot 12 to 13 ; " Consetiuenlly by adding to each observed female stature at the rate of one inch for every loot, we are enabled to compare their statures, so increased and transmuted, with the observed statures of males on equal terms." In Belgium, where the race is much shorter, the ratio, according to Quelelel, is as 16 to 15.

W^ MAN AND WOMAN.

13 centimetres. In America, while the sexual diflfcr-| ence in weight is somewhat less than in England, •' sexual difference in height and also in vital capacity * is to a marked extent greater, the greater sexual differences being, it seems, due to the greater develop- ment of American men rather than to the less develop- ment of women. .

Dr. Sargent prepared for the ChicaE'o World's Fair two nude ' clay figures of man and woman, founded on the average measurements of several thousand students of Harvard and of various girls' colleges. Dr. Sargent's results will be published in detail in his forthcoming book; the general characteristics of the two statues are thus described in Scribntr's Magatitu, July 1893:—

" One admits that the young man is the finer figure of the two. Standing squarely, clean-limbed, strong-necked, he looks rather like a runner than a rower ; but there is nothing sordid, nothing warped, nothing to indicate the deterioration of a civilisation of too many wheels, the stunting, or the abnornud 1 one-sided development, of the factory or of city life. The pose, ' of course, must be the sculptor's, but the measures show ; height J five feet eight; weight, one hundred and thirty-eight (thej equivalent of one hundred and forty-nine, as we clothe selves); chest, thirty-four, to thirty-seven inflated. It is assuring that both in height and weight and strength as well,! this statue far exceeds the average of any other nation, even ■ England.

" Wlien we come to the woman, we must — glissons un pcu prominent artist looked her over from a professional point of ■ view and refused to accept tbe statue as the ultimate model, r Of course, said her creator; for that you would in fairness select I a figure on the eighty or ninety per cent line, not this, which ' meets exactly fifty per cent, of them all, and is half way from the I best to the worst; or, to put it more precisely, is only /fej greatest good 0/ Ike greatest numbef. He then naively explained J her inferiority to the boy on a. ground one hardly dare whisper | — namely, that women students in colleges came from a class 1 not equal, socially or intellectually, to that which universally 1 sends its boys. [Whether this is the case or not it could I scarcely account for the facts in question; the woman of low 1 social dass, at all events in the country, is favourably situated. 1 so far as the attainment of a well-developed and beautiful body I is concerned,] The figure has more fragility without a corre- sponding gain in grace ; the lower half is better than the upper j it is not that tight lacing has left evident traces (the waist v.

GROWTH AND PROPORTIONS OF THE BODV.

over twenty-four) but llie inward curve of the back, the thinness of the body, lack strength and ereelness of pose. The height is five feet three, the weight one hundred and fourteen, the chest measurement but thirty, and the feet ten inches long."

Differences in weight, although instructive as regards the individual's condition, are not of any great significance in the adult from our present point of view, and are in some respects fallacious. This is due to the tendcncj" of women to develop exuberant fatty connective tissue. This tendency, while it is chiefly responsible for the charm and softness of the smoothly rounded feminine form, results in women possessing a larger amount than men of comparatively non-vital tissue and makes them appear larger than they really are. Bischoffonce took the trouble to investigate the proportions of the various tissues in a man of thirty-three, a woman of twenty-two, and a boy of sixteen, who all died accidentally in good physical condition. He found the following relation between muscle and fat : —

Muscle .,

41.B

35a - 44-2

38.2 ... 13.9

It is owing to this tendency to put on fat that, as Quetelet found, while man reaches his maximum weight at the age of forty, woman reaches hers only at fifty. The same tendency causes a liability to moibid obesity which all authorities agree to find more common in women; thus, for instance, of Bouchard's eighty-six cases, sixty-two were in women, and only twenty-four

The preponderance of the adult man over the adult woman in total stature and bulk Is fairly obvious and well established ; the less obvious sexual differences in the growth and proportions of the various parts of the body are, however, more interesting and significant Speaking generally, it may be said that, relatively to the total height, in women the head is longer than in men, the neck shorter, the trunk longer, and the legs and arms shorter.

Topinard found that, reckoning total height as 100, in 78 men of European race the trunk equalled 33.5, and in 30 women 34.0, E. Harless, at Munich, found that in 9 men and 7 women the trunk equalled 35.9 in the former and 37.S in the latter. Quetelet obtained similar results in Belgium. Professor Riccardi {Di alcum Correloiioni di Svfluppo, Modena, 1891) has examined 1300 ISolognese and Modenese persons of aU. a.'^^%

MAN AND WOMAN.

and both sexes with reference lo the height of the sealed body, and finds that in children under six there are no sexua] differences; then comes a. period of oscillation between the sexes, and finally ihe proportion of the height of the sealed body (o the total stature is in men as ;2 to too, and in women as 53 to icoj thus a woman, when seated, if we judge her by male sundards, appears taller than she really is.

Ranke states unconditionally that relative short- ness of trunk is a character of superiority, as it indicates an organism arrived at maturity.^ If we compare the human adult with the human infant, or with the ape, this statement is perfectly justilicd. As Quetelet has pointed out,* while the adult head is only double the height of the head at birth, the trunk is nearly tripled in length, while the arms are nearly four times, and the legs as much as five times as long as they were at birth This is one of those sexual differences which are simply the result of the total difference in bulk and stature due to the pre- cocity and earlier arrest of growth in women. In fairly well-proportioned men, in whom growth has been arrested before they have reached the adult male standard, we find the same proportions as in women. In a dwarf of the usual type, with his huge head and diminutive legs, the same infantile type is seen in an exaggerated degree. In defective develop- ment, due to the influence of rickets, it has been found that the trunk is on the average only about one inch shorter than usual, the arms two and a half inches shorter, while the legs may be as much as ten and a half inches shorter, thus preserving the infantile type.' In giants, on the other hand, the increased stature is chiefly due to undue growth of the Ic^s,

It is not, however, true that relative shortness of trunk is a mark of superiority if we compare together the adults of various human races. Thus, as Topinard

' BeitrSgs iur Urgcschichic Bsycrns, Bd. viii., Fasc. I :ind a, 1S88, " Anlhnpomklrif, pp. 194, 195,

• Shaw, confiimed by Waller Pye, " Lectures on Growth Rales of the Body," Lancet, July 26 and Augusl 16, 1S90.

GliOWTH AND PROPORTIONS OF THE BODY. 43

shows,^ negroes possess relatively the shortest bodies, the yellow races the longest, while the white races occupy an intermediate position.

From these difTcrences in proportion there naturally results a diflcrciice in the position of the centre of the body according to age and sex. The old artists and authors who occupied themselves with the canons of proportion, following the lead of Vitruvius, regarded the navel as the centre of the body. This is not exactly the case. The more immature the human body is the lower the navel is, and the lower also the centre of the body. At birth the middle point of the body closely coincides with the navel, or, rather, it is two or three centimetres above it, but as growth pro- ceeds the centre of the body falls until ultimately it is a little below the symphisis pubis in men, remaining a little higher in women.

In women the distance between the navel and the pubes is greater than in men ; that is to say that in women the abdomen is larger. This is the rule as stated by Manouvrier, and Professor Cunningham has found from the examination of numerous subjects that the various abdominal zones have the same average tlr-pth in women as in men ; taking into account the ;.;reatersize of the men, the relative size of the abdomen becomes thus distinctly greater in women. ^ This character is in harmony with the reproductive functions of women, and in the ar tist's hands ihe fyll and fiyn abdonigp is one of the be autie s of^o man' s form, in contrast to man's comparatively flat and inconspicuous abdomen, but at the same time a large abdomen is both an infantile and a primitive character ; it was, for example, very marked in the Fuegians who were in London a few years ago, and a Fucgian boy with his abdomen exposed bore a strong resemblance to a woman.

Anatomy ami PhysM^y, Jan. 1893.

A still more obvious sexua! dislinction lies in the ] breasts, but from the present point of view they cannot be very profitably studied. The only sexual difference worth mentioning here is the distance between the nipples. This is often greater in men than in women ; the reason for this is, as Bruclce points out, that in its development the breast in women requires a large amount of skin for its increasingly convex surface, and as the skin on the side of the body yields more readily than ^ that between the breasts, the nipples tend to approxi- i mate.' " The breasts should always live at enmity," a sculptor once said to Briicke ; " the right should look to the right, and the left to the left." In well-de- veloped individuals this is so, and in the careful measurements of artist's models given by Quetelet at the end of his Anthropomelrie the exceptional dis- tance between the nipples is noteworthy, especially in the case of women belonging to Rome and Cadiz.

Wilh reference to the sexual differences in the thorax or 1 chest itself, the most authoritative anatomists are at pre: singularly at variance. This is partly due to the fact that many detailed investigations of a large numher of subjects have yet been made, and partly to the fact that it is necessary to allow for the artificial deformation of the chest which Is still very common among civilised women. It seems most probable that, as Gegenbaur asserts, the female thorax is relatively ' shorter and broader than the male. This is also suggested by the shortness of the dorsal region of the spinal column m women and the relative shortness of the breast-bone (as shown by Dwi^ht as well as by earlier anatomists), and also by the greater relative length of the clavicle in women (as shown by Broca and others). It also seems probable that the depth of the chest antero- posteriorly is less in women than in men. It was asserted by the old anatomists that while man has a large chest a

1 ^E..ZI\\c\l.f.,ThtHuv^anForm,^■p.^\,T3.. Chapter III. of this book is nn interesting discussion of the artistic anatomy of the female brei From the anthropolc^ical point of view the breast has been fully studied in the ETcal work of Floss and Max Barlels, Dm fVeii, Bd. ' pp. 174-189. These writers recognise three different forms of hrea the disc-shaped, the hemispherical, and the conical.

GROWTH AND PROPORTIONS OF THE BODY. 45

small belly, woman has 3 small chest and large belly. While this conclusion, which is in harmony with the marked inferiority of the respiratory system in women, is no doubt true, sufficient allowance does not appear to have been made for the artificial constriction of the lower part of the chest in women.

Charpy has made a careful study of 200 subjects — male and female, short and tall, fair and dark— in the dissecting room, with special reference to the shape of the chest. He finds no notable sexual differences until the age of fifteen, and less well marked after this than many people imagine. He recognises three different types of the female chest, which are, however, more obvious to the artist than the anthropologist; (i) the broad type, square and full like that of man, with well-spread shoulders, and breasts like expanded discs; it is the type of the ancient goddesses, of the women of Tuscany and Liguria, and the Roman women of Transtevcre ; (2) the round type, rarer and of more delicate and highly sexualised character; it is smaller and more folded in than the first type, with less antero- posterior diameter, and is the chest of the Venetian women ; (3) the long type,yn^ oblong lungs, though its capacity is probably by no means defective j it is the type of English women, and Arab women with their sloping shoulders and gracefiil carriage often have this form. (Adrien Charpy, " L' Angle xiphoidien," Revue d'Anthrofiologie, 1884, p. 268.)

In women, generally speaking, while the trunk 13 relatively long, the limbs are relatively short. By her short arms woman approaches the infantile condition more closely than man, as Ranke points out, but it must be added that by the same character she is far- ther removed than man from the ape and the savage, among whom the forearm especially is very long.

The difference is usually trifling, but there is agreement upon the point among most of the chief authorities. It was found to hold good among various lower races examined during the voyage of the Novara, and by Weisbach for German women also; Topinard lays it down as a general rule {Anthropologie Cdnirale, p. 1096) ; Sargent found that the forearms of American girls are decidedly shorter, the arms very slightly shorter than those of boys ; and Ranke concludes as the result of his obser- vations that women have shorter arms and forearms, thighs and legs, relatively to their short upper arms still shorter forearms, relatively to their short thighs still shorter legs, and relatively to the whole upper extremity a shorter lower extremity, (Ranke, " Beitrage zur physischen AnUopologie der Bavern " Beitriiga

HAN AND WOMAN.

ur Ur^iehichU Bayerns, Bd \\\\., Fast I and 2, il

long forearm, it may be added, as well as a long leg, an. ....-^ the characters which indicate superiority when we compare the adult to the infant, but indicate inferiority when we compare the European to lower races, like the negro and the Australian, in whom the arms are especially long.

The male arm difiers from the female by being flatter in youth and more highly moulded and less cylindrical in adult age ; in women the arm in adult age develops in rotundity in consequence of the deposit of fat, and constitutes one of the chief beauties of adult womanhood ; it is also often somewhat laterally compressed, and (as Briicke remarks) it is often so depicted by Renaissance artists, in comparison with the broad shallow forearm. Artists have differed in their preferences with regard to boys' arms and girls' arms ; thus while Palma Giovane and many other artists have given their angels girls' arms, Andrea del Sarto preferred boys' arms.

Brijcke has some sensible observations on the effects of exercise on the arms of girls: — " Many mothers are afraid of their daughters doing any exercises with their arms lest the latter should acquire a masculine shape. It is remarkable, how- ever, that no apprehension is shown if these same daughters practise the piano for several hours every day, exerting certain muscles of the forearm in a violent and exclusive fashion in doing so. Yet there is, in general, no foundation for the (ear. Bodily exercises only alTcct the form of the body disadvan- tageously under two conditions: either when they begin at too early an age, or else when they are so excessive as to produc. emaciation. That violent exercise may be taken without injui in this respect is proved by the well-known gymnast who, u ■" the name of Leona Dare, displayed the beauty of her am all the great cities of the world." (E. Brucke, The HumM Figure, pp. 48, 49.) As a more recent example I may refer 6 the beautifully developed arms of the gymnast Alcide Capitaiw

The study of the hand and the proportions of i various parts has received considerable attention fromj time to time, and has recently been taken up in greatT detail by Plitzner, one of the most active of the greata school of anatomists and anthropologists which has'^ sprung up at Strassburg under the inspiration Schwalbe. Europeans, speaking generally, havel smaller hands than the black races, while the yellow"! races have the longest hands ; the Javanese, for I example, have peculiarly long hands, which are seen J

GROWTH AND PROPORTIONS OF THE BODY. 47

to great advantage in the characteristic Javanese dances in which the hand plays the chief part. As regards the relative size ol tlie hand, Quelelet and Topinard considered that there are no sexual differ- ences ; Rankc, however, has more recently found that the hand is relatively somewhat shorter in women, and this seems to be confirmed by Pfitzner's in- vestigations, but in any case the differences are slight.

Sexual differences in the comparative length of the different fingers have attracted some attention. Ecker found many years ago that while in anthropoid apes, and so also in nearly all negroes, the index- finger is shorter than the ring-finger, in women the index is generally longer than the ring-finger, thus giving the hand a more elegant shape.^ Mantegazza examined a very large number of people with refer- ence to this point, and found that while over 500 possessed a shorter index than ring-finger against under 100 with longer index-finger, among the former men were in a very large majority, and among the latter women were in a large majority. Examm- ing twelve very beautiful women from various parts of Italy, he found a longer index-finger in six — a proportion considerably above the average.^ Pfitzner confirms the fact of the greater length of the index- finger in woman, and finds also that woman's thumb is relatively shorter than man's. The latter character- istic goes with a comparatively low type of organism, but the long index-finger has its interest, bearing in mind the conservative morphological tendencies of women, because it indicates superior evolution, Pfitzner observes that he is content to demonstrate the fact, but for those persons who insist on an ex- planation of every fact he suggests that the greater

■ Arch, fur AnlkrepehgU, Bd. vii., p. 65. ' P. Mintegazia, "Delia lungheiza lelatlva dell' indice," ftr rAntropolo^ia, 1877, p. zz.

MAN AND WOUAN.

use of the forc-fingcr in gesticulation may be the I cause of its development in women.'

It is by his relatively long legs that the adult civilised man most conspicuously differs in proportion from the infant, although not necessarily from the savage, whose legs are sometimes very long ; and the leg is that portion of the body which grows most 1 rapidly and to the most variable extent; it is also ] that part of the body which is most affected by an early arrest of development, although in this the arm also largely participates.* The thigh grows with I greatest rapidity, and shows also the most decided ' sexual differences. In women the thigh is markedly shorter than in men ; it is larger, and is set at a different angle As to the greater absolute and ' relative length of the thigh in men there seems to be no question, although the results of investigation do not show any similar marked difference for the leg, and according to some observers the leg is relatively very slightly longer in women. The greater circum- ference of the thigh in women is very well marked, and begins at a comparatively early age. It is indeed the only measurement of which we can safely say that it is from an early period of puberty onwards both a* lutely and relatively always decidedly greater in both European and American women than in men ; although the diameter and still more the circumfer- ence of the hips are relatively greater in women than in men, the excess seems greater than it really is, and does not invariably exist, or at all events at so early an age, when we deal with absolute figures. Accord- ing to the measurements of Quetclet on Belgians, the circumference of the top of the thigh becomes abso- lutely greater in girls of fourteen, and is relatively

' W. Pfitzner, " Beitrage lur Xenntniss des mensch lichen Extremi- tatensltelet " and " Anthropol(^sche Beriehungen der Hand- und Fussmassc," in SchynVbs'i Morpholo^scke ArbeiUn, Bd. i.-ii., 1890-92,

' Humphry, Human Skclilon; Topinard, Anthropiilogic GMrale, pp. 1030-31 J Robeils, Anthropomtlry,-^^. 115-117,

GROWTH AND PROPORTIONS OF THE BODY. 4g

greater than in boys even after the age of twelve ; while Dr. Sargent shows that the thigh of the American girl of fifteen is on the average, in absolute figures, two inches larger than that of the American boy of fifteen. Taking 400 male and female students (who in America fairly represent the average popula- tion), of the mean age of twenty, Sargent found that the girth of thigh in the women exceeds that in the men by ij^ inches, and is the only measurement in which the women do absolutely exceed the men. Dr. Sargent suggests that the large tiiighs of women are due to impediment to the blood-stream caused by artificial constriction at the waist, but the opinion I's unsupported and is highly improbable. In woman the thigh, though short, tapers rapidly, and at the lower part it is, absolutely, scarcely if at all larger than that of man ; so that while the masculine thigh tends to be columnar the feminine thigh tends to be conical. This characteristic tends to give some appearance of instability to the female figure, and the effect is increased by the marked inward inclination of the thighs in women, resulting from the breadth of the pelvis, an inclination which, when it exists in a very marked degree, gives an appearance of knock- knee, and the inward inclination of the thigh is com- pensated by an outward inclination of the leg. There is an analogous obliquity of the upper extremity; the forearm is never in a straight line with the arm ; and this obliquity also appears to be more emphasised in women.' But while the lack of straightness in the arm is inconspicuous and conflicts with no demand of the eye, since the arms are not normally called to support the weight of the body, it is not so with the legs. This obliquity of the legs is the most conspicuous aesthetic defect of the feminine form in the erect posture, while it unfits women for attitudes of energy, and compels

, p. a65; E. Brllcke,

I the

I leg

I isti

I sa\

MAN AND WOMAN.

them to run by alternate semicircular rotations of the legs. In large-hipped civilised women the character- istic is much more obvious than in small-hipped

savage women. Artists have adopted various devices to disguise it It is minimised by toning dawn the hips and giving to women a comparatively mascuUm outline, or by the elongation of the thighs and lef>s;J thus the long, straight, and beautiful legs whichi Tintoret gave to his women almost correspond tafl heroic canons of proportion which in nature rarely found in women.

The foot has received even more study than thel hand, and certain interesting sexual differences emerge. J Pfitzner, who has studied the foot' with the same' care as the hand, finds that there are two types i foot: the elongated lypc with long and well-developed ^ middlephalanges, and thea^i«i'/rt/i'(/typein which the middle phalanges are short and coarse. The first type is most common in men, ilie second in women. Which is the more primitive form? We are accustomed, he remarks, to ret;ard women's forms hs more primitive, but notwithstanding this he is inclined to look upon the abbreviated type common in women a* a more recent acquisition of the race. At tlie same timej he regards the abbreviated form as rather a retro-l gressive than a progressive evolution; "no one can^ look at a m;ddle phalanx of the nbbreviated type and ' not recognise that it is unworthy o! any noble mammal, and only to be regarded as a partie honteuse." By their great lous, as well as their thumbs, women are less developed than men ; a long great toe and a long J thumb are recent acquirements of the race, and they J are relatively longer in men. Pfitzner has also made I an interesting discovery with regard to the presentj position and probable future of tiie little toe. It isl well known that while the fingers and toes generallyS are made up of three bones and are three-jointed, the I

Ibe's Matpliologiiche Arbcllcn, Bil. i., pp. 94 cl seq.

GROWTH AND PROPORTIONS OF THE BODY. SI

thumb and great toe possess only two phalanges, and are therefore only two-jointed. I'fitzncr finds that there is a tendency for the little toe also to possess only two joints, the middle and end phalanges being welded together. This result is not artificially pro- duced, as it is nearly as common in the embryo and the child as in the adult. There appears, therelore, to be at the present time a progressive, or, as Pfitzner regards it, retrogressive development of the little toe; though it should, perhaps, be added that in such a matter the degeneration only applies to the particular part and not to the organism generally. The course ol higher evolution has always been accompanied by the disappearance or degeneration of particular organs and pans which are no longer needed. It is interest- ing to note that women seem to be leading this movement Among in feet of men and women 41,5 per cent, of the women showed fusion of the joint, and only 31.0 per cent of the men. But, as Pfitzner himself remarks, new investigations with a larger number of subjects are needed to confirm this sexual distinction.^

Ottolenghi and Carrara have examinetl the feet of a large number of persons — men and women, sane and insane, criminals and prostitutes — in order to find out the amount of space between the great toe and its neighbour, and so to estimate the extent to which the individual's foot approaches the primitive prehensile condition. Carefully examining 100 normal men and 62 normal women, they found that the space between the first two toes and the power of separating them are much more marked in women than in men ; the proportion of well marked cases being zS per cent, among women and only 1 1 per cent, among men ; although the tendency of women to cramp the feet would lead us to expect an opposite result. Among male criminals, prostitutes, epileptics, and idiots there was a still nearer approach to the prehensile condition which is frequent among tower races. {Ottolenghi e Carrara, " II Piede prensile negli alienati e nei delinquent!," Arch, di Psiehiain'a, 1892, Fasc. iv., v.) These observations have not, so far as I am aware, been repeated.

In the somewhat bird's-eye view we have obtained in this chapter over a very large field of anthro- pological investigation it has been sufficiently evident that the dilTcrences between men and women extend not only to general proportions and laws of growth but to each part of the body taken separately ; that, taken in the average, a man is a man even to his thumbs, and a woman is a woman down to her little toes. Three general conclusions clearly emerge : (i) women are more precocious than men ; (2) in women there is an earlier arrest of development ; (3) as a result of these two facts, the proportions of women tend to approach those of small men and of children. This greater youthfulness of physical type in women is a very radical characteristic, and its influence vibrates to the most remote psychic recesses. It is an important factor, but by no means the only factor, in the constitution of secondary sexual differences.

CHAPTER IV.

THE PELVIS.

PROMINENT SECONDARY SEXUAL CHARACTER —

>) OF THE PELVIS — THE PELVIS IN CHILD- HOOD—THE PELVIS IN RELATION TO THE SPINAL COLUMN — THE INFLUENCE OF THE ERECT POSTURE IN MAN AND WOMAN — PELVIC INCLINATION — THE SADDLE-BACK — THE EVOLUTION OF THE HUMAN SPINAL COLUMN — DISADVANTAGES OF THE ERECT POSTURE — WOMEN LEADING EVOLUTION IN RESPECT TO THE PELVIS — THE EVOLUTION OF THE PELVIS IN RELATION TO THE EVOLUTION OF SEXUAL EMOTION.

In the brief sketch of the sexual differences in human growth and proportions presented in the foregoing chapter, no attention has been given to what we may regard, at all events from the present point of view, as the two most important parts of the body. Nothing has been said of the head or of the pelvis. The head is entitled to attention separately, not only as the most conspicuous and generally interesting portion of the body, and the seat of the chief nervous centres, but on account of the great amount of study devoted to it, an amount which to-day we are entitled to consider as even excessive. The pelvis is entitled to a chapter to itself because it constitutes the most undeniable, conspicuous, and unchangeable of all the bony human secondary sexual characters. Among i lower races, indeed, it is not well marked.

and the women of several Central African peoples, for instance, when viewed from behind, can scarcely be distinguished from men ; even Arab women, in whom the pelvis (as Kocher and others have described it) is broadly extended, show nothing of the globular fulness of the well-developed European woman. The pelvis has developed during the course of human evolution ; while in some of the dark races it is ape-like in its narrowness and small capacity, in the highest European races it becomes a sexual distitic- tion which immediately strikes the eyes and can scarcely be effaced ; while the women of these races endeavour still further to accentuate it by artificial means. It is at once the proof of high evolution and the promise of capable mate rnity. '"Ancienrauthori- ties emphasised this most prominent of all secondary sexual distinctions by saying that while in both men ■ and women the trunk represents an ovoid figure,j comparable to an egg, with a large end and a smalLj end, in man the large end is above, in woman it i below. That is to say, that in men the diameter oti the shoulders is greater than that of the hips, in I women the diameter of the hips greater than that^ of the shoulders. This statement, as Mathias Duval.l and others have shown, is exaggerated. The correct | formula would be expressed by saying that while in both men and women the trunk is an ovoid with thej large end uppermost, in men the difference betweenl the upper and lower ends is considerable, in women it 1 is slight.^ Thus, as Dr, Sargent shows for Americans! between the ages of 17 and 20, the woman's hips,] though relatively 4 inches larger, are absolutely i smaller than man's ; at the age of 20, girth of hip J is in actual measurements J-inch smaller in women ] than in men, but if we take men and women of the 1 same height the girth is as much as 6 inches larger J in women than in men. The girth of thigh remains 1 the only measurement that is absolutely and almost }

' M. Duval, PrJiis iPAnaliiaiie Arlisliqui, p. 125.

THE PELvrs, 55

constantly greater in women than in men, although its size largely depends upon the relatively great size of the pelvis.

The pelvis — the bony girdle of the lower part of the body — acts under very different conditions in men from those found In quadrupeds. In animals it forms an arch which supports the posterior half of the body, while at right angles to its weight-bearing axis the arch is left free to form the gate by which offspring enter the world. In man it not only sup- ports the weight of the whole of the trunk, but the weight falls in almost the same line as the axis of the exit from the body. The adaptation of the pelvis to the erect position becomes then a very delicate adjust- ment of physical forces, and as this adjustment must be carried to its highest point in women, the pelvis of women is in many respects more highly developed than that of men, which retains more animal-like characters.

The pelvis consists, above, of the hip-bones or ilia, which are in Man broadly spread out and excavated ; behind, of that fused portion of the spinal column which is called the sacrum, and which terminates below in the rudimentary caudal vertebrae called the coccyx ; in front, of the two pubic bones which meet to form an angle of varying degree ; and underneath, of the two ischial bones which support the weight of the body in the sitting posture. All these four groups of bones which constitute the pelvis are differently arranged in man and in woman, and the differences are numerous and well-marked.' They may, how-

^ They have been studied in detdl by numerous analomisls. The classic work of R. Vernean, Ze Bassin dam les Sexes it daia Us Races, Paris, 1875, may slill be consulted. The French anatomist, Sappey, also gives a clear sumcn.iiy of the sexual differences. See also Gaison, "V(^i\'a\K\.T^" Journal Attat. and Phys., 18S1. For differences in the pelvis and hips in the women of various races, see the fully illustrated chapter in Ploss and Max Bartels, Das Weii, Bd. i., p. ilj; "Das weibliche Becken in anthropolt^sches Beiiehung;" also E. Marri, "Sulla forma dci Baeini in Kazie divers*," Archiv, per VAnirop., 1893, Fasc 1.

^r MAN AND WOMAN.

ever, for the most part be easily expressed by saying that while in man the pelvis is long, narrow, and strongly built, in woman it is broad, relatively shallow, and delicately made. It is as though the compara- tively primitive and ape-like pelvis of man had been pressed outward by forces acting downward from within, with the object of enlarging the door of life for the unborn child. As usually explained by obstetrical writers, the larger pelvis of women is actually due to such a force exerted by the sexual organs which in women are contained within the pelvis. A secondary and accidental result of the broadening and opening out of the pelvis in women lies in the increased size of the thigh and the greater distance between the origins of the thigh-bones, which form such conspicuous characteristics of the female form.

Sexual differences in the pelvis become marked i at a very early period, according to Fehling as I soon as the bones begin to ossify. At birth, as I Romiti has found, they are already distinct, morej especially as regards greater breadth of the sub-j pubic arch, less height of pelvis, and less straight J ilia in the female.' Jurgens, who studied the pelves* of 25 boys and 25 girls under the age of fiva^ found that those of the girls were markedly larger, especially in the transverse diameter.* While sexual ' differences thus appear at the earliest age, the! infantile pelvis in its general aspects is long, narrow, 1 and straight, thus approximating to the pelvis of' I the higher apes and the lower human races, such as f Kaffirs, Australians, and Andamanese ; in European 1 children also, as Litzmann has shown, the transverse 1 diameter of the pelvic brim closely approximates to I the antero-posterior diameter, a characteristic of the [ lower races, while in adult Europeans the transverse |

1 G. Romiti, AltiddlaSoc. TosianadiSci. Ifal., vol. viii., 1892.

" Beitrage lur normalen und palhologischen Anatomie des mensch-

lichen Bcckens," Riidalf Virchow Futschrifi, 1891.

THE PELVIS.

diameter much exceeds the antero-posterior, and in women more than In men. In nearly all respects

the adu!t woman's pelvis is in more marked con- trast to the infant's than is the adult man's; all the lower parts are opened out instead of compressed,

MAN AND WOMAN,

the ischial spines especially being widely separated. If we compare the breadth of the pelvis to its length, as Topinard lias done on a large scale to

■age European Female Pelvis [adapted from Gaison).

ascertain the "pelvic index," we find that with"" vertebrate evolution from the lower animals to European man the pelvis has constantly been

!«■

THE PELVIS.

becoming broader in relation to its length, and that in women the pelvis is always broader in relation to its length than in men. " As we rise in the human series," Topinard concludes, "the pelvis enlarges, and consequently the supremely beautiful pelvis is an ample pelvis. The Greeks, by narrowing the pelvis in their sculpture, not only deprived woman of one of her most deserved characteristics, but made her bestial."* By the breadth of her sacrum, also, woman shows a higher degree of evolution than man. The sacrum in apes and in the lower human races is long, straight, and narrow, in harmony with the rest of the pelvis ; the sacral index which expresses the degree of breadth of the sacrum shows a progressive rise from Hottentots to Europeans which culminates in European women. ^

We may gain a somewhat deeper insight into the problems that centre around the pelvis if we consider the pelvis in relation to the spinal column, and more especially in relation to the various forces which influence or modify the adoption of the completely erect position. Verticality, as Delaunay pointed out,* is in direct ratio with evolution and nutrition, while horizontality is in inverse ratio. The apes are but imperfect bipeds with tendencies towards the quad- rupedal attitude ; the human infant is as imperfect a biped as the ape ; savage races do not stand so erect as civilised races. Country people (even apart, according to Delaunay, from agricultural labour) tend

' Topinard, Anii. CM., pp. 1049-50.

The gradual evolution of the female pelvis and its departure ftom

the male type is well shown by Dr. Giirson's carefully prepared diagrams of the typical Andamanese and European pelves. (See accompanying figures.) They are constructed from the average dimensions of 13 Andamanese and 14 Euiopean feroa.lf pelves.

' See his interesting oliservations on this subject, Sriides de Biohgis Comparie, le Partie, 1S78, pp. 47-52 ; also Dr, Frank Baker's remark- able presidential address to the Anlhropolt^cal Section of the Ameiican Association for the Advancement of Science (1890)011 the ascent of man to the erect position and the consequent modifications his body has wdcrgone.

MAN AND WOMAN.

to bend forward, and the aristocrat is more erect than the plebeian. In this respect women appear to be nearer to the inrantile condilion than men. " It has been observed among the natives of Ceylon," remarks Delaunay, "that the women arc more curved forwards than the men. In our European societies it is easy to sec that women generally do not hold themselves quite upright and walk with the body and head bent forward." The carriage of the human female to any careful observer has (except during pregnancy) a sinuous character and a forward tendril-like move- ment which is full of charm, and contrasts with the more proud and rigid, almost convex, carriage of the human male. The head tends to fall forward, and that this tendency is not due to training seems to be shown by the fact that it has an anatomical basis, as was pointed out by Cleland. From child- hood onwards the skull is slowly tilted more and more backwards in order to throw more and more of the weight behind. "The female skull," Cleland remarks, "is much less tilted back than the male, being in this, as in various other respects, more child-like than the male skull."' While the head is more tilted forward in women, the pelvis is also more tilted.2

In harmony with this the anus appears to be rather farther back and nearer to the coccyx in women than in men ; in the apes (and also to some extent in the child) there is a long distance between the tip of the coccyx and the anus (Cunning- ham). In certain African races, even (according to Delaunay) among the Moors, the vagina is often so far directed backwards as to render necessary the quadrupedal method of coitus. The older anthropologists used to judge of the inclination of the pelvis by the direction of the urinary stream in the female. A stream directed backwards is an animal-like character only found, as a rule, in the lower races; a forward direction of the

1 Cleland, "The Variations of the Human Sltull," Philosophical Tram, of Roy. Soc, 1870.

■ Sappey; also H. Meyer, " Die Beckeoneigung," Achiv. /■ Anal., etc, 1861, p. 137.

THE PELVIS.

stream indicates that the distinctively human upright positi has reached a high degree of attainment

An anatomical explanation has sometimes been given {i.e., by Wernich in the case of Japanese women) for the primitive attitude of women during urination. This attitude, it may be necessary to remark, is for both sexes the opposite of the civilised ; i.e., the men squat, the women stand. This was the custom even in ancient Egypt (according to Herodotus); it was also the custom in ancient Ireland (according to Giraldus Cam- brensis). It is to-day, or wa^ until lately, the custom in large part of Australia (the wi'^a-ope ration here makes the sitting posture more convenient for men, but it would be hazardous to suggest that this operation was ever universal), in New Zealand, throughout North America — among the Apaches, in Colorado, in Nicaragua^and in Angola and some other parts of Africa. (Some of the evidence is given in Captain J. G. Bourke's Scatalogie Riles of all Nations, i8gi, pp. 148-153.) To sit on the heels is for males the orthodox Mohammedan custom.

There is no reason to suppose that anatomical considerations come in here to any marked extent ; it is partly a psychological, partly a ritual matter, partly a question of clothing. In the case of Japanese women, Professor W Anderson writes to me, there is no reasonable ground to supposing any anatomical peculiarities, and he points out that the tight skirts of the women make it difficult to raise them, Mr. Tregear, one of the chief authorities on the Maoris, and Secretary of the Polynesian Society, writes to me that at the present day it is invariably the rule for both sexes amongst the Maoris to squat, but that in old times the women stood, and he makes the important observation that the girdle or mat of most primitive races makes it easy (bearing in mind the sexual difference in the [losition of the organs) for the women, difficult for the r to urinate in the standing position without exposure.

Among most uncivilised races, it is a matter of religious ritual to avoid exposure of the sexual organs ; the considerations of hygiene which the men among the Maoris and other races bring forward to explain their practice of squatting is merely an after- thought ; the primary consideration is of a ritual character. The same consideration still prevailed when men (on account of the development of their garments, or for whatever reason) gave up the squatting position ; and Hesiod recommends men to urinate before an object standing full before them, so that no divinity may he offended by their nakedness. ( Works and Days, 1. 727 tt scg.; so also Pythagoras, Laert. VIII. i. 19.) This habit has become ingrained in civilised men unto the present day, although they have long ceased to consider how the gods view the matter.

It is curious that as men began to develop this habit vq>\^ii'^

MAN AND WOMAN.

Kcm nearly everywhere to have adopted the custom discarded by the men. I'erh.ips it was ro5tered by the gener^ contraji- ness of men and women, which everywhere makes men unwilling to adopt women's ways and women unwilling to adopt men's i for it is only within comparatively recent times that the develop- ment of women's garments has offered much obstacle to the primitive custom. In any case tliere are now but few countries where the habit is for both sexes the same, and these countries seem to be in a transition state. In most countries the habits of the sexes in this matter are opposed, and as a general rule also the practice of the more civilised countries is the reverse of the primitive practice. So far as I am aware, the evolution of these customs has never been discussed, but they are as in- structive and as wide-reaching (also as complicated) as many more dignified problems in the origin of civilisation.

The inclination of the pelvis is related to, though it is not identical with, the saddle-back or lumbo-sacral curve which in its exaggerated pathological form is called lordosis. This is only slightly marked in the ape, and does not exist in the human embrya It is one of the superior qualities of African races, and appears to be increased by the muscuSar action of the back, as in rowing upright and in carrying children on the hips. It is always more pronounced in women than in men, as Duchenne first showed,' and is especially well marked in Spanish and Creole women, consti- tuting tile main anatomical basis to their beauty of form and carriage.^

Cunningham's lumbo-vertebra! index shows the tendency to curvature ; a high index indicates a low curve, and a low index a high degree of curvature. In the chimpanzee the index is 1 17, in the Australian 108, in the male Andaman 106, in the female Anda- man 105, in negroes 105, in Europeans 96, in (21) Irish males 96.2, in (22) Irish females 93.5. So that curvature increases on the whole as we a'icend the scale, and tends to be somewhat greater in women. Luschka, Ealandin, Charpy, Ravenel, all consider

iL consider 1

that the lumbar curve is most marked in women. Charpy points out that the degree of the curve is in proportion to the inclination of the sacrum. The sexual difference in the index exists in most human races, but not in the Bushman, and not at all among the apes. Charpy is of opinion that pregnancy has much to do with the for- mation of the lumbar curve ; Cunningham thinks that carrying the child in the arms and on the back is still more important in moulding it, and adds that it is clearly hereditary. Hottentot Bushmen have a very marked lumbar curve and perhaps greater obli- quity of pelvis, and the greatest depth of the curve i is in them very low down.

In association with this greater curvature we find, if we compare the bony spinal column of man with that of woman, that the chief differ- ence is the relatively greater length of the lumbar region in woman. In woman also the curve seems to begin higher and to attain its summit at a hii^her point. This is a character which in association with tlie greater relative size of the abdomen

MAN AND WOMAN.

fits woman for her maternal function. While in women the lumbar region constitutes 32.8 per cent of the entire column, in men it constitutes only 31.7 per cent.;' while, on the other hand, the dorsal section of the column is 46.5 in men against 45.8 in women. The lumbar region of the column is thus not only longer in women than in men, but it 13 moulded on a different plan, being more arched and the vertebrae being moulded more distinctly in adaptation to this arch. " All these distinctions," Cunningham believes, "may be accounted for by the different habits pursued by the two sexes. There is no part of the vertebral column which is more readily moulded by the functions that the spine has to per- form, ttecause it is that section of the column which works under the greatest degree of superincumbent pressure."

Rosenberg {Morihologisches Jahrbuch, 1876) from his re- searches into the developmetjt of the spinal column has come to the conclusion that it is shortening in Man. The ancestral form, he considers, had 25 movable vertebra anterior to the sacrum ; now there are 24 ; in the future there will be only 23. In this connection he points out that on the transverse process of the first lumbar vertebra of the fcetus is found the cartila- p'inous rudiment of a rib which subsequently disappears through Its fusion with the transverse process, suggesting that the ancestral type was a condition now most frequently found in the gibbon, 13 ribs and 25 movable vertebrie. This ancestral type is sometimes found in Man at the present da^. Professor Ambrose Birmingham supports Rosenberg's view (Journal Anat and Pkyi., July 1891). Wiedersheim, who also appears 10 support Rosenberg's view {Der Btiu cks Menschen, 1887), remarks that the spinal columns with the most reduced numtier of verlebrte always occur in women, so that women in this respect would be leading the evolutionary movement, a sup- position in harmony with the higher morphological development of the pelvis in women. Rosenberg's view, however, is not

' These are the figures given by Ptofessor D. J. Cunningham, who has very cnrerully studied the relations of ihE spinal column in the Cunningham Mttnoirs of the Royal Irish Academy, No. 2, tSSG, and in " The Lumbar Section of the Vertebral Column," Joiii-nal of Anat. and Fiyt., Oct. 1888-

THE PELVIS. 6S

univeraally accepted ; thus Professor Paterson (" The Human Sacrum," Proc. Roy. Soc, 1892) does not accept it, on the ground that there is more often elongation than contraction of the region above the sacrum; but his facts and argiimetits, as contained in the abstract published by the Royal Society, do not clearly support his objection to Rosenberg's view, and he admits that a process of fusion is going on at the caudal end of the column.

If woman's body seems to be somewhat more reminiscent of the quadrupedal posture than man's, she has excellent reason for it There can be little doubt that, as Dr. Baker shows, in both sexes '^ll sorts of pathological and unwholesome conditions have been encouraged or produce<r5y~the assumption of the erect posture ; it is sufficient to mention hernia, stone, ^sease of the vermiform appendix of~the intestine, varic ose v eins, exposure of the great arteries to injury, torpidity of gall-bladder, greater constric- tion Tjf l ung s and therefore inability to sustain prolonged and rapid muscular exertion, disorders of the liver from the difficulty of raising blood through the ascending vena cava, and the tendency to syncope. Women share 'thes5~disabilities with men, but m addition they suffer other special disadvantages. The erect position has comparatively slight effect on man's sexual organs, beyond producing a pre- disposition to scrotal varicosity and greater exposure to injury; it tends very seriously to affect woman's sexual organs, and enormously interferes with the maternal functions. " In the quadruped," as Dr. Baker remarks, "the act of parturition is comparatively easy, the pelvis offering no serious hindrance. The shape of the female pelvis is therefore the result of a compromise between two forms — one for support, the other for ease in delivery. When we reflect that along with the acquirement of the erect position the size of the head of the child has gradually increased, thus forming still another obstacle to delivery and to the adapta- tion which might otherwise have taken place, we can

MAN AND WOMAN.

realise how serious the struggle has been, and no longer wonder that death? in childbirth are much more common in the higher races, and that woman in her entire organisation shows signs of having suffered more than man in the upward struggle; In no other animal is there shown such a distinction between the pelvis of the male and that of the female — a distinction that increases as we ascend the scale. . . , The frequency of uterine displacements, almost unknown in the quadruped, has also been noted, and it is significant that one of the most effective postures for treating and restoring to place the disturbed organ is the so-called 'knee-elbow position,' decidedly quadrupedal in character." '

We may say, indeed, that the adoption of the erect biped position has — to use the convenient teleological method of expression — placed Nature in an awkward dilemma. On the one hand, it is necessary for the stability of the body and the due support of the organs that the pelvis should be tough, that the bony girdle should be strong and hard, and the inner channel small. On the other hard, for the higher evolution of the race it is necessary for the bony girdle to be rendered somcrj what less stable by the increased size of the outlet which wiil permit the birth of large-headed childrenj^ The most delicate adjustment is required to prevenM these directly opposite necessities from conflicting' with each other. If we were born through the nave (as some of us supposed when we were children) th< dilemma would not exist, and there would be mon.. genius in the world, and probably more insanityjl but while such a method of parturition would be ivM perfect harmony with tlie biped position, it woulda

' The numeraus and marked adranlages of this poslure

trealment of the diseases of women have lately been well sum

by Dr. Potter, of Buffalo, who remarks that its discovery by Mar _ Sims was "the turning- point in the history of gynecology. " (" Postur in Obstetrics and Gynecology," Trans. Am. Sec. of Obstel. and Gyiiec^ vol. v., 1893, pp. 99-t02.) ^

THE PELVIS,

have been impracticable in the quadrupedal position. On the whole, as we know, while the adjustment is not absolutely perfect and we sufTer from the dis- advantages of the biped position, the demands of the higher evolution of the race have caused, and will no doubt continue to cause, an increased expansion and development of the pelvis, a movement in which women are the natural leaders. But the children always tend to be somewhat too developed for the gate by which they enter the world ; this cunningly contrived girdle of bone is a force on the side of mediocrity, shutting out the highly developed from the chances of life, although it is a force which tends to become weaker, for the size of the head depends on both parents, and the women with small pelves tend to produce still-born children or weak children unlikely to survive, and so it is not easy for them to transmit their small pelves. In the higher evolu- tion of the race the increased development of the head must always be accompanied and preceded by the increased development of the pelvis.

A word may perhaps be said here on a point wliich has a connection wilh this question usually ignored. Many writers — I think especially of Strauss {The Old Faith and the New) and Renan (Introduction lo \xATi^\a.^\on a{ Le Canligue des Cantiques) — have spoken in glowing terms of a future of humanity in which aensualitj', by which they mean the sexual emotion, shall have ■ almost disappeared, to give place to pure rationality. There is no foundation whatever for any such supposition. We do not know very much of the sexual emotion (as distinguished from sexual customs) among the lower races, but while their sexual practices are often very free, there is considerable evidence to show that their sexual instincts are not very intense. (See Floss and Max Bartels, Das Weib, Bd. I., Chapter xiii., in which information on this point is brought together.) It would prot)ably be found that the higher races {i.e., those with the larger pelvis) have nearly always the strongest sexual impulses. As civilisation advances abnormalities become more frequent, the individuals are multiplied in whom the sexual impulse is weak or even non-existent. But these, even if healthy or highly intelligent individuals, are not the individuals who tend to propagate the race. The persons best adapted to propagate

MAN AND WOMAN.

tiie race are those with the large pelves, and as the pelvis is tl seat of the great centres of sexual emotion the dev^opment < the pelvis and its nervous and vascular supply involves tl greater heightening of the sexual emotions. At the same tine the greater activity of the cerebral centres enables them t subordinate and utilise to their own ends the increasingly acti^ sexual emotions.

CHAPTER V.

THE HEAD.

THE SKULL=-1N THE INFANT— CHIEF CAUSE OF SEXUAL DIFFERENCES IN SKULL — EARLY OPINIONS — THE THREE CHIEF SEXUAL DIFFERENCES IN SKULL — MINOR DIFFERENCES — THE CEPHALIC INDEX — THE FACE — SEXUAL DIFFERENCES IN FACIAL DEVELOPMENT

— THE EYE— THE FACIAL ANGLE — THE LOWER JAW

THE TEETH— CRANIAL CAPACITY — SEXUAL DIFFER- ENCES IN FRONTAL, PARIETAL, AND OCCIPITAL REGIONS OF SKULL — ^MAN'S SKULL APPROACHES THE SENILE, woman's THE INFANTILE TYPE.

THE BRAIN — DIFFERENCES IN BRAIN-WEIGHT — AMONG THE INSANE— THE STANDARDS OF BRAIN-WEIGHT — HEIGHT AND WEIGHT FALLACIES — WO^fEN'S BRAINS PRO- PORTIONATELY LARGER THAN men's — ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF A LARGE BRAIN — SEXUAL DIFFERENCES IN THE EVOLUTION OF THE BRAIN — SEXUAL DIFFERENCES IN THE FRONTAL, PARIETAL, AND OCCIPITAL REGIONS OF BRAIN — BLOOD-SUPPLY OF BRAIN — THE CEREBELLUM AND OTHER CENTRES BELOW THE CEREBRUM^DE FINITE RESULTS OF STUDY OF SEXUAL DIFFERENCES IN THE BRAIN AT PRESENT SMALL.

Tfie study of the pelvis naturally brings us to the study of the head with which it is in such intimate relation. In studying the head we may first of all consider the sku//, unimportant in itself as being merely the comparatively inert garment of the living brain, which to some extent it moulds, and by ■*i\».':3&.

70 MAN AND WOMAN.

to a large extent, although not in detail, it is itself moulded ; at the same time we will glance at the interesting but as yet not greatly cultivated study of the face ; then wc will turn to the brain, unquestion- ably an organ of the first importance as being a collection of the chief nervous centres which are probably more or less concerned in every process that goes on in the organism, but unfortunately an organ which does not easily lend itself to study.

THE SKULU

If we take up the skull of an infant we find that it is very light and very smooth, with thin, trans- lucent walls delicately veined by the blood-vessels. The orbits appear large ; the lower jaw is small and shallow, and its angles very wide ; the face, taken altogether, is relatively small. The parietal bones are very large, forming the greater part of the roof and a large part of the walls of the skull, and each parietal bone presents a well-marked boss, the resultant of mixed compressive forces, which gives the impression that the skull is not yet fully ex- panded. The other bones are mostly in a very undeveloped condition, and their component parts are still incompletely welded together. The bony processes and corrugations, which afterwards give a foothold to powerful muscles to support or turn tlie head, can scarcely be traced at all. We notice, further, that the hole through which the spinal cord emerges to enter the spinal column is placed very far back, so that when supported at this point of junction between the head and the body the head tends to fall forwards.

There would be no difficulty whatever In recog- nising an infantile skull even if it were magnified to adult proportions. But it is another matter when we turn from age-distinctions to consider the sexual

"THE HEAD.

characters in an adult skull. Some investigators (like Aeby), though not in very recent days, have gone so far as to declare that ihcre are no sexual differences in the skull except size. And most com- petent craniologists, like Virchow, the most dis- tinguished of all, insist that, among non-European races, it is extremely difficult to determine the sex from the skull, as the criteria furnished by one race do not hold for other races, although among some savage races (as in New Britain) the sexua! differences in the skull may be "colossal." On the whole, there can be no doubt that with regard to the skuU we are in the same position as Pfitzner found himself in with regard to the hand ; this anatomist, after minutely investigating hundreds of skeletal hands, and after discovering marked sexual differences in their average proportions, declares that he is quite unable to distinguish a man's hand from a woman's hand. The skull is of incomparably less importance from this point of view than the pelvis. And although it is impossible to assert that differences between the skulls of men and of women are only those of size, it is extremely probable that, as Manouvrier argues, such sexual characters as may be found are due solely to the differences in general physical propor- tion ; that is to say, that they depend chiefly on the greater precocity of woman and her earlier arrest of growth. It need scarcely be added that to say that the sexual differences in the skull are largely the result of the genera! physical differences is not to say that they are of no significance.

Jacobffius of Copenhagen, who in 1709 wrote a book De dislinguendis Cadaveribus per Crania, showed that there were some sexual differences in the skull. Soemmering [De corporis kumani fabrica, 1794) considered that the head was relatively rather larger in women. BichaC {Anaiomie deseri^live, 1801) thought there was little sexual difference. GsA\ {Foncdons du Ceraeau, 1822) stated that the antero-postenor diameter is longer in women, and the other diameters shorter. These statements are worth quoting as the opinions of the mo5t distinguished

MAN AND WOMAN.

authorities of their time, but they were not founded od extensive and accurate data. Barnard Davis and Thumam {Crania Ihitannica^ 1856-65) seem to have been the first to recoj^mibc the necessity of always separating the sexes in cranioinctriral tables. Dureau (" Des caracteres sexuels du crane humainc/' Re^'uc (fAptthropohij^ey 1873, ^ "• PP» 475-4^7) ^avc an excellent summary of the history and data of the subject up to that date; and Mantegazza ("Dei caratteri scssuali del cranio umano," Arch, per i^ Antropologia^ 1872, vol. ii. pp. 1 1 et scq.) gave a brief critical summary of the matter.

TYPICAL MALE SKULL {Poirte)'),

Panichi has shown by his observations on the skulls of children at Florence that sexual differences begin to be visible at the age of six, and that most of the chief sexual distinctions are fairly well marked before the age of twelve.^ As to what the most constant

^ R. Panichi, ** Ricerche di craniologia sessuale," Arch, perVAntrop.^ 1892, Fasc. i.

THE HEAD.

sexual differences, taken comprehensively, are, it cannot be said that any two authorities are quite agreed, for each craniologist has his own preferences, and we have to bear in mind that sometimes a skull may be masculine in some of its characters, feminine in others ; while a man's skull may approach a woman's in character, or (more frequently, in Mante- gazza's experience) a woman's skull may resemble

TYPICAL FEMALE SKULL (Poirier),

a man's. There is no one constant sexual character in the skull, but there are a few characters which, when taken together, unmistakably indicate its sex. I will briefly state these, following, so far as possible, the opinions of four anthropologists belonging to different countries — Broca in France, Schaaffhausen in Germany, Mantegazza in Italy, and Turner in

MAN AND WOMAN.

Great Britain.^ (i.) I'erhaps the most prominenfci and distinctive of all the characteristics of the male human skull is the prominence of the glabella (or bony projection over the nose) and of the supracillary ridges ; that is to say, that men have overhanging brows which are little marked in women, while they do not exist in children; they develop at puberty and increase with age, and form a distinctly retrogressive character, being exaggerated in many lower races and to an extreme extent in the anthropoid apes. Associated with these bony prominences in men are large frontal air-sinuses which in women are much smaller.* (2.) In women certain bosses which are prominent in children have usually persisted to a more marked extent than in men ; these are the parietal bosses at the outer and upper part of the back of the head and the frontal bosses half-way up the forehead over the eyes ; in men these present the appearance of having been largely obliterated by the expansion of the skull. [3.) All the muscular prominences are better marked in men, and the bones of the skul! generally are thicker and stronger; thus the inion (the small occipital protuberance at the back of the head) is nearly always larger in men, as are the mastoid processes beneath the ear, which in children are very small If a skull rests on its mastoid processes, Broca remarks, it is almost certainly a man's ; the ridges on the skull for the attachment of muscles are also more marked in men. With regard to these three points it may be confidently said that there is very general agreement among anatomists. There are other sexual distinc-

' Broca, Inslniclions craniolcgiquis el craitiomilriques ; Schaafi^l baiuen, " Ueber die heutige Scluidellehie," Corresponditablait dtutscktW Gesili. Anlhrop., 1889, p. 165; Manlegazza, "Dei caratt. sess. ddlB cranio," Arch, per PAnlrop. \ Sir W. Turner, " Report on the Hnmaa^ Crania," ChalUng^ Rtporls, Zoology^ vol. x.

' The frontal sinuses have recently been studied by Professo ^

Bianchi, of Siena, " I seni frontali e le arcate sopracclgliari," Arihio. ptr CAntrop., 1892, Fasc. 2,

THE HEAD.

tions which seem to be fairly well marked but which are less obvious : thus in women the top of the head appears to be flatter, and at a more marked angle with the forehead, while in men the curve from before backwards is more smooth and even— a distinction insisted upon by Ecker and recognised by the Greek sculptors ; women's skulls, also, in most races, are relatively shallower than those of men, hi dependence on the greater flatness of the head ; in women, again, while the base of the skull is usually smaller than in men, the arch of the skull, measured from the base of the nose to the occipital foramen, is often as large as in men.

These cbaracters have not the same definitcaess or constancy as the three characters first mentioned. The lowness of the female skuli, -which is accepted by Welcker, Weisbach, Ecker, Cleland, and Benedikt, seems to be due to the persistence in women of Ihe inFanlile character of flatness of the roof; at birth the male and female skulls are of equal height, but the female skull in ils adult shape lacks the final increments of height gained by the male. There are, however, many races among whom the skull is not lower in women than in men ; such are the stone-age folk of the Homme-Mort Cavern (Broca), Auvergnats (Broca), New Caledonians (Broca), Negroes (Davis and Broca), Crania Helvetica (von Holder), Corsicans (Broca), Ancient Romans (Davis and Thumam), Irish (Davis), Anglo- Saxons (Davis and Thurnam). The relation of the arch of the skull to its base (the direct line between the two ends of the arch) has been worked out for various races by Cleland in his interesting paper on "The Variations of the Human Skull," in the Philosophical Transactions oj the Royal Soc, 1870. In infancy and childhood the base is very small compared to the arch ; in women the base is almost always short, while the extent of the arch is in some instances as great as in the male, Comparirg races, the Irish have the lat^est proportion of arch to base, the Chinese next The short base line of women is therefore an infantile character, but on the other hand the longer base line of man is a savage character, " The most striking and altogether remarkable fact," as Cleland points out, "is that in uncivilised nations, while the length of the arch is very variable, the length of the base line is always great." Here, as is so often found, the infantile condition indicates the direction of evolu-

76 MAN AND WOMAN.

Cephalic Index. — A very great amount of study has been expended on the cephalic index, especially in regard to race and to sex. I n regard to race, the great value of this index is unquestioned ; in regard to sex, although the assertions of craniologists have been equally emphatic in opposite directions, its value is by no means so clear. This index, wliich was devised many years ago by Retzius and perfected by Broca, shows the relation of the breadth of the skull to its length ; it is ascertained by multiplying the maximum transverse diameter by lOO, and dividing the result by the maximum an tero-posterior diameter, certain precautions being observed in taking the measurements. A head or a skull of which the cephalic index is from 70 to 74 is (according to the international agreement of Frankfort, usually accepted in England) called dolichocephalic ; from 75 to Ji) it is called mesaticephalic; from 80 to84brachycephalic; below 70 it is hyperdolichocephalic ; and above 84 it is hyperbr achy cephalic Therefore, the more an in- dividual is relatively broad-headed the higher is his cephalic index ; while long-headed persons have a low cephalic index. A large number of distinguished anthropologists — De Quatrefagcs, Welckcr, Broca, Calori — assert that in Europe women are more doli- chocephalic than men, that is to say, that women's heads tend to be rather longer or not so broad. But, on the other hand, other eminent anthropologists — Weisbach, Mantegazza, Hamy, Topinard — find that women are more brachy cephalic than men. Crochley Clapham gives the measurements of nearly 2000 insane men and about the same number of insane women at Wakefield asylum ;^ he also examined a much smaller number of normal men and women ; calculating the cephalic index from the figures given by Clapham, I find that for insane males it is 80.3, for insane females 8a r, for sane males 81.2, for sane

'.. of Psychakgical

THE HEAD.

•n

females 80.5 ; that is to say, that the sane are slightly more brachycephalic than the insane, and the men very slightly more brachycephalic than the women. The measurements of members of the British Associa- tion at Bath a few years ago showed that the men were very greatly more brachycephalic than the women; while i3.8 per cent, of the women were dolicho- cephalic against only \z.\ per cent of the men, only 2.2 per cent of the women were hyperbrachy cephalic against 9.1 of the men. There is evidently a fallacy here, and I think it is to be found in the fact that unusual intellectual ability seems to be very frequently associated with brachycephalism, and a brachycephalic head has greater capacity than a dolichocephalic head of the same circumference; while the men would number a considerable proportion of individuals of marked ability, the women would more usually simply be the wives or relatives of the men.

If we turn to consider the cephalic index among human races generally, the discrepancy continues equally great Among the following the men are more brachycephalic than the women : — Parisians anterior to nineteenth century (Topinard), Auvergnats (Broca), Troglodytes of Lozere (Broca), Papuans of New Guinea (Mantegazza), Admiralty Islanders (Turner), Italians of Bologna (Calori), Flemish (Houz^), Annamites (Mondiere), Polynesians (Clavel), Letts (Wceber), Lapps (Mantegazza, Kharouzine), Ancient Britons (Davis), Bas Bretons (Broca), English (Davis), Ancient Romans (Davis), Basques (Broca), Modern Asiatic Greeks (Neophytos), Hindus (Davis), Greenlanders (Davis). Among the following, on the other hand, the women are more brachy- cephalic : — Berbers of Biskra (Topinard), Neolithic men of the Marne (Broca), Californians of Santa-Bar- bara(Carr.),Italians(Mantegazza),Andamans(Flower), Negroes (Broca, Huschke, and Davis), Tahitians (Deniker and Laloy), Australians (Flower), Papuans of Loyalty Islands {Crania Ethnicd), Omahas

MAN AND WOMAN.

(Manouvrier), New Caledonians {Crania Ethnica), Ainos (Tarnctzky), Veddahs (Thomson), Finns

(Retzius), Sardinians (d'Hercourt), Swiss (His), Irish (Davis), French (Sappey), Danish (Davis), Germans (Krause), Guanches (Broca), Chinese (Davis).' From these mixed and not always reliable data it is not obvious that any definite conclusion may be drawn, except that we note that while the first list contains a very large proportion of white races, the second con- tains a very large proportion of dark races. Even this, however, is not without interest, for there can be little doubt that the dolichocephalic skull is more primitive than the brachycephalic. Among savage and dark races generally dolichocephaly prevails ; among the prehistoric races of Europe dolichocephaly prevailed to a greater extent than in the Europe of to-day, and the predominance of the brachycephalic is still increasing;^ the higher age of the dolichocephalic races is suggested (as Virchow remarks) by the existence at both ends of the long continents of dolichocephalic races whose great age we must recognise;* the brains of brachycephalic men are decidedly larger than those of dolichocephalic men, as Calori has shown;* there is considerable reason to think that exceptional brain power is associated more easily with brachycephaly, and there is no doubt whatever that among the criminal, insane, and degenerate generally, while marked brachycephaly is sometimes found, dolicho- cephaly prevails to a greater extent and in a greater degree ;^ finally, some observers (Fruner Bey and Durand de Gros) found that brachycephaly tends to be associated with large pelves in women.^

' Topinard, Anihrop. GSrt., pp. 376, 377; Morselli, Arch, per TAntrop., vol v., and vBnous other sources. ' Topinard, URomme dans la Nature, 1891, p. 161. ' R. virchow. Crania Elhnica Americana, 1B92.

Topinard, Antkrep. Gin., p. 568.

" See, for instance, M. Benedikl, Kraniomttrie «nd Kephalometrie, Vienna, 1888, p. 23 ; also Clapham, Art. "Head, Size and Shape of," Did. Psych. Med.

Delaunay, Bull. Sot. S Anthmpsilogie, Paris, 5 Mars, 1885.

THE HEAD.

It must be added that the various series of measure- ments of the head of which the results have been briefly given are of very unequal value ; they have been made by a variety of individuals and sometimes on very small series of subjects. It is probable that more extended investigation will give more har- monious results. It was the opinion of Broca, the greatest of French anthropologists — an opinion founded on extensive experience — that among the dark races women are more brachy cephalic than men, although he found them less so among the existing races of Western France.^ Virchow, the greatest of German anthropologists, in a study of the skulls of the aborigines on the west coast of America, found the women much more brachycephalic than the men; dolichoccphaly and hyperdolichocephaly he found chiefly, and the latter almost exclusively, among men.' It will possibly be found that, in this as in some other matters, while on the whole men and women are side by side, there is a tendency for the women to be somewhat more ahead — in this case more brachycephalic — among uncivilised races, and for the balance to be restored by the men getting slightly more ahead among civilised races.

The matter will probably soon be settled by the careful study of children and of the changes they undergo in the course of growth. There is no doubt whatever that, while the course of evolution, irre- spective of sex, is from the dolichocephalic to the brachycephalic, children nearly everywhere are more brachycephalic than adults ; this occurs in dolicho- cephalic as well as brachycephalic races, and even (as Danielli found among the Nias of Sumatra) when the mother is more dolichocephalic than the father. Thus, for example, Skoff found that for Russians the cephalic index presents its maximum in child-

' Revue d' Anihrofohgie, t. ii. p. 28, ' R. Virchow, "Beitr^e WeslkUste Nordamerikas," Ze

MAN AND WOMAN.

hood and diminishes with age, so that skull-growth is more especially in the antera-postcrior direction ; in aduh Russian skulls Popovv has found little difference in cephalic index. It is worth noting that in early- life, on the whole, at all events among Europeans, girls are decidedly more brachycephalic than boys. Thus Mantegazza found by measuring nearly too boys and over lOO girls between the ages of 4 and 14, belonging to the poorer classes at Bologna, that while the average cephalic index in the boys was only 79.10, in the girls it was as high as 83.35 ;^ it may be added that the index of the girls is almost the same as that of adult Bolognese men (as ascer- tained by Calori), the women being rather lower. It is noteworthy that while Clapham found the average cephalic index of his insane men to a small fractional extent greater than that of the women, below the age of twenty the index of the women was markedly higher (83.9 against 78.6), and this difference was chiefly due to defective antero-posterior development in the girls. Gerald West, who has measured over 3000 children between the ages of four and twenty- one in the schools of Worcester, U.S.A., finds that the maximum width of head is reached earlier in girls than in boys ; that the index of girls during the period of growth is on the whole higher than that of boys ; and that while the final index for girls is nearly the same as that reached at five years of age, the final index for boys is ij per cent, below that attained at five years of age.^ It is through such investigations that we may hope to learn more than we know at present concerning the significance of the cephalic index. It will be observed that the " youthful brachycephaly of women is owing less to defective breadth than to defective length of the

' Mantegitia, " Studii tMCraniologiasessvale," j4r(A. ^i- rAnlreJi. ,

THE HEAD,

skiiH. This late an tero- posterior growth is due, not so much to brain development as to the expansion of the air-sinuses in the frontal botie, which in childhood scarcely exist; if we were to measure the cephalic index within the skull, as Manouvrier points out, the brachycephaly of women would be increased. The opinion may be hazarded that if any sexual difference is ultimately found it will be in favour, on the whole, of the somewhat greater brachycephaly of women among the darker and more primitive races, and a possibly greater tendency to dolichocephaly among the fair and civilised European races. As the former races tend to be very dolichocephalic and the latter to be very brachycephalic, there is some foundation for Topinard's opinion that women tend to be less long-headed among long-headed peoples and less broad-headed among broad-headed peoples, so ap- proaching the typical average of humanity.

The Face. — It will be convenient here to consider briefly the general structure of the face. Speaking of the face generally, it must be said that its evolutional tendency is to become smaller while the skull becomes larger; the apes, as is specially obvious in the gorilla, have enormous faces compared to their small skulls ; the human face, comparatively, is small; and woman's face compared to her relatively large head is usually stated to be smaller than man's; so that, as Soemmer- ing pointed out a century ago, while man is in this re- spect higher than the apes, woman is higher than man.

The evolution of the face from childhood to adult life has at present attracted singularly little attention, although it is full of interest. The only investigation with which I am acquainted, on a sufficiently large number of subjects, is that carried on at Worcester, U.S.A., by Professor West of Cambridge, Mass., on 3250 school children between the ages of five and twenty-one.^ There seems to be a certain amount

MAN AND WOMAN.

of parallelism between face-growth and stature- growth, both in the tendency to periods of retarda- tion of growth, in the temporary relative predomin- ance of girls at puberty, and the more continued growth in men. The evidence points to the exist- ence of three periods of growth, the first ending at about the seventh year, while the third begins at about the age of fifteen. Between the ages of eleven and thirteen girls approach boys in the diameter of the head, while in the diameter of the face at the age of twelve girls seem quite to reach boys, " In proportion to the length of head," West remarks, "the width of head and width of face of girls are generally greater than those of boys, and in propor- tion to the width of head the width of face is also greater in girls than in boys." It was found that while the face in girls ceases to grow at the age of seventeen, in boys it is still growing at eighteen, and probably continues to grow afterwards. These results seem to show that the generally accepted statement as to the relative smallness of the face in women may need modification ; women's faces may be relatively broader than those of men, though at the same time, in accordance also with the impres- sion gained by observation, and, indeed, with the result obtained by Kollmann's facial index, they are relatively short, as in children. It must be added that Topinard's fron to -zygomatic index shows the relatively greater breadth of the face as compared to the breadth at the temples ; the higher this index the broader the temples or the narrower the face, so that the highest indices are found in hydrocephalic heads; the index is higher in children than in adults, and is invariably higher in women than in men.^

On casual inspection women's eyes seem to be generally larger and more prominent than men's. This effect is for the most part apparent only, and

' Tnpinaid, Anikiop. Ci'n., p. 93G.

^ d

THE HEAR 83

is due to a large extent to the over-arching of the bony ridges above the eyes in men. The races in whom this distinctively masculine character is deficient have an infantile or feminine appearance. But in addition to this the orbit in women has been shown to be about the same absolute height as in men, and therefore relatively higher. The eye itself has been shown by Priestley Smith to be at all ages very slightly larger in the horizontal diameter in men than in women, but the difference is extremely small, only about .1 mill.

The Facial Angle. — This angle, which, speaking roughly, indicates the amount of protrusion of the upper jaw, has not — in the general neglect of the face in favour of that portion of the skull in con- tact with the brain — led to the general recognition of any sexual distinctions. This is very largely due to the very various ways in which craniologists have determined it. As, however, defined by certain in- vestigators, the facial index has some importance and has led to fairly clear results. Welcker (followed by a large number of craniologists) measured the facial angle by the degree of projection of the spine of the nose at its base as compared to the root of the nose. This index, in the hands of most observers, shows women to be more prognathous than men. Thus Benedikt, investigating this angle, found prognathism more marked in infants than in adults, and that while prognathism decreased with age (instead of, as among the lower animals, increasing with age) women remained slightly more prognathous than men, usually about half a degree.' Topinard considers that the most important of all the facial indices for indicating morphological rank is the alveolar- sub- nasal index, which in a somewhat different way also indicates the degree of protru- sion of the upper jaw. The investigation of this

84 MAN AND WOHABt.

index shows that prognathism is very much greater among lower than among higher races. Among Hottentots, for example, it is nearly 50; among English, French, and Germans, it oscillates around 20, while Mongols and Polynesians come midway. In every large Indo-European series women are more prognathous than men. Among Parisians, for example, from the twelfth to the nineteenth centuries, among Bretons, Auvergnats, Basques, Corsicans, as well as among ancient Egyptians and Javanese, women are markedly, and lo a very considerable degree, more prognathous than men. But it is a curious fact that this is not so among the darker races in a lower stage of civilisation, nor does it appear to be so among the Chinese ; among African negroes, Nubians and Bushmen, the women arc markedly less prognathous than the men.^ Women thus possess on the whole, at all events among European races, a well-marked alveolar prognathism. This, although a savage character, is far from being a defect; it frequently imparts, as Virchow remarks, a certain piquancy to a woman's face. Perhaps the naive forward move- ment of slight prognathism in a woman suggests a face upturned to kiss ; but in any case there is no doubt that while not a characteristic of high evolution it is distinctly charming.

When we investigate other forms of the facial angle, more especially those which show the projection of the upper part of the jaw in relation to the forehead, it is usually found that women are, if anything, less prognathous than men. These are, however, less characteristic and important varieties of the facial angle. It is possible to estimate the total prog- nathism of the face by taking the profile as a whole, with the inclusion of the lower jaw, and to measure the projection of the angle where the

THE HEAD. 85

teeth meet This is measured by Camper's maxillary angle (quite distinct from Camper's facial angle), which takes as its apex the junction of the teeth, while the base is at the forehead and at the point of the chin. Topinard attaches great importance to this angle, almost as much importance indeed as to the mass of the brain or to the biped attitude, because it enables us to arrange many zoological species in their order of morpholo gi cal evolution, as well as to classify the individuals within a species. The larger the maxillary angle the higher the degree of evolution. It is found that in women, both among the higher and the lower races, the maxillary angle is always markedly smaller than in men. The angle formed, therefore, by the whole face, supports the conclusion reached by the investigation of the alveolar region of the upper jaw, that women are somewhat more prognathous than men.

While prognathism of the lower part of the upper jaw must be regarded as a reminiscence of a more primitive age, the protrusion of the lower part of the lower jaw is a distinctively human character which is most marked in the highest European races. A reced- ing chin is a character of degeneracy and animality. In women the chin is usually less prominent. In women also, as in children, the angles of the jaw are decidedly large.

On the other hand, women show a higher degree of evolution than men by the relatively smaller weight of their jaws, as has been shown by MorselH and Orchanski, The lower human races, as well as apes, have relatively large lower jaws, and the same tendency has often been found among criminals ; but while woman's skull is to man's as 85 to 100, woman's jaw is to man's as only 79 to 100.'

The Teeth. — It is rather surprising that very little attention has been given to the anthropological exam-

ination of the teeth among European races, although it is a promising field and one where examination is comparatively easy. Professor Emil Schmidt, in his

anthropological investigation of nearly 10,000 children in Saalfeld, had proposed to include an examination of the teeth, but as the measurements were entrusted to the teachers it is not surprising that this portion of the investigation led to nothing. A few anthropo- logists, Schaaffliausen and Flower for example, have reached interesting results, but dental surgeons, so far as I have been able to elicit by inquiries of some of the heads of the profession, have added little to our knowledge of sexual differences. Gorham, who weighed several thousand teeth, says nothing what- ever as to differences according to sex.^ Among the lower as compared to the higher human races it is generally agreed that the teeth are larger and more regularly arranged, that the wisdom teeth resemble the other molars and are less cramped and not so frequently absent, while the dental arch is squarer and not so rounded as in the more civilised races.' There is also no doubt that among primitive races, whether of earlier or our own times, the upper jaw and palate exhibit fewer irregularities and malfor- mations, being usually extremely well formed and developed ; it would also appear that among the higher and middle classes irregularities are of more frequent occurrence than among the working classes. A powerful jaw, and perhaps also those mental qualities which are correlated with such a jaw, are of less primary importance under the conditions of civilised than of savage and barbarous life. The tendency of civilisation is to decrease the number and size of the teeth, and to decrease the size, and often to deform the bony cavity, of the mouth.'

The question arises whether men or women show

' Med Times, 91I1 Januaiy 1875.

' C S. Tomes, Manual of Denial Anatomy ,

• See, for iostmce, Oakley Coles, Vefarmilies

1889, p. 459. ej cflht Moiili, p. 34. I

THE HEAD. 8/

in a more marked way this progressive evolution or dissolution. There are marked sexual differences in the teeth of anthropoid apes : are there any traces of sexual difference in the teeth of man ? Eurdach considered that the teeth of women are smaller than those of men, that the wisdom teeth are more frequently absent or late in appearance, that the first teeth arc more frequently preserved, and that those of the second dentition are more frequently late in appearance.! jt cannot be said that all these state- ments have b^cn decisively confirmed, although many of them are probably correct That the jaws of women have a marked tendency to be defective in size and consequently to cramp the teeth, there is much evidence to show. Mr. C. S. Tomes, F.R.S., writes in a private letter : "Speaking from a general impression, which, as you know, is nearly valueless in such a matter, I should say that contracted dental arches necessitating the extraction of teeth for space are commoner in female than in male children." But this argues no defect in the teeth themselves.

So far from the wisdom teeth being of later appear- ance in women, Magitot has shown by an examination of the wisdom teeth in 241 men and 259 women that they are more precocious in women than in men in France, the maximum number appearing at 1% years, in men at 23 years, — although at 25 years there happened to be 10 women to 6 men.^ On the other hand, Ottofy found by an examination of over 600 boys and girls (in about equal numbers) that dental caries is more common in females than in males, both as regards temporary and permanent teeth. " At all ages during the eruptive period caries was more prevalent, on an average, among females than among

' Phyriologie, tome i. p. 306. (Here and elsewhere I quole from tjie French Iranslalion.) It has been noticed by Mondiere in his Monographie dc la Fcmmi Annamili that among the young girls of Annam the [emporaty teeth do not teridily fall out, so causing defects in the second teeth.

' Bull. Sac. d' AtahropoUgii de Paris, 20 Fev. 1879.

88 MAN AND WOMAN.

males by 5 per cent The proportionate ratio Is about the same during the eleven years of life covered by these statistics."'

Mr. J. S. Turner, on behalf of the British Dental Association, presented to the London (1891) meet- ing of the International Congress of Hygiene a communication giving the results of examination of a large number of school children. He showed that boys lost more teeth than girls. This would indicate that the teeth of girls are stronger or less subject to caries than those of boys. Dr. Galippe, it is true, found that the density of teeth is greater in men than women, but his observations, as he himself points out, were not very numerous, and the highest density he found happened to be in a woman.* We owe to Professor Flower a dental index which is constructed by multiplying the dental length by 100, and dividing by the basio-nasal length (or length from the naso-frontal suture to the edge of the foramen magnum). He finds that the white races are microdont (possessing, that is, small teeth and a small dental index) ; the yellow races are mesodont ; the black races megadont, with large teeth and a large dental index, while among the anthropoid apes the dental indices are still larger. Among the apes the dental index among females is always greater than among males. A similar sexual difference is seen in the human species, the teeth in women more nearly retaining their size while the cranium with the body generally is less. The difference is, however, slight among European races,

Schaaflhausen has shown that the two upper middle front or incisor teeth are in women and girls not only relatively but absolutely larger than in men and boys of the same age. Comparing 50 girls to 50 boys of the ages of 12 to 15, he found that the average breadth of the teeth in question was as 1.33 in girls to i in

THE HEAD. 89

boys. Among 12 men belonging to Zandvoort, in Holland, he found an average breadth of 8.3, while 12 women gave a breadth of 8.8. In some women the teeth in question are conspicuously large.' We see therefore that while the jaws of women may in civilised races tend to be unduly small, there is some reason to believe that their teeth are relatively and even absolutely larger than those of men.

Cranial Capacity. — A considerable amount of attention has been given to the question of sexual differences in cranial capacity, but the results have been small. In nearly every large series of skulls, ancient or modern, savage or civilised, the cranial capacity is found to be considerably greater in men than in women. But when we consider that the body-weight is also considerably greater in men this result is not surprising, and while some anthropologists have asserted that the cranial capacity of men is relatively somewhat greater than that of women, others have been at least equally justified in deciding that the cranial capacity of women is relatively greater than that of men. At the best, cranial capacity is but a rough indication of brain size ; and to measure brain size by the external size of the skull furnishes still rougher and more fallacious approximations, since the male skull is more massive than the female.^

A point of some interest, which was noted long ago by Retzius,^ and has since often been

> See Ploss and Max Earlela, Das Weib, Bd. i. p. 15.

' It is worth noting that woman's skull constitutes a iargec part of the total bony skeleton than man's. Thus Manouviier's cranio- femoral index gives the lelation of the weight of the thigh-bones to that of the skull, the lalter equalling loo. Most women (83 pet cent.) have heavier skulls than thigh-bones; in most men (81 per cent.) the Ihigh- bones are heavier. From this point of view the relative size of the skull diminishes in the following order ; child, woman, short man, tall man, ape.

■ MLlUer's Anhiv. fiir Anal., 184.5, P- 89; and see RoUeston's Presidential Address to Anthropological Section, Brit. Association, 1S75 i also Le Bon, Hmue d'Anlh., 1879, p. 56.

MAN AND WOMAN.

raised, is the relative sexual difference in the higher and in the lower races ; it is a question ivhether in

the higher races there are not greater sexual differ- ences than in the lower races. I have prepared the following table bearing on this point, using many of the figures obtained by Weisbach, and also working out the proportions given by Topinard, Flower's as harmonised by Topinard, and adding others from different sources.' The figures give the average cranial capacity of woman's skull if the man's I taken to equal tooa

Negro (Davis), 984. Bushman (Flower), 951. Hottentot and Bushman

(Broca),9Si. Hindu (Davis), 944, Negro (Tiedemann), 932. Eskimo (Broca), 931. Australian (Broca), 926. Malay (Tiedemann), 923. Dutch (Tiedemann), 919. Irish (Davis), 913. Andaman (Flower), 911. New Caledonian (Broca), 91 1. Dutch (Broca), 909. Tasmanian (Broca), 907. Kanaka (Davis), 906. Veddah (Davis, Flower, Vir-

chow, Thomson), 903. Marquisas (Davis), 902. German (Welcker), 897. Auvergnat (Broca), 897,

Gennan, town-dwelling-

(Ranke), 893. Australian (Flower), 8 German, country-dwelling' I

(Ranke), 888. "

Russian (Popow), 884. German (Davis), 883. German (Weisbach), 878. Ancient British (Davis), S77J Javanese (Tiedemann), 874. ^ Chinese (Davis), 870, German (Tiedemann), 864. Anglo-Saxon (Davis), 8' Parisian of 12th ci

(Broca), 862. English (Davis), 860, Parisian of 19th centutjj

(Broca), 858.

Javanese (Broca), 855.

Eskimo (Flower), 855.

German (Huschke), 83B.

This table brings out very clearly on the whole th^ gradual sexual divergence in cranial capacity undci the influence of evolution and civilisation. There are naturally many discrepancies, due to some of th^ series included being too small, or abnormal, c difference in methods of measurement Thus ■ from the series of Veddah skulls two were to bejil

Arciiv. fur An/i.M

THE HEAD.

omitted — an abnormally large masculine and an abnorinally small feminine- — it would be found that the Veddahs, a very primitive race, would come at the top of the list, where they perhaps belong. We may divide them all into two groups, those races among whom the female skull is to the male as more than 900 to 1000, and those among whom it is less. In the first group there are only two races whom we are surprised to find, the Dutch and the Irish ; the Dutch may stand, being supported by two authorities; the Irish are more dubious. In the second group, also, only two races seem out of place, the Australians and the Eskimo, and both of these are by other observers placed in the first group.

There are at least two great factors which work for large cranial capacity — large size of body and mental activity — which are both at work in civilisation. Among the small Maravers of southern India the cranial capacity of the women is, even absolutely, rather greater than that of the men ; among the large-bodied Germans the cranial capacity of the women is relatively very small. Town-dwellers have a larger cranial capacity than country-dwellers, but the muscular labour undergone by country-dwellers keeps their cranial capacity at a fairly high level ; Ranke found that while the minimum of 100 large- headed male town-folk was as low as 1218, the minimum of 100 smaller-headed male country-folk was 1260.* The town-dweller without either manual or mental work falls very low, and in civilisation both the heaviest manual and the heaviest mental work falls to men. It is perhaps worth noting that Jacobs and Spielman found that while West End Jewesses are distinctly inferior to West End Jews in cranial measurements, there is comparatively little difference between East End Jews and Jewesses, It must be realised, however, that there are very distinct

^ J. Ranke, " Stadt- imd Landbevolkeiung," Btilrdge sur BiologUf

92 . MAN AND WOMAN.

limits to the equalisation of cranial characters by thel equalisation of social conditions. Among orangs and' gorillas the sexual cranial differences are enormous. The Australians are almost the lowest of human races, and live under the simplest conditions, but, as Turner remarks, examining the Clialhnger skulls, "The sexual characters were strongly marked in the Australian crania. The much smaller size and capacity of the female skull, its comparative light- ness, the feebleness of its ridges and processes, more especially the glabella; its low basi-bregmatic height and the high orbital index, all constituted important features of difference between the female and the male skulls." The relatively greater difference in cranial capacity among civilised than among savage races does not seem unexplainable, but it remains a fact of some interest and significance.

It has often been asserted, and more especially in the earlier days of craniology, that the frontal regions of the skull, regarded as the "nobler" regions, are more developed in men than in women. There is, however, no reason for supposing that the frontal region is higher or more characteristically human than any other cranial region ; and there is just as little reason for supposing that the frontal region is more highly developed in men. Cleland, who com- pared the three regions of the skull — frontal, parietal, , and occipital — in men and women, could iind no noteworthy difference. Manouvrier, who has made the most extensive and reliable investigations on this point, found, by the examination of Broca's registers,, that the frontal curve is relatively larger in women than in men in 14 series of skulls out of 17; that the parietal curve was relatively larger in women in 6 out of 17 series. He, therefore, came to the con- clusion that women exhibit a frontal type of skull, men a parietal type.^ That the occipital region is

THE HEAD. 93

also relatively larger in women has been found as well by Manouvrier as by Weisbach, who in his careful investigations of the German skull came to the conclusion that there is greater height and length in the occipital skull in women with equal breadth. Topinard's figures of the relative breadth of the different regions of the head in Parisian men and women show little or no superiority of breadth of the frontal region in women, but a very markedly greater breadth of the posterior region of the head, indicat- ing large size of occipital lobes and cerebellum. As Topinard points out, as a rule this breadth is greatest in the superior races ; " the cephalic index of Russians and Javanese is almost the same, but the former, a higher race, have greater occipito-cerebellar breadth; the Basques have, almost to a decimal, the cephalic index of the Tasmanians, but they have greater occipital breadth; Parisian men have only two units of cephalic index more than Parisian women, but the latter have eight units more of occipital breadth."*

On the whole, we have found no valid ground for concluding from an examination of the skull that one sex is morphologically superior to the other sex. The only well-marked and generally acceptable sexual cranial differences, so far as our present know- ledge extends, are those pointed out at the outset: in men the air-sinuses and muscular projections are

fmir Viwancemeni des ScL, 1882, pp. 623-639. Also Arl. " Sexe," Did. des sci. Anihrop.

It may be noted here that high forehead is by no means, as commonly supposed, the necessary accompaniment of high mental capacity. In women Benedikt {Kran. u. Keph., p. 125) is accustomed to regard it as an indication of convulsive degeneration, and he refers to the instinctive concealment by women of a high forehead by arrange- ment of hair.

' Topinard, VAnlh. G/'t., p. 694. Wilks {Leclura on Bis. Nti-vous System) remarks, " We have only to look at the head of a

Esrson with his faculties well developed to see a considerable projection Ehind, whilst in a person of low development the neck and head are

MAN AND WOMAN.

more marked, and in women the bones are more prominent In all three of these respects men approach the savage, simian, and senile type (for these, as we have seen, and as Virchow has pointed out, approximate to each other), while in all these respects also women approach the infantile type. It is open to a man in a Pharisaic mood to thank God that his cranial type is far removed from the infantile. It is equally open to a woman in such a mood to be thankful that her cranial type does not approach the- senile.

THE BRAIN.

The history of opinion regarding cerebral sexual difference forms a painful page in scientific annals. It is full of prejudices, assumptions, fallacies, over-hasty generalisations. The unscientific have had a predilection for this subject; and men of science seem to have lost the scientific spirit when they approached the study of its seat Many , reputation has been 3ost in these soft and sinuousj convolutions. It is only of recent years that comparatively calm and disinterested study of thel brain has become in any degree common ; and even'l to-day the fairly well ascertained facts concerning! sexual differences in the brain may be easily summed I up f

There is no doubt whatever that in European! races (for of other races our knowledge is scanty),! the absolute weight of the brain in man is consider- I ably greater than in women. The following are J some of the averages reached by some of the chief 1 investigators in different countries, working on large number of brains, most of the series com prising many hundreds : —

THE HEAD.

o™.™^-.

Dlir^nc.

Wagner .

(Men ■ \ Women

1362

148

Huschke .

(Men I Women

1424 1272

152

Broca , .

(Men ■ 1 Women

1365

'54

Topin.ird .

/Men ■ { Women

1400 1250

ISO

Bischoff .

(Men ■ {women

1362 1219

143

Boyd' . .

J Men i Women

1354

133

Manouvrier

■ "[Women

'353 1225

128

It is clear that in Europe men possess absolutely larger brains than women. There is no doubt on this point. The difficulty has arisen at the next stage. Have men relatively larger brains than women ? We have first to decide relatively to what we are going to compare the brain. Height has usually suggested itself as the most convenient term of comparison. It would be better, as Topinard suggests, to take the height of the body only, ignoring the legs, but, so far as I am aware, this is never done. It is not difficult to ascertain with fair accuracy the average height of a population, and it is evident that when we have brought the brain into relation with

^ These figures were obtained from Boyd's well-known invesligationa «t the Marylebone Infinnajy, London. Sir James Ciich Ion-Browne has obtained very similac results with the brains of the insane. From an asmination of nearly sixteen hundred brains be found that the average n the male was 1351 grammes, in the female 1223 grammes ; the mule average is a little lower than in the sane, on account of the serious nature of brain disease in men, and consequently in insanity the Kxes approach each other in brain-weight more than in Eanity. See Crichtou-Browne " On the Weight of the Brain in the Insane," Brain, vols, i.-ii ; also Claphani, Art. " Brain, Weight of, in the Insane," jaa. Psych. Med.; Tigges, "Das Gewicht des Gehims und seine Theile bei Geislesliranken," Aligemein. ZeiliihriflfiirPsych'atrie, vol.

.4S. '

, Heft. I and z.

MAN AND WOMAN.

the stature we have made some approximation to a fair estimate. Relatively to stature, it is nearly always found that men still possess somewhat heavier brains than women. Thus, according to Boyd's average as well as Bischoff's, man's brain- weight is to woman's as too to 90 ; the average stature of men and women in England is as 100 to 93 ; so that, taking stature into account, men have a slight but distinct excess of brain (amounting, roughly speaking, to something over an ounce) over women. Precisely the same difference in ratio has been found in France.^ On the strength of this ounce a distinguished brain anatomist has declared that " the difference, therefore, in the size and weight of the brain is obviously a fundamental sexual distinction," and the same assertion has often been made by others.

On consideration, however, it becomes clear that while it is very convenient, and even approximately correct, to estimate sexual differences in brain-mass relatively to sexual differences in body-height, it is not quite fair to women. Men arc not only taller than women, they are larger. If human beings, while retaining their present height, were moulded into circular columns the same size al! the way up, the male columns would be usually of greater cir- cumference than the female columns. As we found in Chapter 111., there is only one measurement — the girth of the thighs — which is almost constantly larger in women. It is clear that we should be doing an injustice by comparing the amount of brain of the female column to that of the male column, for the male column must necessarily possess an absolutely larger amount of brain-tissue per foot, merely in order to equal the percentage amount of the female column. That additional ounce is fully needed merely to place men on a fair equality with women.

THE HEAD. 97

The evident inaccuracy of the stature criterion has therefore led a number of eminent craniologists — C lend in [ling, Tiedemann, Reid, Wagner, Weisbach, etc. — -to adopt the method of estimating sexual differ- ences in brain-weight in accordance with their ratio to body-weight. This is obviously a more logical method. The almost constant result is that, propor- tionately to body-weight, women are found to possess brains somewhat larger than men's, or else brains of about the same size. This was ascertained many years ago by Parchappe, Tiedemann, Thurnam, and others, in England, France, and Germany.^ More recently Bischoff, in his important and accurate work on the brain, shows similarly that while woman's brain-weight is to man's as 90 to lOO, woman's body- weight is to man's as only 83 to 100; Vierordt has also illustrated the same fact, that relatively to body- weight women have larger brains.^ It may be taken as proved that in relation to body-weight — a more logical relation than that to body-hcight^women's brains are at least as large as men's, and are usually larger.

We have, however, not even yet reached a fair statement of the relative amount of brain-mass in men and women. To estimate brain-weight by its ratio to body-weight is satisfactory enough if wc are dealing cautiously with very large averages. But it has to be remembered that we are comparing a comparatively stable element with one which is extremely unstable. The well-to-do, well-nourished, and comparatively lazy classes weigh much more than the under-fed and over-worked classes. The

' See, for inalance, TieJemann, Mi/. Trans. Royal Soc, 1S36, vol. p. 306; Parchappe, Rechenhes sur V aicfpkale, 1836, etc. L. W. von Bischoff, Das Himgtwichi dei Maiscken, Bonn, H. Vietordt, " Das Massenwachsthum det Karperorgane des ta," Anhiv. fiir Ai;a/. u. Phj/s., iSga; also tables in Ihe same Analomhthe Tahcllen, 1892, Topinard (^H/Aro/. G™., pp. •q.') does not find that there is much sexual diffetei

relations between body and brain may be quite different in the individuals who die in a workhouse from what they are in the ordinary population. There are not only differences between individual and individual ; there are very marked fluctuations in the same individual. A well-nourished individual dying after a slow and wasting disease has run its course, will appear to possess a relatively much larger brain than if he had died at the outset of the disease. Brain, although not the most stable tissue, is relatively stable, more stable even than bone ; fat, which makes up a very large part of the general body-weight, is the most unstable tissue in the body; it is used up on the first call from the over-strained or under-fed organism ; while, according to Voit's analyses, 97 per cent, of the fat has disappeared at the completion of starvation, the nervous system has only lost 3.2 per cent of its weight.' When we compare brain- weight with stature we are falling into a fallacy, but we are comparing elements that are at all events fairly constant, and therefore our error is fairly con- stant ; when we compare brain-weight with body- weight we are on sounder ground, but one of our two elements fluctuates to a much greater extent than the other, and produces an error which is less constant and requires greater care to circumvent.

There is another serious and more constant error in estimating sexual differences in brain-mass by the ratio to the bulk of the body. Women, as we have already seen (p. 41), are fatter than men. There is a tendency in adult women to deposit fat about the breasts and arms, and especially in and around the abdomen, in the gluteal regions, and in the thighs, a tendency which only exists to a moderate extent in men. As we have seen, Bischoff found that the propor- tion of fat in the woman to that in the man was as 2S.2 to 18.2, and that while the proportion of muscle to fat

' See, for irsfance, in Waller's Physiology, a diagram showing icklive loss of different tissuea under the influence uf slarvRtion.

THE HEAD.

in an adult man is as roo to 43,- in an adult woman it is as 100 to 78. Though his results were only founded on two typical well-nourished subjects, there is no doubt as to the general tendency of women to deposit fat. It is part of what some have called the anabolic tendency of the female sex — the tendency to acquire rather than to expend— and it is further illustrated by the fact that while men attain their maximum weight at about the age of 40, women, whose growth terminates at a distinctly earlier period than that of men, do not attain their maximum weight until the age of about 50. Now fat is a comparatively non- vital tissue; it needs, compared to muscle, but very little innervation. Therefore it is not fair to women. In studying brain difference in relation to body- weight, to make no allowance for their excess of comparatively non-vita! tissue.' Manouvrier estimates that the active organic mass of woman's body is to that of man's as at most 70 to I CXI This is only an approximate estimate, but in any case the relative excess of brain-tissue in woman is very large, for the sexual ratio in brain-weight may be put with fair constancy, as we have seen, as 90 to loa

The two usual and most convenient methods of estimating the sexual proportions of brain-mass — the ratio to body-height and the ratio to body-weight — are thus both erroneous, and in both cases the error leads to the assignment to women of an unfairly small mass of brain. It might be thought that there is some fallacy on the other side which would tend to restore the balance. Such a source of fallacy might be thought to lie in the massive bony skeleton of men, but this does not seem to be the case to any appreciable extent. If, for example, we take the

' Piofessor Manouvrier, the well.known PnriEJan nnthropoloEist, an energetic champion of Ihe anatomical virtues of women generally, has especially drawn attention to this fact. (L. Manouvrie

100 MAN AND WOMAN.

skull, the average relation of the weight of man's to woman's is (if we accept Morselli's figures) as loo to 86 ; the sexual ratio of weight of the; large and well- to-do members of the Bath meeting of the British Asso- ciation was loO to 79; of the small-sized Belgian race (according to Quetelet) it is 100 to 87: so that while these two ratios of bulk differ widely (as wc should expect), they oscillate around the sexual ratio of bone-mass. There is indeed one correction which must yet be made, and it is a correction which docs something towards restoring relative predominance of brain tissue to men. Independently of sex, and (at all events among Mammalia) independently even of species, increase of body-size has a fairly constant and regular tendency to be accompanied by an in- crease of brain which is relatively less in amount Tall men have smaller brains, relatively, than short men; tall women have, relatively, smaller brains than short women ; and the shortest women have brains that are relatively much larger than those of the tallest men.' This law involves a correction which is not large, being scarcely two per cenL, and perhaps even less, for Bischoff and Tigges have shown that brain increases with height to a greater extent in women than in men. This consideration, however, serves to complicate the problem of the brain-ratio, and to reduce somewhat the estimate of the relative predom- inance of brain tissue in women. No satisfactory plan has yet been devised for avoiding the fallacies involved in measuring the brain by the ratios to stature and bulk. The relation of the brain to a bone (such as the femur), or to the heart or to some particular muscle, are among the methods that have been suggested. Possibly a fair approximation to a

' Bisclioir, Bioca, Totiinard, etc, have shown tha,t this holds good for either the statute-ratio, the bulk-talio, ot both. See, for example, Bischoff, Das Hitngewicht, p. 32; Topinard, Anthrcp. Ccn., p. 533; J. Marshall, "On Ihc Relation hetween the Brain and the Stature and Mass of the Body,"/""""'?/^'" and J'hys. , ]a\y 1°-'

correct ratio might ba obtained by accepting tlie ratio to bulk and making a plus or minus correction founded on, for example, the deviation from a certain definite standard of the relation of thigh-girth to knee-girth. There is ample scope here in the future for the efforts of the mathematical anthropomctrist It is sufficient at present if we are generally agreed as to the nature and directions of the errors in the usual methods.

There is, therefore, no doubt that when we have eliminated the chief disturbing errors, we are com- pelled to conclude that women possess a relatively larger mass of nervous tissue than men. This by no means necessarily implies that women have any natural advantage over men. The fact that the absolutely Jarge brain is to a great extent the appanage of a large muscular system apparently contributes to its steadi- ness and tone. A relatively large brain not rooted in a good muscular foundation is not always a good gift of the gods ; it is often difficult to turn on effectively to intellectual tasks ; it acts uncontrollably and with too much facility; it may be liable to explosive out- bursts ; it is a fact of some significance that the epileptic possess relatively large brains,^ A very con- siderable proportion of the good work of the world has been done by brains which were large, though, relatively to the bulk of the body, not inordinately large.

There is nc doubt that some men of genius, in the departments bothof science and of art, have possessed brains that were enormously large, both absolutely and relatively. But it is not doubtful that a brain both absolutely and relatively large is a possession of most uncertain value. Taking the six largest recorded male brains (without special research but eliminat- ing those of dubious authenticity), we find one (guaranteed by Bischoff) as large as 2222 grs., which

, Ckphan

, Weifihi. q1," Dici

MAN ANU WOMAN.

belonged to a totally undistinguished individual ; then, ' slightly smaller, the brain of an imbecile, examined by Levinge at the Hants County Asylum, and said to be of normal consistence ; then we have TurgueniefF, the great Russian novelist, a tall but not extremely large man, with a brain of 2012 grs.; the fourth, 1925 grs., belonged to an ordinary labouring man, and was examined by Hischofif; the fifth, 1900 grs., belonged to a bricklayer ; the next, iSsogrs,, was the brain of Cuvicr, the famous zoologist. The six largest brains of women known (as recorded by Topinard) are : first, that of an insane woman, weighing 1742 grs. ; she died of consumption, and her case was recorded by Skae ; then comes one of 1587 grs,, belonging to a. sane woman, who died at the age of 63 (Sims) ; then another of the same weight, belonging to an insane woman, and recorded by Clapham at Wakefield Asylum; then two cases of 1580 grs., both in sane women, and recorded by Boyd; finally another, also of 1 580 grs,, which belonged to a medical student who is said to have possessed exceptional ability, and to have shown no signs of insanity, but who committed suicide believing that she had failed to pass her final examination. A large brain is a perilous possession, and — so far at least as this evidence goes^ — it is even more likely to be a perilous possession in a woman than in a man. A large brain is often inert or dis- ordered, and fails to receive the rich blood-supply it demands ; there is much to be said in favour of a small, well-ordered, and active brain. It is probable that great thinkers generally have large brains, but among distinguished men of action a small brain seems to be quite as often found as a large one.

Some light is thrown on the significance of the relative preponderance of nervous tissue in women, by considering the course of the brain's evolution in the two se.^es. At birth the boy's brain is larger than the girl's. Boyd, from an examination of about forty cases of each sex, found the average weight 331 grs.

I03

in boys, 283 grs. in girls, a difrerence of 48 grs., and this is accepted by Topiiiard (and also by Riidingcr) as about the average difference ; Mies, however, who has more recently recorded the result of the weighing of a large number of now-born infants, finds that for 79 boys the weight is 339 grs., for 69 girls 330 grs., a difference of only 9 grs.^ Boj'd's measurements give boys a preponderance of brain in relation to body-weight ; Mies's figures, founded on larger ex- perience, give a decided preponderance to brain tissue in girls. I think that the fact that most observers have found the brains of new-born boys decidedly larger than those of girls may be very simply explained. Children with unusually large heads — that is to say, the children to whom birth is most likely to prove fatal — are usually boys, and therefore help to raise unduly the masculine average of brain for the new-born ; girls are comparatively free from this danger.

The brain grows enormously during the few months after birth, and very rapidly during the first few years of life. While at the age of three months the brain is about the fifth part of the weight of the body, in the adult it forms merely about a thirty-third part. By the age of six months {according to Boyd's fairly large figures) the absolute weight of the brain has doubled in girls, and nearly doubled in boys; by the age of seven years the weight of the brain has quad- rupled in girls, and before the age of fourteen it has quadrupled in boys. The precocity of the female brain in childhood is therefore extremely marked. Even Boyd's figures, which give girls a relatively small amount of brain at birth, show that between the ages of four and seven girls possess larger brains than boys in relation to height. While girls between the ages of four and seven have already gained 92 per cent of their final brain-weight, boys at the same age

MAN AND WOMAN.

have only reached S3 per cent The girl's brain grows but little after the age of seven, and has practically ceased to grow by about the age of twenty; the man's brain docs not reach its inaximiim size until after thirty years of age. Owing to the rapid growth of the brain in the first years of life, it is in childliood, and more especially during the ages of two to four, that both sexes possess the largest amount of brain in relation to height The premature and fallacious maximum in the weight of the brain before the age of twenty, which is found chiefly or exclusively in the female brain by the large scries of lioyd, Bischoff, and Broca in three countries, seems to show, as Topin- ard points out,' that the precocity and extent of brain- growth in women at this early age exposes ihem to greater chance of death than men, just as boys are more exposed at birth ; for it must always be remem- bered that brain-statistics in early life are exclusively founded on those members of the community who have been failures in the race of life; we cannot necessarily argue from them to the successful members of the community who reach adult life. Soon after the age of twenty the average weight of the brain begins to fall; in men there is no notable fall until after fifty-five ; in both sexes there is a somewhat rapid decline after this age, and there is some reason to think that in old age men undergo relatively greater brain-loss than women.

The larger amount of brain in women, which we have found to exist after the elimination of fallacies caused by incorrect criteria of proportion, is correlated with the precocity and earlier arrest of growth in women which exists as well for the brain as for the general proportions of the body. Tall people have larger brains, absolutely, than small people ; the tallest and largest people, on the average, have the largest brains ; but these brains do not increase in the same

I A,,l/,rap. Cm., [i. 557.

ratio as their bodies generally ; the figures of Bischoff, Broca, and others, show that as body-height and body- weight increase in both men and women, so the pro- portion of brain decreases, A relatively large mass of brain-tissue is a character which women share with short people generally and with children.

It is time to turn to the question of sexual differ- ences in the relation of the various parts of the brain. In doing this we have to consider the relation of the two hemispheres of the cerebrum, or brain-mantle, to the cerebellum or smaller brain, and to the upper parts of the spinal cord called the pons and medulla oblongata ; in the cerebrum we have to distinguish between the frontal lobe in front, the occipital lobe at the back, and the intermediate tcmporo-parietal region; and we may take these last three sub-divisions of the mantle first

It has been justly said by Meynert that sexual distinctions in the brain are much better marked in the relation of its parts to one another than in the organ taken as a whole. But this fact is not well illustrated by the curious manner in which the opinions of brain anatomists concerning sexual differ- ences in the proportion of the cerebral lobes have of late years been turned upside down. Some years ago it was asserted with great emphasis, more especially in Germany, that even from an early period of fcetal life there are marked sexual differences in the lobes of the cerebrum, tending to show the great intellectual superiority of man over woman. Burdach considered that men are distinguished from women by the de- velopment of their frontal lobes; Husclike, in 1854, came to the conclusion that woman is a liomo parie- tnlis, while man is a /lo/no frontalis ; Riidinger in 1S77 found the frontal lobes of man in every way more extensive than those of woman, and sexual differences, according to him, arc distinct during fcetal life; his pupil, Passet, as recently as 1882, confirmed these results, though in a. ■mQi^ to.o^'&.'s.'^

form. It is quite possible to explain these conclu- sions. Individual variations arc very considerable, most of these results were founded on very small series of brains; the brain, moreover, is a very difficult organ to examine; and, finally, as it had always been taken for granted that the frontal regions are the seat of all lofty intellectual processes, only a result which gave frontal pre-eminence to men could be regarded as probable.

It is no longer possible to accept the opinion that tlie frontal lobes are defective in women. Broca exam- ined some 360 brains with great care and uniformity of method ; his results show that the whole cerebral hemisphere being taken as icxx), while the propor- tion of frontal lobe in man is as 427, in woman it is as 431 ; it is only a difference in favour of women of 4 in 1000, but it is enough to show at least a practical sexual equality ; on analysing the figures according to age, it is found that while in early adult age men have some frontal advantage over women, this position is decidedly reversed in old age.' Among the insane, Crichton- Browne has shown that the proportion of the frontal lobe to the rest of the brain is not less in women, but is even slightly more;^ Clapham's figures, dealing with some 450 subjects, show practical equality in the sexes ; Meynert and Tigges, dealing with a considerable number of brains belonging to the insane, have both found the frontal lobe larger in women. The most reliable and accurate measure- ments made with special reference to this point are probably Eberstaller's, He measured with great care no less than 270 hemispheres belonging to adults (176 male and 94 female), and he found that the upper end of the fissure of Rolando occupies relatively the same place in the two sexes, what difference there is, only 0.5, being in favour of the frontal lobe in women. The results obtained by Professor Cunningham, a

I f

very cautious and reliable observer, arc in exact harmony with those of Eberstallcr; so far as he found any sexuai difference at all it was in favour of the frontal lobe of women. He also ascertained that the lower end of the fissure of Rolando holds rela- tively the same place on the cerebral surface in the two sexes, and that at no period of growth is there to be found what might safely be called a sexual difference in the fissure. It had been asserted by Passet and others that the fissure of Rolando is longer, absolutely and relatively, in men ; measuring the fissure by a thread carefully inserted between its lips, so as to follow all its flexures, Cunningham found, by examining a large number of brains, that (except at birth) there was some advantage, so far as there was any advantage at all, on the part of the female fissure.^

While it has recently become clear that women have, so far as there is any sexual difference at all, some frontal superiority over men, it has at the same time been for the first time clearly recognised that there is no real ground for assigning any specially exalted functions to the frontal lobes. This opinion had been very widely accepted without any definite reasons at all, and even Hitzig, the pioneer of modern progress in the precise knowledge of cerebral localisation, had given it the weight of his authority by assigning to the frontal lobes the seat of logical thought. It is not difficult to account for this ancient notion ; there is a deeply implanted feeling in the human mind which associates with "above," " front," " top," more dignified ideas than with " below," " back," " bottom." The frontal region exactly fits in with this implicit mental assumption; it is precisely that part of the body which is most above, to the front and to the top ; it is not, therefore, surprising that the centres

' I'lofessoc D. Cuniiingham, "Contribution to the Surface Anatomy of the Cerebral Hemispheres" {Cunnitigkam Mtmoirs of the Roy^ Irish Academy, No. 7), 1S92.

lOS MAN AMI WOMAN,

for the highest intcllcclual processes snoul^navc been placed in a position where wc can scarcely believe that a quadrupedal cranlologist would have placed them ; nor is it surprising that it is only within very recent years that we have brought our- selves to believe that the occipital lobes are intimately concerned in so high a process as that of vision. The extreme anterior part of the brain, usually called the prc-frontal lobe, gives no definite reaction to electrical stimulus; the chief definite argument which has been used to support its association with the higher mental functions was an early experiment of Fcrrier's, per- formed without antiseptic precautions, which showed that after the removal of these lobes in monkeys there was some apathy and loss of intelligence. In later antiseptic experiments these results were not obvious or not obtained ; Horsley and Schafer found that the bilateral removal of the pre-frontal lobes resulted in the animals appearing apathetic, but this condition passed off entirely after two or three days. Subsequently Schafer repeated the experiment on several monkeys, avoiding shock by not removing the lobes, but simply severing their connection with the rest of the brain ; the result was that there was no dulness or apathy, even temporarily, but after recovering from anaesthesia the animals appeared as bright and intelligent as before the operation.* There is, therefore, no experimental ground for associating these lobes with intellectual processes. Moreover, the frontal region is, relatively, very considerably developed in the anthropoid apes, in whom the intellectual processes are not usually regarded as highly developed. Nor is the frontal lobe relatively more developed in the adult than in the fcetus. And it may be added that in woman, in whom it is if anything more developed than in man, the relations

' A. Schafer, " On the Functions of the Pre-fronlal Lobes," a paper read al the London Interaational Congress of Experimental Psychology, 1802.

THE HEAD.

of the frontal region (as Cunningham's results more nearly approach the anthropoid form man's; although in one important point, as Cunning- ham points out, men in the relations of this region approach the apes more nearly than women : the area of the frontal lobe covered by ihe parietal bone is relatively less in men than in women. It must be added that while at present it cannot be definitely asserted that the frontal parts of the brain are specially connected with the higher mental proce.'sses, neither can it be definitely denied, A consideration which makes it very improbable is the high per- centage of the frontal lobes to the brain as a whole, furnished by idiots and imbeciles ; in Clap- ham's figures it is scarcely second to that given by even the most intellectual forms of insanity. 'Ihe question remains open, though it seems most reason- able to suppose that the whole of the brain is con- cerned in mental operations, and certainly by no means least the sensori-motor regions of the middle of the brain, of which we have the most detailed experimental knowledge.

These centres are concentrated in the parietal portions of the cerebrum, and there seems now to be no doubt that they predominate in men. This result has been obtained by Broca (though Broca's figures show only a slight preponderance of this region in men), Meynert, Riidingcr, C rich ton -Browne, Tigges, etc. There is some reason to suppose that the parietal region is very largely developed in persons of exceptional intellectual power ; thus Rudinger, examining eighteen brains of distinguished men, found that in all of them the parietal lobes were largely developed in the frontal direction. There is a connection between the development of the parietal lobes and the cephalic index ; a brain largely developed in the parietal region would tend to be brachy cephalic. We have seen that there is some reason to suppose that among the cw'is^^

show) H

m than ^1

MAN AND WOMAN.

white races women are slightly less brachycephalic than men. In apes the parietal region is small owing to the incursion both of the frontal and occipital lobes.'

It is somewhat doubtful whether the occipital lobe is lai^er in women than in men ; Hroca's figures show it to be on an average relatively the same size, in earlier adult age somewhat larger, in old age some- what smaller; Crichton-Browne found it larger in women ; many authorities speak uncertainly, or are inclined to find it larger in men. Cunningham finds it larger in women. It may be added that the general tendency of the occipital lobe in the mammalian series is to decrease; it is relatively smaller in the anthropoids than in the more primitive apes, and is still smaller in Man ; on the other hand, it tends to become more convoluted, so that we cannot regard it as in process of atrophy; Gambetta's brain, which was small, was a marvellous example of occi- pital convolution.

Sexual distinctions in the imporLint matter of the vascular supply of the brain have as yet received little attention. Sir James Crich ton- Browne and Dr. Sidney Martin have, however, ' recently made some interesting observations. They find that ' the combined diameter of the internal carotid and vertebral arteries which supply the brain, taken together, are relatively lo the brain-mass rather larger in women than in men. So that women's brains receive a proportionately larger blood- supply than men's, and do not suffer as they otherwise would from the comparative poverty which, as we shall see later, characterises their blood. The same investigators have found that the internal carotid is slightly larger in men, the vertebral slightly larger in women.' These results were founded on a small

remarks, "to consider whether this parietal increase in the human biaiQ has sJiything to do with the acquisition of the educated move- ments of the linibs^ — more especially of the upper limbs— and that wonderful harmony of action which exists between the brain and the , hands, and which has plaj^ed so important a part in the evolution of the species."— "Contribution to the Surface Anatomy," etc., p. 59.

' Sir J. Crichton-Browne, " Sex in Education, Brit. Mid. Joum. rih May iSgi,

number of subjects, but they are entirelj" in harmony with the results already set forth ; for while the internal carotid chiefly supplies the parietal regions which we have found to be large in men, the vertebral chiefly supplies, not only the doubtfully large occipital, but various other basal ganglia which are large

If we turn from the consideration of the sexual differences in the divisions of the cerebrum to the larger and plainer divisions of the braiii-raass into cerebrum, cerebellum, and the medulla and axial part of the brain, the points of sexual difference are somewhat clearer. The most reliable evidence points on the whole to the cerebellum being, relatively, distinctly larger in women than in men, as stated long ago by Gall and Cuvier Broca's figures show that to a slight extent the medulla and cerebellum, but especially the latter, are relatively larger in women. Dr. Philippe Rey, who has worked up Broca's figures with much elaboration, finds that with scarcely an exception all the centres below the cerebrum are relatively larger in women.* Boyd's figures show that the cerebellum is to the whole cerebrum in males between the ages of 7 and 14 as 103 to 1000, and between the ages of 30 and ^o as 106 to 1000; in females at the earlier period it is as 105 to 1000, at the later period as 108 to lOOO ; the medulla is somewhat larger in males at the earlier age, and larger in females at the later age. Marshall, in an important paper'* on the weight of the brain and its parts, found that the ratio of the cerebellum to the cerebrum (from Boyd's figures) is in adult males as I to S. 17, in adult females as i to 8 ; and he further worked out from Boyd's figures the ratio

' P. Rey, " Le Poids du Cervelel," i!eT>ue iTAnlh., 1884, p. igj.

' J. Marsholl, " On the Relation between the WeiElit of the Biain and its parla, and Ihe Stature and Mass of the Body in Man " (founded partly on facts recorded by Boyd in Fki/osophiral Tians., 1S61, partly from Boyd's original MSS., and partly from fuller tables prepared 1^ Boyd at Marshall's request), youmii/o^.^Ha^. and PAys., July 1892.

MAN AND WOMAN.

of the parts of the brain to the whole in decimal parts of an ounce to every inch of height : —

N<i. of

Men.

I Katlia I „ . 1 a-re- i Fv.ntsnd

Bnnph&lnn. Cerebrnoi. bellum. MeiluUi.

103 i 30-40 i .725 i .632 i .077 i .ojs

Women. 85 I 30-40 I .695 I -fiti I .076 I Jiis

This shows that while men possess relatively to height more cerebrum than women, in the distribu- tion of the lower centres the sexes are equal. Reid, I'eacock, Wcisbach, Meynert, and BischoflT have agreed that there is little sexual difference in regard to the relative proportions of the cerebclluin. It must be added that, in accordance with what has been already said in regard to the brain generally, this sexual cerebellar equality relatively to height really means cerebellar predominance in women. Some of the basal ganglia of the brain, according to Tigges and others, are absolutely as well as relatively larger in women. Putting together numerous faces, it seems clear that the mantle is that part of the brain which is most liable to vary. The cerebellum, the various basal ganglia, and the spinal cord seem to be more constant than the cerebrum ; they do not waste to the same extent with age or with insanity.

It is worth noting that the cerebellum in women is relatively larger than the cerebrum. But the significance of this fact is at present by no means obvious. There is less to be positively affirmed to-day about the functions of the cerebellum than there was fifty years ago. It has no connection, as was once supposed, with the sexual instinct. Its destruction does not produce either paralysis or loss of intelligence. The only definite function which, so far as is yet known, it seems to possess, is the function

THE HEAD.

of, to some extent, co-ordinating muscular movement. Ferrier has suggested that visceral or organic sensory impressions are represented in the cerebellum. It may be added that the cerebellum is a characteristic- ally adult organ ; in the new-born child it may only form about one- thirteenth or less of the braiii-mass ; in the adult it forms about one-seventh.

It can scarcely be said that the study of the brain from our present point of view leads to the revelation of any important sexual distinctions. In the future, when the facts are more precisely ascertained, and their significance more obvious, than they are now, it may be different. At present it is necessary to insist upon the fact that the importance of the brain has been gr eatl y exaggerated. Its i mportance , unquestion- ably, is great, but it is an importance that is strictly related to the brain's very i ntimate conncction- with the body generally. We have been apt to regard it as the despotic ruler of the body, whereas, so far as it is a ruler at all, it is a strictly democratic ruler. The brain elements, for the most part, are but scnsori-motor delegates brought together for the sake of executive convenience. We must not, there- fore, be surprised if we can often better study these cerebral representatives of the organism by investi- gating the organism itself.

While, however, the brain is at present an unpro- fitable region for the study of sexual difference, it is, as we have seen, an extremely instructive region for the study of sexual equality. Men possess no rel ative superiori ty of brain-mass; the "superiority in bram-mass, so far as it exists, is on wpmgn'n ■iidp; this, however, implies no int ellectua l superiority, but is merely a characteristicoT s hort peo ple and children . Nor is there any well-marked sexual arrangement of the nervous elements which implies relative inferiority on one side or the other. The parietal predominance of man is possibly such a character, but, as we have seen, this predominance is so inconspicuous that it

1 14 MAN AND WOMAN.

has been possible in the past to attribute it to womaa From the present standpoint of brain-anatomy and brain-physiology, there is no ground for attributing any superiority to o ne se x over aggther. Broca, the greatest 'of French antnropologists/wHose keen and luminous intelligence has brought so much light to the study of man, believed many years ago (in 1861) that women are, naturally and by cerebral organisa- tion, slightly less intelligent than men. This opinion has been very widely quoted ; it is not so well known that with riper knowledge Brock 's opinion c hanggj , and he became inclined to thihk that T t wa s merelya matter of education— of muscular, it must be under- stood, and not merely mental, education, — and he thought that if left to their spontaneous impulses men and women would tend to resemble each other, as happens in the savage condition.^ It must be clearly recognised that in the present state of our knowledge there is no recognisable scientific warrant for the introduction of these considerations as factors in the settlement of the questions of social and practical life.

' Discussion at the Paris Anthropological Society, Bull, Soc, ^'y^//M., 3r(l July 1879.

CHAPTER Vr.

THE SENSES.

TOUCH — LOMBROSO'S RESULTS, SHOWING GREATER OBTUSE- NESS OF WOMEN — JASTROW'S, SHOWING GREATER OBTUSENESS OF MEN — UNRELIABILITY ADOPTED — EDUCABILITY OF THE TACTILE SENSE,

SENSIBILITY TO PAIN — LOMBEOSO'S AND JASTROW'S RESULTS AGAIN OPPOSED — GENERAL FORWARD — DISVULNERABILITY MARKED IN SAVAGES,

CHILDREN, AND PERHAPS IN WOMEN WOMEN'S

LESSEE SENSIBILITY TO PAIN NOT DEFINITELY PROVED.

SMELT,— EXPERIMENTS OF NICHOLS AND BAILEY ,

OTTOI.ENGHI — MEN POSSESS KEENER SENSE OF SMELL THAN WOMEN.

TASTE — SUPPOSED TO BE LESS KEEN IN WOMEN — BUT MORE KEEN ACCORDING TO INVESTIGATIONS OF NICHOLS AND BAILEY— THIS RESULT SUPPORTED BY OTTOLENGHl'S EXPERIMENTS.

HEARING — EXPERIMENTS ON KEENNESS OF HEARING DURING HEALTH FEW AND INCONCLUSIVE — RANGE OF AUDIBLE SENSATION PROBABLY GREATER IN MEN.

SIGHT — BLINDNESS COMMONER IN MEN^MINOR EVE- DEFECTS COMMONER IN WOMEN — NO MARKED SEXUAL DIFFERENCE IN KEENNESS OF HEALTHY VISION- COLOUR - PERCEPTION AND COLOUR - BLINDNESS — IN RANGE AND KEENNESS OF COLOUR- PERCEPT I ON MEN SOMEWHAT SUPERIOR TO WOMEN — COLOUR-BLINDNESS VERY RARE IN WOMEN — ALSO RARE AMONG SAVAGES J STILL UNEXPLAINED.

KAN AND WOMAN.

COLOURED HEARING — Tt

COMMON IS WOMl

MEN. WHY WOMEN ARE POPULARLY SUPPOSED TO

KEENER SENSIBILITY THE CONFUSION

SENSIBILITY AND AFFECTABILITY,

The observations bearing on this important pointJ are unfortunately few and contradictory. Professor.j Lombroso, with the assistance of Drs. Roncoroni a Mura,' examined delicacy of touch in the hands lOO women, whose personal history was free from criminality or insanity, and also examined a large number of criminal women. He divided the normal women into three groups, according to the number of. J physical abnormalities observed In them t the first I group (54 in number) having at most only onc^ degenerative character ; the second (3S in number) having two or three degenerative characters ; the third (8 in number) having numerous degenerative characters. He then divided each group according as they showed delicate tactile sense (i to 1.5 mm.), medium tactile sense (1.5 to 3 mm.), obtuse tactile sense (3 mm. and upwards). The average of the first group was — right side, 2.39; left, 2.47. Of the second group— right side, 2.82; left, 2.85. Of the third — right, 2.93 ; left 3.28. The largest proportion of examples of delicate tactile sense, and the smallest number of obtuse, were in the first group; the smallest proportion of delicate, and the largest of obtuse tactile sense, in the third group ; the second came midway. This shows on the whole decided obtuseness. twelve young girls, however, between the ages of six i and fifteen, Lombroso found very delicate tactile se the average being on the right 1.56, on the left 1.57. 1

THE SENSES.

.ombroso ^^

He also found that in educated women the obtusity less {2) than in women of the people (2.6). Lombroso states that in adult men the average is 1.7, without, however, explaining how this average is obtained. The average of 38 insane women and 43 insane men, examined by Drs. Gurricri and Roncoroni, showed a greater obtusity than normal, more marked in the men ; thus the average for the women was on the right hand, 2.87; on the left, 3.12; on the tongue, 2.07 ; while the corresponding figures for the men were 3-33, 3.59, and 2.2S. It was also found that tactile sensibility in criminal women was more obtuse than in ordinary women, and even more obtuse than in criminal men, as determined by Rossi.^ De Filippi and Turin, at Lombroso's request, examined general sensibility in about 140 persons at Turin with the electric algometer. They found it slightly greater in men of the lower class than in women of the same class, and there was a like result in compar- ing young persons. Similar results were obtained when Du Bois-Reymond's induction machine was used.

It will be seen that while the results brought for- ward by Lombroso are interesting and suggestive, they are not altogether complete or conclusive from the point of view of sexual difference, which was not the chief point aimed at We are not told to what social class the lOO women belonged, though we are left to infer that it was a decidedly low social class, and no examination of a corresponding series of men is brought before us. While the general result of Professor Lombroso's evidence is to show that tactile sensibility in normal women is obtuse, it must

' Guirieri has also published a detailed study of ordinary sensibilily and sensibility to pun in girls, women, and prostilules (showing the great sensoty obtuseness of prostitutes), but without comparison with men. (R. Gurrieri, "Sensibilili e Anomalie Fisiche e Psichiche nella Donna Normale e nella Proslituta," Archivio di PHckiatria, Fasc. iv.-v., 1892.)

MAN AND WOMAN.

also be noted that this does not hold good for the insane examined, nor for young girls.

Professor Jastrow' has brought forward a small series of observations on male and female students, which though also not conclusive, have the advantage of being perfectly comparable; the tests were selected in order to yield quickly a few typical results. The jEsthesiometer used was one designed by Professor Jastrow himself: on the tip of fore- finger the average for 32 men was 1.71, for 22 women, 1.52 ; on the back of hand the average for 30 men was 17.5, for 23 women, 15.0. The sensitiveness of the palm was tested by determining the minimum height from which the fall of a bit of cardboard (weighing ,9 mgr., and cut in a rectangle of i by 2 mm. from a sheet of millimetre paper pasted on cardboard) could be per- ceived; this distance was 5S.2 in 27 men, but only 21.9 in 22 women. An attempt to test the pressure sense, as exhibited in the finger resting on the beam of a modified post-ofifice balance, showed men and women about equal, J or f of the initial weight in the scale-pan being correctly appreciated.

It will be seen that the evidence regarding measur- able sexual differences in the tactile sense in men and women points at present to no very definite conclusion. Professor Lombroso considers that women are less sensitive than men, but brings forward no clearly comparable series of men and women. Professor Jastrow's more limited but perfectly comparable series shows women decidedly superior to men, but his measurements were confined to the palmar surface of the hand, and, as the investigator himself points out, they simply indicate that the hands of women are comparatively free from rough usage. In the same way, Dr. Pauline Tarnowsky found that, on testing the hands, prostitutes have a keener sensibility than honest working women, That the palms of

women are less sensitive than those of men leads to no more wide-reaching conclusion than a demonstra- tion that the rough Unees of a housemaid are less sensitive than those of a footman. It is possible that in a comparison of hands equally free from rough usage, the sensibility of men may be found measurably greater than that of women, but this cannot be taken for granted. The question of the relative tactile sensibility of men and women is one of considerable interest, as it has sometimes happened that on its assumed greater or less delicacy significant general conclusions have been drawn. We need careful and extended series of observations, and it is necessary that these should be conducted on parts of the body that are fairly comparable in the two sexes, for instance, on the tongue, the forearm, or the calf of the leg.

It must, however, be borne in mind that tactile sensibility is more variable and more educable than we are always inclined to assume. Dr. Pauline Tarnowsky's investigations into the senses of normal women, criminal women, and prostitutes in Russia showed that women who live in towns have keener senses than women who live in the country; thus while criminals as a rule have more obtuse sensory perceptions than ordinary persons, she found that town-dweliing thieves had a much keener sense of taste than honest peasant women who had never lived in a town.^ Dr. Felkin has made some very interesting observations bearing on the same point. He tested 26 parts of the body in 150 negroes and 30 Soudanese Arabs, and found that the power of discrimination, as against i.i mm, on tip of tongue in Europeans, was 3 mm. in the negroes and 2.6 mm. in the Soudanese ; but after two negro boys had been educated in Europe for four years, tactile sensibility

' " Sm les Organes des sens cliei les Fcmmes Criminelles," <ii:Wi rf« Troisiime Cimgris /itlenialional d' Anlkre^logie Criminellt, Brussels, 1S93, p. 336.

became more acute and they could discriminate at 2 mm.' Again, Professor Krohn has found that the skin can be progressively educated to localise sen- sations of pressure more and more correctly. At first in the different individual series, the subject could generally localise but two out of seven, but after a number of sittings (130) he had no trouble in local- ising five out of seven. This improvement from practice is very rapid. ^

SENSIBILITY TO PAIN.

Investigations made at the request of Professor Lombroso by De Filippi and Turin, with the electric algometer, showed that while there was no very great difference in general sensibility there was a markedly greater sensibility to pain in the men, tiie figures for men and women of the people being 69.23 for the former, 53.16 for the latter, the difference being less but still marked in young persons; there were two women who while showing normal general sensibility were completely insensible to pain, although there was no evidence of disease ; these, however, were surely either very exceptional or very hysterical persons. The small number of observations made by the same investigators with Du Boia-Reymond's electric apparatus showed, on the other hand, rather greater sensibility on the part of women, both among the lower and educated classes. Among prostitutes and among criminals sensibility to pain as well as general sensibility is markedly defective.^ Professor Jastrow made some attempts to measure sensitiveness

> Felkin, " DiSetences of Sensibility Itetween Europeans and N^oes," British Ass. Rtporl, iSSg.

W. O. Krohn, "An Eitperinienlnl Sludy of Simullaneous Slirau-

lalions of the Sense otToiadh," Journal of Iferveu! ami Menial Disease, March 1S93.

' Lombroso, " Tatlo e Tipo Degenerativo in Donne Normali, Criminali e Alienate," Archivie di Psichiatria, 1891, l-'asc. :-ii.

THE SENSES. 121

to pain in male and female students, using a light hammer, pivoted at a point 200 mm, from its iron head, and allowing it to fall on the tip of the forefinger of each hand ; both finger and hand were supported. The minimum number of degrees through which the hammer must fall in order to cause a painful sen- sation was found to be surprisingly constant, and, as might be expected, it was much smaller in women. The figures for the right hand were, in men, 33.9, in women, 16.6; for the left hand, men 22.7, women, 14.8. It is noteworthy that as regards the left hand men and women are more nearly equal, but that there is a very considerable disproportion as regards the right hand, apparently indicating the rough usage undergone by the right hand. Professor Lombroso came to the conclusion that the right hand is more sensitive.

It is obvious that these results lead to no definite conclusion, although they will be interesting for com- parison as new series of observations are forthcoming. The question of the relative sensitiveness to pain of men and women has usually been settled by the consideration of data of a more general character. There are numerous facts and statements tending to show that women are less affected by pain and suffer ijig than men. Professor Sergi considers that tllefact that women suffer less is shown by their greater resignation, as it can scarcely be claimed that women possess greater strength of will ; and he points out that men who nurse their relatives rapidly lose flesh and health, while women, even mothers, often retain their good humour and appetite.^ Mr, Williams, a professional tattooer, stated to a representative of the Pall Mall Gazette, "Ladies have much more courage and bear pain much better than men, though I must tell you

' Sersi, " Sensiliiliti Femmcnile," L'Aniimalii, Oct, 1S91. Sergi stales that he has examined emotional sensibility lalhcr than uiganic seosibilitj'.

that tattooing, if scientifically done, ia all but painless. However, men are much more fidgety than women, who keep perfectly quiet." Bouchet, an observant old French writer of the sixteenth century, remarks that women endure cold better than men, and do not need so much clothing,^

Some light is perhaps thrown on the matter when we turn to the very closely allied question of disvulnerabili t_y in the two sexes. Disvulner- ability is the term, first used by Professor Benedikt, to signify the quick repair of wounds and comparalive freedom from ill consequences after severe injuries. Among the lower animals there is a high degree of disvulnerability. Among savages it is every- where well marked, and is associated with a measur- ably high degree of insensibility. The Zanzibaris, for instance, have a wonderful power of repair of wounds,* and Dr. Reyburn, from an analysis of the cases of over 400,000 negro patients treated by the medical department of the American Bureau of Refugees, from 1865 to 1873, found that the negro has greater reparative power after injuries and other surgical operations than the white man. Among different races there appears to be a varying degree of resistance to pain which does not seem necessarily related to the evolutionary scale of the race. Piro- goff, the distinguished surgeon, observed that Jews, Mussulmans, and Slavs bore pain well. Sir William McCormac observed that the Turks exhibit total indifference to suffering.^ The cheerfulness of children when patients has often attracted attention.* Malgaigne, the French surgeon, first showed con- clusively in 1S42 that children from the age of S to 15 bear amputation better than adults, a

' Stipes, torn. L p. 15.

' T. H. Paike, Expiriences in Equatorial AfrUa, p. 435. ' McCormac, Heath's Dictionary of Surgery.

For instance, see Dr. A. B. Judson in his ptesidenlial address lo

the American Orthopaedic Association at Washington ' "

result which has since been confirmed, and is now generally recognised ; we may accept Professor Horsley's statement that " as far as operative measures go, there is no doubt whatever that the nervous system of the child is less influenced by fiumatism than that of the adult" Malgaigne also showed that women bear amputation better than men, a conclusion which has also been confirmed. Legouest has united the figures of Malgaigne of Paris, Laurie of Glasgow, Fenwick for Newcastle, Glasgow, and Edinburgh, !n a total of 1244 cases of amputation in men there were 44I deaths, i.e. 3545 per cent In a total of 284 cases of amputation in women there were 83 deaths, i.e. 29.29 per cent. ; that is to say, a considerable differ- ence in favour of women.' According to one table the difference in favour of women Is as much as 16.2 per cent. It may be argued that the difference is due to. the more serious character of the accidents to which men are liable ; but the difference is marked not only in amputations due to injuries but also in those occasioned by disease. It will probably be found that we here have a sexual difference which is closely connected with the well-recognised resistance to death shown not only at birth by female infants, but in old age in the greater longevity of women.

In a paper by Lombroso on " La Sensibilite de la Femme," read at the International Congress of Experimental Psychology held in London (and published in an abridged and translated form in the Proceedings of the Congress, pp. 41-44), various arguments are brought forward in favour of the greater sensory obtuseness of women and their greater dis vulnerability. The paper is not rich in precise details, and is somewhat open to criticism. The following passage may be quoted : — " Billroth experimented on women when attempting a certain operation (excision of the pylorus) for the first time, judging that they were less sensitive and therefore more disvulnerable — ('.'.j better able to resist pain. Carle assured me women would let themselves be operated upon almost as though their flesh were

^ Art. "AmputatioDs," Diet, ency, dts Sciences Midicales.

an alien thing. Giordano told me that even the pains ( childbirili caused relalivelj' little suffering to women, in spite a ^ their apprehensions. Dr Jlardni, one of the most distinguished dentists of Turin, has inlonnecf me of the amazement he has felt at seeing women endure more easily and courageously than men every kind of dental operation. Mela, too, has found that men will, under such circumstances, faint oftener than women. Proverbs of different peoples confirm the fact of women's cap- ability of resisting pain— ex-i "a woman never dies, has seven skins, has a soul and a little soul," etc. The same arguments are more fully stated and developed in Lombroso e Ferrero, Za Danna Delinguertlry 1893, pp. 58-£6. See also Dr. H. Campbell's Nervous Organisalion, etc, pp. 54-55, iiS. Dr. Campbell points out how well women bear both loss of blood and loss of sleep, and remarks, " Nothing has surprised me more than the extraordinary resignation, almost it would seem apathy, with which many women endure physical suffering, and face impjending death."

With regard to the statement attributed lo Profp^sn f Billroth . I may add that I have been in communication with Dr. Eiselsberg, until recently the celebrated Viennese surgeon's chief assistant, and he writes confii-ming Professor Lombroso's statement : " Professor Billroth really thinks that for all operations of the abdomen women have more resistance, so that operation on Ihem gives more chance of recovery." This opinion, from so high an authority, although unaccompanied by statistics, is entitled to attention, and il harmonises with the recorded results of amputation. It must be added that the sexual difference cannot he great, and that many eminent surgeons (Sir James Paget, for example) have not observed it.

It is not possible at present to formulate any very decided conclusions as to the relative sensitiveness of men and women to physical and moral pain. It seems probable that, notwithstanding their greater nervous irritability in most respects, nomen are better able than men to resist pain and djscomlbrt The social life of woman, Eer subordination to parents and husband and children, the duty of submission and concealment imposed upon her, have all tended to foster tolerance of pain. It is reasonable to suppose that women would not have so generally fallen into this r$le unless there were some organic basis of diminished sensi- bility to suffering which made it more natural and less arduous than it would be in man. But whether

THE SENSES.

125

there is any such diminished sensitiveness to pain in women as compared to men, the evidence docs not at present enable us definitely to decide. We shall approach this problem from another point of view when we come to consider the affectability of women.

SMELL.

Sexual differences in keenness of smell were first accurately measured by Professors E. H. S. Bailey and E. L. Nichols. In the Proceedings of the Kansas Academy of Sciences for 1S84 there is a paper by Mr. Bailey showing that with regard to many common odours delicacy of perception is much more marked among men than among; women. I have not been able to see this paper; but In Nature, 2Sth November 1886, there is a letter from Professors Nichols and Bailey, briefly summarising their methods and results. They made use of the following substances : — (i) Oil of cloves, (2) nitrite of amyl, (3) extract of garlic, (4) bromine, (5) cyanide of potassium. A series of solutions was prepared, of which each member was half the strength of the preceding one. They were extended in successive dilutions till it was impossible to detect the substances by their odours. The bottles were then placed at random for the subject to classify by the sense of smell. In the first series of experi- ments there were 17 males and 17 females. The results may be expressed in the following table, which gives the amount of each substance detected : —

Average males.

Oil of cloves, of water.

Nitrite of amyl.

783,8%

Garlic. 57,927

Bromine. 49,= 54

Cyanide. 109,140

Average

of females.

50,667 of water.

3 ".330

43,900

■ 6,3.14

9,002

^^12^^^ MAN AND WOMAN. ^^^^^^

A second series of experiments was subsequently made on 27 males and 21 females, with the following results:—

Average

of males.

Prussic acid. 1 part in

]12,0CX>

of water.

Oil of lemon. 280,000.

Oil of winlergreen. 6oo,oDO.

Average

of females.

18,000 of water.

116,000.

311,000. ^^

Three of the male observers were able to detect one part of prussic acid in about 2,000,000 parts of water — two of these persons, however, were engaged in occupations favouring the cultivation of this sense —when the most carcfiii chemical tests failed to reveal the acid. On the other hand, some of both sexes could not detect prussic acid even in solutions of overpowering strength. " Our average shows," the investigators conclude, "that the sense of smell is much more delicate in the case of male than of female observers."

From an interesting letter (14th September 1892) from Professor Nichols (now of Cornell University), in reply to various queries which I addressed to him, I quote the follow- ing passage;—" It should be said, in considering our work, that neither Professor Bailey nor I were in any degree experts in the physiology of the senses. His interest in the matter lay in

_ its bearings upon chemistry, mine in its relation to physics.

L The points of sexual difference met with were not looked for in

■ planning our experiments. They were, almost without exception,

■ just the opposite of our preconceived notions concerning such

■ differences. The number of individuals tested was probably H insufficient to enable one to draw very broad conclusions.

■ We deemed the differences worthy of record, however; to be

■ given such weight as their limited character would justify. As

■ to the class of individuals tested ; they were almost entirety

H of fair grade, which at that time contained nearly equal

■ numbers of young men and women. Ages chiefly 17 to 25

THE SENSES.

127

years. The only distinction which one could draw, other than sexual, was that which arises from the fact that boys, in an institution offering a considerable choice of studies, select the sciences rather than letters, gaining thereby some training of the special senses. The few cases in which we deemed it certain lh;it training entered, were those of students of pharmacy who had been given much practice in the recognition of drugs, etc., by use of the unaided senses, touch, taste, smell, etc. We did not think male observers perceptibly affected by indulgence in tobacco or alcohol The use of either was the exception, and attempts to take account of the influence of such habits by averaging smokers and non-smokers, etc., seemed to show no effect. To sum up then : —

"The class dealt with was in one way a special one (college students).

"There was no attempt to select within that class; nor to exclude smokers, etc.

" The experiments were not conducted •with a view to sexual differences.

"The male and female observers were not the same in the various experiments, although the groups tested had many members ii "

Dr. Ottolenghi, in the Laboratory of Forensic Medicine of Turin University, made a series of observations on 30 normal men and 20 normal women (of the middle andlower classes), none of whom took tobacco or presented any disorder of the nasal passages ; at the same time he experimented on 80 criminal men and women. He constructed a kind of osmometer with twelve aqueous solutions of essence of clove, ranging in strength from Tjriinr to tTTr! in other respects he followed the methods of Nichols and Bailey. Essence of clove was selected as being a very odorous substance, very fractionable, and well known. He found that olfactory acuteness was slightly less in women than in men.i

So far as it goes, the evidence furnished by careful scientific investigation clearly indicates that the sense of smell in men possesses greater keenness than in women. Cases of excessively acute keenness of smell

■ '■ l,-Oir:iUo nei Criminali," Anhivio di Psichiatria, iS88, vol. in.,

certainly occur not very rarely in women, perhaps much more frequently than in men, but they usually occur in young hysterical womerL The fact that women are not very sensitive to odours is often brought home to men by the perfumes of oppressive strength which women frequently use.' As a French writer points out to women who thus abuse perfumes, to masculine nostrils they may be nearly twice as perfumed as to their own. It is interesting to note that the abuse of perfumes by women is not confined to modern times. In the Pisdagogits, that delightful manual for the use of semi-pagan Christians, I remark that St. Clement of Alexandria supplies an indication that in his day masculine nostrils were more sen- sitive than feminine. In permitting a limited use of perfumes, he says — "Let a few unguents be selected by women, such as will not be overpowering to a husband."^

TASTE.

Men have a monopoly of the higher walks of culinary art; women are not employed in such

upations as tea-tasting, which require specially

delicate discrimination; they are rarely good con- noisseurs of wine; and while ^o«rwi«Kfl'£J are common, the more refined expression gourmet does not even possess a feminine form. On these grounds it has sometimes been asserted that the sense of taste in women, like the sense of smell, is not so highly developed as in men. This conclusion has not, however, been justified by accurate investigation.

The sexual differences in the sense of taste, like those in the sense of smell, seem to have been first accurately measured by Professors Bailey and

' I do not wish to imply that Ihe love of strong perfumes is itsd proof of deiicietit sensitiveness wilh regard to smell. It must also b remembered that the use of perfumes has oiten been inculcated i a. method of covering more nalnral odours. , chap. S, "On the Uses of Ointments and Crowns.

Nichols.! They made a series of strong solutions for the different classes of sapid substances : for bitter, quinine was selected (i part in 10,000 parts of water); for sweet, cane-sugar (i part in 10 of water) ; for acid, sulphuric acid (i in 100); for alkaline, sodium bicar- bonate (i in 10); for saline, common salt (i in 100). By successive dilutions each of these solutions became the strongest of a series of solutions, each member of which was one-half the strength of the preceding one. The bottles containing the solutions were then placed without regard to order, and the person experimented upon was requested to taste them and separate them into their proper groups. In each series the last solution was so dilute as to be unrecognisable. The persons examined numbered 128, of whom 83 were male and 46 female ; the experimenters' average results are expressed in the following general table :—

LE Observers

Female Observers

DETECTED

Quinine .

One

part in 392,000

One part 1

n 456,000

Sug-ar

.. ,. 199

204

Acid

„ „ 2oSa

3280

Alkali

„ „ gs

126

Salt

„ „ 3240

,. ,<

jg8o

From these results the experimenters concluded that the sense of taste is more delicate in women than in men. This is true in the case of all substances excepting salt. "As we had found a similar differ- ence," the writers remark, "in an earlier and inde- pendent set of experiments, which agreed in every essential particular with the results of the present test, we do not regard it as an accidental difference, or as likely to disappear in more extended investiga-

' "On the Delicacy of the Sense of Taste," by Dr. E. H. S. Bailey and Dr. E. L. Nichols. A brief abstract of the papei is given in the Preceedmgs^ Iht American Association for the Adjiancemmt 0/ Science for 18S7. The paper is printed in full in Science, 1888, 5, \(,v

I30

MAN AND WOMAN.

tions." They noted that wide individual differences presented themselves (as much as in the ratio of one to three), and that these variations were not explicable as results of education, men with great experience in handling drugs being surpassed by women without any such training. In a few cases the ability to detect a dilute sweet was accompanied by an inability to detect dilute bitter, Professor Nichols' remarks on p. 126 apply equally to these experiments and to those on the sense of smell. ^

Shortly afterwards, the question was independently taken up and investigated with great care by Dr. Ottolenghi of Turin.^ He experimented on igo persons, i.e. 60 male congenital criminals, 20 male occasional criminals, 20 normal males of the lowest social class, 50 students and professional men, 20 criminal women, and 20 normal women ; all were healthy and of robust constitution, the greater part between the ages of 20 and 50, He experimented with bitter, sweet, and salt sensations. For the first he selected sulphate of strychnine, and found that 12 per cent of his normal persons perceived one part in 800,000; settingout from this strength he made eleven graduated solutions, the strongest being i part in 50,000 ; as a sweet substance, in place of sugar, which is not very divisible, he used saccharine, making eleven gradations between 1 in 100,000 parts (which could be tasted by 25 per cent, of the normal men and 45 per cent, of the normal women) and i in io,ooo; the eleven common salt solutions ranged from I in 500 to 3 in 100. Numerous precautions

' More reccnily Dr, Bailey has lesled the sense of lasle among Indians in a similai way ; he finds that Ihe order of delicacy is aboul the sacne as in white peisons, but Ihal the ability lo detect dilute Eolutions is less among Ihe Indians. The seiual differences found were the same as among the whites ; males had B more delicate sense for salt, while in other respects the females possessed a more delicate organ. [A'aiisai University Quarterly, 1B93.)

■ " II Gnsto nei Criminal] in Rapiiorlo coi Normali," Anhivio di rHchialria, vol. x., Fasc. iiL-iv., pp. 332-338.

THE SENSES.

were taken : the mouth was well rinsed with luke- warm water ; each experiment was repeated, and control experiments with distilled water were made to avoid the disturbing influence of expectation and subjective sensations; the solutions were kept at the temperature of the air. In making the test the solution was squirted on to the tongue from a pipette, and care was taken that the amount (half a c era.) should always be the same. Ottolenghi presents his results in a table which divides the subjects into three groups (indicating delicate, middling, and obtuse sensations) under each head of " bitter," " sweet," and " salt " ; the table is so arranged that it also pre- sents the percentage of individuals in relation to each solution. Speaking generally, the criminals, more especially the male criminals, showed a very small proportion of persons with delicate sense of taste ; the professional men showed keen sense of taste ; in regard to bitter, for example, there were 54 per cent professional men in the class showing deli- cate perception, as against 15 pef cent congenital criminals. The males of low social class came mid- way between professional men and criminals, but nearer to the criminals. The criminal women may be said to rank with the men of low social class, while the norma! women on the whole rank with the professional men. Thus 50 per cent, normal women belong to the refined class as regards bitter, against 54 per cent, professional men ; while 10 per cent belong to the obtuse class, against 14 per cent professional men. The weakest bitter solution was, however, only perceived by (4) professional men. Eighty per cent, of the normal women belonged to the refined class as regards sweet, as against 70 per cent, professional men, the weakest solution being perceived by 45 per cent, women to only 25 per cent, professional men ; while only 10 per cent, belonged to the obtuse class as against 14 per cent of the pro- fessional men. Ninety per cent, of the normal women

MAN AND WOMAN.

possessed refined taste as regards salt, against 8o ' per cent of the professional men, the difference i; favour of women being marked in the case of the weakest salt solution (90 per cent of the women to 40 per cent of the professional men) ; this result is in curious contrast, it is worth while to note, to the exceptional delicacy as regards salt possessed by the 1 men investigated by Bailey and Nichols. !

Ottolenghi considers that his results show that men and women possess nearly equal acutencss as regards all three tastes, but he believes that if other conditions were equal, and male habits of smoking and drink- ing were taken into account, it would be found that men possess a more delicate sense of taste. It is clear, however, that an examination of Ottolenghi's care- fully made and clearly reported results does not justify this conclusion. No evidence is brought forward to show that alcohol and tobacco — as used temperately by average students and professional men — produces any degeneration of the gustatory apparatus, while the observations of Bailey and Nichols bring no support to this view. Moreover, the influence of social class, as shown by Ottolenghi's males, is so evident and so marked that it is obvious that we ought to know to what social class his "normal women" belonged. If they belonged to the same class as the students and professional men, then the evidence as presented by Ottolenghi simply shows that men and women are equal in this respect It is much more probable, however, that the women chiefly belonged to a much lower social class and were more nearly comparable to the males of very low social class,* If so, Ottolenghi's results may be said to support those of Nichols and Bailey,

Ls to be indicated in Dr. Ollolcnghi's remark — interesting

' ' ' '"" — that among the normal women weie

ices and debauchery," and Ihat these

showed a percentage nf obluseness a( least as great as that shown by

The evidence, therefore, shows that while the sense of smejl is most acute in ipen, the sense of taste is most acute in womep.

HEARING.

Deafness (which is usually due to inflammation of the middle ear) is, in the opinion of nearly all authorities, decidedly more common in men than in women. Politzer, Troeltsch, Urbantschitsch, Wilde, Duncanson, etc., a'll agree on this point ; Marc d'Espine found <)j deaf men to 62 deaf women; Zaufal found 698 men to 451 women.' Among children the sexual differences are slight.

While, however, the greater tendency of men to marked pathological disturbances of hearing seems fairly certain, I am not acquainted with any extended and reliable series of observations bearing on sexual differences in sensitiveness to sound during health. Dr. Roncoroni has examined 20 healthy men and 15 healthy women from this point of view, and finds the advantage in keenness on the side of the men ; 12 of the men possessed a delicate sense of hearing as against 7 of the women. ^ Among the insane he found hearing nearly equal in men and women. Professor Jastrow still more recently has published a very brief note concerning an attempt to determine from what height a shot weighing 10 mgmm. must be dropped upon a glass plate so that the sound might be heard by the subject at a distance of 25 feet. It was impossible to secure absolute and constant quiet, but the hearing of the women was decidedly more acute than that of the men, the results being 17 and 35 mm. respectively.^

' Set: OAXk, Prkii des MalaJkideF Oreille, iSSs, pp. S71.S72; Weil, " Unterauch. iL Ohreo u. d. Gehores v. 5905 Hchulkindern, Zeitschrift f. Okrenh., vol. xi. p. 106.

Arckivio di Psichiatria, 1893, Fasc i. pp. 108, 109.

■ "Studies, elc," Amer. Journal Psych., April 1892, pp. 422, 42 j.

134 MAN AND WOMAN. I

Thus these observations, so far as they go, lead to distinctly opposed results.

In regard to range of audible sensation, Mr, Gallon, using his whistle at the Anthropometric Laboratory at South Kensington, found that i8 per cent, males could hear the shrillest test-note as against only ii per cent, females ; and that 34 per cent males heard the next shrillest test-note as against 28 per cent of the females. This result harmonises with what we know of sight

It is worthy of note (hat pianoforte tuners are usually tijcn. I am not aware whether this is owing to the inaBIiity of women to rival men in this field.

SIGHT.

Blindness in this country (according to the census of 1891J is much more common among males than among females at all ages up to 65 ; the preponder- ance of women after this age is due simply to the greater longevity of women. It does not seem to be true, however, that minor defects of sight are more common in men. The most convenient method of estimating the sexual distribution of defective eyesight is by referring to the data collected by ophthalmic surgeons. Thus Mr. R. Brudenell Carter has analysed his notes of 10,003 cases of disease or disturbance of the eyes in his own private practice, and finds 4621 males to 5379 females; this is over 600 more females than there would have been had his patients been in exact ratio to the general population. In classifying his cases according to the shape of the eyeball, lie finds : —

THE SENSES.

>«„,

Femaiaa.

ToUL

Short-sight or myopia, including'^ simple and compound mj-opic [ astigmatism (or irregularity of |

Long-sight or hypemie tropin,' including simple and com- pound hypermetropic astig- matism

Mixed astigmatism

2123

.464

995 39

23'8

1684

132S 49

444'

3U8

2323 88

Tolals

4621

5379

10,000

Therefore among Mr, Carter's patients, belonging to the well-to-do classes, there has been, even when the sexual ratio in the general population is taken into account, a distinct preponderance of women and girls. The preponderance is not to be explained, Mr, Carter points out, by special proclivity on the part of women to any single form of eye-disease. He is "inclined to refer it to the greater sensitiveness of the female sex, to the more sedulous employment of their eyes over a variety of sedentary occupations, and to their weaker muscles, which are less able, as a rule, than those of men to maintain prolonged efforts of accommodation or of convergence."^ Mr. Carter's cases are fairly chosen, and sufficiently large in number to be reliable. We may accept them as showing that vision is in all directions more frequently defective in women than in men.

A number of investigations have been made in schools in various countries, more especially in the United States, Germany, and Sweden, with the special object of determining the prevalence of eye- defect among school-children, and the more extensive

136 MAN AND WOMAN.

and reliable of these investigations show a preponder- ance of the short-sighted among girls which is much more marked than among Mr. Carter's patients. Thus among 11,000 boys in Sweden, Professor Axel Key has found that short-sightedness ranges from 6 per cent, at the age of 11 to 37,3 per cent at the age of 19. But among 3000 Swedish giris he found that short-sightedness ranged from 21,4 per cent, at the age of 10 to 50 per cent and over at the age of 20.^

In America Dr. West examined the sight of 793 boys and 603 girls in the public schools of Worcester, Mass., using Snellen's test-types for the younger children, the Galton eye-test for those in the higher grades. In all the nine grades, except the first, which includes the youngest children, it was found that the percentage of defective eyes was distinctly greater among the girls, the difference usually being over 10 per cent ; but among boys the defect seemed to be more serious in a larger number of cases.^/. Dr. F. Warner's observations, based on an examination of 60,000 school children, also showed that serious eye defects are more common in boys.^

When we turn from the evidence furnished by investigations into the prevalence of eye-defect to more special investigations into the relative keenness of sight of men and women, the data at hand are found to be very limited. The examination at Bath of members of the British Association, by means of Galton's test, revealed little sexual difference ; the men had rather better sight with the right eye, the women rather better sight with the left At his Health Exhibition I-aboratory Mn Galton found that men are generally slightly superior to women in keenness of vision. Jacobs and Spielmaii found that the English Jewess is decidedly superior to the English Jew in keenness

Pubertatsmtwkkehing, elc, pp. 30, C[. tricaa Journal of Psychology, A '"'

Brit. Mel. Journal, 35th March I

THE SENSES.

of sight, both in the average and in the maximum and minimum ; they are in this test above both the male and female as tested at the Health Exhibition by Galton.i

Professor Jastrow has made some careful and interesting experiments on a small number of male and female students of Wisconsin University.' There were 31 men whose average age was 22 years, and 22 women whose average age was 21 years; ihe majority were born in Wisconsin, and three-fourths of their parents were of American birth, mostly mer- chants, professional men and farmers ; nearly all the students were in good health, although some of them were troubled with headaches. The printed page was first placed beyond the subject's vision, then gradually moved towards him until he could just read it. The distance at which the page could be read with maximum strain was found to be slightly greater in the men, but the difference was too slight to be of any significance; the nearest point at which the type could be read was also almost identical. The smallest type was then ascertained which was visible at 25 feet; this was found to be (in dioptrics) 9.4 for the men, 6.7 for the women. Acuteness of vision was tested in several ways : it was found that a series of lines 1 mm, wide and separated by spaces of I mm. could be distinctly discerned at a distance of 1 17 inches by the men, of 97 inchesby the women; a simi- lar determination with a checkerboard pattern, both black and white squares being 4 mm. square, gave I2i inches for the men, 124 inches for the women ; and it was found that irregularly arranged dots could also be counted at about the same distance by both men and women, although when the dots became rather numerous the men had a slight advantage. The strength of vision was tested by noting the smallest

■ " Compatalive Anthropometry of English Jews," Journal Anlh. laslitule, August 1889.

' " Studies, etc." Amer. Journal Psych., April iSgi.

size of letter readable at 25 feet through one and through two thicknesses of common cheese-cloth; the result in dioptrics was, through one thickness, 24.7 for the men and 19.0 for the women ; through two thicknesses 45.0 for the men, 42.0 for the women.

Taking the evidence as a whole, we may conclude that in most, if not all, civilised countries women are more liable to the slight disturbances of eye-sight, due to defective accommodation, which are peculiarly associated with civilisation ;^ while men are probably more liable to serious eye-defects. If, however, we take men and women belonging to the healthiest classes of the community and test the strcnglh and acuteness of their vision, there is found to be no marked sexual difference.

Colour-perception and colour-blindness. — Newton was able to make out seven colours in the spectrum. Those who possess this power can see a dark blue band between blue and violet, and they also see a broader orange band than ordinary people; they are always very fond of colour. Green has only found three persons who saw the seven colours (and con- siders they are about i in 2000 or 3000 individuals) ; they were all males.^ Professor Nichols has made some interesting experiments as to sexual differences in the sensitiveness of the eye to faint colour,* The pigments selected were red lead, chromate of lead, chromic oxide, and ultramarine blue. Each of these pigments was mixed in a carefully graduated way with white magnesium carbonate, so that a scries of coloured powders was formed of which the pure pig-

' Anitnnls furnish a conflimalion of the assacialiiin of eye defeclg with civilised conditions. Motais, in a contribulion to the Paris Academy of Medicine, staled that having examined the mes of wild beasts, captured aflei they had reached adult age, he lound them Dormai ! those captured earlier, and alill more those bora in captivity, were short-aiEhled. ■ Coleur-Blittdmss, p. loj. ,

" On the Sensitiveness of the Eye to Colouis of a Low Degree o£b

Saturation," by E. L. Nichols, Ph.D., Amencan Journal of Science, r - ' -"SS, pp. 37-41-

^^^ THE SENSES. 139

mcnt formed the first, while the succeeding number were of less and less saturated hue, and finally could not be distinguished from white. These were put into small glass phials. The four sets of bottles (labelled by means of marks)— thus containing mixtures of red and white, yellow and white, green and white, blue and white — were then mingled in- discriminately, and the observer was requested to arrange them according to hue and degree of colour- saturation. The individuals examined were 54 in number (31 males and 23 females), mostly between the ages of fifteen and thirty. Five were more or less colour-blind, but this defect was not found to injure in a marked way their ability to classify the colours. In the following table the figures indicate the amount of colouring matter present in 100,000,000 volumes of white in the most dilute mixture which can be distinguished from a pure white by the average observer : —

Averagefor males „ „ females

Bed Lead.

Chroranteot

Chrcimio

UllramarlDo. ^H

59.S

17-3

8:7.7 9'3-6

"As will be seen from the above table the average ^| male observer is measurably more sensitive to red, ^H yellow, and green, while the female shows superiority ^^M in the blue alone." The light reflected by pigments, ^H as Professor Nichols points out, is not monochro- ^H matic, so that these results cannot be held to show us accurately the relation of the eye to the pure spectrum.

The individual variations were very great ; S persons (s males ^^| and 3 females) could distinguish yellow in a mixture of 3 ^^M parts in 100,000,000; while z (both females) could only detect ^^M It in a mixture containing 190 parts to 100,000,000. The lack ^^H of delicacy with respect to green was a general trait, possibly, ^^M remarks Professor Nichols, traceable to familiarity with foliage. ^^M

In arranging the phials in order in the series, women on thd ^^H

MAN AND WOMAN.

average were superior to men, though the two nearest approaches to complete accuracy were both men. In the following table loo would indicate complete accuracy:—

Bed Lead, Chroinate of Lead. I Chtomio Oi

90.8

93'24

98.28

It would be interesting to consider whether special delicacy in discrimination of a colour is accompanied by special prefer- ence for that colour, or the reverse, but there is no evidence at Siresent to decide this. Professor Earl Barnes found in Cali- omia, among nearly 1000 children of all grades, that while the favourite colours of hoys and girls were essentially the same, more girls select red, more boys blue. " If," he remarks, " with increasing years children generally select more red and less blue, as seems to be the case, this would indicate that girls are more mature than boys on an average" {Pedagogical Seminary^ March 1893).

These observations, so far as they go, tend to show, as also the observations on eye-sight also seem to show, that in range of sensation women are inferior to men, but that within the limits of ordinary range common to both sexes women have perhaps slightly greater power of discrimination.

When we turn to the sexual difference in regard to colour-blindness, a subject which has been very fully investigated, there is no doubt whatever about the results. Men are much more frequently colour- blind than women. Tlie committee on colour- blindness of the Ophthalmological Society found that among males generally [i.e., out of 14,846 individuals) the percentage of pronounced cases of colour-blindness was 3.5, the average percentage being 4.16. They found that colour-blindness was nearly always much slighter in females than in males, and even then only existed in 0.4 per cent.^ Holmgren, from an examination of 32,000 men,

'Repoi igical &

mological Society," TVans. OfkilmL Sac., iSSi,

THE SENSES.

141

found 3.17 per cent colour-blind. Dr. Joy Jefleries of Boston, from an examination carried on chiefly in educational institutions, of over 1 8,000 males, found 4. i per cent, colour-blind, and among over 14.OCO females only 0,008 were colour-blind. Mr. T. H. Bickerton finds the percentage 0.16. Therefore while colour- blindness exists in about 30 to 40 per thousand males of the general population of European countries it is found in only i to 4 per thousand females, being thus at least ten times more frequent in men than in women. One woman to ten men is the proportion found by Favre in France.'

There are certain variations in the incidence of colour-blindness, among classes of the population and among races, which are of interest, and may possibly bear on the significance of colour-blindness. Among the professional classes (medical students, etc.) the Ophthalmological Society's Committee found the proportion to be 2.5 per cent ; among Eton boys 2.46 per cent ; among the boys and masters at Marlborough School (according to the Anthropo- logical Committee of the British Association) it is 2.5 per cent On the other hand, among the police and in schools of the same social rank the Ophthal- mological Society's Committee found pronounced cases in the proportion of 3.7 per cent, and in middle-class schools 3.5. In Ireland the sons of labourers are twice as liable to colour-blindness as the boys of the wealthier classes. A comparison of urban and rural populations, so far as it shows anything, points to colour-blindness being more common in the country. Jews and Quakers are more subject to colour-blindness than the ordinary population. Among (730) females of Jewish extrac- tion, 3.1 per cent were affected ; among females belonging to the Society of Friends, 5.5 ; they were, however, slight cases. It was the same among the

' Communication to (he AcsWroie dea Sciences in 1878.

males ; among 949 of Jewish extraction 49 were affected ; among (491) Quakers, 5.9. It must be noted that the Jews were on the whole of poorer condition of life than the average, and their defects were of pronounced character; the Friends belonged to the middle class, and their defects, chiefly confined to the paler shades, were slight ; the wealthy Friends were less colour-blind than the poor, though still, among males, exceeding the average, ' Jacobs and Spielman found no fewer than 12.7 per cent, of London Jews to be colour-blind ; it must be added that while in the East End the proportion was as high as 14.8 per cent, in the West End it was only 3.4 per cent ; these observers associate this tendency to colour-blindness with the absence of great painters among the Jews and the bad taste in dress shown by Jewesses belonging to the lower social grades.^

It is necessary to take a somewhat wider survey in order to appreciate the significance of colour- blindness. Although among civilised races colour- blindness is more prevalent in the lower than in the higher social classes, among barbarous and savage races it is very infrequent. One of the earliest investigators of colour-blindness. Professor George Wilson, examined several foreign students in England — Chinese, Kaffir, etc.: "their apprecia- tion of colour," he remarks, "is excellent, and certainly superior to that of the majority of our own students, who have not accidentally or designedly made colour a special object of study. The most expert of them all was the young Caffre."' Later and more extended investigation has shown very cleariy the freedom of lower races from colour- blindness as well as their delicacy of colour-percep- tion. Schellong among the Papuans of the New

' "Reporl of the Comniittec on Colour-Elindness of the Ophthal- mological Society."

journal AiUkrop. Institute, Ang. 1889.

' ResearfhfS mi ColcurSiindness, Edinburgh, 1S55, p. 77.

Hebrides found that the colour-sense is highly developed ; they are able without hesitation to distinguish even delicate shades of difference, although their colour vocabulary is extremely limited, and they only possess one word for green and bkie.^ Among I200 Japanese soldiers 3.4 per cent, were colour-blind. An examination of 600 Chinese men and 600 Chinese women showed that 19 men (or 3.2 per cent) and only i woman (or .17 per cent.) were colour-blind.^ Favre among Algerian tribes found only 2.6 per cent, colour- blind. Dr. L. Webster Fox, in a lecture delivered before the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, stated that in an examination of 250 Indian children, of whom ICX3 were boys, he did not find a single case of colour-blindness; on a previous occasion he had examined 250 Indian boys and only found 2, or less than i per cent, colour-blind ; he finds the proportion among white boys of the United States to be at least 5 per cent Blake and Franklin of Kansas University also examined Indians, and found that among 285 males there were only three cases of colour-blindness, or scarcely more than i per cent, while among 133 females none were found to be colour-blind.*

In Chili colour-blindness is decidedly rarer than in northern Europe. lu a graduation thesis on colour-blindness at the University of Santiago, Senor Conmdo Rios states that he has examined 1200 rnale persons, including 520 boys of from five to fifteen years of age, with the result that 3 per cent, of the boys and 2.1 per cent, of the men presented more or less colour- blindness. He also examined 320 females, including 143 girls of from five to fifteen years of age. One girl could not distin- guish between blue and violet, and a few confounded faint shades of green with yellow. Some other girls also showed a little hesitation in picking out certain colours, but none of the adult women presented any want of appreciation of colours at

Beittlige zur Anthropologie der V^xpvas," Zeilschrifl fiir Aiilh., Heft iv. p. 186.

t4th Nov. 1S90. ■ Science, and June 1893,

MAN AND WOMAN.

144

all. When an examination was made some years ago bya^ Swedish commission of 500 naval cadets and other persons in Chili, only one or two cases of colour-blindness were found. {Lancet, August 1890.) Dr. Rios attributes this slighter preva- lence of colour-blindness in Chili to the frequency of alcoholism in Europe ; it is probable, however, that a native Indian element in the population of Chili has also to be reckoned with. J

Colour-blindness is clearly not a result of disease, I nor is it associated with diseased conditions. It is true that it is rather more common among deaf-mutes than among the average of the population, but the deaf-mutes examined have largely belonged to the low social class in which colour-blindness has been found most prevalent. Among imbeciles colour- blindness is rare. Among criminals also it has not usually been found common. Among cretins the colour sense is usually present, although speech, hearing, and smell are nearly always very defective.^ And, on the other hand, Jews, among whom colour- blindness is specially prevalent, are a healthy class of the population (except for their tendency to nervous disease), and show a very high average of ability; and the Quakers also are a distinguished class of the community.

The precise significance of the sexual difference I regarding colour-blindness cannot yet be determined, f The whole question of colour-blindness and of the 1 mechanism of colour-vision generally is still under ] discussion. But there can be little doubt now that 1 the greater liability of males to colour-blindness J is inherent and of world-wide extension. Train- ing has little to do with it; and comparisons! between children under ten years of age and adults J (in the hands of the Ophthalmological Society's J Committee) have shown few differences. On the I other hand, its hereditary nature is well recognised ; it is sufficient to mention one case : Dr. Pliny Earle,

' in Hack Tuke's DiclUtuify

THE SENSES.

I4S

Professor Wilson tells us, out of 32 male and 29 female relations had 20 who were colour-blind, only two, however, being female. The undoubted fact that women are more familiar with the names of colours has been considered a source of fallacy, but modern methods of examination do not require any acquaintance with names. The greater familiarity of women with dress has been considered to account for the difference; the colour-blindness of Quakers, who are usually considered as indifferent to dress and favouring sombre hues, might be brought forward to support this theory. But it can scarcely be used to explain the very marked sexual difference among lower races ; and it may be quite as reasonably argued that the Society of Friends found a specially large number of recruits among individuals indifferent to colour and defective in perceiving it.

It is somewhat curious that such scanty evidence as I have been able to gather concerning keenness of colour-perception does not seem to agree with the very clear evidence concerning colour-blindness. It is noteworthy that in Professor Nichols' experiments — though these were not on a decisive number of persons— the colours in regard to which the men were especially more sensitive than the women were red and green, precisely the colours that arc defectively seen in colour-blindness. And Mr. Green found that exceptional range of colour- percept ion occurred ex- clusively in males. It would seem that we are dealing with two different classes of phenomena. Colour-blindness is a defect comparable to albinism and to the other congenital abnormalities that are more common in males. It has nothing to do with keenness in sensory discrimination, and it is prob- able that, as seems to be true in regard to some other sense perceptions, there is greater range and acutcness of colour-perception in men.

MAN AND WOMAN.

COLOURED HEAKING.

This is one of the names for the best known of a large group of slightly abnormal psychic phenomena. A person is the subject of coloured hearing when a particular sound immediately and involuntarily brings a particular colour to the menta! eye. Usually each of the vowel sounds has a colour of its own, and words are coloured accordingly. Besides coloured hearing we may have other automatic sense- associations, such as coloured gustation, coloured olfaction, coloured tactility, coloured motility.^

Mr. Francis Galton many years ago investigated various of these associations. He seems to have found colour association more common in women than in men ; he also found that it "appears to be rather common, though in an ill-developed degree, among children."^ The allied phenomenon of the " number-form " {" the sudden and automatic appear- ance of a vivid and invariable form in the mental field of view, whenever a numeral is thought of, and ' in which each numeral has its own definite place") was also found by Galton to be more common in women ; speaking roughly, it exists in 1 out of 30 males, and in i out of 15 females. Number-forms originate at an early age, and are commoner in young persons than in adults.* Fechner collected 73 cases

' See Art. "Secondary Sensalions," by Bleeler, in Tuke's Diet, of Psych. Med. ; Grtlber's " L'Audilion Color^e et les Ph^nomines similairea" \a Froctedings of the Internaiianat Congreis ef Experimental Psychology, London, 1892; and Kroha'a " Pseudo-Chroroa^t' ' " in American feuTHal 0/ Piyc/iology, October 1893. The last o a. lull bibliography.

' Inquiries into Human Faculty, p. 14;.

Ibid., p. 119, Gallon remarks that the somewhat allied power of

visualisiDg — or of unconsciously storing up in the mind menial pictures which may be voluntarily recalled — "is higher in the female sex than in the male, and is somewhat, but not much higher iu public school- boys than in men. , . , There is reason to believe that it is very high in some young children, who seem to spend years of difficulty in distinguishing between the subjective and objective world. Language and hook-leaming certainly tend to dull il." (P. 99 ) The men of

THE SENSES.

of coloured hearing, 35 of men, 38 of women; they were nearly all adults and of the educated classes,' Krohn found that coloured hearing and similar phenomena are more common in women than in men. Recent investigation at Wcllesley College, an American women's college, of 543 persons, showed that nearly 6 per cent, possessed the faculty of coloured hearing, while about 18 per cent, showed either coloured hearing or number- forms, or both combined. This is certainly a high proportion, although I do not know of any similar investigation at a men's college with which to compare it. The results were verified and confirmed by questioning the subjects after an interval of two months.^ Large, however, as this percentage is, it is greatly exceeded by the results of a subsequent investigation at the same college on the students who entered in the autumn of 1892; out of 203 persons not less than 32, or 15.7 per cent, were col our- hearers, while 61, or 30.2 per cent,, had "forms," and 17, or 8.4 per cent, showed both psychic abnormalities*

It may be asserted with little fear of contradiction that all investigators who have given attention to the point have found coloured hearing and allied pheno- mena more common in women than in men.

I have presented with some fulness such evidence as I have been able to obtain regarding sexual differ- ences in acutenessand precisionof sensory perceptions,

Ecience he spoke to knew nothing of it. " On the othei hand , . . many men, and a yet larger number of women, and many boys and girls, declared that they habitually saw mental imagery, and that it was perfectly distinct to them, and full of colour." Crosse; troufiht out the evident truth of these asserlions. (P. 85.)

' Fechner, Vorschule der AesthiHk, Zweiter Theil, p. 316.

' Mary Whitoa Calkins, " Enperimenlal Paychology at Wellesley

iUhfc." Anu-ricttK Taurnal af Prtkaloev. vol. v.. No. 2 (N

College, Am.

n Journal af Piyckalagy, vol. v.. No. 2 (November

' Mi

[aiy\ tf M.

W. Calkins, "A Statislical Study of Pseudo-Chromesthesia ' ■ ' ■" " ■ ■ „ Journal Fiychohgy, July 1893.

and of Mental Fonr

.n interesting and carefully detailed study.

MAN AND WOMAN.

notwithstanding the fact that that evidence does not point emphatically to the general and absolute superiority of either sex. The one very decided exception is in regard to colour-blindness, and this, probably, is simply a case of the greater varia- tional tendency of males. Notwithstanding this the results BO far reached have a certain interest It has always been the popular notion that women have keener and more delicate sensory perceptions than men; this opinion has even been repeated by numerous men of science who have not themselves made any investigation of the actual facts. We have seen that there is little reason to suppose that women have more delicate senses, and considerable reason to suppose that most of their senses are somewhat less keen, a result which was long since stated by Burdach,' and which is in harmony with what we know of the sense-organs of animals generally; the antenna; of insects, the hairs, eyes, are nearly always more developed in the male. At the least, it can only be said that the senses of men and women are possibly equal, but that those of women are habitually subject to a less thorough education, and therefore often re- main in a somewhat more rudimentary state. I have brought together a considerable amount of evidence tending in this direction : the greater gustatory acute- ness even of town-dwelling thievesovernormal country- dwelling persons, the comparative sexual equality from the sensory point of view of pupils in American co-educational colleges, the notiible increase of tactile sensation in a lower race after education in Europe, and the great rapidity with which an increased keen- ness of tactile sensibility can be obtained through practice.

There is some interest in considering how women

have obtained their reputation for delicate sensory

perceptions. On this point there can, I think, be

little doubt. It is due to a popular confusion of two

' Physhlos'i, torn. i. p. 277.

I totally dist

THE SENSES.

totally distinct nervous qualities — sensibility and irrita- bility, or, as it is perhaps better called, affectability. The first means precision and intensity of percep- tion of stimulus; the second is the readiness of motor response to stimulus. These two nervous qualities may, and usually do, vary independently,* The clear distinction between sensibility and irritability in the present connection has been of late clearly stated by Scrgi, and by Lombroso and Ferrero, but the keen intuition of Coleridge had long before noticed that an important sexual difference is the greater irritability of women, the deeper sensibility of men. It was also perceived some years ago by Galton, who was the first to make accurate investi- gations of sexual sensory differences. " At first," he remarks, "owing to my confusing the quality (sensi- tivity) of which I am speaking with that of nervous irritability, I fancied that women of delicate nerves who arc distressed by noise, sunshine, etc., would have acute powers of discrimination. But this I found not to be the case In morbidly sensitive persons both pain and sensation are induced by lower stimuli than in the healthy, but the number of just perceptible grades of sensation between them is not necessarily different. I found as a rule that men have more delicate powers of discrimination than women, and the business experience of life seems to confirm this."^ When we come to consider the affectability of women this important distinction will become still clearer.

at 3l very eaily stage of primitive culture and confuted with greater sensibility. An interesting example is furnished by Mi. Im Thurn, who tells us that women sometimes take part in the very vigorous whipping game of the Arawacks of Guiana; on such occasions a wooden figure of a bird is substituted for the whips, and a gentle peck given in place of the more serious lash. {^Jatimal Anthrop. Imliluiet February 1893, p. 19a.) ' F. Galton, Human Facttlty, p. zg.

CHAPTER Vn MOTION.

GREATER STRENGTH OF MEN AMONG CIVILISED RACES— KICCARDl'S EXPERIMENTS SHOWING MAXIMUM I MORE QUICKLY REACHED BV WOMEN — RATE OF MOVR-^ MENT SLOWER IN WOMEN — ERYAN'S EXPERIMENTS OkJ RATE OF MOTION — RARITY OF WOMEN ACROBATS— women's slighter MUSCULAR ENERGY PROBABLY j ORGANIC CHARACTER — MANUAL DEXTERITY — 01 OF TEACHERS — THE GENERAL OPINION THAT WOMESJ HAVE LESS MANUAL DEXTERITY THAN MEN — DEXTERITl OF WOMEN IN VARIOUS TRADES — SENSE-JUDGMENTS— BUSINESS EXPERIENCE — VARIOUS EXPERIMENTS — WOME! PROBABLY AS WELL ABLE TO FORM ACCURATE S JUDGMENTS AS MEN.

Whatever doubt there may be about sexual differ- I ences in the sensory appeal there is little doubt as to I the sexual differences in motor response, at all events I in its coarser outlines. Except among certain lower J races, and then almost exclusively in that more ] passive form of muscular activity involved in carrying j burdens, women everywhere reveal a somewhat less I capacity for motor energy than men and a less degree J of delight in its display. Among civilised races the J difference is great and obvious to all. There form of vigorous muscular action, with the sole I exception of dancing, for which civilised women showr| greater attraction and aptitude than men.

Even at that pctiod in the evolution of puberty J

MOTION. i;i

when girls are in most respects ahead of boys, they still remain, as Pagliatii and others have shown, both in vital capacity and muscular power, very much behind boys. Roughly speaking, the force of the female hand, measured by the dynamometer, is one- third less than that of the male hand ; boys can carry about one-third more than girls ; and while a man can carry about double his own weight a woman can carry only about half hers (Landois and Stirling). At the Bath meeting of the British Association the mean strength of squeeze was 3S-40 kilos in men, 20-25 in women. The Anthropometric Committee of the British Association found that women (chiefly shop assistants and pupils in training institutions for school -mistresses) are little more than half as strong as men.^ Manouvrier, comparing weight of femur with dynamometric pressure, found that muscular force is to body-weight as 87.1 to 100 in men and only as 54.5 to 100 in women. Sargent found that in strength of expiratory muscles the weakest boys are stronger than the average girl, and although in strength of back, legs, chest, and arms, the girls are slightly better, still 50 per cent, girls fail to reach a point of strength surpassed by 90 per cent boys.^ Galton found in his laboratory that of some l5oo women of various ages the strongest could only exert a squeeze of 86 lbs., or about that of a medium man. "If we wished to select the lOO strongest individuals," he remarks, "out of two groups, one consisting of 100 males chosen at random and the other of 100 females, wc should take the 100 males and draft out the 7 weakest of them, and draft in the 7 strongest females." ^

An interesting sexual difference in muscular force has been clearly brought out by Riccardi ; experi- menting with the dynamometer on over 350 men

tlh. Com. Brit. Ass., 1SS3.

"Physical Development of Vt^omeo," Scribner's Mag.,

Journal Anthrop. InsliluU, 1885.

' Report A » Sargent, I IS89.

152

MAN AND WOMAN.

and women, he found that while, with the right hanti;! 36 per cent only of the men exhibited their maxi- mum force at the first attempt, 3S psr cent at the I second attempt, and 16,8 per cent at the third, 57.8 i per cent, of the women gave a maximum result at the first attempt, 20.4 at the second, only 9.9 at the third. For the left hand the results wore: for the men, 49.8 at the first attempt, 34.S at the second, 21.9 at the third, and for the women, 49 per cent at the first attempt, 36.2 at the second, and 9.9 at the third; This result, showing that weaker women reach their maximum quicker than men, and that the weaker left hand of men resembles women in this respect, indi- cates a connection between weakness and promptness of reaction, and perhaps has some bearing on the general character of motor action in women.'

Several series of investigations have been carried on concerning sexual differences in the rate of volun- tary movements. Cattell and Fullerton found that this rate, which is very constant, is decidedly slower in women than in men.^ Jastrow found, among the students of Wisconsin University, that normal move- ments, when no special direction is given, are quicker in women, but that the maximum movements, parti- cularly in the case of longer movements, are quicker in men.^ Bryan has made an elaborate study of rate of movement on about 800 school children (the sexes being nearly equally divided) belonging to Worcester, Mass. A fairly simple instrument was devised to receive tapping movements on the button of a Morse 1 key and to record them on a clock face ; the amount^ of force required was insignificant, and the tapping! movements could be executed by the arm, forearm, of* finger, so as to give the rate for the various joints, f The differences between boys and girls were not found I to be considerable, but there was a slight superioritj; I

' Dr. P. Riccardi, Arch, per PAiilrop., Fasc. 3, 1889.

= Oa the PerccpHoH of Small Differeiuis, Philadelphia, 1S90, p, 1

' Am.JourHalPsjtch., April 1892, p. 425.

MOTION.

IS3

of boys over girls on the wliole. It must be noted, however, that the best single record was made by a girl of twelve who " looked the type of robust health," and when asked if she played the piano, replied, "Only by ear; but I play base-ball though," and adding, " I can strike two over an octave on the piano." Another interesting record was that of a girl of thirteen who had taken lessons on the violin for two years and who showed the influence of special practice by the high rates of the joints involved in playing the violin and the low rates of others, such as the left shoulder, not thus exercised. The superiority of the boys over the girls increases slightly from the age of 6 to that of 9, and more decidedly from 14 to 16. They are nearest together between 10 and 12. At 13 the girls are superior to the boys for each of the eight joints tested. The period from 12 to 13 is one of retardation of rate in boys and acceleration in girls. Boys are more superior to girls as regards the right side than as regards the left, so that the two sides are more alike in girls than in boys. The acceleration of rate in girls between 12 and 13 is followed by a retardation between 13 and 14; while in boys between 13 and 14 there is an acceleration followed by a decline between 14 and 15. It is significant that the decline and antecedent accelerations are more extreme in girls, and that the recovery is slower; so that girls of 13 almost reach, and sometimes surpass, girls of 16, and girls of 13 also surpass in every joint boys of 13, and in the case of four joints are faster than boys of 14, Comparison of the increments of rate in boys from 15 to 16 with those ill girls from 14 to 15 shows the former to be decidedly greater in the case of every joint, and in the case of seven of the eight joints the increment of rate in boys from 15 to 16 is greater than in girls from 14 to 16. Some additional experiments with reference to precision of movement also showed a slight superiority of boys. In summing u^ tis

general results, Bryan remarks : " It would something more than a reasonable surmise that the general acceleration of the rate in girls from 12 to 13, and in boys from 13 to 14, is an expression of high tension in the nerve-centres in many individuals at those ages; that the decline following is an expres- sion of nervous fatigue consequent upon the functional charges at those periods ; and that the re- acceleration is a sign of recovery from that fatigue. It is signifi- cant that the antecedent acceleration and the decline are more extreme in girls than in boys, and that the girls recover more slowly. It seems not unlikely that these facts may prove of hygienic significance." ' It is interesting to compare these results, which, however, require confirmation, with what we know as to the rate of growth in boys and girls about the period of puberty, and the accelerations and retardations in that growth ; it is very probable that there is a real connection.

Delaunay (" Les Mouvements ceiitripfetes et centrifuges," Revue Scienttfique, asth December 1880) has argued with much ingenuity that motor evolution is from the centripetal to the centrifugal ; that centripetal movements, of adduction and of pronation, predominate among species and individuals little advanced in evolution, and among these he includes quadru- peds, apes, the lower human races, women, children, and unintelligent persons ; while centrifugal movements, of ab- duction and supination, predominate among the higher human races, in men and in intelligent persons. Corkscrews, eta, are worked from left to right ; so are watches, though formerly from tight to left ; and writing, which was formerly, and stilt often is among children, from right to left, is now from left to right. " Women," he remarks, " preferably execute centripetal movements. Thus they give taps or slaps with the palm of the hand, men with the back. According to my observation men make circumferential movements like the hands of a watch, women in the opposite direction. Again, all women's garments, from chemise to mantle, button from right to left, whde men'3 garments button from left to right. When a woman puts on a man's coat she buttons it with the left hand, with a centripetal

IS5

It may be ndded thai, apart from evolutionary progress, the characteristically masculine attitude of aggression is centrifugal, the characleristicrtlly feminine attitude of defence centripetal ; compare, for instance, the poses of the Apollo Belvedere and the Venus de Medici.

In strength, as well as in rapidity and precision, of movement women are inferior to men. This is not a conclusion that has ever been contested. It is in harmony with all the practical experience of life. It is perhaps also in harmony with the results of those investigators (Bibra, Pagliani, etc.) who have found that, as in the blood of women, so also in their muscles there is more water than in those of men.^ To a very large extent it is certainly a matter of differences in exercise and environment. It is probably, also, partly a matter of organic constitution. That this latter factor can in any case account for more than a small proportion of the immense muscular difference which exists between civilised men and women is impossible, when we consider the muscular strength displayed by the women among some savage races. But it is suggested by the parallelism between rate of move- ment and rate of growth. It is a significant fact that on the music-hall stage feats of strength are, com- paratively, rarely performed by women, and the proficiency they reach is less. A very competent authority remarks: "It is a question whether women should ever be trained as acrobats; it is certain that they can never attain the same pro- ficiency as men. As a matter of fact very few women are trained for this particular kind of performance, and in some apparent exceptions — in the well-known Fj-anf7 ,_ family , for instance, where some one dressed as a woman holds a man on the shoulders and two girls at arms' length^the performer is a man in woman's clothes. Compare, too, the professional ' strong women,' such as Athleta, who is very good in

' Arck.^ VAnirep., vol, vi. p. I?3,

MAN AND WOMAN.

her way, witli the 'strong man,' such as Sandow, and you will see that no comparison or competition is possible." It must be remembered that acrobats are frequently the children of acrobats, and receive the most skilled and careful training from the earliest age, and that girls probably have as good a chance of becoming successful acrobats as men. The general tendency of men to violent muscular action, and the greater tendency of women to repose and the storing' up of force, ha.s been ex- pressed by saying that men are katabolic, women anabolic; this generalisation, which is perhaps a little too wide, does not explain; it simply states. The motor superiority of men, and to some extent of males generally, is, it can scarcely be doubted, a deep-lying fact It is related to what is most funda- mental in men and in women, and to their whole psychic organisation. It was not an accident that at Pompeii and Herculancum, while the men were found in a state indicating violent muscular efforts of resist- ance, the women were in a condition of resigned despair, or clasping their infants.

Manual Dexterity. — Carl Vogt, whose opinion is entitled to consideration, speaking of his university experience in Switzerland, where there is so large a number of vvomen students, while bearing witness to their quickness and excellent memory for what they have learnt by heart, does not find them skilful with their hands : " What makes laboratory work particularly difficult to women is — though one would hardly believe it — that they are often awkward and unskilful with their hands. Laboratory assistants are unanimous in complaining that they are questioned on the smallest matters, and that one woman gives more trouble than three men. One would have thought that the delicate fingers of these young women were specially adapted for microscopic work, for the manipulation of thin laminm of glass, and the preparation of minute sections; but it is the contrary

MOTION.

that really happens. One recognises the place of a female student at a glance by the fragments of glass, broken instruments, notched knives, the stains of chemicals and colouring agents, the spoilt prepara- tions. There are exceptions without doubt, but they are exceptions." ^ This point is of some interest, and through the kindness of a friend I have obtained the opinions of several experienced and well - known teachers as to the relative awkwardness of men and women in manual dexterity. The letters in response cover rather more than the ground of awkwardness, but they are worth quoting. Professor M'Kendrick, of Glasgow University, writes : — " My experience has been that women are, on the average, as neat and strong and deft in manipulation as men. By 'strong' I mean that they possess sufficient and well co-ordinated muscular power in their fingers, hands, and arms. Lightness and firmness of touch always imply a well- ordered muscular mechanism. In my opinion there is no average difference between the sexes as regards the cripacity of performing de.\terous manipulations. A certain percentage of both men and women are clumsy and inept in the movements of their fingers, and my experience does not lead me to think that the per- centage is greater in women than in men. Some men possess delicate touch combined with much patience In manipulative work, and some women show the same excellences. At the same time I cannot admit that women, on the whole, are better adapted for delicate manipulative work than men. It really resolves itself into this, that many women can, in this matter, do what any man can do, and that many men can do what any woman can do. This is the result of experience in teaching women for about twenty years."

Professor Halliburton, of King's College, Lon- don, writes:— "My answer would be of much more

MAN AND WOMAN.

value if I could give definite statistics, but as I have kept none, all I can do is to state my general impressions. The success of women students at examinations in science will in part answer your inquiries, but though examinational success is evidence of one kind of ability, it is not, unless taken in con- junction with other things, of superlative value in my eyes. I should rather look to the general work of the students, such as one sees in a practical class. On the whole, then, I should say that women students are on the average better than men students. This may be in part owing to the fact that women do not take up scientific work unless they are earnest about the matter and have some scientific ardour; with men one finds a large class who have no interest in their work, and who, in spite of their laziness or stupidity, or both, have been sent to college by their parents and guardians. The best women students are not, how- ever, so good as the best men. They do not get the same grasp of the subject; they are more bookish and not so practical; they excel, however, in an infinite capacity for taking pains, such as one seldom if ever sees in a man. With both men and women one often finds that good ability, intelligence, industry, and extensive theoretical knowledge are combined with an inability to do practical work. This is not, however, the rule in either sex. Still every now and then we come across instances of people who are not able to use their fingers, be they never so industrious or gifted in other ways; and my further impression is that one meets with this more often in women than among men."

Mr. Vaughan Jennings, who has taught Biology to mixed classes at the Rirkbeck Institute for several years, writes : — " I think that in the matter of manipu- lation men are on the whole better than women. In a class equally divided I should expect, I think, to find more men than women showing natural skill in dissection or in using delicate apparatus. (If one had

MOTION.

to select a number of untrained recruits to learn such work one would choose them mainly from sailors.) At the same time the men who have no capacity for such work are likely perhaps to be worse than the average woman, probably because they take less trouble. It is difficult to say where the difference lies. It is impossible to tell how much inherited habit has to do with any of the mental differences between the sexes. Some difference in the nervous system seems to be at the root of most of it. A certain lack of initiative and a hesitation about 'taking the next step' seems to cause a good deal of apparent slowness. I am sure also that greater nervous irritability is responsible for much. The ordinary words ' nervousness,' ' impatience,' etc., do not express what I mean — but there is a sort of almost unconscious and automatic exhaustion of the nervous system which often spoils delicate handiwork; and the strong man with the heavily-balanced nerves has a far greater advantage than is generally believed. However, this is only theory. My opinion is by no means a strong or decided one, but 1 think on the whole it goes to the masculine side."

It will be seen that the writers of two of these letters (which, I may add, were addressed to a lady) cautiously support Professor Vogt's experience, though with nothing of his characteristic brusquerie of expression. The opinions as to the greater awk- wardness of women students in manipulation are three to one, while Professor M'Kendrick, who forms the minority, guards himself from the assertion that women are less awkward than men. That women possess in specially high degree the "well co-ordinated muscular power" which, as Professor M'Kendrick points out, is involved in skilful manipulation, there is, so far as I am aware, no precise experimental evidence to show, while, as we shall see later on, the " nervous irritability " invoked by Mr. Jennings is an important factor in the activities of women.

l6o MAN AND WOMAN.

It is not easy, as I have elsewhere had to point out, to compare the relative skill of men and women workers, because men and women rarely perform the same work under the same conditions. The cigar and cigarette trades perhaps furnish as good a field as any for comparison ; this work requires in its more important branches very considerable manual dex- terity and neatness, and a quick, accurate eye. It does not call for great muscular strength, and is therefore well fitted for women ; as a matter of fact, in East London and Hackney cigar-makers are in the proportion of about 800 men to iioo women and girls.^ The women, however, speaking generally, are ,set to do a lower class of work ; they receive from 1 5 to 40 per cent, less wages than the men, and it seems to be generally agreed that their work is inferior. It should be added, however, that the physique and intelligence of the men are reckoned as above the average. A large number of women and girls are employed as cigarette-makers. This, it need scarcely be said, requires long practice and great dexterity, especially when, as is now the case, so narrow a margin of the paper is allowed to overlap. All the best work is at present done by men ; the women are employed chiefly in what is called "push-work," which means that the paper wrapper is first constructed and the tobacco inserted subsequently; this is much less skilled work and produces an inferior kind of cigarette. In Leeds also, according to Miss Collet, experience seems to be in favour of men's work ; in the cigar trade there men are said to have a lighter touch than women, and to produce cigars, as a rule, of more equal quality.^

In cotton weaving (though not in cotton spinning),

1 Sec in Booth's Labour and Lift of the Pee/th, 1S89, vol. i., tlic interesling Chap. vi. on "Tobacco Workeis," from which Ihe fads staled atjove are mainly tnken.

' Clara E. Collet, " Woman's Work in Leeds," Economk Journal,

i6i

both in England and France, it appears that men and women are equal, and women (even as far back as

1824) have earned as much or nearly as much as men.

There is, finally, at least one occupation, chiefly involving manual dexterity, in which women are stated to be distinctly superior to men. Women stitch the serge linings to saddles as well as men and 40 per cent, more quickly. They are paid at the same rate and earn 35s. a week as against 25s. formerly earned by men. It is an occupation for which women have been more highly trained than men.i

There is a general belief that women are nimble and dexterous with their fingers. If, however, we except needle-work, in which women are as a rule forced to possess the skill that comes of practice, there seems reason for concluding that on the whole the n ianual dexterit y of women is ?n mewh;it- infe prir. This deficiency seems to be more marked in the more special and skilled departments of work. Thus, as Mr. Webb remarks, " women weavers can seldom 'tune' or set their own looms. Women heraldic engravers have, curiously enough, never been able to point their own gravers, and have, in consequence, nearly abandoned that occupation." In such cases as this we have, no doubt, to deal not so much with defective manual dexterity as with a certain lack of resourcefulness and initiative.

Sense-judgments. — Under this heading we may include various phenomena which, although closely related to pure sensory impressions, are more highly complicated by muscular, reflex, and intel- lectual factors. The power of forming rapid and accurate sense-Judgments is of very great importance in practical life. Unfortunately it is not easy to find

1 I qnote the two last cases from a very able discussion by Sidney Webb, "Alleged Diflerences in the Wag^s paid 1q Men and to Women for Similar Work, Econamk J oiirtial, lS9r, p. 635.

MAN AND WOMAN.

or even to devise reliable investigations regarding the relative skill of men and women in forming sense- judgments ; it is rare to find men and womi working under absolutely the same conditions absolutely the same work.

In the business affairs of life, where we may reason- ably expect to find natural selection operating to effect a true sexual distribution, the evidence is conflicting. In salt-making, women often perform work elsewhere done by men, and are said to be more "neat-handed" in "tapping the squares"; at the same time they do less work than men, two men taking the place of three women.' As money- counters, women in America are said to be much more expert than men, seldom making a mistake or passing counterfeit coin. They can tell a bad bill by feeling it only, it is asserted, and a bank cashier will make a hundred mistakes where they make one.*

If we turn to the more accurate and measurable determination of sexual differences in the formation of sense-judgments, it is possible to find a few though not many attempts to measure accuracy of motor response to sensory impressions. A few tests were applied at the Anthropometric Laboratory during the Bath meeting of the British Association. It was found that in dividing a line in half women's eyes were absolutely correct in lo per cent more cases than those of men — i.e., 35.6 per cent, of the men were successful against 45,5 per cent, of the women. The division of a line into thirds was done about equally correctly by both sexes, while the men were consider- ably more accurate than the women in estimating a right angle — i.e., 63 per cent, men were correct against 33,7 per cent, women. Professor Jastrow, in experimenting on the male and female students of

' S. Webb, "Alleged Differences, elc.,"- Eionemic Joumal, 1891,

Fall Maa Gazette, 27th September 18S6. The authority for thu

Blaleuienl is not given.

se-

Wisconsin University, devised a series of tests of sense-judgments, though he was only able to complete a small portion of them, namely, those relating to pressure and one relating to the space-sense of the skin. The subjects were first required to pour as much shot in the palm of their right hands as they thought would weigh an ounce; the men on the average decided on 47 gm. — an exaggeration of 65 per cent.; the women on the average chose 22 gm. — an undcr-estimation of 21 percent. The subjects were next asked to pour shot into a box so that both shot and box should weigh an ounce; in this test a well- recognised illusion was involved, as a stimulus appears less intense when spread over a. larger area; both men and women largely exaggerated the amount necessary, but the exaggeration was somewhat greater in the case of the men. When the operation was repeated with the intention of making box and shot weigh one pound there was a slight exaggeration with the men, but the women's error was very small. The subject was then given the box which he considered to weigh one pound, and asked to put sufficient shot into another box to make it weigh double the first; in this test the women were very slightly more success- ful than the men. The space-test consisted in separating the points of the sesthesiometer on the back of the subject's hand until he regarded the distance between the points to be one inch; both men and women over-estimated the separation necessary, the men slightly more than the women.^ We thus find that at Bath men and women were about equal in accuracy of sense-judgment, with a trifling advan- tage in favour of the men. Professor Jastrow's

1 Jaatrow, " Studies from University of Wisconsin," Amer. Journal Fsych., April 1S92. Light will prowtbly be thrown on some of the points dealt with in this chapter, as well as in Chapters VI. and VIII., when the lesulls of the Psychological Laboratory at the Chicago Ex- position (of which Profeaaot Tastrow was director) have been worked out. A detailed account of tlie tests used at Chicago will be found in the Official Catalogue, Department M, pp. 50-56,

MAN AND WOMAN,

observations without exception show greater accuraq of judgment on the part of the women; here.l: it must be borne in mind that the experiments were] made through the medium of the dermal sensations] of the hand, and, as has already been pointed ( such experiments place men at a disadvantage from the outset, and have iittie value in determining sexual differences in natural faculty. They have, however, a certain value in relation to the practical affairs of a world in which men and women must be accepted J as they stand, since it is thus demonstrated that I the coarsening of the skin by rough usage is a real 1 disadvantage in forming sense-judgments.

On the whole, there seems no reason to believe that I women are inferior to men in forming accurate sense-l judgments, while, when the hand is concerned, women^J for obvious reasons, are at an advantage.

165

CHAPTER VIII.

THE INTELLECTUAL IMPULSE.

THERE IS NO PURELY ABSTRACT THOUGHT — DIFFICULTY OF ACCURATELY INVESTIGATING INTELLECTUAL PROCESSES — JASTROW^S INVESTIGATIONS INTO THOUGHT-HABITS AND ASSOCIATIONS — RAPIDITY OF PERCEPTION — RE- ACTION TIME — WOMEN READ RAPIDLY — THE READY WIT OF WOMEN — THEIR TENDENCY TO RUSE, AND ITS CAUSES — PRECOCITY — MORE MARKED IN GIRLS — THE INVESTIGATION OF SCHOOL CHILDREN — INDUSTRIAL AND BUSINESS CAPACITY — EXPERIENCES OF THE POST OFFICE — ABSTRACT THOUGHT — THE GREATER INDEPENDENCE OF MEN — WOMEN AS PHILOSOPHERS AND MATHEMA- TICIANS—RELIGION — RELIGIOUS SECTS FOUNDED BY WOMEN — THEIR GENERAL CHARACTER — WOMEN'S CON- TRIBUTIONS TO THE STRUCTURE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH — THE INTELLECTUAL DIFFERENCES OF MEN AND WOMEN CANNOT YET BE ACCURATELY DETERMINED — PSYCHOLOGY STILL IN ITS INFANCY.

Under .this heading we may conveniently consider various tendencies to think and to act according to what are usually considered rational motives. As a matter of fact even our most abstract mental pro- cesses are not abstractly rational. The dryest light of the intellect is coloured in infinite ways. If we could conveniently investigate, for example, the multiplication table — an apparently abstract possession common to most persons — as it exists in individv3A.V

MAN AND WOMAN.

minds from early childhood onwards, we should find it curiously tinged with emotional and pictured associations, from the simplest shadings up to the elaborate visions of the colour-hearer. It may be safely said that no two persons possess the same multiplication tabic

The fact that even in so simple a shape the intellect- ual impulse is highly complicated makes the definite objective knowledge of psychic processes a very vast and difficult field. It is the more difficult because to get reliable results we must secure uni- formity and simplicity of method working on a large body of subjects, Introspection frightens and paralyses our psychic processes ; they are, as Pro- fessor Jastrow well expresses it, like children who romp and express themselves freely in the privacy of the family circle, but become bashful, silent, and conventional before strangers. At present an objec- tive knowledge of mental processes has been sought at so few points and by so few investigators, each of them usually adopting his own methods, that our knowledge of sexual differences in the manipulation of the intellectual impulse is fragmentary and incom- plete, and this character will be reflected in the present chapter. What has been said as to the comparatively little light thrown on sexual difference by the study of the brain applies, at present, in a still higher degree to the study of intellectual processes.

To arrive at any reliable knowledge of mental sexual differences it is no longer enough to formulate suggestive impressions or brilliant theories. These have a certain interest and value, it is true, but they have no part in any knowledge that can be called science. It is along the lines of precise experiment that we may reasonably hope to obtain a more definite and objective knowledge of sexual mental differences. Two series of investigation by Pro- fessor Jastrow, one of the first to inaugurate such

investigations, may here be mentioned.^ They were carried out on male and female university students. The first investigation was into community of ideas and thought-habits, the nature of the more usual types of associations, and the time-relations of these processes. Fifty students (twenty-five of each sex) were asked to write down one hundred words as rapidly as possible, and to record the time. Words in sentences were not allowed. There were thus obtained 500O words, and of these nearly 3000 were the same, showing how great is the community of our thoughts. This community of thought is greater in the women ; while the men use 1375 different words, their female class-mates use only 1123. Of 1366 unique words used, 29.8 per cent, were male, only 20,8 per cent female. If the words are all divided into classes it is seen that among the men there was a much more frequent occurrence of words referring to the Animal Kingdom, Proper Names, Verbs, Implements and Utensils, Adjectives, Vegetable Kingdom, Abstract Terms, Meteorological and Astronomical, Occupations and Callings, Convey- ances, Other Parts of Speech, Geographical and Landscape Features. Among the women there was a decidedly greater tendency than among the men to use words referring to Wearing Apparel and Fabrics, Interior Furnishings, Foods, Buildings and Building Materials, Mineral Kingdom, Stationery, Educational, Arts, Amusements, Kinship. The re- maining classes of words which were used with almost equal frequency by both sexes were Parts of Body, Miscellaneous, and Mercantile Terms. The group into which the largest number of the men's words fall is Animal Kingdom (254 to 178) ; the group into which the largest number of the women's words fail is Wearing Apparel and Fabrics (22^ to 129);

' "A Study in Menial Stalislics," 2feai Heviav, December 1891; ■ ' A Statislical Study of Memory and Associilion," EduccUi^nal Jfevism, New York, December 1E91.

MAN AND WOMAN.

predominant ^| linine) mind ^|

"the inference rrom ihis that dress is the predominant \ category of the feminine (or the privy feminine) r is valid with proper reservations ; but we should remember that the dress of a woman is more con- spicuous, more complex, and more various than that of a man, and that she has more to do with the making of it" In regard to Foods the difference is very great, much greater in fact than in regard to almost any other class of words ; while the men only use 53 words belonging to this class, the women use 179 ; whether the part played by women in the preparation of food is sufficient to account for this great disproportion Professor Jaslrow refrains from deciding. "In general," Professor Jastrow concludes, "the feminine traits revealed by this study are an attention to the immediate surroundings, to the finished product, to the ornamental, the individual, and the concrete ; while the masculine preference is for the more remote, the constructive, the useful, the general, and the abstract." Another point worth mention is the tendency to select words that rhyme, and alliterative words ; both these tendencies were decidedly more marked in men than in women. In regard to the time taken by the whole process there . was practically no sexual difference I

Another series of experiments was made by Pro- fessor Jastrow in order to test the processes of memory and association. The withdrawal of a screen revealed a word upon the blackboard, whereupon each mem- ber of the class wrote upon a slip of paper the first word suggested by the word on the board, and then folded the paper so as to conceal what had been written ; another word was then shown and the process repeated until each student had written ten words. (The ten words on the blackboard, it should be said, were simple monosyllables, including most of the words which the previous experiment had shown to be most generally uppermost in thought.) Ex- actly two days later, and without the slightest

THE INTELLECTUAL IMPULSE.

expectation on their part, the students were asked to write as many as possible of the words they had written forty-eight hours previously, and in the same order. The original ten words were then again written on the board, and the students asked to write as many as possible of the associations recorded two days before. The results of the first test may be called the "original lists," of the second the "A lists," of the third the " B lists." The first showed the most accessible associations to ten common words ; the " A " lists show to what extent such can be recalled by memory alone, upon short notice, and when written with no expectation of future use ; the " B " lists show to what extent the recollection is aided by the presence of the suggesting words. It was found that of the words written by the men 40 per cent were completely forgotten, and 50 P^r cent. correctly recalled, while the women forgot only 29 per cent and correctly remembered 58 per cent; that is to say, that the women showed distinct superiority in memory. On the other hand, the "B" lists are substantially alike in both men and women ; in other words, the furnishing of the original word aids the men more than the women, and this makes the proportion of totally forgotten and correctly recalled words the same for both sexes. It was also found that while men favour associations by sound and from part to whole, women prefer asso- ciations from whole to part and from object to quality. Professor Jastrow also organised some experiments on similar lines at the Milwaukee High School, and here also was shown, and in a stil! higher degree, the superiority of the feminine mind in the matter of memory. Here, also, the diflference between the sexes was lessened when the suggesting word was supplied. The sexual differ- ence was clearly greater in the high school ; it also appears that while university boys remember better than high school boys, high school girls remember

MAN AND WOMAN.

better than university girls. In many small points curious and unexpected sexual differences were found to be identical at the university and at the high school. In both, finally, there was found as usual greater community of association in girls than in boys. In a subsequent series of experiments to test the nature of associations (the results of which Pro- fessor Jastrow has kindly communicated to me) each student wrote five words to each of the same ten words. A comparison of the men and the women suggested that masculine preferences are probably for associations by sound (as man-can), from whole to part (as tree-leaf), from object to activity (as pen- write), from activity to object (as write-pen), and perhaps by natural kind (as cat-dog); while feminine preferences are for associations from part to whole (as hand-arm), object to quality (as tree-green), quality to object (as blue-sky), and miscellaneous (including all that are ambiguous or not easily classi- fied). This more special study of sexual differences in the association-element in thought docs not entirely confirm the results suggested by the previous study; and it need scarcely be remarked that a few series of investigations can only lead to provisional results. Such investigations place our knowledge of psych- ology upon a sure and positive foundation, but they need to be extended to a very large number of indi- viduals before any wide-reaching generalisations can be attained.

In an article by Professor Stanley Hall on "The Contents of Children's Minds on entering School" {Pedaj;ogical Semin- ary, June 1891 ; also Berlin Sladtisches Jahrbuch, 1870, pp. 59-77). a detailed summary is given of an investigation carried on at Berlin into the ideas and knowledge of several thousand children on entering school. Although the carrying out of this investigation was left to the teachers certain fairly reliable results seem to emerge. The familiarity of the children with 75 different objects and ideas was tested, and it was found that "the easy and widely diffused concepts are commonest among girls, the harder and more special or exceptional

THE INTELLECTUAL IMPULSE.

E commonest among boys. The gWU dearly excelled only in the following concepts : Name and calling of the father, thunder-shower, rainbow, hail, potato-field, moon, square, circle, Alexander Square, Fredericl^s Wood, moming-rea, oak, dew, and Botanical Garden. The girls excel in space concepts, and boys in numbers. Girls excel in fairy tales [girls 60.; per cent, to boys 39.5], and boys in religious concepts [boys 60.3 to girls 39.7]. As the opportunities to learn both would not probably differ much, there seems here a diflerence of disposition. Rolhkappchen was better known than God, and Schncewittchen than Christ. More boys could repeat sec- lences said to them, or sing musical phrases sung to them, or sing a song, than girls." Professor Hall proceeds to give an account of a more careful study on similar lines of several hundred children at Boston. The results, although not carried out on a sufficient number of children, confirm on the whole those reached at Berlin. " In 34 represetitative questions out of 49 the boys surpass the girls, as the German boys did in 75 per cent, of the Berlin questions. The girls excel in know- ledge of the parts of the body, home and family life, thunder, rainbows, in knowledge of square, circle, and triangle, but not in that of cube, sphere, and pyramid, which is harder and later. Their stories are more imaginative, while their knowledge of things outward and remote, their power to sing and articulate correctly from dictation, their acquaintance with numbers and animals, is distinctly less than tiiat of the boys. The Berlin reports infer that the more common, near, or easy a notion is the more likely are the girls to excel the boys, and vice versd. . . . Boys do seem more likely than girls to be ignorant of common things right about them." These interesting data bear on the respective capacity of men and women for abstract thought and for practical life, which it will be necessary to touch on later.

One other series of observations may be mentioned. Professor C. S. Minot sent out cards with the following request ; — " Please draw ten diagrams on this card, without receiving any sugges- tions from any other person, and add your name and address." Five hundred sets were received from persons of both sexes. Circles were most common, then squares, then triangles, then four-sided figures, and so on. It was found that repetitions much preponderated among the women, though this is not true of dl classes of diagrams j the men exhibit on the whole much more variety than the women. (C. S. Minot, "Second Report on Experimental Psychology: Upon the Diagram Tests," Proceedings Am. Sac. for Psych. Research,

vol. i., No. 4, 1

9-)

RapidUy of Perception.— T\i\i is an interestiir

172

example of a characteristic which has been nearly always attributed to women, but which cannot be said to have yet been demonstrated in a very satisfactory manner. It cannot, however, be entirely passed over. We must for the most part speak of it as complicated with various motor and intellectual processes.

Herzen made a series of experiments at Florence into the influence of age and sex in modifying reaction- time. He was impressed by the slowness with which children co-ordinate or associate two movements, as of the hand and foot His figures show that girls react at first more quickly than boys, but while in the latter the reaction accelerates regularly up to adolescence, in the former it accelerates less rapidly, and stops short at a lower rapidity than that of the masculine sex.' At present, however, our knowledge of difference in reaction-time does not appear to be sufficiently extensive to enable us to speak very authoritatively as to the significance of a low rate. It is quicker (according to Buccola) among the educated than among the uneducated, but the recent investigation of some Italian men of genius has shown that in them reaction time is slow.^ It is also very slow in the insane, and extremely slow in idiots. Some Japanese jugglers examined by Herzen reacted very slowly. The north Italians, he found, reacted more quickly than the south Italians, and a Norwegian reacted most quickly of all.

Reaction-time merely indicates the more or less rapid manner in which a person can respond muscularly to a signal. It is perhaps in more com- plicated processes involving a larger clement of intelli- gence, that we may expect to find more marked sexual differences. Mr. Romanes has tested rapidity in reading; the same paragraph was presented to various well-educated persons, and they were asked to read it as rapidly as they could, ten seconds being

THE INTELLECTUAL IMPULSE.

173

allowed for twenty lines. As soon as the time was up the paragraph was removed, and the reader immediately wrote down all that he or she could remember of it. It was found that women were usually more successful than men in this test. Not only were they able to read more quickly than the men, but they were able to give a better account of the paragraph as a whole. One lady, for instance, could ■read exactly four times as fast as her husband, and even then give a better account than he of that small portion of the paragraph He had alone been able to read. But it was found that this rapidity was no proof of intellectual power, and some of the slowest readers were highly distinguished men.' In youth we read rapidly, but it is within the experience of many of us that on reaching adult age we come to read more and more slowly. It is as though in early age every statement were admitted imme- diately and without inspection to fill the vacant chamber of the mind, while in adult age every state- ment undergoes an instinctive process of cross-exami- nation ; every newfact seems to stir up the accumulated stores of facts among which it intrudes, and so impedes rapidity of mental action. It is the same with the impulse to action; in the simply organised mind this is direct and immediate: " I do just what I think of," said to Dr. Mendel an imbecile who had committed an offence against morality; " afterwards I consider it." In the more highly organised brain the consideration comes before the action and retards it We may say that the impulse and the action form the two ends of a circuit which at the centre of its course is intellectual. The longer and more infolded the intellectual portion of the circuit the longer it

' G. J. Komanes, " Mental Dificrences between Men and Women," NineUenlh Ctntury, May 1887. There is a discussion on " Perception in Man and Woman," but without any contribution of new fects, in Dr. H. Campbell's Differences in the Nenioia Organiiatim ef Man and Woman, Part IL, chap, xii.

174

will be before the impulse is transmitted into action.

The masculine method of thought is massive and dchberate, while the feminine method is quick to perceive and nimble to act. The latter method is apt to fall into error, but is agile in retrieving an error, and under many circumstances this agility is the prime requirement. Whenever a man and a woman are found under compromising circumstances it is nearly always the woman who with ready wit audaciously retrieves the situation. Every one is acquainted with instances from life or from history of women whose quick and cunning ruses have saved lover or husband or child. It is unnecessary to insist on this quality, which in its finest forms is called tactfulncss.

The method of attaining results by ruses (common among all the weaker lower animals) is so habitual among women that, as Lombroso and Ferrero remark, in women deception is " almost physiological." As Diderot somewhere says, the one thing that women have been thoroughly well taught is to wear decently the fig-leaf they have inherited from their grandmother Eve. The same fact is more coarsely and ungraciously stated in the proverbs of many nations, and in some countries it has led to the legal testimony of women being placed on a lower footing than that of men. But to regard the caution and indirectness of women as due to innate wicked- ness, it need scarcely be said, would be utterly irrational. It is inevitable, and results from the' constitution of women, acting in the conditions under which they are generally placed. There is at present no country in the world, certainly no civilised country, in which a woman may safely state openly her wishes and desires, and proceed openly to seek their satisfac- tion,

Lombroso and Ferrero have admirably analysed this habit of I mind, the persistency of which in women no one will doubt, and J

THE INTELLECTUAL IMPULSE.

which isfound to some extenleven in the most highly intellectual- ised women. They trace it to seven causes, which all act cbiefly or exclusively on women; (i) Weakness; for cunning and deception .ire the necessary resort of the weak and oppressed; only the strong can afford to be frank. (2) Menstnialion; this function is treated with a certain amount of disgust, therefore women try to conceal it ; so that every month they are exercised in dis- simulation for three or four da^s, during which they either endeavour to conceal their condition altogether, or else simulate some trivial malady. (3) Modestyj thus in a woman any de- monstration of love which has not been invited by a man is regarded as immodest, whence a training in deception which in the excitable ner\-ous systems of women is peculiarly severe; again, in women the exercise of the natural functions of urination and defalcation is regarded as immodest, so that any natural call of this kind must either be repressed, or some ingenious ruse must be invented in order to gain an opportunity for its satisfaction ; the &cts concerning sexual relationships, again, are also regarded as immodest, and are so far as possible concealed from women and girls; when women find them out, as they inevitably do sooner or later, they have become habituated to the idea that to be modest means telling lies about such things, and so ihey continue the tradition. (4) Sexual Selection; a woman instinct- ively hides her defects, her disorders, if necessary her age — anything which may injure her in the eyes of men, including even iier best qualities, if she thinks that these may call out ridicule or dislike. A woman usually finds it easy to mould herself on the ideal of the man she is with at the moment, provided she admires him. He would usually be repelled if she were independently to assert her own individuality. The artifices of the toilet have the same source, although, as has often been pointed out, they no longer refer to men alone, but are also intended to impress other women, or to obtain' a triumph over them. (5) The desire to be interesting, leading to simulated weaknesses, etc., and a supposed need for protection ; this seems to be merely an extension of the previous heading. (6) Suggestibility; the greater suggestibility of women (else- where pointed out, Chap, XI.) necessarily involves an overlapping of the real and the simulated — which is really unconscious and involuntary. {7) The duties of Maternity; a large part of the education of the infantile mind at the hands of mothers con- sists of a series of more or less skilful lies, toldwith the object of hiding from children the facts of life which are not considered proper or right for them to know ; frequently also various false ideas are taught in order to frighten or otherwise influence children ; so that in training their children women are also training themselves in dissimulation. (La Donna Delinguente, 1393, pp. 133-139.) J think it might be added that anotttt

MAN AND WOMAN.

C3Use of disBimulatLon lies in thciv compassion, a feminine quality on which Lombroso and Ferrero elsewhere rightly insist; an exaggerated desire to avoid hurting or shocking- olhers is one of the most frequent causes of minor dissimula- tions, and works more powerfully in women than in men. I would also add that this tendency to caution and ruse is by no means confined to the human female; it appears to be a fact of considerable zoological extension, and is rooted in the necessity the female is under of guarding her offspring from danger. Female monkeys are more cautious and cunning than the males, and it is said that trappers on the average can only catch one nursing mother and three or four females of any kind for two score specimens of the less wary sex.

Buckle has dignified the ready wit of women by terming it a tendency to start from ideas rather than from the patient collection of facts; men's minds, he asserted, are naturally inductive, women's deductive.^ It would perhaps be more correct to say that women start more readily, perhaps without any conscious intellectual process, from the immediate facts before them. It is unquestionably a valuable possession, and, as Buckle remarks, women's fine and nimble minds are no doubt often irretrievably injured by "that preposterous system called their education." He refers to the notable superiority of women in quickness of intelligence among the lower classes, and to the fact that a stranger in a foreign land will always find that his difficulties are more readily understood by women. I think there can be little doubt as to the more ready intelligence of women among the uncultivated classes, whatever the cause may be. In the solitude of the Australian bush, for instance, one finds repeatedly that while the settler is embarrassed and silent, or scarcely able to utter more than monosyllables, his wife is comparatively fluent and in possession of a fairly rich and precise vocabu- lary. It may be that this ismerely the result of greater practice in the course of domestic avocations, although

1 Ihe Progress of Knowledge," i

4 4

THE INTELLECTUAL IMPULSE. 177

Fehling states that the little girl's command of speech is superior to the little boy's at a very early age, and it is a curious but undoubted fact that women are seldom found to stammer.^ Negroes are very eloquent, as is well known, taking their moderate intellectual powers into consideration. I have heard good speeches (on missionary topics) by a man and a woman belonging to so low a race as the Austra- lians ; the woman was especially fluent and effective. It may be said that these apprehensions quickly finding expression have been generally recognised in women. An eminent physician, Currie, mentions (according to Buckle) that when a labourer and his wife came to consult him it was always from the woman that he gained the clearest and most precise information, the intellect of the man moving too slowly for his purpose. This is by no means an uncommon medical experience. It appears also that Parisian lawyers have discovered that women can explain things best, and they say to their working- class clients, " Send me your wife." *

Precocity. — There is good reason to believe that girls are more precocious in intelligence than boys. The point, so far as I am aware, has not been definitely proved at present, but it would be in harmony with what wc know of the physical devel- opment of the sexes, and it has becti observed independently. Thus Dclaunay remarks that among children under the age of twelve, teachers in mixed schools find that girls are cleverer than boys,^

It is an interesting fact, and perhaps of some significance, that among primitive races in all parts of the world the child- ren at an early age are very precocious in intelligence. It is

^ Men aie three limes more liable to this defect, according to Ssikorski, Utbir das Suittm, 1891. The proverlB of many nations bear witness to women's facility of speech; see, fur example, Lombroso and Fenero, p. 175.

' Delaunay, Revue Scienii^qai, 1S81, p. 309.

■ Rams ScUtUifique, 1S81, p, joiS.

so among the Eskiiiio as well as among the Australians. Among the African Fantis, Lord Wolseley remarks, "The boy is far brighter, quicker, and cleverer than the man. You can appar- ently teach the boy anything until he reaches puberty, then he becomes gradually duller and more stupid, more lazy, and more useless every day." Among the lower yellow races the same phenomenon is witnessed. Thus Leclfre, in his study of the Cambodgians, found that the children arc very intelligent when young, but that at the age of fifteen they become stationary and less active ; a certain obscurity — un peu lie nuit— comes on their minds, and at the same time their features become less regular and beautiful than they were before. (Lecl^re, " Mosurs et Coutumes des Cambodgiens," Revue Scientifique, 21 Juin, 1893.) It seems that the lower the race the more marked is this precocity and its arrest at puberty. It is a fact that must be taken in connection with the peculiarly human characters of the youthful anthropoid apes and the more de- graded morphological characters of the adults.

Among the civilised European races precocity of intelli- gence, speaking generally, is not a fact of good augury for intelligence in after-life. This statement is scarcely qualified by the fact that among persons of abnormal intellect or genius, extraordinary precocity is sometimes found. The average results of precocity on after-development cannot at present be definitely stated as regards intelligence, but appear more clearly in other fields which are more easily open to exact observation. Thus Gallon, considering the results of certain tables of the height of the male population which he had prepared, and which appear in the Report of the Anthropometric Committee of the British Association (1881), remarks: "Precocity is, on the whole, of no advantage in later life, and it may be a disad- vantage. It is certain that the precocious portion do not maintain their lead to the full extent ; it is possible that they may actually fall back, and that many of those who occupied a low place in the statistical series between the ages of 14 and 16 occupy a high place after those years."

It is probable that results of interest in reference to sexual differences in intelligence and its develop- ment would be obtained by the careful use of school -record 3, Somethinfj has already been done in this direction by Roussel, by Riccardi, and others; and such questions are now being seriously taken up in America.' Roussel, for instance, has com-

' Thus Professor E^rl Barnes n

"WTith a study n

giesa on agoo children from Monterey Coualy, Califomiu, following

THE INTELLECTUAL IMPULSE.

pared the punishments received by boys and girls at different Belgian schools. He found that out of lOO boys, g or lo arc punished for pilfering ; out of lOO girls not one : out of loo boys, 54 are punished for quarrelling and striking ; out of 100 girls only 17. On the other hand, he found that girls are more idle than boys in the proportion of 21 girls to 3 boys. On the whole, during 1860-79, 3i P^r cent, of the boys were punished, 36 per cent of the girls.' Riccardi finds from an examination of several hundred school children of Modeiia and Bologna that girls have a greater fondness for study than boys (61 per cent, against 43 per cent); that girls have also a greater fondness for manual work (27 per cent, against 22 per cent.) ; while the number of boys without any pre- ference is much greater than of girls (35 per cent, against 12 per cent.). Riccardi considers that women have greater educability, sociability, domesticity, dili- gence, and a more profound psychic atavism than men.^ It is not until after the age of sixteen that the intellectual superiority of boys asserts itself. It will be seen Riccardi's results do not seem quite to accord with Roussel's as to the frequency of idleness among girls. It may be added that in lunatic asylums there is usually said to be more difficulty in persuading the women to work than the men. The best field for studying objectively the development of sexual differences in character and mental develop- ment is in mixed schools.

It will perhaps be found that to some extent the

Binet's tests in perception, we are ccrlainly able to deraonslrate that the girls in llial county from eleven to thirteen years old have a con- sidciably more detailed and extended knowledge of common objecis about them than is possessed by boys of the same age, or else they have superior power of cxpres.sion. — Pedagogical Seminary, March 1893, This journal is a valuable storehouse iri psychological data for the study of childhood and adolescence.

' T. Roussel, EnqiifU sur In Orphelittal!, etc., 1B81.

' Riccardi, Antrofolcgia t Fedasogi^i F^t !■■ >^l> PP- 121, \&i.~

MAN AND WOMAN.

sexes change their character and mental aptitude on the approach of puberty. This would account for some of the recorded observations, and is rendered more likely by the probable mental precocity of the girls. But the recorded observations wili have to be much more precise and extensive than they are at present before it will be possible to attain any clear and definite conclusions.

Industrial and Business Capacities. — The gradual opening up of various occupations has caused many practical experiments to be made concerning sexual differences in business capacity, though it can scarcely be said that the results have been very accurately observed and recorded.^ It must be added also that it is by no means so easy to find men and women doing the same work under the same conditions; a process of sexual differentiation seems always to come immediately into operation by which the women are enabled to do higher work under easier conditions; this is so even in the Post-office, where a very large number of women are employed.

Delaunay consulted a number of merchants con- cerning sexual differences in industrial occupations, and they generally agreed that " women are more industrious but less intelligent than men;" thus in printing establishments, for instance, women were found to work mechanically, with minute attention to detail, but without fully understanding what they were doing, so that they composed very well from printed copy, but not so well from manuscript as mefi.^ Mr. Sidney Webb remarks that the Prudential Life Assurance Company employs considerably over

^ The opportunilies for such obaervalion at foi insUnce, in Mii^sachusetls [he propottio. " gainful occupations," which in 1S7S was 21 had increaasd lo 30 per cent, in 1885 ; or, sti " e femAle popuhition had increased 1

had increased 64.6 per cent. See also " Contribution Feministe," /ijama^ otj EconomisUS, Mars 1893. ' Rciiue Scieatijiqui, 18S1, p. 307.

rea^ng; thus,

cent, of the whole, another way, while employed women

1 Mou

THE INTELLECTDAL IMPULSE l8l

200 ladies in routine clerical work (copying letters, filling up forms, etc.). "This work they perform, I am assured, rather better and more rapidly than men. But they are absent from sickness (usually only slight indisposition) more than twice as much as the men." Moreover, it has been found impossible to entrust them with more than routine work, which is a drawback to their advantageousness to the employer.^ In routine work, however — that is to say, continuous work at a low pressure — it is probable that they are superior to men, possessing thus greater application and patience ; this seems a characteristic of the work of both civilised and uncivilised women.* It seemed to me a matter of some interest to ascertain the experiences of the Post-office, so large an employer of both men and women, as to sexual differences in capacity. It is not altogether easy to obtain such information, and it does not seem possible at present to obtain it in a definite and precise form. I have, however, received from an authoritative source a number of opinions which represent the experience of various large post-offices in different parts of the kingdom, and which are regarded as being typical and reliable results. Thus, one of the chief post- masters is of opinion that as counter and instrumental clerks, doing concurrently money order and savings bank duties, taking in telegrams, and signalling and receiving telegrams, and in attending to rough and illiterate persons, women clerks arc preferable to men. They keep their stocks in neater order, and are more careful with money; they speak better, as a rule, and are more patient. In another (west country) district where the telegraph work is entirely performed by women, it is stated to be admirably done. At a very large provincial office it is found that women compare

o Men and ti ■,V/fl„r«fl/ri89i, p. 635. 1 (pp. 177-178) titing forward evidence 01

favourably with telegraphists of the other sex, doing their work, as a rule, with equal intelligence and accuracy. But it is found that their handwriting is not usually so good, and that they rarely exhibit the same desire as men to obtain a technical knowledge of telegraphy. On the postal side they are also regarded as a distinct success at the city in question. Complaints from the public of inattention and in- civility are less frequent in the case of offices where women are employed; and women keep their stamp stocks in better order, are less troublesome in matters of discipline, and are regarded as less liable to go wrong in money matters than men. As a rule they do their work with intelligence and accuracy, and under ordinary conditions they probably do it almost as quickly; but at times of pressure they are not able to maintain a competition with men at the heavier kinds of work, especially at Wheatstone circuits, etc, owing to a lack of staying power. Another report also expresses doubt as to the strength and staying power of women for the continuous work of a heavy head office counter, and male assistance has been required. As a general rule, in the opinion of another postmaster, female telegraphists perform counter duties satis- factorily, but in cases of emergency they are not equal to male officers, and the proportion of errors is generally greater among females than males. The latter also are found better able to maintain order and discipline among the messengers. As regards instru- ment room duties, women work moderately busy circuits just as well as men, but it is considered generally necessary to staff ihe busiest circuits with male telegraphists; this applies more particularly to news wires, the work being too heavy for women, who do not seem to possess the wrist-power requisite for rapid writing, and at the same time for making the required number of copies. Moreover, for this class of work male telegraphists are better qualified because, as a rule, they arc much better informed on all topics

THE INTELLECTUAL IMPULSE.

183

of general public interest, which is an clement of importance In dealing with news traffic. According to another opinion, finally, as supervising officers women cannot so well stand the continuous walking about the instrument room which is regarded as very necessary, and it is also found that they evince no desire to acquire technical knowledge.

The general sense of these and other authoritative opinions is fairly harmonious as to the relative capacity of men and women for post-office duties. There appears to be general agreement that women are more docile and amenable to discipline; that they can do light work equally well ; that they are steadier in some respects; but that, on the other hand, they are oftener absent on account of slight indisposition, they break down sooner under strain (although considera- tion is shown them in the matter of hours, etc.), and exhibit less intelligence outside the ordinary routine, not showing the same ability or willingness (possibly because they look forward to marriage) to acquire technical knowledge. In London it is the general experience that women are lacking in courtesy to the public; many complaints are received concern- ing the discourtesy of the female clerks, and some post-officers have an objection to the employment of women on this account Whether the attitude of the public may not be a factor in this discourtesy seems a matter for question; in any case, it is worth noting that In some of the large provincial offices it is found that women are more courteous than men. These results seem to coincide fairly with those obtained from other sources.

The employment of women in the Post-office is much cheaper (by about 25 per cent.) than that of men, but from the official point of view it is attended by various disadvantages : (1) They are much more frequently absent on account of sickness j statistics on this point ate given in Webb's paper, (2) They are not required to work at niy;ht, and it is at night that a large part of the work is done. (3) They cannot do much overtime work, and at Christmas, etc., there is great additicti-ii.

l84 MAN AND WOMAN.

pressure. (4) In offices where women are employed (a HattOQ Garden) it is necessary to have the presence of a during part of the day to afford protection in case of an attempt

at robbery. When women are substituted for — -c^--

worked by three or four men will require four c chiefly, it seems, because it is not considered safe to leave a woman alone at any time. (5) The provision of separate lava- tories, etc., for women is expensive and often, for want of space, impracticable. The last reason, more perhaps than any other, has militated against the immediate employment of women in provincial offices generally.

It is to be regretted that the Post-office authorities by no means offer facihties for the registration, or at all events for the publication, of facts regarding sexual differences in capacity. Now that the employment of women is becoming so widespread this question becomes one of considerable general interest and importance. Instead of discouraging such inquiries (which need not involve the publication of any facts which for any reason it is desirable to withhold) a post- office official, whose sole duty it would be to obtain returns regarding such sexual differences, and to put them into statistical shape, would be performing a useful public duty. His reports would give, in a reliable and well -supported form, valuable indications as to the advantagcousness of employing men or women in a variety of occupations,

Mr. Sidney Webb, who has studied some of the points touched on in this section, although from an economic rather than a psychological standpoint, reaches the following conclusions : — " The attraction to the employer of women's labour is often less in its actual cheapness than in its ' docility ' and want of com- bination, 'Women strike less,' says one. A similar fact is recorded as to the employment of the negro in manufacturing industries in the 'New South' (United States). ... 1 find it difficult to draw any general conclusion from the foregoing facts. But they suggest to me that the frequent inferiority of women's earnings in manual work is due, in the main, to a general but not invariableinferiorityof productive power, usually in quantity, sometimes in quality, and nearly always in nett advaniageous- ness to the employer. , , . The problem of the ineijuality at wages is one of great plurality of causes and intermixture of

THE INTELLECTUAL IMPULSE. iSj

effects, ;ind one might not improbably find that, as is often the tase, there is no special women's question in the matter." (Sidney Webb, "Alleged Differences in the Wages," etc., Ecanomic Journal, 1891.)

Abstract Thought. — It is easier to compare the higher and more exceptional intellectual qualities of men and women than their average mentai qualities, although in both cases we have the same difficulty — which cannot at present be definitely resolved — in determining precisely the boundary between or- ganic constitution and education.

There is no such thing — one cannot too often repeat it — as pure rationality. The thought that we call abstract has its foundation in the organic and emotional character of the individual. Abstract thought in women seems usually to be marked by a certain docility and receptiveness. Even in trivial matters the average woman more easily accepts statements and opinions than a man, and in more serious matters she is prepared to die for a statement or an opinion, provided it is uttered with such authority and unction that her emotional nature is sufficiently thrilled. This is allied with woman's suggestibility, and it seems to have to some extent an organic basis, so that while the culture of the more abstract powers of thought may make it impossible to obey this instinct, there is still a struggle ; or else the more purely rational method is attained — and often distorted in the attaining— by the complete suppression of the other elements. Professor Stanley Hall, in the course of a series of very careful and suggestive observations on children, remarks that "the normal child feels the heroism of the unaccountable instinct of self-sacrifice far earlier and more keenly than it can appreciate the sublimity of truth."* In this respect women remain children, and that they do seems to result from the organic

' "Children's Lies," Ant. Jountat ef I'syckolosy, January 1S90.

facts of womc:

MAN AND WOMAN.

facts of women's life.^ I think we may agree that;, as Burdach said long ago, "Women take truth as

they find it, while men want to create truth." The latter method leads further, if only further into error. It is not simply that women are more ready than men to accept what is already accepted and what is most in accordance with appearances^ — and that it is inconceivable, for instance, that a woman should have devised the Copernican system— but they are less able than men to stand alone. It is difiicult to re- call examples of women who have patiently and slowly fought their way at once to perfection and to fame in the face of complete indifference, like, for instance, Balzac, — apart from the fact that a woman of talent is usually in more command of her means and able to reach a certain degree of success at an early period. It is still more difficult to recall a woman who for any abstract and intellectual end has fought her way to success through obloquy and contempt, or without reaching success, like a Roger Bacon or a Galileo, a Wagner or an Ibsen. Not only does the woman crave more for sympathy, but she has not

' There are fnr more women than men who can aay with Mrs. Besanl : " Looking back today over my life I see that its key-nole — through all the blunders and the blind mistakes and clumsy follies — has been this longing for sacrifice to something felt as greater tha,n the self." — Autobiography, xiv. While the instinct ot sel/socrllice is J common among women it cannot be said that the appreciation of " tht sublimity of truth" is a masculine characteristic in anything like i corresponding degree.

' The influence of education must here be taken into account), women are trained to accept conventional standards. Thus a investigation (inaugurated by Professor Stanley Hall) of many hundred I American children as to their ideas of right and wrong showed that th« '1 answers of the girls ditfer from the boys in two marked ways ; Ihey I more often name specific acts and nearly twice as often conventionml J ones, the former difTerence being most common in naming right, the J latter in naming wrong things. Boys say it is wrong to steal, fight, f kick, break windows, gel drunk, slick pins into others, or If " — " "cuss," shoot them, while girls are mote apt to say it is wro comb the hair, to get butler on the dress, climb trees, anfold tho I hands, ciy, catch flies, etc — Pedagogical Seminary, vol. I p. 165.

THE INTELLECTUAL IMPULSE.

the same sturdy independence The hero of Ibsen's Enemy of the People, who had realised that the strongest man in the world is the man who stands most alone, could scarcely have been a woman. When a man is attacked by g pnpral paralygis he usually displays an extravagant degree of e goism and self-reliance; when a woman is the victim of the same disease it is not s elf-reliant e goisfri but extreme vanity which sHe displays. The disease liberates the tendencies that are latent in each — the man's to independence, the woman's to dependence on the opinion of others. It must be added to this that what appears to be women's tendency to be vividly impressed by immediate facts, and to neglect those that are remote, is fatal to the philosophic thought which must see all things sub specie ater- nitalis. It is probably to such causes as these that we must attribute the fact that in the first rank of those who have devoted themselves to metaphysics there is not one woman, while in the second and third ranks, from Hypatia to Constance Naden, it is very hard to find women who occupy an honourable place.

It can scarcely be said that we have much warrant beyond her fame for assigning a high place to Hypatia. That she was of a curiously analytical and unemotional— to the ordinary masculine person it may even seem cynical — habit of mind is indicated by the untranslatable anecdote recorded by Suidas (though we cannot accept this as unquestionably authoritative): " Cum de auditoribus quidam earn deperiret, pannos mensibus fcedatos illi ostendisse dicitur et dixisse ; ' Hoc quidem adamas, o adolescens'; et sic animum ejus sanasse." It is a curious fact, referred to by Lombroso and Ferrero (p. 171), that among the Greeks thirty-four women distinguished themselves in the Pythagorean school of philosophy, and scarcely three or four in any other school, only one among the Cynics. This is due, according to these writers, to the Pythagorean school being "a sort of company of Jesus, appealing to the emotions rather than the intelligence, a monastic association with rites possessing special moral aims and inculcating family virtues." That Con- stance Naden possessed in a high degree the purely metaphysical impulse there can be no doubt, although, whether i.

quence of her enrly denlh or otherwise, she achieved i monument of philosophic thought. It is worth while to quote^ Herbert Spencer's estimat e of her intellect and remarks on intellect in women generally (contained in a letter published in the newspapers a few years ago) ;-#" Very generally receptivity and originality are not associated, Tint in her mind they appear to have been equally great. I can think of no woman, save George Eliot, in whom there has been this union of high philo- sophical capacity with extensive acquisition. Unquestionably her subtle intelligence would have done much in furtherance of rational thought, and her death has entailed a serious loss. While I say this, however, I cannot let pass the occasion for remarking that in her case, as in other cases, the mental ptowers so highly developed in a woman are in some measure abnormal, and involve a physiological cost which her feminine organisa- tion will not bear without injury more or less profound." )*'

Paul Lafitte (Le Pta-adoxe de i'EgaliU, 18S7, pp, iij'st stg.) has some~observations on the differences in the higher mental qualities of men and women which are worth quoting, as they are much fairer and more judicious than such observations usually are. He remarks that in women the receptive faculties are most developed, and continues ; — "When children of both sexes are educated together, it is the ^rls who are at the top during the first years ; it is at that time above all a question of receiving impressions and keeping them, and we see every day that women by the vivacity of Iheir impressions and their memory are superior to the men who surround them. To this facility in seizing and re taining facts must be added the taste for symmetry which seems innate in them ; you will understand the aptitude which they always show for the study of geometry. In the same way at the examinations at the School of Medicine . we may see young women shine in phraology or p atholog y; they have seized the series of facts witF"a clearness wBich strikes the examiners ; but for the most part they"*are iijfgrior in the clinical tests which bring other mental faculties into play. Generally speaking, a woman seems more touched by the fact than by the law, by the particular idea than by the general idea. If it is a question of pronouncing an opinion on a known indi- vidual, that of the man will perhaps be more exact in general outline ; but if we pass to shades of character the woman immediately has the advantage ; a familiar gesture, a word employed more often than another, a wrinkle forming at certain moments, a look, a smile, all arc noted by her, catalogued, and appreciated at their just value. The same differences are found in literary works : a woman's book, whether by Madame de Stael or George Eiiot, is worth more in detail than as a whole. No one questions tliat women are superior to us in the epistolary style. Whence comes this superiority? We compose a letter

THE INTELLECTUAL IMPULSE.

189

as we would draw up a report, and write coldly: a woman, on the contrary, writes under the impression of the facts ; she re- traces them, leaving to each its own physiognomy, and naturally, without research or rhetoric, she Jinds life and movement at the tip of her pen. The habit of mind differs as the faculties differ ; we are more interested in the relations of things than in the things themselves. La Bruyfire, on more than one side, is a feminine genius ; Descartes is the type of the masculine genius ; it would have been possible for a woman to write the Carac- tires, but 1 doubt if any woman could ever remake the pis - eourjjig ja Method s. In a word, there are equivalent faculilei, BiTt they are not the same ; the wo nian 's mind is more concrete, the man's more abstract."

It may be addeSThat a certain number of women have attained eminence in mathematics, although none are associated with any great achievement. Thus Maria Lewen pubhshed a bookof astronomical tables in the seventeenth century I the Mar- quise du Chiitellet translated Newton's Principia; Madame Le- pante contributed to her husband's work on horology a table of the lengths of pendulums, and in conjunction with Lalande calcu- lated the perturbations of Halley's comet, a work which, says Lalande, "occupied us during six months from morning to night ; we calculated sometimes even at meals ; " Maria Agnesi wrote a book on the Differential and Integral Calculus which has been highly praised by mathematicians ; Laura Bassi was appointed to a professorial chair at Bologna ; Miss H ysch ell was distinguished as an assistant to her brother ; Mrs. S^er- ville obtained a wide reputation by her mathematica! and general scientific abilities ; and Madame Sophie Kpwalevslff possessed great mathematical powers, which obtained for her a professorial chair in Sweden. I take many of these facts from D. Beale, Reports issued by Ike ScAoots" Inquiry Commission on the Education of Girls [no date], p, xiii. In this collection of Reports by highly competent inquirers will be found a number of mteresting opmions on the mental capacities of women, as well as on the nature and results of their educational training.

Even within the philosophical field it appears that women have certain rather restricted tastes. Ladies' philosophers, according to the experience of a well- known West End bookseller, are Sciiopenhauer, Plato, Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, and Renan.* That is to say, that women are attracted to the most concrete of all abstract thinkers, to the most poetic, to the most intimately personal, and above all to the most reli- ' Westminster CaaetH, Ijlh May 1893.

tgo

UAN AND WOMAN.

gious, for every one of these thinkers was saturated! through and through with religious emotion. '

Religion. — This leads us to inquire what part women have had in the creation ol religions. No one will question w_om£ni ap titude for relit;ion . whatever the organic basis of that aptitude may be : what part have women had within historical times in the making of religions?

In order to answer this question I have searched A Dicliojiary of ail Religions published in the early part of the present century. It constitutes a fasci- nating but painful page in the history of humanity. Some record is here given of about 600 religious sects, and I find that of these only seven were founded by women. That is to say, that of all the great religious movements of the world nearly 99 in every 100 have received their primary impulse from men, however willing women may have been to follow. The seven sects in question are the Bourignonists, the Buchanists, the Philadelphians, the Southcottians, the Victims, the Universal Friends, and the Wilhelmin- ians. (Some others could be added from more recent times, but it is not probable that the percentage would be greatly changed.) It is of some interest to determine the character of these sects, which are all of a more or less Christian character, and mostly arose within the last few centuries. Madame Bourig- non was a native of Flanders, and so deformed that at birth there was some question of stifling her as a monster. She combined great intellectual power with a broad and tolerant mysticism — a combin- ation by no means uncommon — inculcating reliance on inward impulses, the rejection of outward forms of worship, and acquiescence in the divine will. She was equally opposed to Catholicism and Protestantism, and her personality was greater than any movement she initiated. Mrs. Buchan, of Glasgow, belonged to a different type. She believed she was the woman spoken of in the Apocalypse (Rev. xii.), and that she

THE INTELLECTUAL IMPULSE. 191

could conduct her followers to heaven without dying, but she soon died and her sect with her. She was probably insane. The Philadelphians were a sect oi mystics and universalists founded by Jane Leadley in the latter part of the seventeenth century. Her views in many respects resembled Madame Bour- ignon's, and the Philadelphian Society was a body of considerable importance, including many men of learning. Joanna Southcott and her delusions pro- duced so great an impression at about the beginning of the present century that she is still well remem- bered. She was scarcely sane. The Society of Victims was a curious body of ascetics founded by Madame Brehan in the eighteenth century ; it was of somewhat crazy character, and appears to have had no elements of vitality. The Universal Friends were established by Jemima Wilkinson in America in the la.st century. She had a trance in early life, became inspired and able to work miracles, seceded from the Quakers, and founded a town called Jerusalem. She was an eloquent preacher, and is said to have been an ambitious and selfish woman who died very wealthy from the donations of her followers. The Wilhelm- inians were the disciples of Wilhelmina, a Bohemian woman of the thirteenth century. She believed that the Holy Ghost was incarnated in her anew, and she had the somewhat beautiful thought that while the blood of Jesus only saved devout Christians, through her there was salvation for Jews, Saracens, and unworthy Christians. On the whole, it can scarcely be said that this group of sects shows badly, bearing in mind the general character of reh'gious sects ; they were mostly tolerant, with a strong tendency to mysticism and disregard of ritual and method, and with a very pronounced element of human charity. Still the curious fact emerges that while women usually form the laiger body of followers in a religious movement, as well as the most reckless and devoted, they have initiated but few religious sects, and these have had

192

MAN AND WOMAN.

little or no stability. Women have usually been content to accept whatever religion came to hand, and in their fervour they have lost the capacity for cold, clear-sighted organisation and attention to de- tails. They can supply much of the living spiritual substance, if a man will supply the mould for it to flow into. The study of the Salvation Army , the most remarkable religious movement of recent times, is instructive from this point of view.

Women have played a. very large part in Christianity from the very first, though in early times it was an undistinguished part. As a rule women take but a small part in revolutions (although a large part in revolts which are of more hasty and temporary character), but an analysis of the mortuary epigraphs from the Catacombs of Rome, contained in De Rossi's work. La Roiaa Sotterranta, showed that 40 per cent, of them were of women, (Lombroso and Laschl, L£ Crime Politique, 1892, tome ii. p. 10.) If we ask what definite and permanent contributions to the structure of the CJatholic Ch urch have been made by its vast army of women followers, we may find a brief but author- itative answer ByTTardinal Manning in his Preface to the trans- lation of St. Catherine of Genoa's very beautiful little devotional work, the Treatise on Purgatory ;~-"'Tviq of the greatest festi- vals of the Catholic Church had their origin in the illumination of humble and unlearned women. The Feast of Corpus Christi was the offspring of the devotion of the Blessed Juliana of Retinne ; the Feast of the Sacred Heart of that of the Blessed Margaret Mary : to St. Catherine of Sienna our Lord vouchsafed the honour of calling back again the Sovereign Pontiff from the splendid banishment of Avignon to the throne of the Apostolic See ; to St. Teresa the special gift of illumination, to teach the ways of union with Himself in prayer ; to Blessed Angela of Foligno the eighteen degrees of compunction, and His own five poverties ; and to St Catherine of Genoa an insight and per- ception of the state of Purgatory, which seem like the utterances of one immersed in its expiation of love."

Politics. — It is somewhat remarkable that women have shown far less intellectual ability in the creation of religions than in the very different sphere of politics. More than sixty years ago Buriiach re- marked that women are probably more fitted for politics than men, and he instanced the large number

THE INTELLECTUAL IMPULSE. 193

of able queens.j""J, S. Mill many years arterwards also made some remarks to the same effect in his Subjection of Women. Among all races and in all parts of the world women have ruled brilliantly and with perfect control over even the most fierce and turbulent hordes. Among many primitive races also all the diplomatic relations with foreign tribes are in the hands of women, and they have sometimes decided on peace or war. The game of politics seems to develop very feminine qualities in those who play at it, and it may be paying no cxces- . sive compliment to women to admit the justice of old Burdach's remarks, Whenever their education has been sufficiently sound and broad to enable them to free themselves from fads and sentimentalities, women probably possess in at least as high a degree as men the power of dealing with the practical questions of politics.

It cannot be said that in this chapter we have reached any very definite results. A few careful experiments which need confirmation and extension, a certain number of observations on irregular masses of data, accumulated in the practical experiences of life, which have their value although they are open to varied misinterpretation — this is about all that experimental psychology has yet to show us in regard to the intellectual differences of men and women. Beyond that is mere speculation, founded, to what extent we cannot yet tell, on temporary social and educational differences. This is not sur- prising. Psychology as a science was only born yesterday, and even to-day it can scarcely be said to exist in England. Up till yesterday psychology was left in the hands of the metaphysicians who concocted elaborate speculative systems, each according to his own sweet will. And happy was he who from the indigestible mass could pull out a plum of positive ' Physiologie, lome i. p. 33S.

' /r?i

fact. Psychology is the youngest of the sciences, butl it may perhaps be safely said that in the immediatai: future there is none that will grow with such rapidity.*

It IS a significant fact that the only joumil m England givini^l any attention to psychology in its broad scientific bearings is T called "A Journal of Philosophy and Psychology." There is certainly a psychology of philosophy, as Mr. Alexander Fraser is trying to teach us {ji.g. "The Psychological Basis of Hegel- ism," Am. Jr. Psych., July 1893), but otherwise there is Just as much connection between philosophy and psychology as between philosophy and mathematics, or philosophy and chemistry, or philosophy and physics ; and once all these sciences were " philosophical," as the so-called Philosophical Transactions . still bear witness. Philosophy is the matrix out of which all the sciences have slowly been formed. While they are still small and shapeless the metaphysician can use them as playthitigs and bend them to his oivn purpose, but one by one they grow too big for him, and escape from his grasp to stand on their own feet

CHAPTER IX.

METABOLISM.

THE BLOOD — RED CORPUSCLES MORE NUMEROUS IN MEN — AMOUNT OF H.EM0GLOBIN GREATER IN MEN— SPECIFIC GRAVITY HIGHER IN MEN— THE SEXUAL DIFFER- ENCES IN THE BLOOD COINCIDE WITH THE APPEARANCE OF PUBERTY^ — RISE IN THE SPECIFIC GRAVITY OF THE BLOOD OF WOMEN IN OLD AGE— THE PULSE-RATE — ALWAYS HIGHER IN SMALL THAN IN LARGE ANIMALS^SEXUAL DIFFERENCES IN THE HUMAN AND OTHER SPECIES — NOT NOTABLY GREATER THAN DIFFER- ENCES IN SIZE WOULD LEAD US TO EXPECT.

RESPIRATION — VITAL CAPACITY MUCH GREATER IN MEN^ MEN PRODUCE MORE CARBONIC ACID — COSTAL RESPIRA- TION OF WOMEN AND ABDOMINAL RESPIRATION OF MEN —RECENT INVESTIGATIONS SHOWING THAT THIS SEXUAL DIFFERENCE IS PURELY ARTIFICIAL— IT DOES NOT EXIST AMONG SAV.\GE WOMEN, NOR AMONG THOSE WHO DO NOT WEAR CORSETS — THE ORIGIN OF CORSETS — THEIR INFLUENCE ON THE ACTIVITY OF WOMEN^ — TEMPERA- ' TURE— NO SEXUAL DIFFERENCE YET CLEARLY SHOWN.

EXCRETION — URINE PROBABLY RELATIVELY GREATER IN AMOUNT IN WOMEN, AND UREA RELATIVELY LESS — SPECIAL INFLUENCES AFFECTING WOMEN,

3 POISONS — SEXUAL DIFFERENCES IN THE mON OF POiSONS ON DIFFERENT ORGANS — ARSENIC — OPIUM — MERCURY — SPECIAL SEXUAL SUS- CEPTIBILITIES TO POISONS ^ — CHLOROFORM — LEAD

ALCOHOL THE BEST EXAMPLE OF SEXUAL SELECTIVE ACTION ON NERVOUS SYSTEM — TENDS TO ATTACK THE BRAIN IN MEN, THE SPINAL CORD IN WOMEN.

I BAIR AND PIGMENTATION — SEXUAL DIFFERENCES IN DIS- , I TRIBUTION, ETC., OF HAIR — THE EVES AND PROBAI

I HAIR ARE DARKER IN WOMEN— POSSIBLE ADVANTAGES

I OF PIGMENTATION.

MAN AND WOMAN.

THE BLOOD.

" metabolism " we mean the intimate vital process — so far as chemistry and physics can reveal it — which is for ever changing and renewing the tissues of the body. When we reach the blood we come close to the central metabolic process of life, for it is the blood which is the direct source of the material for this process. Except such elementary creatures as the Protozoa, all animals possess blood, though with great individual varieties with regard to constituents, character, and colour. Roughly speak- ing, the blood of vertebrates consists of three elements, the plasma or fluid portion, the white cor- puscles, and the red corpuscles. Of these, the plasma is the most primitive, and the red corpuscles the latest to appear in the course of evolution. In the human species during childhood we naturally find that there are fewer red corpuscles than in adult age, and also that the haemoglobin (the oxygen- carrying element in the red corpuscles) is less in amount, while the white corpuscles are more abundant than in later life (Hayem).

Denis, and afterwards Lecanu, were the first to draw attention to the fact that there are any sexual differences in the blood ; and the results of these in- vestigators, confirmed at a somewhat later period by Becquerel and Rodier, showed that the blood of men contains less water and more red corpuscles, and is consequently of a higher specific gravity, than that of women; these statements have since often been demonstrated.

There appears to be no evidence showing con- clusively that the white corpuscles are more or less

METABOLISM.

197

numerous in women tlian in men.^but all physiological chemists are agreed that there are more red corpuscles in the male than in the female, not only in man, but also in many lower animals.

Cadet found in men on an average 5,200,000 red corpuscles to 4,900,000 in women, and Korniloff, using a different method — Vierordt's spectroscope— found a similar slight difference. (See Hayem's great work, Du Sang, Paris, 18S9, pp. 184 et seg.) Welcker gives the number of red blood corpuscles per c. rnm. as 5,000,000 in men, 4,500,000 in women; or, otherwise ex- pressed, as 100 to 90. Laache, in an analysis of sixty cases, has found the mean to be 4,970,000 per c. mm. for men, and 4,430,000 per c. mm, for women. Macphail finds 5,075,000 for healthy men, and 4,676,000 for healthy women. (Macphail, Art. on "Blood of the Insane" in Diet. Psych. Med.\ Ehrmann and Siegol found 5,560,000 in men to 5,000,000 in women; Otto, 4,990,000 in men to 4,580,000 in women.

It is, however, by the amount of haemoglobin that we more accurately measure the functional power of the blood. Lichtenstein states that women from the ages of eleven to fifty average 8 per cent less hjemoglobin than men,^ According to M'Kendrick, there is 14.5 per cent, hemoglobin in man's blood, 13.3 per cent in woman's; according to Preyer, it is 13-15 P^"" cent in man, 11 to 13 per cent in woman ; during pregnancy the amount of hEemoglobiii is only about 9 to 12 per cent Bungc has suggested that a storage of the iron in hceraoglobin takes place in the maternal organs even before the first conception, in readiness for the supply of the fcetus through the placenta! circulation. Or we may say, as Lloyd Jones expresses it, that there is a general storing up of tissue food, partly as fat, partly as proteids, and a general reduction of katabolic energy.

A convenient and widely-used method for estiinat-

■ Robin asserted thai they are n has denied it. ' UntcTsuckungtn iihsr den HamogtohingthaU des Blutes, LeEpzig,

MAN AND WOMAN.

ing the quality of the blocxl is by obtaining its specific gravity. It is well recc^ised that the specific gravity of the blood is higher in men than in women, and that it falls in pregnancy (though very slightly), after ex- ercise, and after taking food (especially if much water is drunk). In this country the specific gravity of the blood has been very carefully investigated with interesting results by Dr. Lloyd Jones.' He has taken the specific gravity of the blood (by Roj^s method) of over fifteen hundred persons, in ordinary health, of both sexes and all ages, from birth to over ninety. The specific gravity, Lloyd Jones has found, is at its height at birth, and although generally lower in women than in men, it is about the same in both sexes before the fifteenth year, and is higher in old women than in old men.

In males the specific gravity is about 1066 at birth, and falls during the subsequent two years, being about 1050 in the third year; thence it rises till about seventeen years of age, when it is about 1058. It remains at this height during middle life, and falls slightly in old age.

In females the specific gravity, starting at about 1066 at birth, falls in infancy, as in males, to about 1049 in the third year. Thence it rises till the fourteenth year, when it is 1055.5. Between seventeen and forty-five years of age it is lower than at the age of fourteen, and is about three degrees lower than in men.

Dr. Lloyd Joaes also points out that the specific gravity of the blood varies with individual constitution ; it is lower in persons with light than with dark hair, eyes, and coniplexion. He suggests that this difference is perhaps due to the incomplete r....; — „f ti^i:.^!. .-.^^^ -.-j .».„. .1 — g watery blood may

fusion of British r

i, and that the i

' E. Lloyd Jones, " On the Varialioos in the Specific Gravity of the BioodiaUenllW/i/urfia/B/J'Aj'sii/litgj; 1887; " Furlher Observations ' on the Specific Gnvily of the Blood," September 1891. The latter paper is a lengthy and important monogiaph. Also the B.-une author's . "Prelunioary Report on the Causes of ChlorosLs," £n't. Mtd. Joumal^ 1 2jrd Sept. 189J.

METABOLISM. I99

bdong to the Saxon nnd Scandinavian clemenis. " By the appearance of an individual, noting the age and sex and the colour of the iris, hair and complexion, one can form a fairly accurate estimate of what the specific gravity of his or her blood oUKht to be."

Dr. Lloyd Jones has recently made the interesting discovery that, notwithstanding the general low specific gravity of the blood in women, the plasma in women has a somewhat higher sp, gr, than in men, rising at puberty, while in men it remains stationary.

It will thus be seen that it is at puberty the sexual difference becomes marked. The appearance of menstruation coincides with low specific gravity, and the periodical recurrence of menstruation appears to produce a slight fall in the specific gravity. A very noteworthy sexual difference is the great range in the specific gravity of the blood, consonantly with health, in girls from the ages of fifteen to twenty-two; and the lower limit during this period falls to a very low point It is the age of anaemia, and Dr. Lloyd Jones makes the very reasonable suggestion that chlorosis is but an exaggeration of a condition which is physio- logical at this age.

In old women the specific gravity rises, and Dr. Lloyd Jones suggests that this rise may be a factor in the greater longevity of women. It is certain that good physique is associated with high specific gravity of the blood, and poor physique with a low specific gravity; the blood of Cambridge undergraduates is of very high specific gravity; the blood of workhouse boys of very low specific gravity. The old notion that the blood is the index of fine race is by no means absurd. Nature indicates her own aristocrats nowhere more clearly than in the blood. Only it is not by the supposed blueness of their blood that we can recognise Nature's aristocrats, but by the number of red corpuscles per c. mm.

This difference in the quality of the blood of men and women is fundamental, and its importance can- not be exaggerated ; although it is possible that its

significance may be to some extent neutralised by other factors,

Pulse-Rate. — The rapidity of the heart's action varies very greatly among animals, the heart beating more slowly in proportion to the animal's greater size, but the rule not being perfectly correct ifwe compare, for example, birds with mammals. The pulse-rate usually preserves with the respi rat ion- rate a relation of about 4 to r. In birds the pulse-rate is rery rapid ; in the mammalian series, we Iind, for instance, that the pulse-rate of the mouse is 120, that of the dog 75, of the horse 43, of the elephant 28. In the same species there are differences which arc clearly associated with the bulk of the organism. Large vigorous races of dogs have a slower pulse than smaller races. Dr. Seymour Taylor remarks that he has taken the pulse-rate of gigantic muscular men employed in quarrying and other laborious occupations, men of the Cumberland fells, accustomed to violent struggles in the wrestling arena but of naturally ponderous deliberate nature, and has been surprised to find that their hearts, when at rest and in perfect health, have gone through but 60 cycles in the course of a minute, in one case only 40.^ There are variations among human races which seem to be accounted for by con- siderations of size, and not, as Delaunay' tried to show, by a connection between inferiority and a quick pulse: thus if we take 72, which is Bdclard's standard for the Frenchman, the pulse-rate of the small-bodied Javanese is said to be as high as 84, that of the Chinese and Nicobar Islanders jj, while Jousset states that among Asiatics and Africans generally the pulse- rate varies between 77 and 86. Among Bashkirs, however, whose average height was not more than mm. 1661, Weissenberg found that the average pulse- rate was 63.

' " Remarks on the Slow Heart," Lantet, June 6th, 1S91. ' See his jnleresling discussion of the various influences which modify the pulse, Eludes de Biologii Cemparle^ 2™* Parlie, " Physiologie."

METABOLrSM. 201

Among nearly all animals the lieart of the male beats more slowly than that of the female. In some animals, if we are to accept observations that are probably not very reliable, the differences are con- siderable : the lion's pulse-rate is 40 (Dubois), the lioness's 68 (Colin); the bull's 46, the heifer's 56 (Girard); the ram's 68, the sheep's Sa^ In the human female there is a slighter but still well-marked dif- ference. According to Frankenhausen, the pulse- rate of the male before birth is 124 to 147, of the female 13S to 154. Depaul, from an examination of 41 male and 29 female fcetuses during pregnancy, found that Che average pulse-rate in the former is 139, in the latter 142. At birth and for some time later the two sexes remain very near together, and the pulse-rate does not approach its sexual rhythm until about ten years of age; in old age the pulse-rate of women seems to have a greater tendency to increase than that of men. Guy's table of the pulse-rate, according to sex and age, is as follows : — ^

Age.

MalB,

Female.

2- 7 years

8-14 „

14-21 „

21-28 „

28-3S .>

35-42 „

42-49 „

63-70 -.

70-77 .,

77-84 „

We may therefore say with M'Kendrick, that in Northern Europe 72 is the usual pulse-rate in men,

' Delaunay, Etudes, , ^ ...

' Todd's Cyclopedia ef Anatomy and Pkydohigy, , Hospital Reports, vols. iiL and iv. See also Rasei eAnlrof., 1880, pp. ^6elstq.

8o in women ; other observers give the average difference as somewhat greater; thus, according to Hardy and Behier, women show lo to 14 more pul- sations a minute than men. Quetelct's figures (absolutely rather lower than Guy's), giving a rather greater sexual difference for early manhood and womanhood, a rather less difference for adult age, produce the same average difference as Guy's. Accepting, therefore, Guy's careful figures, we see that the average pulse-rate of civilised women is the same as that of boys about the age of puberty. It cannot be said that this difference is very notably greater than the general physical proportions of the sexes would lead us to expect

RESPIRATION.

It is well recognised that the "vital capacity," as the breathing power indicated by the spirometer is commonly called, is decidedly less in women than in men. Even during that stage of the evolution of puberty when the girl is heavier and taller than the boy, she is still, as Pagliani and others have shown, very markedly inferior in vital capacity as well as in muscular force. In adult age also, where there is the same height and circumference of che^t, the ratio is 10 to 7 (Halliburton). The vital capacity of a man ij metres in height is usually 2350 c cm.; in a woman of the same height, 2000 c. cm. (M'Kendrick), The vita! capacity is 3 litres in women to 3J in men, at equal height the volume expired being 700 c cm. less in women. According to Arnold, for an increase in height of 25 centimetres, there is in men an increase in vital capacity of 150 c. cm., in women of only 130 c. cm. (Delaunay). The investigations of the British Association have shown that in England in males the mid breathing capacity is 217 c ins., in females about 132 c ins., the maximum difference being at the ages of 20-40, after which there is a

I I

METABOLISM.

203

regular decrease in the breathing capacity of men, but less falling off in that of women.

The number of respirations at birth is 44 per minute, and gradually decreases to 18 in the adult, being very slightly higher in women than in men (QueteJct). Size has much to do with the number of respirations in every zoological group ; thus the rhinoceros has 6 respirations a minute, the rat 2ra This matter has been studied in recent years by Richet,' who argues that it is one of the greatest laws of comparative physiology that "all the functions in their activity and in their intensity are determined by the size of the animal." According to Sibson, the ratio of inspiration to expiration in male adults is 6 to 7; in women, children, and old persons, 6 to 8 or 9 ; other observers give rather different results.

Men produce more carbonic acid than women. According to Andral and Gavarret, the amount of carbon burnt per hour is, from eight to fifteen years of age, in the boy 7 gr. 8, in the girl 6 gr. 4 ; from sixteen to thirty, in the man 11 gr. 2, in the woman 6 gr. 4 ; that is to say, the amount consumed in man rises at puberty to nearly double that consumed in woman. There is an increase in women during pregnancy, and also after the cessation of the menses. Energetic people excrete more than less active people of the same weight, and, relatively, a child gives off twice as much as an adult,

One result of this marked sexual difference is that women have a less keen need of air. This was noted by Burdach, who remarked that it began at birth. It appears that when both men and women are exposed to charcoal fumes, women, having less need of oxygen, possess a greater chance of surviving. In the process of salt-making, according to Mr. S. Webb, it is found that women can work better than men in the heat of stoves. The same result has been alleged to follow

' La Chaitur Animalt.

when the privation of oxygen is due to extreme I altitude, so that women can live at heights where I men would soon fall ill (Delaunay).

During normal respiration in civilised races, when I the individual is awake, man's respiration is diaphragm atic or abdominal, woman's is costal, the chest chiefly moving. The cause of this apparent sexual difference was at one time much disputed, Boerhaave noticed the difference of type in male and female infants ; this has not, however, been confirmed by later inves- tigators. It is now, as Dr. Ballantyne remarks,^ " usually admitted that respiration is chiefly abdominal in type during the first three years of life." The diaphragm is thus the most important respiratory muscle in the infant as well as in the adult male, or to an even greater extent. The characteristic costal breathing of women begins, according to Sibson, about the tenth year of life. Sibson, as well as Bear, Massick, and Walsche, attributed its appearance to the use of corsets and similar external impediments. Hutchinson studied the matter carefully,^ and came to the conclusion that the difference of breathing was not due to the restraints of clothing, for he found costal breathing in young girls who had never worn tight-fitting clothes. He argued that it was a natural adaptation to the child-bearing function in women. Hutchinson's investigations were for many years accepted as final ; it became at least necessary, as Rosenthal pointed out, to admit that the costal breathing of women had become fixed by heredity into a secondary sexual character.

During the last few years, however, some fresh series of investigations, on a wider basis and with more accurate methods, have changed the accepted

' Introduction to Diseases of Infamy, p. 170. It is not, however, universally admitted. Depaul, Seigi, and others lake for granted thst children's respiration is costal.

' Todd and Bowman's Cyclopedia of Anal, and Phys., Ait.

METABOLISM.

205

aspect of the matter. At the Birmingham meet- ing of the British Medical Association in l8go, Dr. Wilberforce Smith read a paper concerning some investigations he had made " On the Alleged Differ- ence between Male and Female Respiratory Move- ments."^ Using Burdon Sanderson's stethograph in a modified form, Dr. Smith took tracings of about fifty persons at the anterior middle line, over (i) sternum, (2) liver below ensiform cartilage, (3) just above navel, (4) just below navel, (5) midway between navel and pubes. The dress was entirely loosened; and it was rightly regarded as of considerable import- ance to keep the subject of the experiment ignorant of its object. It was found that at the sternal level of the chest in both sexes there was free respiratory movement, and also that over the liver there was free and regular movement in both sexes ; just above the navel the results were variable, and between the navel and pubes in many cases there was no respira- tory movement. The most characteristic differences occurred just below the navel : among the men a principal group showed free movement, while a smaller group, having soft abdominal walls, only showed slight movement; among the women, habitu- ally dressed and corseted in the usual manner, a large group showed excessive diminution or entire abolition of movement, while a smaller group of young and muscular women, wearing corsets, retained free move- ment ; among women habitually wearing no corsets, a large group showed free movement in no degree less marked than among males, and in at least one case actually freer than among most males, and a smaller group of non-corseted women, having soft abdominal walls, showed only slight movement.

Dr. Smith also independently examined nine ayahs ; they all wore Oriental dress and had all borne more than one child. Without exception

206 MAN AND WOMAN.

they exhibited respiratory movement below the navel not less free than in average English men.

As a result of his investigations, Dr. Wilberforce Smith concluded "that the tracings exhibited tended to invalidate the routine physiological teaching that there is a natural difference in the respiratory move- ments of the sexes, and they tended to confirm the belief of Sibson that the alleged difference is chiefly or wholly due to the effects of women's conventional dress." Professor Cunningham, after the paper was read, remarked that these physiological experiments confirmed his own views, founded on anatomical grounds, that there ought to be no essential differ- ence in respiratory movements in man and woman. Charpy, I may add, had also previously come to the conclusion, from extensive anatomical investigations, that up to the age of 15 boys and girls have identical chests, and that the thoracic type of breathing is only found in women of at least 25 years of age who bear on their viscera, especially the liver, signs of deformation produced by tight clothing.^

Dr, Smith makes the following supplementary remarks in a private letter (5th Oct. 1893) : — " I might have added in 1890 that the cases of which I had obtained graphic record wero preceded by daily observation for many years without such record. They have been followed by similar daily observation ever since, and are, I have no doubt, founded on unalterable truth.

" The only fact of interest I have to add is, that so far from pregnancy affording a reason for a different mode of respiration. It is associated with marked abdominal respiratory movements. I take it that the comparatively firm mass of the gravid uterus, tike the liver, readily conveys movements of the diaphragm to the surface.

" The same difficulty occasionally occurs in men where the action of the diaphragm is impeded by an enlarged stomach, the result of a recent meal, or undue corpulence."

I may here add that Mr. Lennox Browne, from another point of view, has reached the same conclusion that there are no sexual differences in respiration. He ivrites in a private letter ;

IS only where the corset confines Ihe lower ribs o;

pregnancy or abdominal tumours that diaphi-agmatic breathing

IS impaired, and that costal breathing is resorted lo."

Simultaneously with the publication of Dr. Smith's investigations, additional evidence on the same point from America was published in a paper by Professor H. Sewall (Michigan University) and Myra Pollard.' Some original observations were here given by Dr. Mays of Philadelphia, made by means of the graphical method on the respiratory movements of female de- scendants of an uncivilised race. He writes: — "Inal! I examined the movements of 82 chests, and in each case took an abdominal and a costal tracing. The girls were partly pure and partly mixed witli white blood, and their ages ranged from between ten and twenty years. Thus there were 33 full-blooded Indians, 5 one-fourth, 35 one-half, and 2 were three- fourths white; 75 showed a decided abdominal type of breathing, 3 a costal type, and in 3 both were about even. Those who showed the costal type, or diver- gence from the abdominal type, came from the more civilised tribes, like the Mohawks and Chippewas, and were either one-half or three-fourths white ; while in no single instance did a full-blooded Indian girl possess this type of breathing." Dr. J. H, Kellogg of Michigan supplied the authors of this paper with un- published observations (made with a Marcy's stetho- graph and rotating cylinder) to the same effect. He wrote ;— " I observed the breathing of 20 Chinese women and the same number of Indian women, and 1 found the abdominal type very marked in every case. The tracings given by the Chinese 1 were not like those of robust men, but were

iitical with those from men of sedentary habits.

. Of the Indian women 14 were of the Yuma tribe.

the most primitive Indians in the United States. . . , The majority of tliem still wear tlieir bark dresses ;

MAN AND WOMAN.

METABOLISM.

the only garment In addition to this is a long strip of red cloth thrown over the shoulders and folded about the body. . . . The waist is not restrained in the slightest degree. In these women the abdominal movements were 4 to 6 times as great as the costal movements. I examined several of the Cherokee and Chickesaw women in the Indian Territory. These women had all worn civilised dress, and some of them liad worn corsets. Those who had worn corsets and tight dresses gave tracings like civilised women ; those who had worn only loose dress gave normal tracings. I also found a few civilised women who had never worn corsets or tight bands, and obtained from them tracings like those from the Chinese and Yuma women."

Dr. Kellogg has somewhat more recently made, and caused to be made, various series of observations on women in different parts of the world which confirm and extend these conclusions. (" The Value of Exercise," Trans. Am. Ass. Obstetricians, vol. iii., i8gi,and an interesting' pamphlet on The Influence of Dress, both fully illustrated.) The two accompanying figures are reproduced by Dr. Kellogg's permission. One represents a German peasant woman, aged 29, who had never been trained in gymnastics, biit who had been accustomed to carry heavy weights on her head up to the age of 20 ; she shows the natural healthful female form. The other figure is that of an ordinary American woman of the same age, who wore the ordinary civilised dress and took httle exercise. When in England Dr, Kellogg went to the " black country " to study the women nail- makers and brick-makers, and found among them some of the best developed women he had ever seen. He ascertained also that they are extremely healthy.

It may be mentioned that Hultkrantz of Upsala, endeavour- ing to avoid the possible fallacies of external measurentent in estimating the influence of the diaphragm in respiration, intro- duced an elastic ball into the stomach and then inflated it. His experiments were pierfornied on too small a number of persons to lead to any general conclusions, but he was able to demons- trate the lesser diaphragmatic movement in women, and also to show that pressure by a band in men produced lessened diaphragmatic movement. ("Ueber die rcspiratorischen Be- we gun gen des menschlichen Zwerchfells," Skandinavisc/ies Arckiv. Jiir Physiologie, 1890, Heft i.)

-^'

MAN AND WOMAN.

The evidence clearly points to the conclusion that I the sexual differences in respiration found among I civilised races are not natural secondary sexual I characters, but are merely the result of the artificial I constrictions of the dress usually worn by v

It would be interesting to trace the origin and developments of the modem waist in women. The Greeks of the finest period v knew nothing of it, but during the period of decadence womc began to compress the body with the apparent object emphasising the sexual attraction of a conijpicuously large pelvis. Hippocrates vigorously denounced the women of Cos for constrictmg the waist with a. girdle. Among the Romans, who adopted this practice from the depraved Greeks, Martial often alludes to the small waists of the women of his time, and Galen speaks much in the same way as a modem physician regarding the evils of tight-lacing. Since then matters have changed, but very slightly. The apparent development of the pelvis has been further artificially exaggerated by that c " " ' trivance which in Eliiabethan times was called a "buni-n , and more recently a "bustle." The tightening of the waiSi does not merely emphasise the pelvic sexual characters ; it ala^ emphasises the not less important thoracic sexual cbaractersa as Dr. Louis Robinson expresses it (in a private letter) — " think it very likely one of the reasons (and there must be stri ones) for the persistent habit of tightening up the belly-g among Christian damsels is that such constriction renders tl breathing thoracic and so advertises the alluring bosi keeping it in constant and manifest movement. The h' of a sub-clavicular sigh is likely to cause more sensa.tion t! the heaving of an epigastric or umbilical sigh." This d eifect of waist-constriction upon hips and chest is fully sufl to account for its origin, and it has been kept up partly I custom and partly from that " sense of support " always felt b those who have for years been subjected to the practice.

That the practice will become less common, and this artificii sexual difference be gradually abolished, we may reasoi expect, now that the advantages of allowing free play ti diaphragm are being slowly recognised. It is proliable, a Trofessor Sewall and Miss Pollard (in the paper in the /du: of Physiology already referred to) point out, that diaphra atic contraction by pressing upon the abdominal viscer" an important function in squeezing blood to the heart a assisting the circulation ; it also promotes, as these authors si the mechanical mixture of air in the lungs, thus causing in tl most perfect manner possible the mixture of fresh with foul a. which is the great function of respiratory movement. It

METABOLISM. 211

1 unusual amount of ises find it better to discard or minimise the use of corsets. So far as accurate observation has gone, it is also clear that the corset-wearing woman is inferior in muscular power and physical endurance to the non-corset- wearing woman. This is, for instance, well shown in some observations on the pupils at the North London Collegiate School for Giris, the results of which were published in the Women's GaxelU, Jaauaiy 1890, by Mrs. Bryant. The trial included a high leap, a long leap, a tug-of-war, and a running competition. The struggle was between " loose stays and none," and there were sisteen girls on each side. In a brief muscular effort, such as leaping, the corset- wearers came out as well as the n on -corset- wearers, but in efforts requiring more sustained endurance, as in running and the lug-of-war, the non-corset -wearers had much the best of it. The results, as measured by the pulse-rates and breathing capacity, after " endurance running," were decidedly unfavourable to the corset-

Dr. Sargent, of Harvard University, has also recorded some interesting experiments on women students (" The Physical Development of Women," Scribner's Ma^azinf, 1889) ; — " In order to ascertain the influence of tight clothing upon the action of the heart during exercise a dozen young women consented this summer to run 540 yards in their loose gymnasium garments and then to run the same distance with corsets on. The running time was two minutes and thirty seconds for each person at each trial, and in order that there should be no cardiac excitement or depression following the first test, the second trial was made the following day. liefore beginning the running the average heart-impulse was 84 beats to the minute ; after running the above-named distance the heart-impulse was 1 52 beats to the minute ; the average natural waist-girth being 2S inches. The next day corsets were worn during the exercise, and the average girth of waist was reduced to 24 inches. The same distance was run in the same time by all, and immediately afterward the average heart-impulse was found to be 168 beats per minute. When I state that I should feel myself justified in advising an athlete not to enter a running or rowing race whose heart-impulse was 160 beats per minute after a little exercise, even though there were not the slightest evidence of disease, one can form some idea of the wear and tear on this important organ, and the physical loss entailed upton the system in women who force it to labour for half their lives under such a dis- advantage as the tight corset involves. In order to ascertain ■the effect of tight clothing upon respiration the spirometer was tried. The average natural girth of the chest over the ninth tib was 23 inches, and with corsets 26 inches. The avernge

MAN AND WOMAN.

lurig capacity when corsets were worn was 134 cubic inches when the corsets were removed the test showed an average lung capacity of 167 inches — a gain of 33 cubic inches."

Temperature. — The evidence concerning sexual differences in temperature is small and incon- sistent. We know that increased metabolic activity, as well as a greater afflux of blood, produces higher temperature. In children and adolescents it is well recognised that the temperature is higher than in adults, and more liable to variations which are of less significance than in grown-up persons. Davy, Roger, Mignot, and Delaunay found the temperature of men higher than that of women by about '5° C; Ogle and Wunderlich found the temperature of women higher by about the same amount. Stockton Hough found that males have, as a rule, from the beginning to the end of life, a higher temperature than women and greater individual variations.' We are probably justified in agreeing with those physiologists who assert that no sexual difference has yet been established.

Waller states that the variations of temperature in women from time to time are greater than in men and of less significance. Squire found a slight rise of temperature before menstruation and a fall after iL Dr. Mary Jacobi from an examination of six cases found that " the temperature rises from one to eight-tenths of a degree during the week preceding menstruation. It falls gradually during the flow, but in the majority of cases does not even then reach the normal average." (M. P. Jacobi, The Question of Rsst for Women during Menstruation, New York, 1877.)

Martius took the temperature of S5 domestic ducks— in tha north and south of France — undervarious conditions, and found the temperature of the females higher (averaging 42,3 against 4i.g for the males) and also more variable. (Gavarret, Aiti' "Chaleur Animale," in i>/rf. «n^. rfcj Sciences Midicales, andtj in the same writer's Pkenomlnes Physiques de la Vie, 1 869, ppt Bo-8g, the temperature of a large number of animals is givei

METABOLISM.

213

Excntion. — The sexual differences in the metabolic processes which we have already found are also indi- cated by an examination of the excreta, of which the best known and the most important is the urine. Not only does the amount of liquid and of nitro- genous food very largely influence the urine and its composition, but the kidneys are especially susceptible to a variety of influences ; the nature of the food, of the salts it con tains, emotional excitement,mental exertion, nervous tone,^ frequency of urination, the temperature of the air, are among the factors to be taken into account, and there is a compensatory relationship with the excreta by the skin. During the night we should expect these influences to cause less disturb- ance than during the day; and Beigel's observations seem to confirm this ; he found that the amount of urine excreted during the night is almost equal 111 men and women, but that during the day there Is a marked excess in men. Bcaunis has found that, notwithstanding the disturbing elements, and inde- pendently of the water drunk, a regular diurnal rhythm may be traced in the excretion of urine.^

A slight sexual difference appears soon after birth, both the solid and liquid constituents of the urine of the female infant being less. At from 3 to 7 years of age the amount of urine excreted by hoys during 24 hours, according to Beaunis, is 750 c. cm., by girls 700 c. cm. This is \\ times more than in the adult in propor- tion to body-weight. The amount of urea excreted by

' " Beneke {Arshiv. des Vereiiisfur laiss. Heilk., Bd. i.)"— remarks Parkes, Compositiim of the Urine, p. 100 — ' ' from observations on himself has noticed that wheo the nervous system is, so to speak, in good tone, i.e., when there is a feeling of vigoiuns bealth, and when all the ftinctions are rightly perfonned, the amount of urine increases. On the other hand, wheo there is languor and depression, the uriae is less in amount. The difficulty here, of course, is to define the term, ' tone of the nervous system'; that something real is meant is certain ; and the immediate influence on the amount of the urine is, I think, put beyond doubt by Beneke's elaborate inquiry." This is of interest in connection with Dr. A. Haig's recent investigations as recorded in his remarkable and suggestive work, Uric Acid.

' Sechmhes E^^Mmmlales, Paris, 1884, p. 14.

214

MAiSAND WOMAN-

the child is even greater relatively than that of water, and the importance of this function of elimination in children is indicated by the large size of their kidneys. At the age of eighteen the urine reaches the aduit standard.^ The amount is, absolutely, usually rather smaller in women, but relatively it Is usually greater.

The amount is, roughly speaking, in a man about iooo to 1500 c. cm. (or about 50 ozs.), and in a woman about 900 to 1200 c. cm., during the 24 hours (Landoisand Stirling); accord- ing to Yvon and Berlioi, in man 1360 c. cm., in woman iioo c. cm. {Revue Mid., viii, p. 713); according to Beaunis, tbe amount is practically identical in both sexes, and therefore relatively greater in woman, in man the average being 1875 c. cm., in woman 1812 ; while M'Kendrick places it at 1500-2000 c. cm. for a man, and 400-500 c. cm. less in a woman. Bec- querel and Rodier, on the other hand, as the result of a large number of experiments, came to the conclusion that the quantity of urine discharged by women during 24 hours is, even absolutely, slightly greater than in men, the average being as 1227 in men to 1337 in women (Becquerel and Rodier, Traili de Ckimie palhMogique, 1854), Mosler found (comparing men from the age of 18 to 21 with women of from 17 to 26) that while the absolute amount of urine was greater in men, in proportion to body-weight it was greater in women (*4n:Ai7'. des Vereins fur gemoinschajL Arbeiteii zur Forderung der wissen. Heilkunde, iii,, 1858, pp. 431, 441). English physiologists usually find the sexual difference rather considerable. French physiologists more frequently find Che amount nearly equal, and thus rela- tively greater in women ; this is probably due to difierences in national habit and custom.

While the amount of water excreted by the kidneys in women is probably above what the difference in body-weight would lead us to expect, there seems little doubt that the amount of urinary solids excreted by women is both absolutely and relatively rather below that excreted by men. The urine of women is usually of lighter colour than men's, and its specific gravity is lower. All physiologists are agreed on this point,^ and the fact is a more important index of

metabolism than the ri:lative amounts of water ex- creted. Children in whom metabolism is very active excrete relatively considerably more urea and salts than adults ; among adults the amount in women is relatively less than in men ; in old age, when the metabolic processes of life are low, there is in both sexes a great diminution in the excretion of both solid and liquid constituents. The urine of women, like the blood of women, is more watery than that of men.

In women the influence of the menstrual cycle, which so largely affects the organism, has its eflects here also. That the urine is frequently increased in amount at this period is a matter of common observation, and according to the usual rule this increase should involve an increase in the solids. This does not, however, appear to be always the case. Delaunay stated that menstruation diminished the urea 20 per cent, but without mentioning the extent of the data on which this opinion was founded. Reigel found lessening of urea during, and increase after, menstruation. Dr. Mary Jacobi made fourteen series of observations on six women, and found that in nine the urea was diminished during the flow, in five increased. .But in the majority the urea during the menstrual period was more abundant than during the following week, when the lowest point was reached, and before the flow there was usually an increase of urea. A larger series of observations is necessary to obtain definite results. Our knowledge of the influence of pregnancy and lactation on meta- bolic activity, as measured by the urine, is very slight Dr. Hagemann, at a meeting of the Berlin Physiological Society (6th June 1890), gave an account of some experiments on two dogs with reference to this point They were supplied with a constant nitrogenous diet, and it was found that during the first half of the period of pregnancy more nitrogen was excreted than was taken with the food, so that

MAN AND WOMAN.

the nitrogen requisite for the growth of the foetus I must have been derived from the tissue-proteids of the mother; after this period the nitrogenous excre- tion sank to a condition of equilibrium in the middle of pregnancy, and then fell further, until the birth of the offspring ; while immediately after parturition there was a very marked increase in the excretion of nitrogen, followed by a sudden fall, which led to the output being, during four weeks of the period of lactation, less than the intake. It is probable that in women the metabolic cycle during pregnancy and lactation is somewhat similar; thus Laulani6 and Chambrelent have recently noticed a marked diminu- tion in the toxicity of the urine of pregnant women, especially towards the end of this period (when in the dogs the excretion of urea was also lowest) ; in two experiments out of ten the urine of pregnant women was entirely free from the toxic substances present in normal urine, so that these appear to be retained , towards the period of childbirth.

SUSCEPTIBILITY TO POISONS.

There are various ways in which the varying effects of poisons on men and women might throw an interesting light on differences in metabolism and in nervous organisation. Wc know something of the special susceptibilities of children with regard to poisons, when given in small doses as drugs to produce beneficial effects, and also as to their effects on various animals, but not much is known as to sexual differences. These differences are usually of so slight a character that considerable precision of observation and a large body of cases are necessary to reach definite results. The poison which has most persistently been observed to exhibit sexual differ- ences in its effects is alcohol; it is evident that this is simply because the effects of no other poison have been so widely studied. If medical men took the

trouble to note systematicaliy the effects of the drugs they administered we should be in possession of a considerable body of evidence ; but they have rarely, if ever, done so on an extended scale.

From our present point of view, there are various questions which observation of the effect of drugs would help to elucidate. For example : (i) Do any drugs tend to produce greater effect on an organ in one sex than in the other? (2) Are there in one or the other sex examples of such marked susceptibility to a poison that the therapeutical doses must be decidedly smaller than considera- tions of size, etc., would lead us to anticipate? (3) Especially, are the higher nervous centres more apt to be affected in one sex than in the other?

(1,) Observations on a large scale, or carefully recorded in their details, tending to prove or disprove any selective action of poisons on different organs in the two sexes are, so far as I am aware, very few. I have met with a paper, by Dr. F. Augustus Cox, containing a summary of the notes of over 1700 cases treated with arsenic which had been under his observation. In this paper' some sexual differ- ences in symptoms are noted, although it was not found that the influence of sex was marked in the evolution of unpleasant symptoms. Gastric symp- toms were commoner in women, intestinal in men; conjunctival symptoms were met with rather oftener in the male sex ; nervous symptoms were of more frequent occurrence in women. It may be added that, in Mr. Jonathan Hutchinson's experience, children and the young bear arsenic we!l, while the old are susceptible to it, and it is specially apt to call out the signs of nerve degeneration whenever this is present.*

Trousseau and Pidoux record some interesting

' "The AdministialioQ of Arsenic," Provincial MtdiaU Jnimal, Feb. 1891. ' "Arsenic as a Drug," Brit. Mtd.Jgumal, Gth June 1S91.

MAN AND WOMAN.

observations on the varying action of opium on and women. They found that in women it acts more on the skin, in men on the kidneys ; they only observed hypersecretion of urine twice in women. They found also from observation on 22 men and 20 women that vomiting with opium, when inistered by the skin, was three times more frequent in women than in men. When given internally it produced vomiting 4 out of 10 times in men, 6 out of lO times in women. The women who vomited were mostly nervous or neuralgic. Lauder Brunton also states that women, under the influence of opium, are more liable to nausea and also to headache.

Trousseau and Pidoux also found that the adminis- tration of mercury more easily produces salivation in women than either in men or in children, who easily bear large doses.' This, also, is confirmed by Lauder Brunton.

(2.) Men are said to bear the action of antimony much better than women; children bear it badly (De Savignac). Zuccarelli found in 37 cases in which he treated epilepsy by injection of atropine that the benefit was much less in the case of women than of men ; children also are very tolerant of belladonna, as is well established. Sulphonal, which is apt to pro- duce nervous symptoms, should be given to women in much smaller doses than to men; Monod found that to produce the hypnotic effect women only required half the dose required by a man.* On the other hand, in treating the insane with somnal, Umpfenbach found that women are much less susceptible to its influence than men. Germain Sfee has found that women are especially sensitive to antipyrin.^ Women are also said to be very readily affected by bromide (which

' R. W. Parker has sii]^esled tliat this is merely due to the large lount of milk taken by children, which may deprive the mercury its irritant eifects,

' Anh.fiirexp. Path, und Pkarm., i. 31, ' Paris Acadimie de MMecine, 14th Februnry 1888.

METABOLISM.

219

possesses the cerebral and especially the spinal system), while children (according to Voisin) bear it well, but (according to RadclifFc Crocker) bromide eruptions are niost common in children.

It is remarkable that, as first noted by English authors, the overwhelming majority of deaths from chloroform are in males. The materials furnished by Sansom show that, according to various authorities, the proportion is at the highest estimate two men to one woman, and according to one estimate four men to one woman, although, as Sansom remarked, chloroform is so extensively used in childbirth. Children, as the very large experience of the Moorfields Hospital shows, bear chloroform extremely well. The robust and healthy, according to Sansom, seem more exposed to the dangerous effects of chloroform than the delicate and weakly, and the largest relative number of fatal cases has occurred in very trifling surgical cases when the general health of the patient has been tolerably

Some allusion may here be made to the group of lead salts (which, according to Goetzke and others, primarily alTect the central nervous system), as there is reason to believe that women are more susceptible to their action than men. Sir J. Alderson in his Lumleian Lectures in 1852 concluded that men are more frequently affected, but Tanquerel found that women are more susceptible to lead-ipoisoning, and Professor T. Oliver of Newcastle, one of the chief centres of the lead industries, is decidedly of this opinion. In his Goulstonian Lectures on Lead-Poisoning {\%i^\, pp. 21-25) he remarks; — "There is, in my opinion, no doubt in regard to the very much greater suscepti- bility of the femnle to be contaminated with lead compared to the male ; and this is not due simply to the fact of exposure in a lead factory to what may be regarded as the greater dangers, but depends upon sexual idiosyncrasy. This is an opinion so totally at variance with that given by several authors that I require to explain myselt My experience drawn from hundreds of cases is that, both as regards the acute and chronic forms of lead- poisoning, women are much more quickly brought under its influence than men. The ratio of men to women employed in lead factories is in favour of the women, and at first sight it might appear as if the liability was explained by the greater

MAN AND WOMAN.

number of women cMposcd. Taking a period of five years, I find that 135 cases of lead-poison I tig were admitted as in-patients at the Royal Infirmary, m Newcastle. Of these, ninety-one were women and forty-four were men. To me there is no comparison of the greater susceptibility of the female; and that it is not altogether a question of trade is shown by the fact that in the recent epidemic of lead -poisoning in Yorkshire, where out of 1000 cases due to the drinking of water contaminated by the metal, the special correspon- dent of the Brilisk Afeihcal Journal, 1890, voL i. p. 974, found the proportion of females to males to be as four to one. Against this may be urged the fact that women prob- ably drink more water than men ; but allowing for this, the proportion would still be in favour of the female ; Brown found 153 males as against 251 females. Not only is the female more susceptible, but she is so at an earlier age than the male, and 13 more likely to suffer severely, and from such nervous accidents as epilepsy. The interesting point in regard to exposure to lead is that whilst young women suiTer readily from saturnine poisoning, recovering quickly from colic only to be more readily and severely affected on again exposing themselves, men may go on working for years, ten to twenty, having only one or two attacks of colic, and then, after a very lengthened period of service, may still fall victims, either to lead paralysis, or die from the effects of a kidney leison due to the poison. , . . One of the first noticeable effects of the pernicious miluence of lead is the production of aii:emia or cachexia. Nearly all young women, those particularly between the ages of eighteen to twenty-four, when thus exposed suffer from deranged menstrual function ; h^matosis and ovarian activity are interfered with, and the result is either amenorrhcea or menorrhagia. Once the functional activity of the ovaries and blood-making is interfered with, then is that woman already in a critical condition, and at any moment she may become the subject of any of those explosive outbursts of plumhism known by the name of lead encephalopathy. To sexual peculiarity I therefore attribute much of the danger from exposure to lead. Lead as a poison strikes early at the functions of blood-making and reproduction, producing sterility, liability to abortion, and amenorrhosa or menorrhagia. Woman, from her constitutional idiosyncrasy, is therefore more liable to be impressed by lead." Mr. W. Sevan Lewis {Text-Book of Mental Diseases, 1E89, p. 350) indirectly confirms Dr. Ohver by the vivid picture which he presents of the various nervous symptoms which are found among the young girls ("white-lead ghosts" they are called in the neighbourhood) who work in lead manufactories. These include arrest of sexual development with perverted instincts and imnatural desires, hysteria, chorea, epileptiform s"'

METABOLISM.

cataleptic states, and actual insanity. If we are justified in concluding that women suffer earlier and more severely from lead-poisoning, we may perhaps connect this with the less metaboKc activity of women. In lead-poisoning there is marked metabolic deficiency. If this is so, we should expect to find that women are more susceptible than men to all these slow poisons of which lead is the subtle and terrible type. But the evidence before us is not convincingly presented.

(3.) Women, as well as children, it is generally admitted, are very sensitive to the influence of opium, "There can be little doubt," Fonssagrives stales, "as to the extreme impressionability of women to opium, and most of the cases of toxic saturation following the use of opium are in women,"' Lauder Brunton makes a similar statement

Opium acts chiefly on the nervous system, but more especially on the brain. Children possess a greater proportion of nervous tissue and brain than adults, greater cell activity, and a greater power of absorption.' Therefore it is not surprising that children are sus- ceptible to opium. The same is true of mammals generally. If poison is given to an adult rabbit and to a young rabbit, the poison in each case being proportionate to the animal's body-weight, the adult will be uninjured, the young one will succumb.* Among female animals generally, Cornevin states, there is greater susceptibility to poison, more especi- ally nerve-poison, than among male animals ; and in woman than in man. In cold-blooded animals like the frog, in which the cerebrum occupies a more sub-

' Att. " Opium " in />!£/. ency. des Sdtnces niidieales.

' The greater rapidily of ab5orption in children has been well shown by Va.t3uly, who selected he^lhy male subjects from eight years old to eighty, and experimeoted with iodide of poiassium and salicylate of soda. The dose was made to depend on the body-weight, and the urine was examined every Ihree minutes. The general result was that the younger the subject the more rapid the absorption. Thus whilethe salicylate was absorbed in boys and young men in about fifteen minutes, in middle-aged men it required about twenty minutes, and in old men about twenly-Gve minutes. {Lancet, loth January 1851. )

' Ch. Cornevin, Des Pla'iles Venenemis, Paris, 1887, pp, 27-29,

MAN AND WOMAN.

ordinate position in relation to the spinal cord, opium causes tetanic convulsions, as it sometimes doe^i also in children.

The best example of sexual selective action in the effect of a poison on the nervous system is, as already remarked, the case of alcohol. Alcoholism generally is much more common in men than in women ; according to Hermann's figures, the pro- portion is 2800 men to 400 women ; that is to say, women furnish one-eighth of the cases. Notwith- standing this considerable proportion of women, the cases in which the brain is chiefly affected, and which result in the symptoms of deliriztm tremens, occur almost exclusively in men. Rayer (according to Lancereaux) found among 170 cases of delirium tremens only 7 women ; at Copenhagen, Bang found only one woman in 456 cases ; Hcegh-Guidfaerg, one woman in 173 cases; Clifford Allbutt in 18S3 had never seen delirium tremens in a woman. On the other hand, it is a familiar fact in England and France, and no doubt elsewhere also, that chronic alcoholism tending to affect the spinal cord and nerves, and to result in muscular paralysis, is found chiefly in women. Lancereaux, who has given special attention to this matter, finds that the ratio is twelve women to only three men. Broadbent and Clifford Allbutt have made similar statements as regards England, and the fact may easily be confirmed in any large hospital. It is worth mention in the same connection that Ball found that sexual excitement, as a complication of dipsomania, is more frequent in women than in men.^

This well-marked differential action of alcohol on the nervous centres in men and women is of some interest, and must be taken in connection with other facts referred to elsewhere.

METABOLISM.

however, found it somewhat common among the poor in certain districts, and has written a pamphlet an the influence of alcohol on children. I have not seen this, but h appears that he finds that the main symptom of alcoholic poisoning in children is abnormal excitement, ending, in extreme cases, in convulsions, and followed by mental and bodily debility. of the nature- of paralysis {Lancel, 19th Sept, 1891, p. 691). There is here considerable resemblance to the symptoms of chronic alcoholic poisoning in women. It is also of some interest to obsen-e that delirium tremens is an extremely rare result of alcoholism among lower races. Thus in American negroes (as Dr. Reyburn has shown from an analysis of over 400,000 negro patients treated by the Medical Department of the American Bureau of Refugees) delirium tremens is of very rare occurrence, alcohohsm being much more apt to lead to epileptiform con- vulsions or mania.

HAIR AND PIGMENTATION.

It is probable that the growth of the hair, its colouring, and that of the body generally, have an intimate connection with the metabolic activity of the organism. Among animals of all kinds hair, and more especially pigmentation, play a part of the first importance as secondary sexual characters. Among animals generally, in a very obvious manner, brilliant pigmentation and abundant hair predominate among the males. Rut in man pigmentation has become very rudimentary and comparatively stable, while sexual hair distribution has become equalised. It is true that men have a growth of hair on the face, but, on the other hand, women have a more vigorous growth of hair on their heads ; even among races like the Singhalese, who preserve their hair long, that of the women is longer than that of the men, and, accord- ing to Ploss, the individual hairs are in Germany thicker in women than in men. Even among children (as Waldcyer points out) boys' hair if left uncut does not grow to the length of girls'. Women do not tend to become bald either in Europe or among lower races like the Nicobaresc, and do not suffer so often

224

MAN AND WOMAN.

as men from alopecia areata. Again, while men in Europe on the average have a more considerable growth of hair on the body generally, in the region of the pubes where the hair is concentrated it is usually greater in amount in women than in men, and the individual hairs in this region are also (as both Pfaff and Ploss have found) of greater size than those of men. The sexual differences are therefore so doubtful, either in point of fact or in point of signifi- cance, that I think it advisable to refrain here from any general discussion of them, although the question is distinctly interesting.

There is, however, one question which, as we shall see, has a certain definite significance, and to which it seems possible to give a guarded answer: Are women darker than men ?

There is no doubt that children have fairer hair and fairer skins than adults in very various parts of the world, such as South America, Japan, New Guinea.' Among many different races, also, travellers have recorded that the women are fairer than the men ; Balz says that the Japanese women have a somewhat lighter-coloured skin than the men ; D'Albcrtis found that Papuan women in New Guinea are always lighter-coloured than the men ; the Ainu women are also said to be fairer than the men, while among the Veddahs (as Deschamps noted) the women are not fairer than the men, though the children are fair. The determination of any sexual difference in skin- colour is not, however, very satisfactory, because we have to be sure that there is no relative difference m exposure to the sun ; and among very few races do the sexes live under identical conditions in this respect

It is of more interest to investigate the colour of the hair and eyes. Only the civilised European races, so far as I am aware, can be profitably investigated

METABOLISM.

from this point of view.* This question has been most fully studied in England, and especially by Dr. Eeddoe, who is unquestionably the chief authority on the matter. So far as the evidence goes, it appears that among children (in industrial and workhouse schools), girls with light eyes and light hair (and also girls with light eyes and red hair) are much commoner than boys ; this applies to nearly all ages between six and fifteen. Boys having dark eyes and dark hair are on the whole commoner than girls.* The darkening of the hair has been found by Dr. Beddoe to take place in men most markedly between the ages of twenty to twenty-three; but in women it takes place somewhat earlier.^ This accords with what we already know as to the greater precocity of women. It is possible that the pigmentary process being earlier established in women, becomes in them more intense, I am indebted to Dr. Beddoe for a series of figures showing the sexual differences in various parts of Great Britain ; in his Races of Britain they are given without regard to sex. Dr. Beddoe recognises the fallacies that may arise from differ- ences in the mode of dressing the hair and from cosmetics, and also by a possible difference in the mean ages of the men and women. Moreover, more young women than young men are met in the streets in most English towns, and Dr. Beddoe thinks that the women may come out with too low a proportion of dark hair on this account, though it seems to me that this fallacy may be counterbalanced by the later darkening of hair in the men, which would lead young men to be counted as somewhat fairer than

■ Among the Japanese (according to CoUignon) there are very trifling SEKiial differences in the colour of hair and eyes, Ihese difTerenccs tend- ing [o show women a linle less dark. Among the Lapps, Mantegozza and Sommier found that about 50 pet cent, of the women examined had brown eyes (the rest having light eyes), while only about 30 per cent, of the men had brown eyes.

' Rifort of Anthropometric Commitlie of British Association, 1883.

' Repart of Anihrofomitric Cemmitta of Brit. Ass., 18S0.

MAN AND WOMAN.

if they had reached that pigmentary maturity which. has been reached by young women of the same age. From an examination of Dr. Beddoe's table it appears that women have darker hair than men in Comrie (Perthshire), Thirsk, Boston, Leicester, Wor- cester, Norwich, and Southampton, while men have darker hair in Fortcviot (Perthshire), Stoke-on-Trent, Shrewsbury, Hereford, and North Wales. It can scarcely be said that this particular list strongly supports Dr. Beddoe's opinion as to the prevalence of dark pigment among women. The evidence fur- nished by the eyes is clearer. Dark eyes were almost constantly more numerous in women than in men, this being found at Forteviot, Comrie, Thirsk, Boston, Leicester, Shrewsbury, Hereford, Worcester, London, Southampton, and North Wales; only Ipswich showed men to possess darker eyes, while Stoke-on-Trent and Norwich showed the sexes to be equal. Dr. Beddoe regards these results as fairly representing the facts as they would emerge from a more extensive inves- tigation of his materials, and it certainly fully illus- trates his general conclusion ; " I have usually found a decidedly larger proportion of dark eyes among the women, but not so often of dark hair." I gather that he regards brown hair and brown eyes as chiefly- common among women, black hair and grey eyes as more prevalent among men. An independent investigation of the members of the British Associa- tion during the Bath meeting, at a laboratory estab- lished for the occasion, entirely confirmed Dr. Beddoe's results as regards eye-colour; while the eyes of medium colour were about equal in the sexes, 44.6 per cent, of the men possessed light eyes, against only 34.2 per cent, of the women, while 207 per cent of the women possessed dark eyes, against only 12.3 per cent, of the men. At the Newcastle meeting it was found that a larger percentage of the men had light hair and light eyes, a slightly larger percentage of the men showed light eyes and dark hair, and a considerably larger

iignt I

)wed j

irger J

METABOLISM.

percentage of the women possessed dark eyes and dark hair; this result in a part of the country of very different ethnological character from Bath (and 50 per cent of those examined at Newcastle were natives of Newcastle) also confirms Dr. Beddoe's results. Still more recently, Professor Haddon and Dr. Browne have investigated the hair and eyes of over 400 inhabitants of the Aran Islands, on the west coast of Ireland, They adopted Beddoe's methods, and independently confirm his results as to sexual differences. Both dark eyes and dark hair were found more prevalent among females than among males, the results being more symmetrica! as regards the eyes than as regards the hair.'

In a private letter Dr. Beddoe makes some interesting remarks on sexual differences in pigmentation, and raises the question as to their causes: "It is especially on the Welsh border [i.e., for example, Hereford and Shrewsbury] that the men come out with darker hair. That may have been due to the presence of more Welsh-bred men than women. I think the excess of dark women is most marked in the most purely Anglian (or, say, Teutonic) districts, such as Boston. Do the women still repeat the colours of their ancestresses, the British women who espoused the Saxon invaders ? Possibly ; no doubt there was intermarriage of that sort, though as the Saxons brought their cows over, 1 don't doubt that they brought a good many women too. Do the women deposit more pigment in their irides and hair because they have no beards wherein to expend it?" The latter supposition may seem to find support in the fact that the darkening in women occurs at about the time at which the beard begins to grow in men ; but we must remember that in amount of hair there does not seem any marked sexual inequality on the whole.

Alphonse de Candolle stated as a general proposi- tion that the women in a population have a larger proportion of brown eyes than the men, but without bringing forward any definite evidence on the point.*

' See the carefully detailed Etatistlcs, A. C. Haddon and C. R. Browne, " Ethnography of the Aran Islands," Proceidings Koyal Irish Acadtmy. IS93, pp. 782-7S6.

' A. de Candolle, Rcom d' Antkropehgie, 1BS7, p 165.

MAN AND WOMAN.

At the Anatomical Institute at Strasburg, Pfitzner found that fair men are always in excess of fair women. Taking over 500 subjects, his percentages were as follows: — ^

M.LI.

PEH4LB.

Age.

F^iir.

Dark.

Fair.

Dark.

Above 20

86.1 48.5 30.9

13.9

22.6

77-4

These figures show a very marked and constant sexual difference at all ages. Pfitzner endeavours to find an explanation in the possibility of the sexes reaching the Institute in different racial mixtures. This is not impossible, and might account for the difference being so considerable, but the investigator does not seem to be aware that this sexual difference is international, and has been observed among the living as well as among the dead. The same differ- ences exist in Denmark. In that country Professor Waldcmar Schmidt (as Dr. Beddoe kindly informs me) found more fair-haired and fewer dark-haired among the men than among the women, red hair being about equal, or rather less in the men. The eyes also in men are far more often light ; there are fewer of medium colour, and immensely fewer are dark. The great majority of the men have light eyes and medium hair, while among the women fair, medium, and dark hair are about equally common, and about one-half have medium hair, and one-third j dark hair. This is in complete harmony with Dr.! Beddoe's results in Britain : women have on the ] whole darker hair than men, and decidedly darker eyes. We seem to be justified in concluding that it holds generally good for the fairer races of Northern Europe. It would be interesting to know if the same rule holds good for the darker races.

Schwalbe's Marpholagis^he ArbeiUn, Bd. ii., 1892.

METABOLISM.

There is considerable reason to suppose that this question of pigmentation has an important bearing on the vitality of individuals and races. There seems to be a progressive diminution of fair people in Europe ; De Quatrefagcs came to the conclusion that it is going on in Normandy, Schaaffliausen in Germany. Mayr has supposed that the brown type possesses a greater power of resistance and of propa- gation. Schimmer is inclined to think that some of the phenomena seen in Austria confirm this supposi- tion ;* in America there is evidence to show that the dark-haired are less liable to suffer permanent ill- effects from nearly every form of disease than those who are fair-haired.^

If this is the case as there seems such good reason to believe, it seems reasonable to hazard the supposition that the greater resistance to disease which, as we shall see, there is evidence to show that women possess, is con- nected with the greater pigmentation of women. Some light would perhaps be thrown on this point if we knew the propor- tion of dark and fair persons among centenarians and the long-lived generally'. Sir George Humphiy, who conducted a collective investigation on longevity (the results of which are embodied in his interesting work on Old Age), unfortunately did not include this point in his questions, In a private letter he writes that he does not like to suggest any impressions on the matter, having found that several of his impressions were negatived by more extended observation. In any future inquiries it would be desirable to take note of the individual's original complexion. Dr. Had en Guest has kindly made inquiries at Manchester, and finds that out of 42 persons of 70 years of age and upwards 28 were li^ht complexioned, 13 medium, only I dark; it cannot be said that these figures connect longevity wilh a dark pigmentation. I am not acc^uainted with any reliable statistics showing whether albinism — a pathological defect of pigment entailing various disadvantages and often associated with other defects of development's more common in men or in women. Among negroes, in whom it reaches its maximum of frequency, it is

■ j. H. Bnxler, Slatistiis Mtd. and Anlh., Wushingloi

tfOI

MAN AND WOMAN.

said to be more common in women. (Tr^lat, ArL " Albinisme, DUt. mn. des Set. MM.) In Italy Raseri found it commoner ii males l&5 males to 40 females), {Arck. per PAntrop., 1880, f 203}, and most frequent where the race is darkest. Addi; disease, a disorder of pigmentation, is agreed by all observers to be more common in men ; B. Ball, analysing a large number of cases, found 53 men to 38 women. We still lack accurate observations as to the causes of pigmentation or its influence The following remarks by Dr. Alice Ross {Med. and Surg. Reporter, Oct. 1892) may be quoted; — "In red-haired women and those brunettes who have red lips, red cheeks, and arc inclined lo freckle rather than to tan, lacerated perineum and cracked nipples occur most frequently. And those sallow'skinned blondes who tan rather than freckle, and who have a tendency to a deposit of pigment in the areola of the nipple, and about the neck and armpits, are least liable to suffer from these accidents."

CHAPTER X.

THE VISCERA.

THE PSYCHOLOGICAI. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE \

THYROID GLAND — ITS PHYSIOLOGICAL AND PATHO- LOGICAL VARIATIONS IN WOMEN — EXOPHTHALMIC GOITRE AND IIS ANALOGY TO THE STATE OF TERROR — THE LARYNX AND THE VOICE — CHANGES AT PUBERTY — RELATION OF THE VOICE TO THE SEXUAL ORGANS —THE THORACIC VISCERA — HEART — LUNGS — THE ABDOMINAL VISCERA — STOMACH — DIGEST ION— LI VER — SPLEEN — KIDNEYS — BLADDER^THE VISCERA A FACTOR IN THE PRODUCTION OF EMOTIONAL STATES.

There can be no doubt that the consideration of the internal organs of the body, their varieties according to age, sex and race, and the changes they undergo under varying conditions, constitutes a study of great importance. But it has scarcely yet been undertaken in any serious or comprehensive manner. It is not yet generally recognised that just as anthropology is founded on anatomy, so psychology is founded on physiology. When we say that the suprarenal capsule is a ganglionic body moulded on to the top of the kidney we assert an anatomical fact ; when we go on to say that the suprarenal capsule is larger in women than in men and very large in Negroes we assert an anthropological fact. In the same way, when we accurately estimate or graphically represent the ordinary action of tiie heart or the pulse we arc

232 MAN AND M'OMAN.

well within the region of physiology. But when we begin to make the same obsei'vations on the heart and pulse under varying conditions of the individual organism we are not far from the region of psychology. Thus the elaborate pliysiological studies of Mosso on the vascular system have a very intimate connection with psychology. No one now can be a competent psychologist who is not something of a physiologist, just as no one can be a competent physiologist who is not something of a chemist and a physicist. The physiology of the senses leads us to the psychology of intellect, and the physiology of the viscera leads us to the psychology of emotion. If we possessed, for instance, a thorough physiological knowledge of the thyroid gland we should probably know more of tlie nature of emotion than all mere introspection, or mere general picturesque description, has ever taught us,

Tlie Thyroid Gland. — Of this interesting gland of the neck, indeed, we already know something that seems to help to throw light on psychology, and although in this chapter wc shall be dealing primarily with anatomy and physiology, it will not always be possible to ignore the psychological aspect. The function of the thyroid is, unfortunately, not quite clear, although there is most reason to suppose that it is intimately connected with the metabolism of the blood. ^

It is generally agreed that the gland is larger in women than in men, and that relatively it is very lai^e in childhood. While in the new-born child its proportion to the weight of the body is as i to 400, or even to 420, in the adult it is only i to 1800 (Huschke and Krause). In old age the thyroid is very considerably diminished in size, and, as Kocher and others have shown, while total extirpation of the

' Sec ProfESSot Victor Horsley, " The Funclion of the Thyroid Gland," in the Virchow Feslschrtfi and in the Brit. Med. Journal, 30lh Jan. and 5th Feb. 1S92.

THE VISCERA. 233

thyroid in old age is not likely to be followed by serious results, before the age of puberty it will almost certainly be followed by serious injury to health.

The thyroid gland follows closely all the variations in a woman's organism. To so marked an extent is this the case that Meckel long ago remarked that the thyroid is a repetition of the uterus in the neck. The fact that the neck swells in women in harmony with the sexual organs seems to have been an observation made in very early times ; it is at least as old as Democritus, and popular customs indicate that it is probably of much earlier date. The thyroid swells at the first menstruation, and not uncommonly it increases to some extent at every menstruation ; at its final suppression also the thyroid may swell. In the dog, cat, sheep, goat, and deer it has also been observed that the thyroid enlarges during rut Catullus refers to the influence of the first sexual intercourse in causing swelling of the neck, and it is a very ancient custom to measure the necks of newly- married women in order to ascertain their virginity. This custom has not yet quite died out in the south of France. Heidenreich found that a similar swelling occurs in men at the commencement of sexual relations. Democritus refers to the swelling of the neck during pregnancy, and in recent days Tarnier, Lawson Tait, and others have confirmed this ancient observation, Freund iinds that congestion of the thyroid is almost constant during pregnancy (in 45 out of 50 cases), and further, that it increases in volume at the birth of the child, and sometimes also continues in this condition during lactation.' In rare cases there is visible and obvious swelling of the thyroid in association with emotional states, even in men.

Nearly all the diseases of the thyroid gland are

' Hermann Freund, Dsulschi Zeilsehi-i/l filr Chirurgic, Bd,

ixxi., p.

. \
0
\ 1 of 1 ■ f»3 ■« - the curve of physiological oscillation during the twenty-eight days of the cycle (noted at bottom of the diagram); the degree of intensity of the functions'] investigated is represented along the line E. C. ; the actual period of menstruation (somewhat more pro- longed than we usnaliy find it in this country) corre- sponds to the shaded portion of the diagram. The heart and the tension of the vascular system have most frequently been observed with reference to this monthly periodicity. Cullen long ago main- tained that the pulse-rate rises at the approach of the periods. Dr. Fancourt Barnes observed the increase of vascular tension in the pulse at the wrist, as measured by the sphygmograph. Stephenson found a monthly cycle as regards arterial tension and pulse- rate. Dr. Mary Jacobi concluded, as the result of her investigations with the sphygmograph, that "in women exists a rhythmic wave of plenitude and tension of the arterial system, at all events perceptible in the radial artery, which begins at a minimum point, from one to four days after the cessation of menstruation, and gradually rises to a maximum, either seven or eight days before menstruation, or at any day nearer than this, or even during the first day of the flow."^ This process involves an active engorgement of the thyroid, parotid, tonsils, and other organs also, during the period of the flow. The temperature is also at its highest point a few days before actual menstrua- tion, as has been shown by Jacobi, Ott, and others. The curve in the excretion of urea and urine I have re- ferred to already Cp. 215). The hiyhest points of activity in the sexual organs also correspond to the general maximum, and in most healthy women the sexual emotions are strongest at the maximum before the period, and at the lesser maximum after it. That the intellectual vigour is also greatest at the same points is somewhat less easy to prove, but is extremely- probable. That the mental energy, as well as the muscular strength and dexterity, even in the strongest. I I ■ Tks Que. iof Rtst,i. 143-161. healthiest, and most determined women, are usually somewhat impaired during the menstrual period itself is a fact that is familiar to most women ; I am not, however, aware of any data showing a maximum during the intermenstrual period. There can be little doubt that a daily examination of any of the senses would show a monthly rhythm. I am, however, only acquainted with one series of observations on this point, those of Finkelstein of St Petersburg, carried out on the eye, under the super- intendence of Professor Mierzejewski. Finkelstein studied the functional activity of the eye during menstruation in twenty healthy women, aged between nineteen and thirty-three. He found that during the period there is a concentric narrowing of the field of vision, beginning one, two, or three days beforehand, reaching the greatest intensity on the third or fourth day of menstruation, and gradually disappearing on the seventh or eighth day after its appearance. The narrowing is more pronounced in those women in whom menstruation is associated with malaise, headache, cardiac palpitation, and other nervous symptoms, as well as in those who lose large quantities of blood. Not only the field of vision for white but also the visual fields for green, red, yellow, and blue undergo a regular diminution. Per- version of perception of green (which is seen as yellow) is observed fairly often (in 20 per cent, cases). Central vision is but slightly impaired, and rapidly returns to the normal standard after tlie period, and refraction remains intact' There can be little doubt that observation of the other sense organs would yield similar proof of monthly periodicity. As soon as the climax of vital activity is reached, or a day or two afterwards, the menstrual flow begins. Even in perfectly healthy women this affects the whole organism to a more or less marked degree. The 1 Summarised in Ophthalmic Review, 1887, pp. 3^3-326. pulse is usually found to be slow and of high 1 There is a general feeling of tension in the pe gans; the breasts also are slightly enlarged, and may consequently be somewhat tender and painful. The same congestive tendency shows itself in the enlarged thyroid. The temperature, even under strictly physio- logical conditions, may rise O-S" Fahr. The surface blood-vessels tend to be fuller than usual, so that there may be flushing of the face. There is increased nerv- ous tension and greater muscular excitability; reflex action is quicker, and there may be slight twitchinga of the legs; also yawning and stiffness in the neck, and sleep is heavier than usual. There is loss of appetite and a certain amount of digestive and intestinal disturbance with a tendency to flatulence. Urination also is both more frequent and more copious than usual. There is a fall of urea and an increase of uric acid, whence, according to Haig, the high tension of pulse and the tendency to mental depression. ^ There is a tendency to pigmentation, though far slighter than among monkeys; the pigmented circle around the nipple usually becomes somewhat darker, the complexion is changed, losing its clearness, and a dark ring may sometimes be perceptible around the eyes; these pigmentary changes are more especially observed in brunettes, and, like many other disturb- ances of raenstrualion, during pregnancy they become still more marked. In many women the breath and also the skin exhale an odour (quite distinct from that due to the discharge) of a peculiar aromatic and not unpleasant character. The voice also may undergo some change; there is a tendency to hoarseness, and singers sometimes lose the brilliancy of their high notes, so that at this period (as is generally recognised on the Continent) it is not desirable for public singers to appear.* ' A. Haig, Urk Aiiil, etc., 189a, p. J9. - D[. Robert Barnes has specially dra.wn attenlion to son points in the above picture. (Brit. A/td. Journal, zad Marcli iSSg.) In 1 % THE FUNCTIONAL rERIODICITY OF WOMEN. 253 With reference to the influence of normal menstruation on the voice, Mr. Lenno\ Browne, the well-known specialist, writes to me as follows : — " With regard to singers, I believe that the pitch of the voice is often lowered at the menstrual epoch, although I have not found this to be universally admitted by patients to whom I have spoken on the subject Many have lold me that they have a disposition to sing flat, and in two cases in my recollection the patients, who suffered from dys- menorrhcca, told me that they sang sharp, of which they were conscious — probably from information, for of course you know that those who sing sharp are not generally sensible of the defect It is, however, generally agreed that the Hmbre and tone-quaiity is impaired, the voice being decidedly thinner and poorer during the epoch. "On this point you may like to know that in all Continental engagements with female singers provision is made for suspen- sion ofduty during the menstrual period, hut this does not obtain in English contracts, although the impressario is in practice obliged to recognise it. It would he well were this concession made universal, not only in grand opera, but in smaller lyric ventures in which the artisU sings every night in the week, and continuously for many months." Most of these physical signs may exist in women whom we must consider to be in a state of good heahh, aUhough we need not expect to find them all in the same person ; to a skilled observer it is often easily possible to detect the presence of the monthly period. On the psychic side, even in good health, there is another series of phenomena. There is greater impressionability greater suggestibility, and more or less diminished self-control ; Burdach stated that at this time women are more under the influence of mesmerism, and there can be no doubt that at this time all the phenomena which may be termed hypnotic become more prominent in women. It is at this time, in those women who are at all predisposed, that sudden caprices, fits of ill-temper, moods of depression, outbursts of self-con fcssion, are chiefly liable to occur. There may also be fits of jealousy. Tilt's UUrinc and Ovarian Inflammalion, 1862, Chaps. L-xiv., there is a full account of menstruation, giving facts and statistics regard- ing the various nervous and other normal characters of this function. See also the works on menstruation \rj BiJetre de Boismont, Kri^er, etc. TTic psychic condition during the menstruation period in ordinary heallli is well summarised by Dr. Clouslon : — "It has a psychology of its own, of which the main features generally are a slight irritability or tendency toward lack of menial inhibition just before the process commences each month, a slight diminu- tion of energy or tendency to mental paralysis and depression during the first day or two of its continuance, and a very con- siderable excess of energising power and excitation of feeling during the first week or ten days after it has entirely ceased, the last phase being coincident with woman's period of highest conceptivc power and keenest generative nisus." {Menial Diseasti, 1B87, p. 480.) It seems to me very probable that the superstitions regarding the evil influences exercised by women at their periods on the food, etc., they prepare may be supported by an actual decreased success in such operations at this time, due merely to a physiological decrease in energy and skill. So far I have been careful to speak only of those phenomena of the menstrual cycle which can fairly be regarded as strictly normal and physiological. It is instructive to glance at the cases in which menstrua- tion produces abnormal and diseased conditions, be- cause what we see under such conditions is simply an exa^eration of what takes place under ordinary con- ditions. There may be so high a degree of physical pain and disability that the woman is really an invalid for several days every month. All sorts of slight viscera] affections, of a congestive character, may be directly due to menstruation, and recur periodically.^ On the mental side the irritability or depression may be so pronounced as to amount to insanity. Mi- graine is a disorder common at this period; hysterical and epileptic fits often occur* Erotomania, dipso- mania, and kleptomania are also specially liable to be developed at this time, and of all forms of insanity melancholia is the most liable to occur. Whenever a woman commits a deed of criminal'
queon "Visceral
. 19th Oct. 1893. = Thus Dr. Fisher found that out of 60 epileptic women, in 16 th»-fl menstrual period was either the only lime at which the attack! tc ' place, or they were much increased in frequency at that time. (A York Mid. News, November 189:.} I THE FUNCTIONAL PERIODICITY OF WOMEN. 2SS violence it is extremely probable that she is at her monthly period ; it is unfortunately difficult to give precise figures, as there is often neglect to ascertain this point Lombroso, however, found that out of 80 women arrested for opposition to the police, or for assault, only 9 were not at the menstrual period.' Legrand du Saulle found that out of 56 women detected in theft at shops in Paris, 35 were menstruat- ing, and 12 had already passed the term of sexual life. There is no doubt whatever that suicide in women is specially liable to take place at this period ; Krugelstein stated that in all cases (107) of suicide in a woman he had met with, the act was committed during this period, and although this cannot be accepted as a general rule (especially when we bear in mind the frequency of suicide in old age), Esquirol, Brierre de Boismont, Coste, Moreau de Tours, R. Barnes, and many others have noted the frequency of the suicidal tendency at this period.* Women in prison, again, are apt to exhibit periodic outbursts of unmotived and apparently uncontrollable violence: these "breakings out," as Nicolson, Nacke, and others have observed, are especially liable to occur at the menstrual epoch. Among the insane, finally, the fact is universally recognised that during the monthly period the insane impulse becomes more marked, if, indeed, it may not appear only at that period. " The melancholies are more depressed," as Clouston puts it, " the maniacal more restless, the delusional more under the influence of their delusions in their conduct; those subject to hallucinations have them more intensely, the impulsive cases are more uncontrollable, the cases of stupor more stupid, and the demented tend to be excited."* These facts of \ La Dcnna Ddinqucnie, p. 373. ' A full and careful statement of Ihe present state of knowledge r^arding the mental condition of women during the menstrual peiiod wni be found in Icard, La Femtnt fendant la Piriodi Mnislruel/t, Paris, 1890. ' Mental Distasis, 1SS7, p. 4SZ. MAN AND WOMAN. I morbid psychology are very significant ; they em- I phasisc the fact that even in the healthiest woman I a worm, however harmless and unperceived, gnaws I periodically at the roots of life. We see, therefore, that instead of being an isolated and temporary process, menstruation is a continuous process, and one which permeates the whole of a woman's physical and psychic organism. A woman during her reproductive life is always menstruating, as Dr. Harry Campbell puts it, just as the moon is always changing. " Souvent femme varie," it may be said, is a physiological fact ; it is not the result of wilful caprice. The fact ts one of considerable import- ance, not only to the physician and the medico-legal expert, but to the man of science gererafly, to the sociologist, and indeed to the whole community. It is a matter of some importance that in the exact investi- gation of any fact in a woman's hfe or organism, we ought to know its exact position in the woman's cyclic life. If we have to investigate the comparative reaction of a man and a woman to any scientific test, we have to recognise that the woman lives on a curve, and that her exact position on the curve at a given moment may afTect her superiority or infe- riority to the man. In trials of skill or strength among women (as in a swimming match, for instance) everything may depend on a woman's position in her monthly cycle; her full possession of strength, nerve, and precision will depend to some extent, even if she is in perfect health, on the time of month, and a few days sooner or later may even make it impossible for her to engage in the contest ; it is needless to add that this fact opens the door to considerable intrigue. Again, whenever a woman has committed any offence of violence against the law, it is essential that the relation of the act to her monthly cycle should be ascertained as a matter of routine ; it is a fact that I control is physiologically lessened at the menstrual I period even in health, while it is very much more M THE FUNCTIONAL PERIODICITY OF WOMEN. 2$y lessened in the neurotic and unbalanced ; it must be clearly recognised that guilt also is lessened. The existence of the monthly cycle is, lastly, a factor which cannot be entirely ignored in considering the fitness of women for any business position. It is found at the Post-office and elsewhere, where men and women are employed, that the women are more often absent from work than the men, owing to "slight indisposition." This fact cannot be altogether disregarded, but it must be remembered that there is no ground for supposing that an ordinarily healthy woman needs any absolute rest from ordinary healthy work at any period of the month. The fact that so large a proportion of women do need such rest is due to the fact that, from one cause or another, so few arc "ordinarily healthy." Brierre de Boisraont, in France, found that among 360 women, 278 {or y^i per cent) suffered some slighter or greater degree of pain at their monthly periods; 82 (or only 23 per cent.) had complete immunity. Dr. Mary Jacobi, in America, by a more careful investigation, out of 26S women found 94 (i.e., 35 per cent) who never suffered any pain or weakness during the flow; of these 25 per cent were married, though of those who do suffer only II per cent are married. Dr. Jacobi concludes that, normally, rest is not necessary, "It remains true, however," she adds, " that in our exciting social conditions, 46 per cent of women suffer more or less at menstruation, and for a large number of these, when engaged in industrial pursuits or others, under the command of an employer, humanity dictates that rest from work during the period of pain be afforded whenever practicable." One point at all events is clear: it is no longer possible to regard the physiological periodicity of women, and the recurring menstrual function, as the purely private concern of the woman whom it affects. CHAPTER Xn. HYPNOTIC PHENOMENA. THE VARIOUS PHENOMENA MERE INCLUDED DNDER THIS TERM ^ SOMNAMBULISM HYPNOTISM — ECSTASY — TRANCE ^CATALEPSY — MAGICAL PHENOMENA— WOMEN HAVE PLAYED A LARGER PART IN NEARLY ALL. DREAMS — WOMEN AS DREAMERS AMONG PRIMITIVE RACES — IN THE MIDDLE AGES — IN MODERN TIMES— RESULTS OBTAINED BY HEKRWAGEN, JASTROW, AND CHILD. HALLUCINATIONS IN THE SANE — SIDGWICK'S INVESTIGA- TIONS — GREATER PREVALENCE AMONG WOMEN. THE ACTION OF ANAESTHETICS— NITROUS OXIDE — SILK'S OBSERVATIONS — ABNORMAL ACTION UNDER AN.ESTUESIA OCCURS ON THE WHOLE CHIEFLY IN WOMEN. MEIEOROLOGIC SENSIBILITY — SUICIDE — INSANITY CON- CLUSION AS TO SEXUAL DIFFERENCE DOUBTFUL PERIODICITY IN GROWTH, NEURASTHENIA AND HYSTERIA — BOTH MORE FREQUENT IN WOMEN — DESCRIPTION OF NEURASTHENIA— DEFINI- TION OF HYSTERIA^ITS CHARACTERISTICS — SUGGESTI- BILITY — RELATIVE FREQUENCY IN THE SEXES. RELIGIOUS HYPNOTIC PHENOMENA — NATURE OF THE PART PLAYED BY WOMEN IN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS SHAKERS — THEOSOPHISTS — DANCING MANIA CAMI- SARDS — MODERN HYSTERICAL RELIGIOUS EPIDEMICS CHRISTS SKOPTSY — HYPNOTIC RELIGIOUS PHENOMENA AMONG UNCIVILISED RACES— NATURE AND CAUSATION. We may use the term "hypnotic phenomena" as a convenient expression to include not merely the condition of artificially-produced sleep, or hypnotism HYPNOTIC PHENOMENA. in the narrow sense of the term, but all those groups of psychic phenomena which are characterised by a decreased control of the higher nervous centres, and increased activity of the lower centres.^ These groups of phenomena are closely related, and are all marked by diminished consciousness of the subject, or diminished power of control, or both. Taken altogether they constitute the phenomena which have often been called "super-human," but which, as Chambers long ago remarked, may quite as truly bo called "sub-human." The best known of such phenomena is that which we have all ex- perienced during ordinary sleep, which is perhaps the most primitive and fundamental form of conscious- ness. That modified kind of sleep, the condition of ordinary somnambulism or sleep-walking, in which the motor centres are awake and respond to ordinary stimuli while the higher centres are asleep and fail to control the responses of the more automatic centres, is fairly common to a slight degree, or at rare intervals, especially among children.^ There are no exact statistics, so far as I am aware, as to its frequency among adults; the majority of those who have occupied themselves with the subject seem to regard it as more common in women, or have at all events found the worst and most persistent cases in women. Although this is probable, it is not yet clearly established. The phenomena of mesmerism, animal magnetism, etc, now usually grouped under the head of hypno- tism, have always been specially identified with ' It may not be superfluous to remark that what in nervous physi- ology ate termed the "lower" centres aie by no means "low"inlhe sense of bemg unimportant ; on the contrary, they are the most funda- mental. ' Dr. E. von den Stein (Uibtr den Kolurlicken Samitambuiismia, Heidelberg, iSSi) found by investigating orphan asylums in Baden that out of looo children 17 {or 1.7 pet cent.) showed somnambulistic phenomena ; there wcie not necessarily any signs of neuropathic constitution. I I I l6o MAN AND -WOMAN. Women have most easily fallen under their influence, and the chief advances in our knowledge of hypnotism have come through investigations on women. One or two enthusiasts have declared that most persons, taken at random and irrespective of sex (80 per cent, according to Li^bault), are hypno- tisable. It is probably true that, with the exercise of sufficient skill and patience, the phenomena might be elicited in every one possessing a fair degree of mental health (for it is notoriously difficult to hypnotise the insane even with the exercise of very considerable skill and patience), but it remains true that, in the experience of the most skilful investigators, women more easily fall into the hypnotic condition, and exhibit the phenomena in a more marked form. In every hypnotic dinique we find women in a great majority. Thus Pitres, a chief authority, finds that even with the greatest persuasion only two-thirds of hysterical women, and only one-fifth of hysterical men, can be hypnotised.' Again, B^rillon, an enthu- siastic and at the same time judicious believer in hypnotic therapeutics, during 1890 and the early part of 1891 (as he stated at the Berlin International Medical Congress) treated 360 patients by hypnotism ; of these 265 were women, 45 were children, only 50 were men — a statement agreeing with my own recol- lections of Dr. B^rillon's dinique at about the same period. These figures do not necessarily indicate the sexual proportion of hypnotisable persons among the general population, but they at least show that a comparatively small proportion of men can be treated by hypnotism with any chance of success. It may be added that children may easily be put into the hypnotic state : Beaunis found that out of 100 children between seven and fourteen years of age, 55 are hypnotisable, and Bdrilion considers that this is below the truth, as he finds that most children ' Ltfoits cUniques, etc-i tom. ii. p. 404. HYPNOTIC PHENOMENA. above the age of seven, provided they are not idiots, may easily be hypnotised.^ The allied phenomena of ecstasy, trance, ard catalepsy, it is generally agreed, are more frequent in women, and it may be added that the most remarkable cases on record, with few exceptions, occurred in women. In catalepsy the subject's mental functions are largely or altogether suspended as regards the external world ; the muscles are passive and retain any position in which they may be placed. In ecstasy, which cannot be very clearly distinguished from trance, there is not the same absence of muscular control, and the subject's mental functions, instead of being suspended, are actively employed in seeing visions; during the trance the subject's countenance expresses inspired illumination of a more than earthly character, and on awaking he is able to recall his visions, which have played a considerable part in the world's spiritual history. Both catalepsy and ecstasy are allied to hysteria, but are not necessarily identical with it.^ All the phenomena which of old were termed " magical " come under the group here termed "hypnotic," and they have always been regarded as especially connected with women. Pliny tells us that women are the best subjects for magical experi- ences. Quintilian was of the same opinion. Bodin estimated the proportion of witches to wizards as not less than 50 to i.* ■ Dr. E. Berillon, Hypnolistm et Suggalioi ' The short articles, "Catalepsy," "Ecst r. Hack Tuke \a the Dkt. Psych. Med., ra , cucellent articles (though written some years ago) by Dt. Chambers o "EcalBsy," " SomDanibuIism," and "Catalepsy" in Reynolds' S^sUi.. ef Medicine, vol. ii. ; for an elaborate study from the modern point of view of the differences between catalepsy, ecstasy, lethargy, somnam- bulism, elc.j regarded as typical and mixed forms of hypnosis among the hyslerieal, see Pilres, Lefam ehniqaes tur I'Hyslhie el CHypno- lisme, 1891, torn. ii. pp. 117-142. • Millingen, Cariastlies of Medical Experience, 1857, vol. i. p. 225 ; and see LombrMo and Ferreto, DoHHa DeHnquenle, pp. aoi-aoS- I 1 MAN AND WOMAN. The hypnotic and "magical aptitude of women is chiefly a I fact of their organisation. But its development in the past has certainly been favoured by the wonder excited by the physical mystery of womanhood, to which reference was made in Chapter I. Women in savage and barbarous stages of enistence are believed to have a strange influence over the whole of nature. Thus Pliny {Natural History, Book vii. c. 13) tells us that "on the approach of a woman m this slate [the menstrual], meat will become sour, seeds which are touched by her become sterile, grafts wither away, garden-plants are withered up, and the fruit will fall from the tree beneath which she sits," etc. At Bordeaux and on the Rhine women must still avoid entering wine-cellars during their periods. {A. Bastian in the " Vorwort," and notes to his Inse/srufipen in Oceam'en, Berlin, 1 883, has collected a large number of similar beliefs.) It was not only when in this state that a woman possessed this magical in- fluence; in another part of his work (Book xxviii. c 23) Pliny writes : — " Hailstorms, they say, whirlwinds, and liffhtning even, will be scared away by a woman uncovering her body while her monthly courses are upon her. The same, too, with all other kinds of tempestuous weather; and out at sea a storm may be lulled by a woman imcovering her body merely, even though not menstruating at the time. At any other time, also, if a woman strips herself naked while she is menstruating, and walks round a field of wheat, the caterpillars, worms, beetles, and other vermin will fall from off the ears of com." Many of these beliefs survive in Italy (and in other parts of the world) up to the present day; thus at Bellu no, according to Bastanzi, it is customary for a priest and for a naked young girl to go (separately as a rule) eariy in the morning into the fields to drive away the caterpillars. (The introduction of the priest is merely an example of the way in which Christianity has sought to sanctify the Pagan rites it could not eradicate.) Similar customs may be found all over the world. Thus the wonder excited by women has in the past, if not In the present, powerfully reinforced the influence they have gained through what I have here broadly termed "hypnotic phenomena." A large part of the fascination which women possess for men lies in their liability to such hypnotic explosions as we have here to consider. It has been a mystery which men have never grown tired of contemplating, and which has leTt an inefface- able mark on the literature produced by men. The mystery has been sympathetically described by Diderot, who himself combined the man's temperament and the HYPNOTIC PHENOMENA. woman's, in his rhapsodical fragment 3ur ies Femmes: — " It is especially in the passion of iove, the attack of jealousy, llie transports of natural tenderness, the instincts of super- stition, the way in which they share popular epidemic emotions, that women astonish us, beautiful as Klopstock's seraphim, terrible as Milton's angels of darkness. 1 have seen love, jealousy, superstition, anger in women carried to heights which man has never reached, ... A man never sat at Delphi on the sacred tripod. The part of PyLhia only suited a woman. It needs a woman's head to feel seriously the approach of a god, to become exalted and agitated, dishevelled, foaming, to cry out : 'I feel him, I feel him, the god is come 1' and then to repeat truly his words. A woman carries within her an organ capable of terrible spasms, which do as they will with her and excite in her phantoms of all kinds. In her hysterical delirium she sees the past over again, she is pro- jected into the future, all times are present to her. Nothing closer together than ecstasy, vision, prophecy, poetry, and hysteria. . , . Madame Guyon, in her book of Toi-rents, has lines of an eloquence which knew no rnodels. It was Saint Theresa who said of the devils, ' How unhappy they are 1 they do not love I ' It was a woman who walked barefooted through the streets of Alexandria, with a torch in one hand and a pitcher in the other, saying ; ' I will bum heaven with this torch and extinguish hell with this water, so that man may love his God onlj' for Himself.' Such a part belongs only to a woman. But this fiery imagination, this temper which seems ' incoercible, maj" be abashed at a word. , . . More civilised than men outside, within they have remained true savages, and they are all of the sect of Machiavelli, more or less. The symbol of woman in general is that of the Apocalypse, on the forehead of which was written Mystery." Among primitive peoples the dream3 of women often play an important part. In the Lake Shirwa district of Central Africa, for example, very sacred functions are performed by the prophetess. It is to her that the gods or ancestral spirits make known their will, and this they do in dreams. The prophetess, who is frequently one of the chief's wives, dreams her dreams and then gives forth oracles at intervals, according to the exigencies of the case; they are usually delivered in a frenzied state.^ It seems clear, honever, from the description given of the emotional and other phenomena accompanying the delivery of these oracles that they are largely manifestations of hysteria. Nor, if we take savage races generally, can it be said that these phenomena are more common among women; we find them fully developed among men. It is not until we turn to races which have reached a high degree of barbarism that we find clear evidence concerning the relative frequency of dreaming in the sexes. Tlie old French epic cycles furnish us with interesting material for the study of this question in mediaeval Europe; and the dreams of the Arthurian and Karolian epics have been carefully studied by Mentz.* Dreams are represented throughout these cycles as of great importance and significance; they are visions from God. Heroes and princes were great dreamers ; heathens rarely or never. The greatest dreamer of all was Karl the Great, though only when he was young and vigorous. But women dreamed much, and Mentz argues from this that they must have been highly thought of " These poets have with special preference attributed dreams to women, and this is shown not only by the number of examples of women dreaming, but by some very remarkable cases. For example^ when any common misfortune overtakes a married couple or two lovers, it is always the woman who receives information of the misfortune, as when Tristram and Yseult were found asleep in the wood by King Mark, who first thought to slay them, but afterwards merely left behind his sword and his ring as a token that he had been there." After giving numerous other examples, ' Janies Macdonald, " East Centra] African Customs," Jatimal of Ike Anikropohgical his/iliils, Aug. 1892, p. 105. ^ Richard MenW, -DiV TrSumt tn den altJramosiscken A'arls- tind Ar/ui-epea, 18SS. (Stengel's Ausgaitn and Athandhingen Gebielcder romaiiischen Phiblope, XxvcA.") I HYPNOTIC PHENOMENA. Mentz adds : " I have not found a single case in which, on such an occasion, the dream has come to the father or the husband ; the dreamers are always women. Women's parts are filled with dreams, which otherwise arc only imparted to heroes and princes." In modern times dreams have lost all divine significance, although they have acquired a new scientific value as helping to furnish the key to many psychological problems of the past and the present There can be no doubt whatever that women are greater dreamers than men. While men, as they reach adult age, usually find that their dreams become rarer and less vivid, receding into a dim background where they can with difficulty be perceived, though doubtless always present, in women dreams usually remain frequent and vivid. This fact is familiar to all who have inquired into psychological phenomena, and it has often been confirmed by statistical in- vestigation. Thus Heerwagen' found that women dream more than men, whilst male students stand as a class between other men and women. Dreaming reaches its maximum intensity at from 20 to 25 years of age. Married women, according to Heerwagen, dream less than the unmarried. A dreamful sleep, Heerwagen found, is in women more likely to be prolonged than a dreamless sleep ; but it is not so in men. Men, it may be added, sleep more soundly than women, while sleep is soundest in childhood. Professor Jastrow, in an interesting study of the dreams of the blind,^ gives statistical information as to the dreams of 183 blind persons. There is reason to believe that the blind are not, on the whole, such good dreamers as the sighted, but the sexual difference probably remains un- impaired. While of the males 54.5 per cent dream ' Friediich Heerwagen, SlatisliicJie Uiiiersuchungeti Ubtr TrSume und Schlaf, Wundl's Philosophische Sludien, v. 3 I have only seen abstracts of this investigation. " " The Dreams of the Blind," New Frinaton Heview, Jan. 1888. I I MAN AND WOMAN. seldom, 19.3 per cent frequently, and 7,1 per cent every night, similar numbers for the females are 29.8, 26.2, and 8.^ per cent. — i.e., ihe females include more "frequent" and fewer "occasional" dreamers. Professor Jastrow remarks: "This favours the view that it is the vividness of the emotional back- ground elaborated by the imagination that furnishes the predominant characteristic and tendency to dreams ; for it is in the development of just these qualities that women excel men ; the same view is favoured by the prevalence of dreams to age. In my tables there is a loss of the total amount of dreaming in passing from the period of five to nine years to that of from ten to fourteen years. A slighter decrease is noted in passing from the latter period to that of the next five years, and this very gradual decrease seems to continue from then on. Childhood, the period of the lively imagination and highly tinged emotional life, brings the richest harvest of dreams," As to sexual differences in the character of dreams and the modes of dreaming', we possess at present litile definite evidence, I will only allude to a study of "The Statistics of ' Unconscious Cerebration'" {American Journal of Psychology^ Nov. 1892, vol. V. No. 1), by Mr, Charles M. Child of Wesleyan University, U.S.A. This investigation, carried out under the superintendence of Professor A. C. Armstrong, was made on 200 college students (iji men and 49 women). It does not refer exclusively to dreaming, but various points bearing on dreams came within its scope. Thus it was found that only 12 per cent, of the women remember having any logical or connected train of thought in a half-sleep, but the general percentage is twice as large. The low percentage of the women here may be connected with the fact, which was also brought out in this investigation, that a very large percentage of women wake directly. On the other hand, 24 per cent, of the women reach results which are at least fairly accurate, this being rather above the general percentage (17). The per- centages for different ages do not vary much, nor with any regularity. It was found that the dreams of women are more affected by position llian those of men, and that a larger per- centage of women than of men are conscious of a moral sense when dreaming. Possibly the greater vividness of HYPNOTIC PHENOMENA. dreams may account for this. After 30 years of age ness of moral sense in dieams diminishes. Persons under 25 are least affected by position, probably because at this age dreaminj; is a more constant and normal phenomenon. There was found to be a continuous decrease with age in the number of those who dream, ahhough sexual differences hi the number of students who dream (apart from the vividness, etc., of the dreams) was found to be trifling, a result which is fairly in accordance with Heerwagen's conclusions. The figures show a slightly larger proportion of men than of women who talk in their sleep, but the percentage of women who answer questions when asleep is much larger than that of men (56 per cent as against 32 in men). While the men can usuaUy only answer questions on the subject they are talking about, the women can more often answer questions on any subject. The percentage of those who talk in their sleep is much higher under 25 years of age than above, and the ability to answer questions also diminishes with age. f I ALLUCl NATIONS IN THE SANE. Hallucinations of the senses occurring under ordin- ary conditions, when the subject is in fair health and otherwise sane, are very closely allied to the dreams that occur during sleep. Their occasional occurrence has often been recorded, more especially in men of genius or in persons under mental stress.* They may also be produced as a kind of embryonic hypnotic suggestion in ordinary life, and Professor Jung has found that such hallucinations are more easily pro- duced in women, children, and the uneducated, although by no means exclusively in them.* Our chief source of statistical information at present concerning their frequency in the general population is the " Inquiry into the Nature and Frequency of Hallu- cinations of the Senses occurring to Sane Persons," conducted by Professor Henry Sidgwick.* As the ' This Report was presented at the London Intemalinnai Congress of Psyciinlogy, and will, I understand, be published in detail by the Society for Psychic Research during 1894. MAN AND WOMAN. affirmative or negative experiences of 17,000 persons (comprising men and women in nearly equal propor- tions) are recorded in Professor Sidgwick's tables, they carry considerable weight It was found that 656 (or 7.S per cent) of the men and 1033 (or 12.0 per cent) of the women affirmed that they had at some time experienced an hallucination. It is prob- able that this proportion approximates to the facts; at the same time it is quite possible that women are more easily persuaded than men that they have ex- perienced an hallucination, and also that women are more ready to confess to such an experienca Some deduction may perhaps have to be made on this account from the feminine percentage, but a greater liability to hallucination in women is in harmony with the greater prevalence of other allied phenomena in the same sex. A classification of the answers according to the competence of the collectors strengthens rather than weakens the preponderance of women, for if we separate 1649 answers which were obtained by scientific inquirers only, psycho- logists or medical men, we find that the percentage of women is nearly double that of the men — i.e., 9.0 per cent men against 17.1 per cent women. It may be added that the persons investigated were chiefly English, or at least English-speaking, but there were a certain proportion of foreigners, more especially nearly 600 Russians and 200 Brazil- ians, and the differences according to nationality were considerable. Thus, if we take the English- speaking alone, we find that 7.3 per cent men and 11,4 per cent women give affirmative answers. If wc take the Russians, we find that 10.2 per cent men and 21,4 per cent women give affirmative answers. And if we take the Brazih'ans, we find that 23.0 per cent men and 27.7 per cent women give affirmative answers. Hallucinations, therefore, taking these three nationalities, appear to be least prevalent among the 1 English, most prevalent among the Brazilians ; while J HYPNOTIC PHENOMENA. the Russians show the maximum, and the Brazilians the minimum sexual difference. THE ACTION OF ANESTHETICS. The physiology of ansesthesia, as produced by chloroform, nitrous oxide, and other antesthetics, is not yet fully understood. Nitrous oxide is the anaesthetic that is probably best understood, and what is here said will chiefly apply to that anesthetic In both the brain and spinal cord there appears to be first a period of excitement with increased pulsation of blood-vessels; then a period of disordered action; and finally a period of sedative action. The highest centres are most rapidly lulled; in the lower centres there is a greater tendency to excited action. The spinal centres are liberated, perhaps stimulated. There is usually dilatation of the pupils, which always indi- cates either paralysis of the higher or stimulation of the lower centres; and this dilatation, especially in the anaemic or hysterical, may be considerable even at a very early stage of anesthesia.^ Such being the influence of anesthesia on the nervous system, it is easy to observe its intimate connection with the phenomena here called hypnotic. Such phenomena involve the comparative quiescence of the highest centres, or else their inco-ordination, leading to disordered action. It is precisely to such a result that an anesthetic like nitrous oxide leads. We may therefore regard it as an easily controllable agent for the production and study of hypnotic phenomena. If the administration of nitrous oxide for dental purposes were carefully observed and re- corded on a large scale, we should possess a valuable and exact key for the study of many of the most • See, for instance, J. F. W. Silk, Manual of Nitrous Oxide Anas- Iketia, London, lSS3 ; also Dudley Buxton, "A Note on Ankle- Clonos," Bril. Mid.Jeurual, 34th Sept, 1887. I 1 2/0 MAN AND WOMAN. important sexual nervous differences, for during the evolution of the anEesthetic process we have the secret mechanism that underlies psychic action laid bare in an objective manner which we can never under any circumstances hope for during the subject's con- scious life. It can scarcely be said that the importance of this field for such research has yet been adequately realised. There are, however, certain observations and results recorded by scientific investigators which throw considerable light on our present inquiry. It is usually considered that women yield rapidly to the influence of anesthetics generally ; pregnant women take them well; and although they yield so rapidly, there is no reason to suppose that women are more exposed to danger from anjesthesia; it seems more probable that they are less exposed. Children also fall rapidly and deeply under chloroform and other anaesthetics ; but they bear them well and recover with equal facility,* A committee appointed by the Odontological Association found the following average times for nitrous oxide antestheaia: — Tioepitoeoff. Dnntlon. Time trom am- Males I min. 21 sees. 24 sees. I mi ..«==^ Females 1 .. '6 .. 23 „ 2 „ 1 Children (under 15) 1 » 3 ., I „ ... The exact duration of aniesthesia is not, howevei^ ea'iy of very exact determination. We have seen that the effect of an anaesthetic sucbl as nitrous oxide is practically to lull the higher nervoushi centres and to give the lower nervous centres thci ' D. W. Buitoti, Amalhtlici, London, 1892; Maurice Feiiin, Ait.1 "An&thdsie," Dicl. enty. dts Sci. Mid. " HYPNOTIC PHENOMENA. 2/1 Opportunity of indulging in an orgy. Is it the nervous system of men or of women that most readily takes advantage of this opportunity ? It has frcqtienlly been noted, as a general observa- tion, that various phenomena which may occur during anesthesia are more common in women. Thus chloroform, ether, nitrous oxide, cocaine, and possibly other anesthetics, possess the property of exciting the sexual emotions. Women are especially liable to these erotic hallucinations during anaesthesia, and it has sometimes been almost impossible to convince them that their subjective sensations have had no objective cause.^ Those who have to administer anesthetics are well aware of the risks they may thus incur. It has also been noted (as by Perrin) that women are more liable to dream under anesthesia. General muscular excitement, both in the earlier and in the later stages of nitrous oxide anesthesia, have been observed to be more common in women. Among girls and women, especially if of hysterical temperament, Dr. Silk remarks that during the usually quiet early stage of anaesthesia " every variety of antic may at times be indulged in, of which singing and kicking are the most common;" while just as they are passing fully under the influence of the gas, girls who have hitherto been quiet may begin to scream and kick in a manner that is usually entirely reflex and automatic ; "during the stage of recovery, too, the period of excitement is often very marked, especially in females. Hallucinations with a desire to go somewhere or do something are very common ; there may be also more or less violent screaming, beating of the feet, jactitations, etc., followed by hysterical crying."^ Definite figures are of much greater value than remarks Ihat sesual emotions during aiKesthesia are " rarely observable ' J. F. W. Silk, Manual e/Nit. Ox. Anasthetia. 2/2 MAN AND WOMAN. general observations, and these on the whole fully confirm the general impressions already recorded. Thus Mr. Gunn has found that females are much more liable to vomit after anaesthetics than males ; of about 2000 males and nearly 2000 females who were anEesthetised at Moorfields Ophthalmic Hospital j i per cent of the females and 40 per cent of the males were sick ;^ it must be added that Dr. Silk finds vomiting, both in childhood and adult age, more common in males, though he also finds that excessive evolution of intestinal flatulence under anaesthesia occurs almost exclusively among women. It is to Dr. Silk that we owe the most valuable contribution yet made to the precise knowledge of sexual differ- ences as revealed by anesthetics,^ Of his 1000 cases 340 were in men, 760 were in women ; the average age in each sex was 24 years. It is the tendency to muscular movement which may be most easily observed. Rhythmic movements, such as swinging the legs, beating time to music with the hands, etc., were observed 27 times ; it is impossible to say in what class of patients such movements are to be expected ; 6 (or 3.5 per cent.) of Dr. Silk's male cases showed such movements; 21 (or 2.8 percent.) of the female cases. The excess of females is here scarcely perceptible ; it is much more marked in regard to rigid muscular contractions of an opistho- tonic character; it was noted in only 17 (or 7. 1 per cent) males, but in 89 (or 1 1.7 per cent) females. A tendency to opisthotonus was observed in 7 males (or 2.9 per cent) and in 44 females (or 5.8 per cent). Erotic symptoms were found by Dr. Silk to have undoubtedly occurred in six cases out of the whole series, and always in women, with one exception in L Ad R. Marcus Gunn, Brit. Med. Journal, July it, 1883. J. F. W. Silk, " An Analysis of a. Series of 1000 Nitrous OKidc Administralions Recorded SyslemalicaUy," Trans. Odonlological Sac., .?,_. I am indebled to Dr. Silk for further elucidations regarding seveisl points, and also for additional figures. HYPNOTIC PHENOMENA. 273 young unmarried women under the age of 24. In- voluntary micturition occurred ten times, invariably in females ; twice in children under 14 (wtiich was, relatively, a large proportion, i.e., 20 per cent), the. remainder in women between that age and 40. I take these results chiefly from the published paper already mentioned, but recently Dr. Silk has been good enough to place in my hands the general results of a very much larger number of cases — not less than 5119, of whom 1719 were males, 3400 females; S8g were children under the age of 15. The anaesthetic used was chiefly, although not exclusively, nitrous oxide. The results of this larger investigation con- firm, while at the same time to some extent modify- ing, the results founded on the smaller number of observations. It was found that there was a decided excess of vomiting among males, defecation and rhythmic movements were about equal in the two sexes; in all other respects females were in a majority, and usually in a very large majority. Thus the tendency to opisthotonus occurred 74 times instead of 46 times, as it should have done in order to agree with the male ratio. Erotic phenomena occurred 18 times, but only once in a man; to preserve the male ratio they should only have occurred twice among the women. Micturition occurred 23 times in women, in- stead of 8 times which would have been in the same proportion as among the males, in whom it occurred only 4 times. If wc separate the children (under 15) from the adults, we find that rhythmic movements occur almost exclusively in adults ; intestinal rumbling occurs almost exclusively in adult women. Of the 4 male cases of micturition only one was in an adult, but of the 23 female cases 16 were in adults ; the erotic phenomena were of course exclusively in adults. The evidence furnished by the human organism under the influence of anesthetics, which abolish conscious and voluntary action, is pecuUad-j t<^;\'a^^ MAN AND WOMAN. and the figures here given, which include a number of cases to insure trustworthy results, all' point more or less plainly to one conclusion : hypnotic phenomena are more frequent and more marked in women than in men ; the lower nervous centres in women are more rebellious to control than those of] men, and more readily brought into action. METEOROLOGIC SENSIBILITY. a sufHcieni^H results, ali^^' ] This is not, strictly speaking, a form of sensibility at all, and it has no connection with any of the sense- orjjans. It is really a form of what wc shall later on be concerned with as "affectability," and is therefore allied to emotional states. It may perhaps be fairly considered among hypnotic phenomena. Atmospheric changes are announced, some time advance, by modifications of the electric, baromeirici, thermic, hygrometric, and possibly magnetic condi- tions, and by a number of other physical changes, to which, for the most part, civilised people have become insensitive. Animals, however, of all kinds — sheep, pigs, fish, ducks, grouse, etc, — can perceive these changes, and understand what they foretell. It has indeed been said by an acute observer of animal life that "there are few animals which do not afford timely and sure prognostications of changes in the weather."' In man, although the metcorologic sense, as Beaunis calls it, is not universal, it is by no means uncommon to find individuals who are very sensitive to the approach of atmospheric disturbances, more especially to storms. This sensibility may be exhibited ' " varying phenomena — heaviness of tlie head, gem discomfort, a sense of oppression, vague pains. Thus a snowstorm may be invariably preceded gastric disturbances, nervous irritability, mental ; M 1 SL John, IVi/ii S/vrts of the Hi^hlan HYPNOTIC PHENOMENA. general depression a day or two in advance; and rheumatic suljjccts often experience pains in their bones with barometric certainty. Beaunis states (as also Gavarret had previously stated) that such sensi- biliiy is more common in women and in children, and although I am not aware that any statistical proof of this has yet been brought forward, any one whose attention has been called to this point will probably have observed the greater frequency of meteorologic sensibility in women. The best subjects are of nervous or neurotic temperament Meteorologic sensibility is not only shown in relation to changes in the weather ; it is also shown by susceptibility to the influence of seasonal changes. One form in which this sensibility to season exhibits itself is by special tendency to general nervous depression of the organism during a particular period of the year, usually the spring ; I am acquainted with too few caries of this idiosyn- crasy to be able to say whether it is more frequent in women, though I am inclined to think that it is. Sensibility to the influence of seasonal changes is shown in a marlced manner by the prevalence of insanity and suicide during the spring and summer months. Suicide by no means necessarily implies insanity ; it involves, however, a similar condition of mental instability, and it is largely subject to the same cosmic laws. Morselli, in his monograph on Sitidde, notes in women the quicker development of suicidal tendency during the summer season or the first warmth of spring. " The greater proportion of suicides among women," he remarks, "is manifest, whether during the whole season (Italy, Prussia, and Saxony) or in the warmest months of June (France) or July (Bavaria). In Italy and Saxony is to be noted the same prevalence of suicides among women in the months of April and May, while the proportion offered by women in certain warm months (as Jul-j in Bavaria) largely exceeds the highest monthl average of men." Turning to the question, "Whrf' is the monthly average of suicides through mental disease in the two sexes?" Morselli found from the data he collected that "among women violent deaths through madness are proportionately more numerous in those months which, by reason of their average temperature, operate fatally — that is, in April, when the first heat, though not intense, is felt exceedingly by the cerebral organism not yet accustomed to it, and in July, when the average monthly temperature reaches the maximum of the year." It must be added that some slight examination of the suicide rates that 1 have been able to make, considering them not by month but by season, do not altogether confirm Morselli's conclusions. In Saxony, for example, during the years 1876-79, I find that while 2S.5 of the total male suicides took place in the spring, only 26.1 of the female suicide; were committed during that season. And if 1 group together the Teutonic and Scandinavii countries — Prussia (1869-72), Saxony (1876-79), Den- mark (1874-78), Norway (1866-70). Sweden (1833-51) — it will be found that out of a total of 18,836 male suicides 28.3 per cent occurred in spring, and out of a total of 4815 female suicides 28.2 occurred in spring ; while 30.3 per cent, of the male suicides and 29.3 per cent, of the female suicides were com- mitted in summer; 22.5 per cent male suicides and 23.6 per cent female suicides were committed in autumn, and precisely the same percentage of 18.9 male and female suicides took place during the winter. This shows no marked sexual differ- ence, and the preponderance of women in the autumn is almost exactly balanced by the prepon- derance of men in the summer. Morselli's com] elusions cannot be accepted unreservedly wilhi further investigation. HYPNOTIC PHENOMENA. As to the varying incidence of insanity, month by month, in the two sexes, I do not possess much evidence. So far as I am aware, the question of any sexual difference in this respect has not been raised. Figures of 2669 admissions to asylums in France, supplied by Parchappe to Eucknill and Tuke,^ seemed to show that men were more affected by season than women. The result is different, how- ever, if we turn to the very much larger figures (nearly 40,000) supplied by Scotch asylums during eighteen years, Per 1000 men during the years 1865-74 ^'^'^ excess of admissions during the spring and summer over the autumn and winter was 54, and during the years 1880-87 it was 58. For women dur- ing the first period the excess in spring and summer over autumn and winter was 66, and during the second period y6. During the three spring months the pro- portion ofmale insane admitted was 27.1 per cent,, that of females 27.5 percent. Or, expressed in another way, while in the months of January during these years the admissions of men and women were nearly equal, being 1493 men to 1481 women, in May there were 1669 men admitted to 1952 women, being a large excess of women. The greater sensitiveness of women to this seasonal influence is therefore in Scotland fairly constant and well marked. On the whole, there is still need of further investigation before it can be asserted as a general rule that the chief varieties of meteorologic sensi- bility are more marked in women than in men. Daily observations of the pulse-rate, temperature, etc., all furnish a fruitful field for the investigation of the various monthly, yearly, and other phj-siological rhythms, which has at present been very little exploited. ' Manual of Psychological MtdUine, 1858, p. 249.
Reports of Board of CommissioniTS in Lunacy, Scolland, lyih
Report, p. 26, and 3t5t Report, p. 28. Quoted, with many observa- tions on the physiological inSueuce of season, in Lefiingwell's Injlu- ence of Seasons upon Conduct (Social Science Series), 1892, pp. loi, 157. Man and woman. There is also an inlereslins connection between meieorologic scnsibilil]' and seasonal influences on the rate of bodily growth. The investigations of Wretlind in Sweden, and of Wahl, and especially Mailing- Han sen in Denmark, have shown that season exercises a. very marked influence on tbc rate of growth of children. It is not yet quite clear to what extent this seasonal influence is connected with the influence of holidays, but there is no doubt that it is very lai^ely a genuine and regular physio- logical phenomenon. Mailing- Hansen has shown that from the point of view of body-gtowth there are three seasons in a child's year :— ;{i) from the end of November or beginning- of Decem- ber until the end of March or beginning of April : during the whole of this period, development, both as regards height and weight, is at a low ebb; (2) from March-April until July-August; during this period there is great development in height but no increase in weight, even some loss; (3) from July-August to November-December i this is the period of growth in weight; the daily increase is at this time three times as great as during the winter, but increase in height is at a minimum. There are slight independent oscillations in growth, chiefly depending on changes m temperature; thus Mailing- Hansen shows that even an elevated temperature lasting only a few days will produce an increase in growth. It is of great interest to observe that the period of physical quiescence corresponds almost precisely with the period of emotional quiescence, as shown by the comparative infrequency of insanity, suicide, murder, and offences against chastity. I have not seen Mailing- Han sen's original memoir, and cannot say whether his figures show any marked sexual differences. NEURASTHENIA AND HYSTERIA. Neurasthenia and hysteria are probably the typical nervous disorders of women. Our attention is called to them here because in their main outlines they exhibit the characteristics common to hypnotic phenomena generally. Neurasthenia, as it is now generally called, — or spinal irritation, nervosism, etc., as it was formerly called, — is not a modern complaint. It is at least as old as Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, although it was only during the present century that — owing chiefly to Beard in America and Bouchut in France — it has been fully described. Even now, however. HYPNOTIC PHENOMENA. I neurasthenia is only a lar<;e collection of vague " nervous symptoms which not all authorities can reckon as a definite disorder; thus Schule and Mendel are inclined to class a large number of such cases as hypochondriasis, while others would consider them as mild examples of melancholia, hysteria, etc. It is of no interest from our present point of view how the phenomena are classified or what they are called. There is general agreement that under any name they are much more common in women. In the experience of some authorities as many as fourteen out of every fifteen cases are women, though this is no doubt an excessive proportion. The symptoms are, generally speaking, a weakness of the nervous system — including both brain and spinal cord — due partly to insufficient or Inappropriate nutrition and partly to faulty development, showing itself by a tendency to over-action and irritability of the nervous system, morbid sensibility, and mental anxiety. It may present all degrees of intensity, and although it is not a definite organic disease, the neurasthenic condition is the soil on which organic nervous diseases may grow. It is the "neuropathic diathesis." The study of neurasthenia throws so much light on the nature and on the beginnings of the nervous and hypnotic conditions which are especially common in women, that it seems worth while to indicate its chief outlines. I will especially follow the admirable and precise account given by Professor Rudolf Amdt of Greifswald in his article on "Neurasthenia" in the Dictionary of Psychological Medicine. The distinct peculiarities of neurasthenia are negative rather than positive. We are sure to find either hypochondriacal or paralytiform or epileptoid or hysleroid symptoms, hut they are not sufficiently developed to enable us to say that hypochondriasis or melan- cholia or general paralysis, epilepsy or hysteria or locomotor ataxy, is really present, although any of these diseases may possihly emerge ultimately; it must be remembered that there is no function without an organ, and therefore no functional dis- order without an organic basis which may develop into a definite disease. Although in neurasthenia there is really deficient nervous power, there appears, in accordance with a well-recognised l3.'« MAN AND WOMAN. of nen'C- stimulation, to be an increase of nervous energy. This is because there is a decrease of nerve -res! stance, and the nervous system responds too readily and too emphatically to a slight degree of stimulation. This exaggerated excitability, which is characteristic of neurasthenia, is therefore closely associated with that loss of complete control whicji we have found to be an essential element in all hypnotic phenomena. At a later stage this increased excitability rapidly decreases; the nerve becomes blunted or paralysed, and fails to respond adequately even to strong stimulation. Sensory nerves being normally more excitable than motor, hyperesthesia, or morbid sensibility, appears somewhat earlier than muscular weakness; these two symptoms — hypersesthesia and muscular weakness — are the chief characteristics of neur- asthenia. No objective foundation can be found for the hyper- asslhesia, which is the most common phenomenon, so that it is often reg'arded as imaginary, although it is far from imaginary to the patient, and may cause misery during the greater part of life. All kinds of unpleasant sensations and pains are felt in all parts of the body, and, as in all sensations and pains the brain must take part, we have in neurasthenia an element of what has been called cerebral irritation. This cerebral irritation is often shown by all sorts of morbid dreads which may find a kind of basis in (he abnormal sensations. Thus we may have agoraphobia or the fear of open spaces, claustrophobia or the fear of enclosed spaces, anthropophobia or the fear of being with others, rupophobia or the fear of being dirty, nyctophobia or the fear of night, and a vast number of other fears lo which it is not worth while to give names. {A vivid literary picture of such morbid obsession is to be found in a chapter of Borrow's Laveitgroj it is undoubtedly taken from life.) In the simplest and most elementary fonn these fears may be called natural; in their most pronounced form, and carried beyond all control of reason, they belong to the domain of insanity; in neurasthenia we have them in an intermediate stage. The abnormal motor phenomena correspond to the sensory. At first they are excessive, as they are in all varieties of hypnotic phenomena ; spasmodic cramps and twitchings are present with great frequency, but languor and immobility may also be present. The pupils are dilated orunequai ; the tendon reflemes are exaggerated; yawning is often frequent, and there is a tendency to blush, which Beard and other authorities consider as a very characteristic symptom of neurasthenia Neurasthenia is a general condition of agitation of the nervous system, and it is not surprising that we find it with especial frequency in both men and women HYPNOTIC PHENOMENA. who overstrain their brains, in artists and writers and those who are over-strenuous in social move- ments. Hysteria, which is one of the chief of the more definite diseases to which neurasthenia may lead, has no necessary connection of this kind with mental tension. It occurs with much greater fre- quency among those whose nervous activities are unemployed. Although one of the greatest of the old English physicians, Sydenham, laid our knowledge of hys- teria on a sound and scientific basis, the word has too often been used in a loose and inaccurate sense, or even as a mere term of abuse, and it is only within recent years that it has been somewhat more rigidly defined and its nature more precisely investi- gated in detail. This advance is very largely owing to the initiative of Charcot and to the brilliant and painstaking students of nervous disease who have grown up around him at the Salp^trifere.* Hysteria is a disease which affects the whole nervous system, and more especially the brain; it is, as Charcot taught and is now usually agreed, essentially a psychic disease.^ If we try to makeclear to ourselves the broad general character of the mental phenomena in hysteria, we shall find that they may be summed up in one word — suggestibility.^ Response to suggestion is a funda- mental normal character of all nervous tissue. Even among bees it is said that when a band of brigand bees enter a strange hive to despoil it of honey, the owners of the hive are themselves sometimes so carried away by the contagion of rapine that they ' For a clear and judicious summary of the present position of know- ledge regaining hysteria, see Gilles de la Tourelte, TraiU dittique ct thcrapiuiiqut de VHystirit, d'apris teHStignemiiit de la Salpilriire, Taris, 1S91. For a slill more recent discussion of (he latest deliiutioiu of hysteria, see the articles by Fienre Janet in the Archives de Nturs- logie, vol. XXV., 1893. ' Charcot, Ltfims du Mardi, t. i. p. Z05, 1887. ■ See the admirable chapter on the mental condition in hysteria in Gilles de la Tourette'a Traiti ctinique, Az., 1891, pp. 486-555. MAN AND WOMAN. will even go over to the robbers' side and assist it destroying the result of their own labours. The same irrational suggestibility is found among healthy human bein^, at all events in an incipient state English prison matron confessed that sometimes when she heard the women under her care " break out" (as it is called) and commence smashing and destroying everything they could get hold of, it was as much as could do to restrain herself from joining in; and many persons have experienced a similar impulse. In hysteria this tendency is so heightened that it becomes irresistible, and may be aroused by the faintest suggestion from without, and also from with- in. Thus there is what Huchard, who belongs to a somewhat older school, calls moral ataxy,^ And F^r4, in allusion to this almost uncontrollable response to stimuli, has called the hysterical subject "the frog of psychology." Dr. Conolly Norman (who considers that " weakness, with irritability, is the fundamental note of the hysterical character") has the following observations on "hysterical mania," a form of insanity which is combined with hysteria : — " The sufferer from hysterical mania is exceedingly eraotionaL The pain of melancholia is unknown, the appearance of depression is very shallow, A trifling and passing depressive emotion is re- sponded to by instant tears, perhaps with loud outcry and by a great display of grief, but the feeling is quite temporary. There IS a certain hyperjesthesia showing itself by a too quick response to every emotional irritation without any permanent substratum of painful feeling. In a similar way there is a sharp irritability of temper without the constant state of anger which will some- times occur in other forms of mania. The entire emotional slate is unstable in the extreme, and the expression of emotion bears a peculiar whimsical and uncertain character, such as is also seen in the entire conduct of the patient. Impulse is very apt to be translated into action with alarming rapidity. Impulse and whim sometimes rise almost to the dignity of ruling motives in a mind incapable of forming any fixed resolution." (Art. " Mania, Hysterical," \a Did. 0/ Psych. Med) HYPNOTIC PHENOMENA. 283 This mental mobility, emotional facility, and uncontrollable response to stimuli have fre(]uently led to charges of wanton deception and simulation against the hysterical. Such charges are quite unfounded. " The real deceiver," as Gilles de la Tourette well remarks {TraiU cliniquf, etc., p. 527), "is an active and reasoning being ; the hysterical, when they deceive, are not conscious of the deception ; they are passive beings, photographic plates which register and show forth their impres- sions as Uiey have received them, sometimes amplified, indeed, but always with the good faith of unconsciousness. ' Decep- tion' is a word which has been abused beyond measure in hysteria, so as to have been made the characteristic of a morbid species. It must be added that this has been largely due to ignorance." Clouston has defined hysteria as " the loss of the inhibitory influence exercised on the reproductive and sexual instincts of women by the higher mental and moral functions." {^Edinburgh Med. Journal, ]Mnt iS8j, p. 1123.) The loss of the complete control exercised by the higher centres is undoubtedly an essential character of hysteria as of hypnotic phenomena gener- ally, but it is not usually accepted that there is necessarily any sexual element in hysteria. Formerly the sexual element in hysteria was somewhat exaggerated ; there is now a tendency to unduly minimise it. Sexual irritation in any crude form, or any gross disease of the sexual organs, is certainly not essential in hysteria, although many of the symptoms of hysteria can be traced back to a sexual origin. It is noteworthy also that, as Lombroso points out {La Donna DilinquenU, p. 613), the criminal offences of the hysterical very largely revolve round the sexual functions. There is often some perversion of the sexual emotion, so that, though the hysterical may crave for love and tenderness from the opposite sex, normal sexual relations may be indifferent or repulsive. Both among the "possessed" of former days and in modem times it has been noted that erotic dreams are very frequent in the hysterical, but that they are often painful rather than pleasurable. The mistake of sup- posing that there is some special connection between hysteria and the sexual organs has probably arisen from the undoubted fact that in women the organic sexual sphere is of greater extent than in men. When, therefore, the higher controlling centres are to some extent paralysed we must expect to find all sorts of phenomena traceable to a sexual origin more prominent i women. It is not so in hysteria only, but in nearly all vr '■■ is and menial disorder. It is necessary to say a word as to the relative frequency of hysteria in the two sexes. Up till within about ten years it was always supposed that hysteria was enormously more frequent in women than in men. Sydenham recognised hysteria in men, especially among those of studious and sedentary habits (no doubt including what we should now call neurasthenia), but hysteria in the male had always been regarded as a rarity. Briquet, the chief authority on hysteria during the middle of the present century, found one man to twenty women. In Germany Bodenstein has found in the polyclinique of Eulen- burg and Mendel one man to ten women. But Pitres at Bordeaux finds one man to two women, and at Paris Gilles de la Tourette found that among Charcot's cases there was also one man to two women. It is no longer possible, therefore, to assert that hysteria in men is rare. At the same time there Is excellent reason for believing that it is scarcely so frequent as these recent statistics would lead us to think. It is generally agreed that hysteria in men usually occurs among the poor and ill-nourished classes who frequent hospitals, while in women it occurs chiefly among the idle and well-to-do, whose numbers do not swell hospital statistics. Again, it has been found by Charcot and others that hysteria in the male is a more serious and obstinate affection, while in the female mild cases are much more usually seen ; this also tends to vitiate the statistics of the frequency of hysteria according to sex, as it is only the serious cases which prominently attract medical attention. We may safely conclude that while hysteria in men is more frequent than was once supposed, it is much more common in women. Such a conclusion is in harmony with the opinions of the greatest masters in the science of morbid psychology, from Sydenham, who asserted that there are very few women (except those leading a hard and laborious life) who are entirely exempt from some trace of hysteria, down to Tonnini, in whose vigorous phrase the hysterical person is the colossal image of all that is most peculiarly feniininG — la gigantessa della feminiliti. There is an interesting parallelism, and probably a real deep- lying nervous connection, between the suggestibility of women and the special liability of female birds and many mammals lo be mimetic in coloration, etc. Mimicry, or suggestibility, is an adaptation to the environment, ensuring the protection of the sex that is less able to flee or to tight RELIGIOUS HYPNOTIC PHENOMENA. There is a very intimate connection between hypnotic phenomena — understood in the broad sense in which I have here used the term — and the phenomena of religion. The part played by women as religious leaders is by no means so large as the large proportion of women in religious movements would lead us to expect, but it is considerable, and it has been most conspicuously exercised in that part of religion which covers the field of hypnotic phenomena. As "prophetesses," women, who seem to have fallen into the trance state and seen visions or heard dogmas, which they subsequently declared, have often been of the greatest service to religious leaders, and conspicuously helped to draw disciples by the charm of the supernatural. Apelles, the founder of the Apellaeans of the second century, was powerfully assisted by the prophetess Philumene, Montanus, who was himself similarly affected, was closely associated with the prophetesses Priscilla and Maxi- milla, who were subject to ecstasy, during which they had visions which seem to have influenced Tertullian, one of the greatest of the Latin Fathers. The Quintilians, led by the prophetess Quintilia, were a branch of the Montanists, and their virgins in public assembly wore white robes and exercised prophetic functions; they asserted that women are entitled to exercise all the sacerdotal and episcopal functions. MAN AND WOMAN. Petersen, a visionary Millennarian of the eighteenth century, was aided by his wife, who was also a visionary, and with them was associated an inspired countess, who was also honoured with visions. It would not be difficult to multiply examples of women playing an important part in religious movements who have exhibited hypnotic phenomena in a high degree A very large proportion of the most eminent female saints who led a conventual life were in the highest degree hysterical. It will, however, be suffi- cient to refer to two religious sects which have both been founded or led by women, and which have both been intimately identified with (non -hysterical) forms of hypnotic phenomena. The Shakers were not founded by a woman, but by a man and a woman in conjunction, James Wardley, a Quaker tailor, and his wife; their most distinguished and successful leader was, however, Anne Leese, of Manchester, who transferred the sect to America, where, under her guidance and by means of her missionary zeal, it grew and flourished. The community was founded on a communistic basis, and the property was admir- ably managed; the religious characteristics of the sect, in which women always took a very prominent part, lay in their worship, in which music and singing were especially conspicuous, the ministry as ordinarily understood being entirely abolished; they held that the history of the return of the prodigal Justified their adoption of music and dancing as leading parts of public worship, for it was the elder son, representing the natural man, who condemned these soul-reviving practices. Their religious exercises, we are told, con- sisted chiefly of "S/iah'fi^ a.nd trembling, singing and dancing, leaping and shouting, and prophesying and speaking with new tongues." Hypnotic phenomena, less crudely muscular in character, but not less well marked, form the chief distinguishing character- istics of the T heosophiat s. It is instructive to note that this is at once botli tlie only modern religious HYPNOTIC PHENOMENA. sect of any importance founded and led by women, and the only modern sect established on "magical" and esoteric doctrines and practices. It h thus of profound interest to the student of history, as it enables him to understand how "magical" and esoteric sects — in which, again, women played a con- spicuous part — sprang up and flourished under eastern influence on the decay of the Roman Empire. There is another great class of religious movements in which the various hypnotic phenomena, especially those of a contagious character, play so large a part that nearly every intellectual element disappears. Such religious movements, which are unquestionably morbid in character, are very largely and sometimes exclusively manifested in women, and they rarely possess any prominent leader. They are often saltatory in character, and are in some cases varieties of that epidemic nervous disorder called hysterical chorea. The Dancers, a religious sect of the fourteenth century, which arose at Aix-la-Chapelle and spread throughout Belgium, present an admirable example of religious hypnotic phenomena in which women played a prominent part. The Dancing Mania began immediately ai'ter the pagan midsummer orgies of St. John the Baptist's Day in 1374. Men and women seemed to have lost all sell -control. Suddenly, whether in public or private, they would begin dancing, while holding each other's hands, and would continue dancing with extreme violence until they fell down exhausted ; during these pi;riods of muscular agitation they were insensible to outward impressions, and were favoured with wonderful visions.^ The Camisards, or prophets of the Cevennes, who arose in Dauphin^ and Vivarais in the seventeenth century, and met with much success in France and England, exhibited a variety of hypnotic phenomena, in which, as usual, women were prominent adepts. MAN AND WOMAN. These people were subject to ecstasy, and, as they con- sidered it, the inspiration of the Holy Ghost " They had strange fits," we are told, "which came upon them with tremblings and farntings, as in a swoon, which made them stretch out their arms and legs, and stagger several times before they dropped down. They struck themselves with their hands, they fell on their backs, shut their eyes, and heaved their breasts. The symptoms answer exactly to those pro- duced by inspiring nitrous oxide, and were the fact then discovered we should have been tempted to suspect imposture. They remained awhile in trances, and coming out of them declared that they saw the heavens open, the angels, paradise, and hell. Those who were just on the point of receiving the spirit of prophecy dropped down, not only in the assemblies, but in the fields, and in their own houses, crying out Mercy. The least of their assemblies made up to four or five hundred, and some of them amounted to even three or four thousand. The hills rebounded with their loud cries for mercy, and with impreca- tions against the priests, the Pope, and his anti- Christian dominion ; with predictions of the approach- ing fall of popery. All they said at these times was heard and received with reverence and awe."' This is an admirable picture of a religious orgy of the uncontrolled hypnotic activities of the human organism. In the convulsive religious epidemic of Redruth, at the beginning of the present century, which spread with extreme rapidity over a considerable region from Helston to Camborne, and which was marked by uncontrollable movements of all parts of the body, no age or sex was exempt, but girls and women were ' A Dutiamay of All Religions, Ait. "Camisari," in which references are pven to Gr^oire, Hist., vol. L p. 370 ; Chauncev, Works, voL iii. p. 2, etc. ; Hughaon, Fr. and Ertg. Prophets; Lacty, Prophetic Warnings and ,* Brand Snalched from the Burning ; WiUon, Dissenting Churches, vol. iv. p. T]. V HYPNOTIC PHENOMENA. the most frequent victims. The religious nervous affection of the Shetland Islands, which belongs to about the same period, was almost identical in character, and almost exclusively affected young women.' At Morzine, a little village in the Haute-Savoie, during 1861-65 there was a hysterical religious epi- demic in which gentle young girls during the paroxysm replied judiciously to questions in various languages, uttered abominable blasphemies, were subject to hallucinations, climbed trees with marvellous agility, and gave forth prophecies which were sometimes realised. They knew nothing afterwards of what had gone on. The epidemic seems to have been confined to young girls, and the population generally regarded the phenomenon as supernatural. The ecclesiastical authorities attempted exorcism in vain, but the civil authorities, with a brigade of gendarmerie and isola- tion of the affected individuals, were more successful. A somewhat similar outbreak also took place some years ago at Verzegnis, a mountain village in Friuli, after a mission preached by a Jesuit father among a superstitious population predisposed to hysteria. The phenomena were those of profound hysteria of demoniac form, chiefly or exclusively in women, and they were dissipated with great difficulty by some- what the same means as those adopted at Morzine.* A few years ago the little town of Alia, near Palermo, became famous on account of the religious enthusiasm of its female inhabitants ; insanity, epilepsy, and hysteria abounded, and the town fell into great moral and physical misery.' Russia is the only country to-day in which it is ' Hecker, Epidemics, "The Dancing Mania," Chap. iv. and Appen- dix V. The hysferical phenomena witnessed during Ihe great religious revival of 1859 in Ireland have been very well studied in a paniphtet of great interest by Archdeacon Slopfoid, " The Work and the Connter- worli," Dublin, 1859.
Pilrcs, Ltfons cHmques stir Fhysihie, vol. i. pp. 40.44.
' " Lft Psychopathie religieiise d'Alia," VBnciphaU, 1S81. 1 MAN AND WOMAN. I possible to study all the various forms of hypni religious phenomena, and here indeed they may studied in their most intense manifestations and on a very wide scale. The strong religious instincts of the people, the primitive conditions ol their life, their semi-pagan beliefs, and the suffering and oppression to which they are subjected, all tend to heighten the play of hypnotic religious emotion. Dnring the present century a number of religious sects have been founded, or have developed, which have practised dancing, leaping, flagellation, even castration, although some of them have been at the same time of a practical and rationalistic character. In all these sects women play a very prominent part, in some the majority of the members are women, a few have been founded by women. It is not surprising that in these Russian sects women enjoy a position of freedom equal to that of the men. The sect of Christs believe that every person contains, or may contain, a portion of the divinity, and is worthy of adoration. Amid dancing and sobbing, which play a very important part in Russian mystical sects, the Holy Spirit descends. It is a wild and giddy dance which begins at nnid- night, after long hours of prayers and psalm-singing and religious discussion. Then the ChHsts rise, both men and women remove all their garments and put on long white shirts and white cotton stockings. Candles are lighted, and after singing a monotonous chant a few begin to leap and to dance. Gradually the others join, and they beat time with their feet, the men in the direction of the sun, and the women in the opposite direction. Their movements increase in rapidity, and their sobs become more violent Each Christ begins to revolve, the men to the right, the women to the left, with such rapidity that the face cannot be distinguished. They leap, they contort themselves, they run after each other, they flagellate each other. In the midst of mad laughter, of cries and sobs, loud shout'^ are heard: "It is coming! It Ly be ^^^^ HYPNOTIC PHENOMENA. is coming! The Holy Spirit is coming!" Then the excitement of this strange danse macabre of shouting, half-nalced, white-garmented figures — which producea a tremendous effect on the novice — begins to cul- minate. Men and women tear off their garments, go about on all fours, ride on one another's backs, and give way to the sexua! erethism which had been exalted to the highest point. The Christs reject marriage, and generally practise asceticism, but at such moments they are carried beyond themselves, and they feel that the physical emotions they ex- perience are sanctified. There are a great many women among the Christs ; at one of their resorts the police, in 184S, found nearly one hundred young girls. Women among them enjoy great honour, as well as equal rights with men. At their religious ceremonies some strong, beautiful, and intelligent young woman is often chosen for special adoration as the personifica- tion of divinity and the emblem of generative force; they call her the Virgin Mary, and they identify her with the Earth Goddess. She is their priestess; they prostrate themselves before her ; she bears on her head a sacramental plate of raisins, and solemnly distributes them to the worshippers. Among the Skoptsy, a sect related to the Christs, the same observances and the same worship of women are carried to a still higher point ; the castration or mutilation of both men and women is practised in their rites ; they .sometimes worship a naked young girl, cover her with kisses, and when she has reached the necessary pitch of reckless exaltation she allows them to communicate in her blood. It has sometimes been found among groups of Skoptsy that more than half the members are women. • Religious movements of this epidemic character find their chief adepts among persons in whom the ' These and olhet si described in the in I ere 1888. MAN AND WOMAN. il centres I ■he com- I inhibiting influences of the higher intellectual are but in a lowly stage of development The paralively rare cases in which individuals of more than average mental culture are attracted in any number to a religious movement of this kind seem to belong to periods of over-strenuous intellectuality, during which a number of individuals are forced to adopt a rationalistic asceticism for which they are unfitted ; at last the rationalistic fetters fall off", and the suppressed hypnotic centres explode with immense satisfactioi This is the most important key to the psychology " conversion." It is natural that we should find hypnotic pheno- mena most highly developed among primitive races, and the shaman, who is nearly everywhere the priest or priestess of savage races, presents the perfected, type of hypnotic phenomena devoted to religii service and carried to the highest point of devcloj ment Among the numerous religious movements hypnotic nature among somewhat primitive races may be mentioned that exhibited by the Russian Kiikuschi ("screaming women possessed"). The Klikuschi were women attacked by severe paroxysi of hysterical religious emotion, which usually lasti for a short time only, but might continue for a day ■ more. These women were persecuted and tortured in the Middle Ages. An allied form of hypnotic re- ligious emotion is the Ikota, which is found among the Samojed women of Siberia, It occurs almost ex- clusively in married women, and in its milder forms is characterised by listlessness, with occasional out- bursts of anger, and in its more developed forms by brief outbursts of maniacal excitement. In Abyssinia, again, at the beginning of the present century, the Tigretier, as described by Nathan!) ' Pearce, an uneducated but reliable witness, close! resembled the mediaeval Dancing Mania, and wi especially common among women, though ed % lO- es,
st

cted
Tiotufl s ol" aces sian iitej HYPNOTIC PHENOMENA. sometimes afflicted, but not frequently." In Abyssinia to-day the women are very subject to hysteria. One more form of hysterical religious emotion, propagated by imitation, is the Lata found among the Javanese, and in an allied form called Lattah in Malacca. It chiefly occurs among native women, both of higher and lower social rank, and is marked by paroxysmal outbursts of involuntary movement with rapid ejaculation of inarticulate sounds, corre- sponding to the " speaking with tongues" found among Christian sects. There is temporary loss of con- sciousness, but the mental powers are intact except during the paroxysm. Lata assumes many forms, but in most of them, as in the Tarantism of the Middle Ages, and indeed in nearly all hypnotic manifestations, there is an irresistible tendency to imitation, a boundless suggestibility. The case is mentioned of a woman who appeared to be quite norma), but on any one throwing off a coat in her presence she would suddenly pass into a state of frenzy, strip herself of her clothes, and conduct her- self in other indecent ways, whilst all the time she kept abusing the instigator of what she regarded as an outrage. Again, the ship's cook of one of the local steamers, a pronounced sufferer from the disease, was dandling his baby on the deck. One of the men noticing this, picked up a billet of wood, and, standing in front, commenced nursing it in the same way. Presently he began tossing the biilet up to the awning, the cook imitating his motions with the baby. Suddenly the sailor opened his arms, and the billet fell to the deck ; the unfortunate cook did the same, and the child, falling on the planking, was instantly killed. In other respects the subjects of Lata are mentally quite sound. ^ ' Alt. "Klikuschi," " Ikota," "Lata," "Tigretiei," Diet. Psych. Med. Also for Lattah, Art. in /"a// Ara//CaE(i'/e, lolh July 1893. Fur several of these and allied hypnotic alTeclions, occurring chiefly or exclusively in women, see Max Bartets, Medicin der JValurnfflitr, pp. MAN AND WOMAN. It is impossible here to deal at all adequately with the fascinating subject of religious psychology, but it will probably be sufficiently obvious that all the various forms and stages of hypnotic phenomena (as here understood} go to make up religious exaltation in its most characteristic forms. This fact is patent even to the devout historian of the Camisards, who, as we have seen, is struck by the close resemblance bctivecn the religious phenomena presented by that sect and the phenomena of anaesthesia by nitrous oxide, the lowest and least intellectual of the hypnotic stages. The general characteristic of all the various hypnotic forms is what we may express by saying that there is lessened control of the higher intellectual centres and increased activity of the more spontaneous and automatic motor and visceral centres. Or, if we prefer, we may say that the more highly co-ordinated action of the nerve centres gives way to their more inco-ordinatcd action, and therefore the presence of hypnotic phenomena indicates a somewhat lower degree of mental integration.^ In catalepsy and anaesthesia there may be complete quiescence of the higher modes of action ; in dreaming, ecstasy, and hypnotism proper, they are taken into comparatively uncontrolled spheres ; in hallucinations they remain in the normal sphere, but are perverted ; in neuras- thenia and hysteria there is merely a slightly lessened control of the higher centres ; while the increased activity of the lower centres may be intertwined with a considerable degree of intellectual activity In then modes of religious exaltation. It 13 not necessary here to discuss the causation of hypnoti religious phenomena. To do so would be to open up man,, interesting questions which are still scarcely ripe for solutioiu TyXoT {Primitive Culture, 3rd edit., 1891, vol. ii. pp. 128-142,3 ' "As we ascend the animal scale," as Ferricr remarks {FunelioH! d the Brain, 1886), " the centres of which the cereljto-spinal systec composed become more and more inliinaiely bound up and assocla with each other in action. HVPNOTIC PHENOMENA. 295 pp. 410-421) has briefly discussed in his usual masterly manner the evolution of what I have here called hypnotic religious phe- nomena, from the earliest savage times to the revivals of the present day, He insists on the importance of fasting in their development : " Bread and meat would have robbed the ascetic of many an angel's visit; the opening of the refectory door must many a time have closed the gates ofheaven to his gaze." The importance of fasting in the evolution of visions is certainly great. It must be added that sexual abstinence has played 3 very prominent part in producing the more typical motor phenomena. Continence is enjoined on the adepts of nearly all religions. It is only among a few sects, and at the climax of religious excitement, that the sexual emotion has been regarded as sanctified. Its repression has usually been necessary to assist in elaborating the process of religious auto-intoxication. But the final explosion of the suppressed sexual instincts is often violent. Having been, as it were, diverted into a foreign channel and their impetuosity at the same time increased, they finally break violently back into their normal channels. Anstie, an acute observer of some of the intimate details of the emo- tional life, has remarked ("Lectures on Diseases of the Nervous System," ia««/, Jan. Mth,iS73): " I know no fact in pathology more striking and even terrifying than the way in which the phenomena of the ecstatic state — which have often been seized upon by sentimental theorisers as proofs of spiritual exaltation — may be plainly seen to bridge the gulf between the innocent fooleries of ordinary hypnotic patients and the degraded and repulsive phenomena of nymphomania and satyriasis." At the time when Anstie wrote the connection between spiritual exalta- tion and organic conditions was not so plain as it is at present, but he had clearly perceived the especial facility with which the ecstatic condition passes over into disordered sexual emotion. Since then the almost constant connection between ecstasy and sexual excitement has become fairly well recognised. (See, for instance, ConoUy Norman, Art. "Mania," Diet. Psych. Med.) The phenomena of the religious life generally are to a lat^e extent based on the sexual life, and the majority of conversions (about 80 per cent.) take place during adolescence, (See a suggestive paper by A. H. Daniels, B.D., "The New Life ; A Study of Regeneration," Atii. Journal Psyck., 1893, vol. vi., e also Krafft-Ebing, Psyckopathia Sexualis, 8th edit., I, pp. 8 I.) It must be remembered that hypnotic phe are strictly physiological, although they are liable to be increased or modified to a degree that is distinctly morbid ; an individual in whom the action of the I I I 296 MAN AND WOMAN. higher centres had largely abolished the stirrings of the lower hypnotic centres would be morbid to a still greater degree. Hypnotic phenomena form, with the allied vaso-motor movements, the chief physiological ij basis of what we more generally call "emotion." When, therefore, we conclude that women are more liable than men to present hypnotic phenomena, we have but discovered in a more definite and funda- mental manner that women are more " emotional " than men. We have now to define more precisely what is meant by the " emotionality " of women. / 297 CHAPTER XIII. THE AFFECTABILITY OF WOMEN. WHAT IS AN EMOTION? — READIER RESPONSE OF THE VASO-MOTOR VASCULAR SYSTEM IN WOMEN — PHYSIO- LOGICAL AND PATHOLOGICAL EVIDENCE — THE HEART — BLUSHING — AFFECTABILITY OF THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM — FACIAL EXPRESSION — THE IRIS — THE BLADDER — SUSCEPTIBILITY TO FRIGHT — EMOTIONAL CAUSATION OF DISEASE PREDOMINATES IN WOMEN — DESTRUCTIVE TENDENCIES — "BREAKINGS OUT" — THE SOURCE OF THESE — THE CONGENITAL EXHAUSTIBILITY OF WOMEN — THE ADVANTAGES OF WOMEN'S AFFECTABILITY — ANAEMIA AND AFFECTABILITY — THE GREATER AFFECT- ABILITY OF WOMEN TO SOME EXTENT THE RESULT OF CIRCUMSTANCES, TO SOME EXTENT ORGANIC. Women respond to stimuli, psychic or physical, more readily than men. This general statement, though it may be modified or h'mited in certain respects, is un- contested. By what word we may best describe this characteristic of women's nervous constitution is less clear. We may call it with perfect correctness a greater ** irritability," or "plasticity," or "suggesti- bility." All these terms are legitimate, but on the whole I prefer to use an old word, approved by Laycock,! — sufficiently colourless to be unobjection- able, and indicating both the quick psychic and physical response to stimuli, — and to speak of the greater "affectability " of women. ^ Laycock, Nervous Diseases of Women ^ p. 76. In considering the preponderance of "hypnotic" phenomena in women — the tendency, that is. of the more primitive nervous centres to be stronger than the more recent centres, and to rise up in revolt against them — we were approaching on its most obscure side the greater emotionality of women. We are now approaching the emotionality of women from a somewhat less obscure side. What is an emotion? We shall more easily gather the drift of the facts if we understand this at the out- set. It was formerly supposed, and is no doubt still supposed by many people, that an emotion is a purely mental phenomenon, and that anger or love may go on in the brain somewhat in the same way as an arith- metical calculation. This is not the case. It is conceivable that, if the head could be removed from the body at will, the brain when isolated could per- form a mathematical calculation ; it is no longer possible to believe that it could feel anger or love, or any other emotion, save in the most remote and intellectualised form. We all know that emotions are accompanied, in their most emphatic forms very obviously, by varying physical disturbances of the heart and blood-vessels, the viscera and muscles. It was formerly supposed that these ph)sical changes were but the accidental consequences of the emotion. Recent advances in physiology make it more than probable that these physical changes, so far from being unessential, themselves constitute the emotion, and that in their absence no emotion is felt. An im- pression occurs in the nervous system, but until it has passed into the body and become mixed with a convulsion of blood and muscle and heart and other organs, according to the nature of the perception, it cannot return to the brain as an emotion. We know by experiments on the lower animals that all the manifestations of emotion may be called forth even in the absence of the cerebral hemispheres which are the basis of consciousness, so that it is superfluous to THE AFFECTABILITY OF WOMEN. IB 'ell V suppose that the emotion is created as registered in the brain. If it were found by the application of delicate physiological tests that a man's vascular and muscular systems were working at their usual normal tension, it could be positively affirmed that that man was not feeling emotion. No amount of self-control over the coarser expressions of emotion alters the case, for even to unscientific inspection the passion of the self-control led man reveals itself by some quiver of muscle, some sudden pallor, some quickening of heart-beat. Just as it may be said: no muscle, no motion ; so it may equally be said : no muscle, no emotion. Bocalosi, an Italian ivriter of the last century, in his book Dfl/a Fisionomia, seems to have had a glimmenng of the truth that emotion depends on physical organisation. Its full and precise statement has had to wait for the delicate investigations initialed during recent years by the great Italian physiologist, Angelo Mosso, of Turin. Mosso has shown, largely by means of various ingenious instruments, such as the plethysmograph and the balance, which he had himself devised, that the whole organism — especially the whole vaso-motor vascular system — responds at every psychic or physical stimulus, at a word or at a touch, and has brought evidence to show how every muscular movement and every intellectual effort produce an entire redis- tribution of blood in the body; so that the heart, the whole circulatory system, and all the viscera and glands form, as it has been said, a kind of sounding-board, against which every change in consciousness, however slight, at once reverberates, (For a charming and popular exposition of many of his results, sec Professor Mosso's little book, La Peur.) The slight changes never reach consciousness again, but at a certain threshold of intensity they return to consciousness, and emotion is attained. So far as I am awate, the first to clearly perceive the psycho- logical significance of the physiological investigations of Mosso and others was Mr. William James, the distinguished professor of Psychology at Harvard In Mind, No. wtxiv., for April 1884, Professor James, in his usual clear and acute manner, undertook to answer the question, "What is an Emotion?" Pointing out how Bell, Darwin, Bain, and especially Mosso, had prepared the way for the tight understanding of emotion, he reached the result that "Ihe bodily changes follow directly the PERCEPTION of the exciting fact, and thai our Jeetiivg. oS IVa same changes as they occur \S (he emolionr t.i\4.Tsie.t.vB>.'4,^' MAN AND WOMAN, the exiremely iniimate connection which is t' between the mental life and the whole corporeal frame, remarked, " Rapture, love, ambition, indignation, and pride, I considered as feelings, are fruits of tbo same soil with the grossest bodily sensations of pleasure and of pain." About two years later. Professor C. Lange, an eminent physician of Copen- hagen, in ignorance of Professor James's paper, published a J small book advocating precisely the same theory, (I am. only t acquainted with Dr. Kurella's German transiatioQ, (/ebtr\ Gemuthsbcwe^mgen, Leipiig, i88?.) Even more than Professor * James be attached importance to Mosso's investi^tions, and advoca.ted a vaso-motor theory of emotion, pointmg out the importance to the physician of a clear understanding of the nature of emotion, it is to the vaso-motor systeoi, he con- cluded, "that we owe the whole emotional side of our soul-life, our joys and our sorrows, our happy and our unhappy hours ; if the impressions that strike our senses had not the strength to set that system into action, we should wander through life dis- interested and passionless ; impressions from the outer world would enrich our experience and increase our knowledge, but they would wake in us neither joy nor anger, and could not move us either to grief or to fear." Professor James, more recently, in his very able work. The Principles of Psychology, vol ii., chaps, xxiii.-xxv., has reaffirmed with greater fulness and assurance the physiological doctrine of emotion. It would be premature to affirm that it is universally accepted, but, so far as 1 am aware, no psychologist of standing, and certainly no physiologist, has offered any serious opposition to it. The fact that the vaso-motor system — the neuro- I muscular ruler of spontaneous organic life — responds ' more readily to stimulus in women than in men is embodied in the familiar saying that woman's heart is tender. This, as Mosso remarks, is only another way of saying that the nervous mechanism of women's hearts is excited, so causing them to beat more quickly, under the influence of stimuli by which men's hearts in a state of health are unaffected.^ A proof of the greater excitability of women's hearts is found in the fact, which has been noted by several observers, that there is a distinctly greater increase in the number of pulsations on awaking from sleep in women ; the excitement of waking life affects the hearts of women ' La Peur, [j. 8^. THE AFFECTABILITV OF WOMEN. 301 (and also of children) to a greater extent than those of men.' Even the complex phenomena of hysteria have been defined by Rosenthal as ultimately resolv- able into a weakness of resistance, congenital or acquired, of the vaso- motor system. And F^re quotes with approval the remark of Marshall Hall that hysteria is "very much a disease of emotion; the same organs, the same functions are affected." It is also worthy of note that the special tendency of women to be affected by the disease of the eyes called glaucoma, which is accepted by nearly all authorities, is also referred by Priestley Smith to the greater instability of the vaso-motor system in women, and particularly to the disturbances of circula- tion which emanate from the generative organs.^ Blushing, which Darwin called the most human of all expressions, is a vaso-motor nerve storm of spontaneous and uncontrollable character. Its much greater frequency in women affords evidence that needs no insistence, of the greater affectability of the vaso-motor system.^ Allied evidence as to the con- vulsive tendency of the nervous system in women is furnished by the equally obvious facility of tears and laughter. Sit B. W. Richardson has an interesting article on " Tears, Psychology of," in the Diet. Psych. Med., but 1 venture to think he unnecessarily complicates the matter by the speculative assumption of a "grief centre." In the same work is an article by Dr. Louis Robinson on " Ticklishness," in which the basis of laughter is found in the phenomena of tickling. It is unnecessary to point out that children are more ticklish than adults, and women than men. Pouting, again, is a characteristically childlike method of automatic response to externa! stimuli which is rarely seen in its most emphatic ' Bertin, Art. " Sommeil (Physiologique)," Diet. iiuy. des Sci. MM. ' I'. Smith, Pathology 0/ Glaucoma, 1891, p. 131. ' The physiology and pathology of blushing have been investigated by Dn^v/'m, Exp esHon ef Iht Emotions, and Dr. II. Cemf'xW, Elush- ing and Morbid Blushing {i&^). Till found that flusb^ tK3as:»&."-aj. 244 women oat of 500. form in adults, except sometimes during insanity slight but aiill quite perceptible fonn it is, hoiv common in women, especially as the unconscious iLc pel Lcj-iiiuic itrjiiL li 1^ iiu never, fairly '1 1, especially as the unconscious indication common in women, especially as the unconsciou of an oifended dignity which cannot find expression Women's faces are more expressive than men's, I or, rather, it would be better to say, they are more mobile; that is to say, that there is greater neuro- muscular affectability. If we watch the faces of the men and women in the streets of London, or of any other crowded city, where people think themselves sheltered by numbers from inquisitive observation, it will be seen that while the men more usually have a fixed itnmobile expression, the women's faces are more usually in actual movement, the mouths twisting and i the foreheads wrinkling, seeming to indicate an early j stage of physiological distress. It cannot strictly be said that the women's faces are more expressive ; for if the men's stereotyped expression may express a mood that is past, the fluctuating and evanescent muscular movements on the women's faces have not yet become co-ordinated into the expression of a definite mood. They are for the most part the play of a neuro-muscular mobility still submerged beneath the level of consciousness. Children's faces are extremely mobile, Dr. Francis Warner, who has examined 6o,cxX) school children, finds that the signs of undue nervous mobility are more common in girls, and that " defective expression " is much more rarely met with in girls. ^ In insanity women's faces usually express in a much higher degree than men's the apparently constant presence of intense emotional conditions. The mobility of women's faces is due to their affectability to stimuli both from within and from without ; in the latter form it is closely i related to suggestibility, which is indeed but onfij ' F. Warner, Report of a CommitUc as to Average DevtlopmeHt ai Coiidilion of Brain Function among Children, l888 ; Milroy Lectur« on Physical and Mental Condition of School Children, Bi-iL MaT Journal, 1892; also a suggestive article by the same author a " Expression, Fadal," in Diet. o/J'sych. Med. THE AFFECTABILITY OF WOMEN. of the forms of women's affectability. A woman instinctively responds more easily than a man to influences from without, even in spite of herself. A young woman, especially if her nervous control is at all defective, involuntarily changes when an individual of the opposite sex approaches ; however indifferent he may be to her personally, she cannot prevent the instinctive response of her vaso-motor and muscular system, and becomes at once shyer and more alive Again, a man's rigid facial expres- sion does not respond as a woman's does to the faces it encounters. I have noticed the haggard face of a young woman whose child had just died break out momentarily into a pleasant automatic smile in response to the smile of an acquaintance ; this could scarcely have happened to a man. A large portion of the " tact " of women has the same basis. This affectability has often been brought as a reproach against women, even by their own sex, but we must remember that to a large extent it is physiological. The affectability of the involuntary muscular system is shown in ways that are not easily open to inspection, or which are not obvious. The pupil of the eye dilates involuntarily to all .sorts of slight stimuli. Not only is it affected by light as well as in association with accommodation and convergence of the visual axes, but the irritation of almost any cutaneous nerve, as by pinching or pricking the neck, arm, or leg, and the stimulation of some of the nerves of special sense, such as by a loud noise, and various emotional conditions, all produce dilatation of the eyes. This result, according to Moeli and others, is much more constant in women and children than in men. The bladder, although its affectability to faint stimuli is not easily demonstrated, is, as Mosso and Pellacani have shown, an even more delicate Ksthesiomctcr than the iris, and is probably the most delicate in the body. Mosso and PeVV-inawi ^oxi.'^^ ""^^"^ I MAN AND WOMAN. contraction of the bladder follows directly on ths slightest stimulation of any sensory nerve, and also that all the varying conditions of the orgfam'sm which raise the blood -pressure and excite the respiratory centres produce an immediate and measurable effect upon the bladder. These investigators found by experiments upon several young women, that when a plethysmograph was brought into connection with the bladder, even a slight touch with the finger on the back of the subject's hand produced a notable con- traction of the bladder, and whenever the subject spoke, was spoken to, or made the slightest mental exertion, there was a similar contraction.' These reactions are much more delicate than those of the blood-vessels, and cannot be paralleled by any other part of the organism. The bladder, as Born puts it, is the mirror of the soul; it would be equally correct to say that to some extent the soul is the mirror of the bladder. The fainter vesical contractions cannot be said to play a recognisable part in emotion, but when they attain a somewhat higher degree of intensity they play a well-recognised part; "a nervous bladder," as Goodell puts it, " is one of the earliest symptoms of a nervous brain." Contraction of the bladder plays a part in the constitution of various emotional states of fear, anxiety, and suspense. In its extreme spasmodic form, as incontinence of urine, it is very common in children, and by no means uncommon in young women, quite apart from pregnancy or the results of pregnancy, though rare in men.^ No doubt other organs, if we could examine them ' These expcrimenls are briefly summarised in Art. "Urinary Bladder," by H. Ellis,-Z)jc/. o/I^ych. Med. ' Slevenson, "Enuresis," Lancet, lolh January 1891. It may be objected that this phenomenon is simply due to the shorter and hroider urethra of women. Maurice Hadie, however, one of the chief aulhorilies on the bladder, slates that the force required to ptodoce ■ expulsion is almost equal during life in men and women, though aRef death there is much less resistance in women's blodders (Hache, / " Veasie," Did. truy. dt! Sci. Mid.) 305 with equal precision, would furnish similar evidence to that furnished by the heart, the iris, and the bladder. The comparatively larger size of the abdominal and some other organs in women, and the comparatively greater range of their physiological action, furnish a visceral basis for the greater neuro- muscular affectability of women. Fright is an emotion in which the phenomena I have been speaking of play a conspicuous part, and fright is an emotion which is seen in women far more than men. Among the lower social ranks more especially it is noteworthy how the women will start and call out in the presence of any unexpected phenomenon, although men of the same class are quite unmoved. Some Prussian statistics of suicide among school children show that while " fear of punishment" caused ig per cent of the suicides among the boys, it was responsible for 49 per cent among the girls. This characteristic has probably been fostered by both men and women, since it leads to displays of strength and protection on the part of the man towards the woman which are equally grati- fying to both parties. Fright is a frequent origin of nervous disease in children and in women, but rarely in men. In the causation of epilepsy, according to Gowers, it is equally effective in each sex during childhood ; at puberty it is most effective in girls ; after twenty it is seldom traceable in men, but is still a relatively frequent cause in women. Chorea, again, or St Vitus's dance, is a disease which is frequently caused by fright (in 37 per cent cases, according to the Collective Investigation Committee of the British Medical Association), and which simulates the de- fective muscular control and inco- ordination of fright ; it is sometimes caused by imitation, and is altogether a disorder to which females are predisposed. On the whole, about three females are affected for one male ; the preponderance of girls, as we should expect, is least marked in childhood ; after ?,\xtee;tv, vjVcxs. "^e. MAN AND WOMAN. disease falls markedly in frequency, it is rarely seen in boys, and between the ages of twenty and thirty it is practically confined to women. It may be added that all nervous diseases are in women largely due to emotional causes Hammond is inclined to think that moral and emotional insanity without marked intellectual aberration is more common in girls than in boys.' Pitres found that emotion is influential in causing nervous disease in 54 women out of 6g, but in only 8 men out of 31.^ It is due to their suggest- ibility that women are more liable than men to be affected by communicated insanity, or folie a deux? It is the same suggestibility that causes women to be less subject to nostalgia, or home-sickness, than men, and more adaptable to changes of habit and new impressions. In a similar manner, as is frequently seen, the wife of the "self-made man" is often much better able than her husband to adapt herself to the manners and customs of the new circles in which she moves. Irascibility — "irritability" in the more homely sense of the word — is a form of affectability which has in all ages, and perhaps quite legitimately, been attributed to women.* As Terence said — m conciverit." In its most extreme form this tendency shows itself in reckless and uncontrollable outbursts of purpose- less destruction. This may best be studied, altiiough not exclusively, in the prison and the lunatic asylum. In prisons spasmodic "breakings out" of wild destructive violence are in England usually regarded as peculiar to the woman's side." ' HiLmmond, Insamty, p. 96. ' Jjfons diniques inr PkyHirie, etc , I. i. p. 36.
Hack Tulte, Art. " Communicated Insanily," Did. Fsych. Med.

Widal, Art. " Nostalgie," Bicf. eiiey. des Sd. MM.
' See, for example, Lombroso and Ferrero, La Donna Dtlinguiitf pp. 147-148.
See, for example, II. Ellis, TAe Crhulnal, pp. 1
\ THE AFFECTABILITY OF WOMEN. 307 The greater obstreperousness of the female patients in lunatic asylums is well recognised; as Dr. Clouston remarks, "there is ten times as much noise in the female wards as there is in the male wards;"' and, as the same authority also points out, in the insanity of puberty a destructive tendency in the female seems to take the place of pugnacity in the male.* Dr. Nacke of Hubertusburg, dealing with women who were at once both criminal and insane, found that among S3 individuals as many as 41, or 77,3 per cent, showed increased irritability; 33, or 62.2 per cent, were violent and liable to attack the attendant or the doctor, more especially at the menstrual epoch; most of these, although not all, were destructive, and in their wrath would destroy furniture, bed-clothes, their own garments, and especially window panes; of the latter several destroyed about forty per annum each ; the ground of these outbursts is said to Ue in the extreme irritability and unbounded egotism of the women. The " breaking out," or Zuchtliausknall, in its most sudden, violent, apparently unmotived,and almost epileptic form, was found to occur by Nacke in 12 cases, or about 23 per cent.^ The reason women love dancing is very probably because it enables them to give harmonious and legitimate emotional expression to this neuro-muscular irritability which might other- wise escape in more explosive forms. Music, in a slighter degree, satisfies the same craving, for in a muffled but harmonious manner it exercises the whole of the emotional keyboard. In a thoughtful and interesting paper on "The Sexes in Lunacy" {St. Barlholome^s Hospital Reports, vol. xxiv., 1888), Dr. T. Claye Shaw, the experienced superintendent of the London County Asylum at Banstead, discusses many of the points we are concerned with here. His paper is so full of ^ Journal of Minlal Science, April 1893, p. 314. ' Clouston, Art. " Developmental Insanities," Did. Psych. Mid. ' Hflclte, " Verbrechen und Wohnsiao beim Weibe," Zeitschrift fiir Psychiatrie, etc, Bd. 49, 1S91. MAN AND WOMAW. 1 regarding the affectability of women gencrallf— | which in insanity is seen in its most unrestrained form — that I venture to quote from it at some length, more especially as it is published In a somewhat inaccessible manner. Afier remark- ing that women are less willing to work in asylums than men, and that they " give infinitely more trouble than men and caose much more anxietj'" {although, at the same time, it must be remembered, insanity is much less serious in woman, as they far more frequently recover than men), he continues : " The number of women in an asylum who require extra supervision and consequent deprivation of liberty far exceeds that of the men. It is only epilepsy and drink that reduce men to the same condition as women. . . . Destructiveness is a very dangerous and troublesome symptom, and it must be said that it prevails to a far gieater extent among women than among men. A look at the airing-grounds of an asylum is as good a test of this statement as can be got. On the male side the damage done is comparatively trifling, but on the female side the gardener is driven to despair, for broken trees, tom-up flowers, and trodden-down plants proclaim the presence in ils exaggerated and insane form of the spirit that animated the occupiers. . . . In the matter of clothes, too, the female patients are more destructive than the men. ... I have been up to now speaking more of aimless destruction, but when we come to purposed destruction the women have much the more unfavour- able account Impulsiveness shows itself in glass- smashing or crockery-breaking, probably because these are the readiest ways in which they can vent their superabundant energy; and though men will at times do this, they never approach the other sex in their attempts in this direction. It would seem as if brain-action in women is quicker than in men, and that their proverbial rapidity in forming a conclusion is partly due to their natural excitability or proneness for discharge, and partly also to the natural education of life." Taking governesses, for ex- ample. Dr. Shaw finds that those who had themselves received only an ordinary "ladies' school" education, with the merely superficial emotional training which is usual, are troublesome, destructive, uncontrollable patients ; those who had been trained ab initio to be high-class governesses, in a thorough-going methodical way (like many German governesses), though origin- ally they may have been of ardent temperament, are able to some extent to control their emotional effervescence even when insane. " From my experience the Germans and the Scotch form the quietest and most reasonable patients ; the Irish are, as a rule, very noisy and excitable ; but for downright vindictive- ness and unreasoning awkwardness I have never met the equals of the women who come from the parishes of the East of London. ... To many people the most striking difference THE AFFECTABILITY OF WOMEN. between the sexes in asylums is in the language, and here the women hold the palm for volubility, abuse, and foul-mouthed- ness. There is no difference in this respect between the barefaced virago from the lowest parts of the town and the fashionable woman from the best quarter. . . . Certain it is that noise, filthy conduct, and sexual depravity, both by speech and act, are much more common on the female than on the male side of an asylum. I no more expect to find quiet and unobtrusive mania among women than I should hope to see Niagara without hearing the roar of it. . . . In all forms of acute insanity the sexual element is more prominently shown in women than in men — a fact not to be wondered at, considering the important part the physiology of the reproductive organs plays in the life of the woman, causing her whole life to be instinctively blended with ideas more or less traceable to the rearing of offspring." The comparative frequency with which, as we have seen (pp. 272-273), sexual excitement occurs in women under the influence of anaisthetics is another proof of the pre- dominant sexuality of women. Dr. Shaw points out finally how the natural impulsiveness and affectability of women are in- creased by her training in life: — "Women in acute states of insanity are abusive, indiscriminately violent, impulsive, obscene, and wayward out of all proportion to what men are, because they are fulfilling the condition that has been allowed to them in ordinary circumstances. Men have received their abuse with levity, and they think that they will still do so. When in their sane rage they have broken the furniture or used foul language and have been only laughed at, is it not natural that they should think that the same immunity from punishment will attend them in other circumstances ? When they have pouted and sulked until their wish has been gratified, is it not natural that they should do the same when through disease placed among strangers? Women have been treated in the same way as animals — they have been petted or cuffed according to the fancy of the moment ; and because men have found it easier to let them talk than to argue with or contradict them, they (women) fancy that their surest way of success is by keeping themselves constantly en evidence, by never taking ' yes' or no' for an answer, and, in short, by never ceasing to worry until they have gained their ends." But all the same, even when insane, women have charm for those whose duty it is to care for them, and Dr. Shaw concludes by saying that in insanity, as well as in ordinary life, "das ewig-weibliche zieht uns hinan." In this connection mention may be made of the extravagant exaltation of obscenity and cruelty, far surpassing that of men, 10 which women have been carried in times of popular epidemics of passion and excitement ; this has been pointed out by Diderot, Despine, and others (see, for instance, Lombroso and MAN AND WOMAN. Ferrero, La Donna Delirtguenle, p. 76), aiid Zola has given an artist's picture of it in Germinal. Tliere is physiological ground for tiic saying that every woman carries a slumbering petfoleuse in her bosom. Lombroso has pointed out tbat while women generally take a very small part in revolutions, they take a large part in revolts. The evidence I have brought together in this chapter will help to make clear the statement made in the chapter on " The Senses," that a quick response of the vaso-motor and muscular organism to stimuli, from within or from without, has no connection what- ever with delicacy and precision of response in the sense-organs. It remains to point out that the results here reached are in harmony with those we have reached when considering other groups of phenomena. In considering "Motion" I referred to the interest- ing experiments of Riccardi, showing how women, in making muscular exertion with the dynamometer, tend to reach their maximum power at the first effort, while men more often only attain their maximum effort at the second or third effort The fact thus clearly brought out has a distinct bearing on the affectability of women. As Fiird expresses it, women exhibit a congenital exhaustibility, and, as among children, savages, and nervous subjects, their motions and their emotions are characterised by a brevity and violence which approach to reflex action.^ To some extent affectability is simply a tendency to fatigue. Mr. Galton once carried on an interesting investiga- tion among teachers as to tiie signs of fatigue. Sum- marising the results of answers received from 116 teachers, he finds that nervous fatigue is chiefly revealed by involuntary muscular twitchings of the face, fingers, etc., grimace, frowning, compression of lips, tendency to nervous laughter, and general muscular unsteadiness. There are also vaso-motor symptoms, pallors, flushings, and various alterations THE AFFECTABILITY OF WOMEN. 311 in the colour of the face and ears ; also depression and hyperesthesia of the senses. These are all mani- festations of "irritability," which in its common mental form the teachers acknowledge to be " perhaps the commonest sign of incipient mental fatigue." I Lack of "staying power" is the popular way of expressing the neuro-rauscular exhausti- biUty of women, and, as we have previously seen (p. 183), this is everywhere found to characterise the work of female clerks in the Post-office, etc. ; under ordinary circumstances the women are equal to the men, but they cannot work under pressure. There is another characteristic of women in regard to work about which I am more doubtful : it is some- times said that women are more easily distracted from their work ; thus Mr. Valentine, of Valentine & Son, photographers, of Dundee, recently remarked, in addressing his workpeople, that "a man could talk and work at the same time, but when a girl talked she stopped work."' I am not prepared to accept this as a general statement (though among sluggish persons with defective nervous energy it may often be observed), but if there is any element of truth in it, we must connect it with this congenital exhausti- bility of women. It may seem that this characteristic of women's neuro-muscular energy is an unmitigated disadvantage, but this is by no means the case. Not only is it associated with the greater readiness of women, but it is an extremely valuable safeguard. Men are able to undergo far more prolonged and intense exertion than women, but they purchase this capacity at a price ; the resulting collapse, when it comes, is more extreme and more difficult to recover from. Women yield to the first strain, but for that very reason they quickly recover. Energetic women, who are able to ' F. Gallon, "Mental Fatigue," /ou mo/ AiUhrop. Itutilute, 1889, P- 157. ' Photegra^ic Ne'as, Feb. ijlh, iSgj. MAN AND WOMAN. disregard physiological warnings, naturally suffe from more serious collapse, as men would. As ail rule, their affectability protects women from the serious excesses of work or of play to which are liable. The frequency and comparative triviality of nervous disorders in women, their much greater seriousness and fatality in men, largely finds its explanation here. That women are more often attacked by most zymotic diseases than men, but more rarely die from them, seems to be a fact belonging to the same group. The neuro-muscular exhaustibility of women is no doubt in some measure due to the fact — which we encountered when considering "Metabolism" — that the blood of women is more watery than that of men ; in women, at all events as women exist to-day, a certain slight degree of anzemia may be regarded as physiological.' But anemia increases affectability; in an anaemic woman a very slight stimulus or exertion produces too strong a reaction ; to livC' healthily she must live at a very low and slow ral"" of tension. As Dr. Foxwell, pointing out how dangerous sudden transt! tory toil is for the anaamic, remarks ; — " Continuous toiU mental or physical, is an impossibility to the anaemic patient.^ But anaemic people who are up and about and trying to do their work in the world, have a certain standard of speed and persistence set them by the healihy people they see around them. This standard they try to attain ; they therefore start off with the vigour of a healthy person, but their feeble muscle or nerve cells soon pull them up and they have 10 rest, starting off again in a few minutes with more than normal vigour, to make up for lost time, but only the sooner to be rearrested by helpless debility. Their work is therefore done in jerks, the toil during the jerk being far beyond their strength. They might perhaps do just as much in the aggregate without injury to themselves if they worked from beginning to end at a, 1 See Di. Stephen Mackenzie's Leusumian Lecluies on Anami Brii, Mtd. Jaurnutt 1891, vol. L, for evidence showing that the physica chaiacterisUcs of the aniemic are an exaggeration of those of w 1 io^H THE AFFECTABILITV OF WOMEN. 313 steady, slow ra.Ee commensurate with their strength ; but the forces of imitation and emulation are too strong for them, and they persist in exhibitions of normal energy with subnormal bodies. But even had they perfect control of themselves, how can they avoid sudden efforts of high pressure ? The ansemic school-girl standing up in class has to concentrate her brain power to answer with costly speed the question rapidly passed down from one to another, or has to work sums for marks against time. The house-maid is bound to run upstairs quickly to answer her mistress's bell, to carry trays full of food, and scuttles full of coaL This quickness of answer, these trays and scuttles have been formed for healthy persons ; to them they would act but as a sturdy developmental stimulus, but to the anemic they become a breathless and exhausting labour. If anjemics held sway over toll there would be no quickness of performance, no strenuous effort allowed. Luckily for the world's progress, but unluckily for them, they have to play a very subordinate part on life's stage, and to be content with things as they find them." (A. Foxwell, " Ingleby Lectures on Condition of the Vascular System in Anfemic Debility," Brit. Med. Journal, 16th April 1892.) The question still remains how far the affectability of women is natural and organic, how far it is the mero accidental result of external circumstances. Is the greater emotionality of women a permanent and ineradicable fact? There can be no doubt that to a very large extent emotionality may be modified. Hypnotic phenomena, perhaps as common in men as in women among savages, are rare among civilised men. The men of to-day are not as emotional as the men of the thirteenth century; the modern English gentle- man does not talk and behave like the English gentle- men who killed Thomas A Beckett The woman of to-day, again, is less emotional than her great-grand- mother in the last century ; she is not subject to vapours and swoons on trivial occasions to any- thing like the same extent. The mere fact of the immense difference on the whole which exists as regards emotionality between women of different social classes (and which, as we have seen, is removed when the restraint of sanity is removed), suggests that emotion, in its coarser manifestations at all HAN AND WOMAN. events, Js to an immense degree educablc Tbe attention that is now, fortunately, beginning to be given to the physical culture of women will un- doubtedly tend to strengthen and de%'clop the ncuro-muscuiar system. Just as we have sure reason to believe that sensibility may by training be increased, so there is still greater reason to believe that affectability may by training be decreased. Tliat there is, however, a limit to this sexual equalisation of affectability remains extremely prob- able The comparatively larger extent of the sexual sphere in women and of the viscera! regions generally, — for in women at puberty, as Dr. Campbell puts it, a new keyboard and a fresh series of pipes are added to the instrument, — the physiological tendency to anemia, and the existence of inevitable periodicity of function in women, conspire to furnish a broader basis for the play of emotion which no change in environment or habit could remove. Affectability in women may be reduced to finer and more delicate shades; it can scarcely be brought to the male standard. This result is by no means to be regretted. We have seen that the affectability of women ensures to them certain solid advantages, and assists to safeguard them against evils from which men are specially prone to suffer. Beyond this, if men and women were more on the same level as regards emotionality, they would lose very much of their power to help one another. They would certainly, also, lose very greatly their power to charm one another. The man of facile emotions makes little impression on a woman ; the woman who is lacking in emotionality leaves a man cold. As long as this is so we may be perfectly sure that — even if the greater affectability of women had a less firm ^ organic basis — men and women will never be equaj in emotionality. THE AFFECTABILITY OF WOMEN. 315 The affectability of women exposes them, as I have had occasion to point out, to very diabolical mani- festations. It is also the source of very much of what is most angelic in women — their impulses of tender- ness, their compassion, their moods of divine child- hood. Poets have racked their brains to express and to account for this mixture of heaven and hell. We see that the key is really a very simple one; both the heaven and hell of women are but aspects of the same physiological affectability. Seeing this, we may see, too, that those worthy persons who are anxious to cut off the devil's tail might find, if they succeeded, that they had also shorn the angel of her wings. The emotionality of women, within certain limits, must decrease; there are those who will find consolations in the gradual character of that decrease. r 3ifi CHAPTER XIV. THE ARTISTIC IMPULSE. THE INDUSTRIES AROSE IN WOMEN'S HANDS, THE ARTS W | men's — POTTERY— TATTOOING — PAINTING- — SCULPTURE | — MUSIC^WHY WOMEN HAVE FAILED IN MUSIC- METAPHYSICS — MYSTICISM — POETRY — FICTION WHY ' WOMEN HAVE SUCCEEDED IN FICTION — THE SUPREM- ' ACY OF WOMEN IN ACTING — THE ARTISTIC IMPULSE . GENERALLY IS MORE MARKED IN MEN^THE CAUSES OF THIS. Primitive women have in their hands all the , industries, and, in consequence, the rudiments of most of the arts. But when we get beyond the rudiments the position begins to change, and when . we reach fully differentiated arts, even among savages, we find that they are almost exclusively I in the hands of men. ' The making of pottery is an industry which develops almost insensibly into an art. In nearly every part of the world pottery has at the outset been entirely, or almost entirely, in the hands of ' women, and so long as it remained in their hands i the potter's industry has usually retained a severely I practical character. It is sufficient to quote the evi- i dence of one observer who possessed a peculiarly | intimate acquaintance with the lowest stages of primitive culture. Miklucho-Macleay, speaking of | Papuan art in North-east Guinea, remarks : — " I have been struck by the absolute absence of ornament on The artistic impulse. the pottery, the clay easily lending itself to all sorts of ornamentation ; this lack of ornament is due to the fact that the manufacture of pottery is exclusively confided to women, who are not usually very artistic by nature, I have found confirmation of this ancient and just observation even among Papuan women. I am able to state that I have never seen the slightest ornament invented or executed by a woman. During a visit to the island of Bibi-Bibi, where pottery is manufactured for all the neighbouring villages, when observing a dozen women and young girls fashioning pottery, I saw several women doing nothing; as they had in front of them a mass of pots without the slightest ornament, I asked why they did not orna- ment them. 'What is the good? It is not necessary!' were the replies they gave. But this did not prevent two young boys from finding pleasure in imprinting with their nails and a pointed stick a sort of orna- mental border on some of the pots."^ Tattooing is in many parts of the world chiefly in the hands of women. Thus among the Nogas of Assam it is "often performed by old women of the chief's household, and as a matter of right. "^ Among the Aino, also, tattooing is done by \ and at present indeed it is the women alone who are tattooed.* Again, among the Songish or Lkungen Indians of Canada the tattooing is done by women, who introduce charcoal beneath the skin by means of a needle held horizontally.* It must be remembered, however, that tattooing is by no means the pure out- come of the art impulse, but a social and relig' rite of a traditional character. Such semi-ritual art may be in the hands of either men or women ; thus ' Bun. Soc. ^Anlhropologie. 19th Dec. 1878. •Peal, "On the Morong," /okj-a. Anlh. Instilatt, Feb. 1S93, p. 247. ' MacRilchie, Supplement io !nlemalw»a!es Archiv. Ba, iv., 1S92.
Brit. All. Report on tht North- Western Triits of Canada, \i^
Dt. Boas, 1890. MAN AND WOMAN. among the Papuans (accord.ng to S. J. Hickson) ftt I designs on houses and praus are wrought by old men I or priests of the village to keep off the spirits of I storms. If we turn to the pure artistic impulse, as mani- fested in the higher stages of culture, we find that the supremacy of men in painting is unquestionable There have been thousands of women painters, but only the men have been remembered ; it would be I unkind to make a comprehensive list of famous women painters. Even the great central situation of Christianity, as of life — ^the relation of the mother to her child — which appeals so strongly to a woman's heart, has never received memorable rendering at a woman's hand. In sculpture, also, it is scarcely necessary to add, the great names are all men, from Phidias to Donatello, from Michael Angelo to Rodin. That there have been two or three women whose names deserve honour- able mention is the most that can be said. In the evolution of music women have played a very small part. It does not appear that a woman has ever invented any well-known musical instrument, and there is not in any part of the world an instru- ment that is peculiar to women or chiefly played by them ; it Is rarely even that they perform on men's instruments. In aboriginal America Professor Otis Mason remarks that musical instruments are never played by women, though they beat time on various objects and may now and then use the rattle, as well as join in certain choruses.^ Mr. Henry Balfour, of the University Museum, Oxford, has brought forward a few exceptions to the general rule from the South Pacific. "In the South Pacific the 'nose-flute' is very generally, though by no means exclusively, played upon by women. In the account of the voyage of Captains Cook and King there is in one of the plates a figure of a woman of the Tonga Islands seated under a hut playing upon a ' nose-fJute.' THE ARTISTIC IMPULSE. 319 A similar figQre of a woman playing' upon a 'nose-fliile' may be seen in plate 28 of LabilladiSre's Voyage de La Perouse, in the representation of a Tongan double- canoe. Melville {Four Months Residence in Ike Marguisas Islands, p. 251) mentions playing upon the 'nose-fJute' as being 'a favourite recreation with the females.' In Wilkes' U.S. Exploring Expedition, iii. p. 190, there is a description of this instrument as used in the Fiji Islands, and it is stated that 'no other instrument but the flute ["nose-flute"] is played by the women as an accompaniment to the voice.' " Turning now to another genus of primitive instruments, viz., the ' musical bow,' we find a peculiar local fomi, the ' Pangolo," occurring at Bianche Bay, New Britain. There are specimens of this at Berlin and Vienna. This instrument is staled by Dr. O. Finsch {Ann. des K. K. Naturhisl. He/museums, suppl. vol. iii., PL I, p. Ill) to be only played upon by women of Blanche Bay. Guppy too {Solomon Islands, p. 142) says Chat the women of Treasury Island produce a soft kind of music by playing, somewhat after the fashion of a Jew's-harp, on a lightly-made fine-stringed bow about 15 inches long. " It cannot, I believe, be said that any of these instruments have been inventedhy women, and it is undoubted that women 'n savagery but seldom figure as performers upon musical its. It would certainly be interesting to collect all the recorded." — Nature, 17th Nov. 1893. Among barbarous and civilised races in all parts of the world women have been trained profusely to play on musical instruments ; but the position of the sexes has remained relatively the same as among savages. The players of music have often been women ; the makers of music have nearly always been men. Unless we include two or three women of our own day whose reputation has perhaps been enhanced by the fact that they are women, it is difficult to find the names of women even in the list of third-rate composers, There is, I believe, no difference of opinion wh-itever on this point. Mr. G. P. Upton, in his intelligent and mp h little book. Woman in Music {Chicago, 1886) d rs o magnify the part that women have played in m c, b he recognises that none of the masters in music ha b men He gives a list of forty-eight women musii. an h d during the 17th, i8lh, and 19th centuries and le m^ but none of them rose above vc\ed\ocx\i."j, 'Ni^ "^ MAN AND WOMAN, number of noted women musicians is we may realise by recaB- ing (hat Italy alone (as Lombroso remarks in his Man of Genius) has produced not less than 1210 musicians of more or less note. Mr. Upton has, I think, very felicitously expressed one chief reason why women have failed in music, though they have had nearly equal advantages with men ; — " Conceding- that n the highest express! emotional by nature, of the and that \ solution of the problem that ically reproduce them because she herself IS emotional by temperament and nature, and cannot project herself outwardly, any more than she can give outward expres- sion to other mysterious and deeply-hidden traits of her nature? The emotion is a part of herself, and is as natural to her as breathing. She lives in emotion, and acts from emotion. , . . Man controls his emotions, and can give an outward expression of them. In woman they are the dominating element, and so long as they are dominant she absorbs music Great actresses may express emotion because they express their own natures; but to treat emotions as if they were mathematics, to bind and measure and limit them within the rigid laws of harmony and counterpoint, and to express them with arbitrary signs, is a cold- blooded operation possible only to the sterner and more obdurate nature of man." He adds that it is significant that while a man who has once learnt to play on an instrument rarely ceases to delight in it, a woman's love for music ceases with age ; it is not an aesthetic but an emotional influence. Rubenstein, in his book on Music and its Masters, has some remarks which well supplement Mr, Upton's, though they are somewhat less precise; — "This increase of the feminine contingent in music, both in instrumental execution and in composition (I except the depart- ment of singing, in which they have always excelled), begios with the second half of our century. 1 regard it as one of the signs of musical decadence. Women lack two prime qualities necessary for creating — subjectivity and initiative. In practice they cannot get beyond objectivity (imitation), they lack courage and conviction to rise to subjectivity. For musical creation they lack absorption, concentration, power of thought, largeness of emotional horiion, freedom in outlining, etc. It is a mystery why it should just be music, the noblest, most beautiful, refined, spiritual, and emotional product of the human mind, that is so inaccessible to woman, who is a compound of all those qualities j all the more as she has done great things in the other arts, even in the sciences. The two things mast peculiar to women — love of a man and tender feeling for a child — have found no echo from 1 know no love duo or cradle song composed do not say there are none, but only that not one composed by a woman has the artistic value that could make it by THE ARTISTIC IMPULSE. Music is at once the most emotional and the most severely abstract of the arts. There is no art to which women have been more widely attracted, and there is certainly no art in which they have shown themselves more helpless. It cannot be said that literature is an art It is merely a method of recording very diverse manifes- tations of psychic aptitude and artistic impulse. It is enough to mention four of these — metaphysics, mysticism, poetry, fiction. It is remarkable that although women are so strongly drawn to religion, they have done almost nothing to give classic expression to that mysticism which is the kernel of religion everywhere. The great manuals of devotion which have fed so many thousand souls, and which all say the same thing with a few verbal differences — the manual of Lao Tze, Marcus Antoninus's Meditations, Epictetus's Encheiridion, the gospel of St John and the Epistles of St. Paul, the De Imitatione Christi, the Deutsche TIteologie, much of the writings of Schopenhauer — are the work of men, although they have probably found, on the whole, at least as many readers among women as among men. St. Teresa is, so far as I know, the only woman who can be put in the first rank, but it must be added that there is an element of unquestionable morbidity in her work which cannot be said to characterise any of the great mystics I have named, not even St. Paul or Schopenhauer. Madame Guyon's name occurs, but she belongs to the second rank of mystics, which numbers a vast army of men. The art of metaphysics belongs almost exclusively to men. Even in the third rank of metaphysicians the names of no women can yet be very clearly discerned. The philosopher's art consists in building up an ideal and conjectural world on the basis of his own psychic organism ; it is of all arts that in which emotion is most highly intellectualiscd, ^■w.i "CSia material most abstracted from \.\ve ■pta.'iXA.c^ ■a-"^^ THE ARTISTIC IMPULSE. THE INDUSTRIE'S AROSE IN WOMEN'S HANDS, THB AR:^ U en's — POTTER V — TATTOOl SG — PAl NTING ^SCUU WOMEN HAVE FAILED IN MUSIC- METAPHYSICS — MVSTICISM — POETRY — FICTION WHY WOMEN HA^■E SUCCEEDED IN FICTION — THE SUPREM- ACY OF WOMEN IN ACTING — THE ARTISTIC IMPULSE GENERALLY IS HOKE MARKED IN H£N — THE CAUSES OF THIS. Primitive women have in their hands all the industries, and, in consequence, the rudiments of most of the arts. But when we get beyond the rudiments the position begins to change, and when we reach fully differentiated arts, even among savages, we find that they are almost exclusively in the hands of men. The making of potterj' is an industry which develops almost insensibly into an art In nearly every part of the world pottery has at the outset been entirely, or almost entirely, in the hands of women, and so long as it remained in their hands the potter's industry has usually retained a severely practical character. It is sufficient to quote the evi- dence of one observer who possessed a peculiarly intimate acquaintance with the lowest stages of primitive culture. Miklucho-Macleay, speaking of Papuan art in North-east Guinea, remarks : — " 1 have been struck by the absolute absence of ornament od THE ARTISTIC IMPULSE. the pottery, the day easily lending itself to all sorts of ornamentation ; this lack of ornament is due to the fact that the manufacture of pottery is exclusively confided to women, who are not usually very artistic by nature. I have found confirmation of this ancient and just observation even among Papuan women. I am able to state that I have never seen the slightest ornament invented or executed by a woman. During a visit to the island of Bibi-Bibi, where pottery is manufactured for all the neighbouring villages, when observing a dozen women and young girls fashioning pottery, I saw several women doing nothing; as they had in front of them a mass of pots without the slightest ornament, I asked why they did not orna- ment them. ' What is the good ? It is not necessary !' were the replies they gave. But this did not prevent two young boys from finding pleasure in imprinting with their nails and a pointed stick a sort of orna- mental border on some of the pots."^ Tattooing is in many parts of the world chiefly in the hands of women. Thus among the Nogas of Assam it is "often performed by old women of the chief's household, and as a matter of right. "^ Among the Aino, also, tattooing is done by women, and at present indeed it is the women alone who are tattooed.* Again, among the Songish or Lkungen Indians of Canada the tattooing is done by women, who introduce charcoal beneath the skin by means of a needle held horizontally.* It must be remembered, however, that tattooing is by no means the pure out- come of the art impulse, but a social and religious rite of a traditional character. Such semi-ritual art may be in the hands of either men or women ; thus I ' MacRilchie, Sapplement to /of ernaiiona/es A rcMv, /Hr£/Aiii>/ogie, i. iv., iSgz.
Brit. Ass. Eiport en tie mrlh-lVntirn Tribes of Canada, >vi
3l8 MAN AND WOMAN among the Papuans (accord. ng to S. J. HJckson) the designs on houses and praiis are wrought by old men ' or priests of the village to keep off the spirits of storms. If we turn to the pure artistic impulse, as mani- fested in the higher stages of culture, we find that the supremacy of men in painting is unquestionable. There have been thousands of women painters, but only the men have been remembered ; it would be unkind to make a comprehensive list of famous women painters. Even the great central situation of Christianity, as of life — the relation of the mother to her child— which appeals so strongly to a woman's heart, has never received memorable rendering at a woman's hand. In sculpture, also, it is scarcely necessary to add, the great names are all men, from Phidias to Donatello, from Michael Angelo to Rodin. That there have been two or three women whose names deserve honour- able mention is the most that can be said. In the evolution of music women have played a very smalt part. It does not appear that a woman has ever invented any well-known musical instrument, and there is not in any part of the world an instru- ment that is peculiar to women or chiefly played by them ; it is rarely even that they perform on men's instruments. In aboriginal America Professor Otis Mason remarks that musical instruments are never played by women, though they beat time on various objects and may now and then use the rattle, as well as join in certain choruses.* Mr. Henry B.ilfour, of the University Museum, Oxford, has brought forward a few exceptions to the general rule from the South Pacific. " In the South Pacific the 'nose-flute' is very generally, though by no means exclusively, played upon by women. In the account of the voyage of Captains Cook and King there is in one of the plates a figure of a woman of the Tonga Islands seated under a hut playing upon a ' nose-flute.' THE ARTISTIC IMPULSE. 3ig A similar figure of a woman playing upon a 'nose-flute' may be seen in piate 28 of Labi1!adi6re's Voyage de La Perouse, in the representation of a Tongan double-canoe, Melville {Four Months Residence in the M»rquisas Islands, p. 251) mentions playing upon the 'nose-flute' as being 'a favourite recreation with the females.' In Wilkes' U.S. Exploring Expedition, iii. p, 190, there is a description of this instrument as used in the Fiji Islands, and it is stated that 'no other instrument but the flute ["nose-flute"] is played by the women as an accompaniment to the voice.' "Turning now to another genus of primitive instruments, viz., the 'musical bow,' we find a peculiar local form, the 'Pangolo,' occurring at Blanche Bay, New Britain. There are specimens of this at Berhnand Vienna. This instrument is stated by Dr. O. Finsch {Ann. des K. K. Naturhisl. Ho/museums, supp!. vol, iii., Pt, I, p. Ill) to be only played upon by women of Blanche Bay. Guppy too {Solomon Islands, p. 141) says that the women of Treasury Island produce a soft kind of music by playing, somewhat after the fashion of a Jew's-harp, on a lightly-made fine-stringed bow about 15 inches long. " It cannot, I believe, be said that any of these instruments have been tnvenfedhy women, and it is undoubted that women savagery but seldom figiare as performers upon musical
ruments. It would certainly be interesting to collect all the
ances re corded ."^A'a^wrtf, 17th Nov. 1892.
Among barbarous and civilised races in all parts of the world women have been trained profusely to play on musical instruments ; but the position of the sexes has remained relatively the same as among savages. The players of music have often been women ; the makers of music have nearly always been men. Unless we include two or three women of our own day whose reputation has perhaps been enhanced by the fact that they are women, it is difficult to find the names of women even in the list of third-rate composers. There is, I believe, no difference of opinion whatever on this point. Mr, G. V. Upton, in his intelligent and sympathetic little book. Woman in Music (Chicago, 1886), endeavours to magnify the part that women have played in music, but he recognises that none of the masters in music have been women. He gives a list of forty-eight women musicians who lived during the 17th, iSth, and 19th centuries and left cQTO.-^cyix'CvaMi., but none of them rose above med\oc.Y\\.'(. Wo-n -scviSi. ■^■>'> I MAN AND WOMAN. number of noied women musicians is we may realise by recall- i ing that Italy alone (as Lombroso remarks in his Afan o/Cmius) I has produced not less than i2io musicians of more or lessnolt Mr. Upton has, I think, very felicitously expressed one chief reason why women have failed in music, thoiig-h they have bad nearly equal advantages with men ; — " Conceding- that music is I the highest expression of the emotions, and that woman is | ional by nature, is it not one solution of the problem thai aa does not musically reproduce them because she herself | is emotional by temperament and nature, and cannot project i herself outwardly, any more than she can give outward expres- | sion to other mysterious and deeply-hidden traits of her nature.' I The emotion is a part of herself, and is as natural to her a; I breathing. She lives in emotion, and acts from emotion. ... Man controls his emotions, and can give an outward expression of them. In woman they are the dominating element, and so long as they are dominant she absorbs music. Great actresses I may express emotion because they express their own natures; but to treat emotions as if ihey were mathematics, to bind and measure and limit them within the rigid laws of harmony and TDoint, and to express them with arbitrary signs, is a cold- blooded operation possible only to the sterner and tnore obdurate nature of man." He adds that it is significant that while a who has once learnt to play on an instrument rarely cease 's love for music ceases with age ; emotional influence. Rubenstein, ir_ Masters, has some remarks which well pton's, though they are somewhat less precise ; of the feminine contingent in music, both in nstrumental execution and in composition (I except the depart- of singing, in which they have always excelled), begins with the second half of our century, I regard it as one of the signs of musical decadence. Women lack two prime qualities necessary for creating — subjectivity and initiative. In practice they cannot get beyond objectivity (imitation), they lack courage and conviction to rise to subjectivity. For musical creation they lack absorption, concentration, power of thought, largeness of emotional horizon, freedom in outlining, etc. It is a mystery why it should just be music, the noblest, most beautiful, refined, spiritual, and emotional product of the human mind, that is so inaccessible to woman, who is a compound of all those qualities ; all the more as she has done great thmgs in the other arts, even in the sciences. The two things most peculiar to women — love and tenderfeelingfora child— have found no echo from them in music. I know no love duo or cradle song composed by a woman. I do not say there are none, but only that not one composed by a woman has the artistic value that could make it typical." delight ii not an {esthetic but : book on Music and THE ARTISTIC IMPULSE. 321 Music is at once the most emotional and the most severely abstract of the arts, There is no art to which women have been more widel)' attracted, and there is certainly no art in which they have shown themselves more helpless. It cannot be said that literature is an art It is merely a method of recording very diverse manifes- tations of psychic aptitude and artistic impulse. It is enough to mention four of these — metaphysics, mysticism, poetry, fiction. It is remarkable that although women are so strongly drawn to religion, they have done almost nothing to give classic expression to that mysticism which is the kernel of religion everywhere. The great manuals of devotion which have fed so many thousand souls, and which all say the same thing with a few verbal differences— the manual of Lao Tze, Marcus Antoninus's Meditations, Epictetus's Encheiridion, the gospel of St John and the Epistles of St. Paul, the De Imitatione Christi, the Deutsche T/ceologiey much of the writings of Schopenhauer — are the work of men, although they have probably found, on the whole, at least as many readers among women as among men. St Teresa is, so far as I know, the only woman who can be put in the first rank, but it must be added that there is an element of unquestionable morbidity in her work which cannot be said to characterise any of the great mystics I have named, not even St Paul or Schopenhauer. Madame Guyon's name occurs, but she belongs to the second rank of mystics, which numbers a vast army of men. The art of metaphysics belongs almost exclusively to men. Even in the third rank of metaphysicians the names of no women can yet be very clearly discerned. The philosopher's art consists in building up an ideal and conjectural world on the basis of his own psychic organism ; it is of all arts that in which emotion is most highly intellectualised, M\i •\& material most abstracted ttom ftve 'pia.oCvc'A i-'^^* J 316 CHAPTER XIV. THE ARTISTIC IMPULSK THE INDUSTRIES AROSE IN WOMEN S HANDS, THE ARTS IN hen's — POTTERY — T ATTO 01 N C — P AI NTI NG — SC U LPT URE ■ — MUSIC — WHY WOMEN HAVE FAILED IN MUSIC — METAPHYSICS MYSTICISM — POETRY — FICTION — WHY WOMEN HAVE SUCCEEDED IN FICTION — THE SUPREM- ACY OF WOMEN IN ACTING— THE ARTISTIC IMPULSE GENERALLY IS MORE MARKED IN MEN — THE CAUSES OF THIS. Primitive women have in their hands all the industries, and, in consequence, the rudiments of most of the arts. But when we get beyond the rudiments the position begins to change, and when we reach fully dififerentiated arts, even among savages, we find that they are almost exclusively in the hands of men, The making of pottery is an industry which develops almost insensibly into an art. In nearly every part of the world pottery has at the outset entirely, or almost entirely, in the hands of women, and so long as it remained in their hands the potter's industry has usually retained a severely practical character. It is sufficient to quote the evi- dence of one observer who possessed a peculiarly intimate acquaintance with the lowest stages of primitive culture. Miklucho-Macleay, speaking of Papuan art in North-east Guinea, remarks : — " I have been struck by the absolute absence of ornament on THE ARTISTIC IMPULSE. the pottery, the day easily lending itself to all sorts of ornamentation ; this lack of ornament is due to the fact that the manufacture of pottery is exclusively confided to women, who are not usually very artistic by nature. I have found confirmation of this ancient and just observation even among Papuan women. I am able to state that I have never seen the slightest ornament invented or executed by a woman. During a visit to the island of Bibi-Bibi, where pottery is manufactured for all the neighbouring villages, when observing a dozen women and young girls fashioning pottery, I saw several women doing nothing ; as they had in front of them a mass of pots without the slightest ornament, I asked why they did not orna- ment them. 'What is the good? It is not necessary!' were the replies they gave. But this did not prevent two young boys from finding pleasure in imprinting with their nails and a pointed stick a sort of orna- mental border on some of the pots."' Tattooing is in many parts of the world chiefly in the hands of women. Thus among the Nogas of Assam it is "often performed by old women of the chief's household, and as a matter of right."^ Among the Aino, also, tattooing is done by women, and at present indeed it is the women alone who are tattooed,* Again, among the Songish or Lkungen Indians of Canada the tattooing is done by women, who introduce charcoal beneath the skin by means of a needle held horizontally.* It must be remembered, however, that tattooing is by no means the pure out- come of the art impulse, but a social and religious rite of a traditional character. Such semi-ritual art may be in the hands of either men or women ; thus ' Bull. Sec. ^Anthropelegie, 19th Dec. 187S.
Peal, "On the Motong," Jaurn. Anth. Inslilulf, Feb. 1B93,
p. =47-
MacRitchie, Supplement \a Inlcrnalionates Ankiv. fiir Elhisohgie,
I. Report on iht Norlh-Westirn Tribes cf Canada, by r 318 MAN AND WOMAN. among the Papuans (accord.ng to S. J. Hickson) the designs on houses and praus are wrought by old men or priests of the village to keep off the spirits of storms. If we turn to the pure artistic impulse, as mani- fested in the higher stages of culture, we find that the supremacy of men in painting is unquestionable. There have been thousands of women painters, but only the men have been remembered ; it would be unkind to make a comprehensive list of famous women painters. Even the great central situation of Christianity, as of life — the relation of the mother to her child — which appeals so strongly to a woman's heart, has never received memorable rendering at a woman's hand. In sculpture, also, it is scarcely necessary to add, the great names are all men, from Phidias to Donatello, from Michael Angclo to Rodin. That there have been two or three women whose names deserve honour- able mention is the most that can be said. In the evolution of music women have played a very small part. It does not appear that a woman has ever invented any well-known musical instrument, and there is not in any part of the world an instru- ment that is peculiar to women or chiefly played by them ; it is rarely even that they perform on men's instruments. In aboriginal America Professor Otis Mason remarks that musical instruments are never played by women, though they beat time on various objects and may now and then use the rattle, as well as join in certain choruses.' Mr. Henry Balfour, of ihe University Museum, Oxford, has brought forward a few exceptions to the general rule from the South Pacific. " In the South Pacific the 'nose-flute' is very generally, though by no means exclusively, played upon by women. In the account of the voyage of Captains Cook and King there is in one of the plnies a figure of a woman of the Tonga Islands seated under a hut playing upon a ' nose-flute.' ' Na/urt, Ijlll Oct. 1892. nilar figure of a woman playing upon a 'nose-flute* may
en in plate 28 of Labill ad lire's Voyage de La Perouse,
le representation of a Tongan double-canoe. Melville r Monthi Residence in Ike Marguisas Islands, ft. 251) '""s playing upon the 'nose-flute' as being 'a favourite m with the females.' In Wilkes' U.S. Exploring Expedition, iii. p. 190, there is a description of tbis instrument as used in the Fiji Islands, and it is stated that 'no other instrument but the flute ["nose-flute"] is played by the women as an accompaniment to the voice.' "Turning now to another genus of primitive instruments, viz., the ' musical bow,' we find a peculiar local form, the ' Pangolo,' occurring at Blanche Bay, New Britain, There are specimens of this at Berlin and Vienna. This instrument is stated by Dr. O. Finsch {Ann. des K. K. Naturhist. Ho/museums^ suppl. vol. iii., Pt, r, p. Ill) to be only played upon by women of Blanche Bay. Guppy too {Solomon Islands, p. 142) says that the women of Treasury Island produce a soft kind of music by playing, somewhat after the fashion of a Jew's-harp, on a lightly-made fine-stringed bow about 15 inches long. " It cannot, I believe, be said that any of these instruments have been inventedhy women, and it is undoubted that women in savagery but seldom figure as performers upon musical instruments. It would certainly be interesting to collect all the instances recorded." — Nature, 17th Nov. 1892, Among barbarous and civilised races in all parts of the world women have been trained profusely to play on musical instruments ; but the position of the sexes has remained relatively the same as among savages. The players of music have often been women ; the makers of music have nearly always been men. Unless we include two or three women of our own day whose reputation has perhaps been enhanced by the fact that they are women, it is difficult to find the names of women even in the list of third-rate composers. There is, I believe, no difference of opinion whatever on this point. Mr, G. I'. Upton, in his intelligent and sympathetic little book. Woman in Music (Chicago, 1886), endeavours to magnify the part that women have played in music, but he recognises that none of the masters in music have been women. He gives a list of forty-eight women musicians who lived during the 17th, iSth, and igtb centuries and left compositions, but none of them rose above mediocrity. How small this MAN AND WOMAN. number of noted women musician? is we may realise by recall- ing that Italy alone (as Lombroso remarks in his Man of Genius) has produced not less than I zio musicians of more or less note. Mr. Upton has, I think, very felicitously expressed one chief reason why women have failed in music, though they have had nearly equal advantages with men ; — " Conceding that n the highest expression of the emotions, and that woman is emotional by nature, is it not one solution of the probleni thai woman does not musically reproduce them because she herself is emotional by temperament and nature, and cannot project herself outwardly, any more than she can give outward expres- sion to other mysterious and deeply-hidden traits of her nature? The emotion is a part of herself, and is as natural to her as breathing. She lives in emotion, and acts from emotion. . . . Man controls his emotions, and can give an outward expression of them. In woman they are the dominating element, and so long as they are dominant she absorbs music Great actresses may express emotion because they express their own natures; but to treat emotions as if they were mathematics, to bind and measure and limit them within the rigid laws of harmony and counterpoint, and to express them with arbitrary signs, is a cold- blooded operation possible only to the sterner and more obdurate nature of man." He adds that it is significant that while a man who has once learnt to play on an instrument rarely ceases to delight in it, a woman's love for music ceases with age j it is not an esthetic but an emotional influence. Rubenstein, in his book on Music and its Masters, has some remarks which well supplement Mr. Upton's, though they are somewhat less precise : — "This increase of the feminine contingent in music, both in instrumental execution and in composition (I except the depart- ment of singing, in which they have always excelled), begins with the second half of our century. I regard it as one of the signs of musical decadence. Women lack two prime qualities necessary for creating — subjectivity and initiative. In practice they cannot get beyond objectivity (imitation), they lack courage and conviction to rise to subjectivity. For musical creation they lack absorption, concentration, power of thought, largeness of emotional horizon, freedom in outlining, etc. It is a mystery why it should just be music, the noblest, most beautiful, refined, spiritual, and emotional product of the human mind, tliat is so inaccessible to woman, who is a compound of all those qualities ; all the more as she has done great thinf;s in the other arts, even in the sciences. The two things most peculiar to women — love of a man and tender feeling for a child— have found no echo from them in music. I know no love duo or cradle song composed by a woman. I do not say there are none, but only that not one composed by a woman has the artistic value that could make it typical." THE ARTISTIC IMPULSE. 321 Music is at once the most emotional and the most severely abstract of the arts. There is no art to which women have been more widely attracted, and there is certainly no art in which they have shown themselves more helpless. It cannot be said that literature is an art It is merely a method of recording very diverse manifes- tations of psychic aptitude and artistic impulse. It is enough to mention four of these — metaphysics, mysticism, poetry, fiction. It is remarkable that although women are so strongly drawn to religion, they have done almost nothing to give classic expression to that mysticism which is the kernel of religion everywhere. The great manuals of devotion which have fed so many thousand souls, and which all say the same thing with a few verbal differences — the manual of Lao Tze, Marcus Antoninus's Meditations, Epictetus's Encheiridion, the gospel of St John and the Epistles of St. Paul, the De Imitatione Ckristi, the Deutsche Tlieologie, much of the writings of Schopenhauer — are the work of men, although they have probably found, on the whole, at least as many readers among women as among men. St Teresa is, so far as I know, the only woman who can be put in the first rank, but it must be added that there is an element of unquestionable morbidity in her work which cannot be said to characterise any of the great mystics I have named, not even St. Paul or Schopenhauer, Madame Guyon's name occurs, but she belongs to the second rank of mystics, which numbers a vast army of men. The art of metaphysics belongs almost exclusively to men. Even in the third rank of metaphysicians the names of no women can yet be very clearly discerned. The philosopher's art consists in building up an ideal and conjectural world on the basis of his own psychic organism ; it is of all arts that in which emotion is most highly intellectual ised, and the material most abstracted from the practical and 33a MAN AND WOMAN. concrete. Whether women's failure here means the condemnation of metaphysics or the condemnation of women is a problem which every one will decide according to the basis of his own temperament In poetry women have done much more than in either mysticism or metaphysics. The strong emotional poetic energy, chiefly lyrical in form, which in English is perhaps best represented by Mrs Browning, had been expressed by the women of many lands. At the same time it has had a tendency to be either rather thin or rather difl^use and formless. Strong poetic art, which involves at once both a high degree of audacity and brooding deliberation, is very rare in women. We have a Sappho and a Christina Rossetti — one representative of each of the great poetic nations of Europe — but it is difficult (I will not say impossible) to find other women poets who show in any noteworthy degree the qualities of imagination, style, and architectonic power which go to the making of great poetry. Indeed, so far as constructive power is concerned, even Sappho's fragments imply rather than reveal, Mr. Edmund Gosse has made some remarks worth quoting as to the place occupied by women in the poetic literature of the world: — "That Shakespeare should have had no female rival, that the ag-e in which music burdened every bough, and in which poets made their appearance in hundreds, should have produced noi a solitary authentic poetess, even of the fifth rank, this is curious indeed. But it is as rare as curious, for though women have not often taken a very high position on Parnassus, they have seldom thus wholly absented themselves. Even in the iron age of Rome, where the muse seemed to bring forth none but male children, we find, bound up with the savage verses of Juvenal and Persius, those seventy lines of pure and noble indignation against the brutality of Domitian which alone survive to testify to the genius of Sulpiria. " It is no new theory that women, in order to succeed in poetry, must be brief, personal, and concentrated. It was recognised by the Greek critics themselves. Into that delicious garland of the poets which was woven by Meleager to be hung outside the gate of the Gardens of the Hesperides he admits a from all the centuries of KeUtMvc son. Sa^^glu) . THE ARTISTIC IMPULSE. i there indeed, because, ' though her flowers were few, they fere all roses,' and, almost unseen, a single virginal shoot of the crocus bears the name of Erinna. That was all that womiinhood gave of durable poetry to the literature of antiquity, A critic, writing five hundred years after her death, speaks of still hearing the swan-note of Erinna clear above the jangling chatter of the jays, and of still thinking those three hundred hexameter verses sung by a girl of nineteen as lovely as the loveliest of Homer's. Even at the time of the birth of Christ, Erinna's writings consisted of what could be printed on a page of this magazine. The whole of her extant work, and of Sappho's loo, could now be pressed into a newspaper column. But their fame lives on, and of Sappho, at least, enough survives to prove beyond a shadow of doubt the lofty inspiration of her genius. She is the type of the woman-poet who exists not by reason of the variety or volume of her work, but by virtue of its intensity, its individuality, its artistic perfection." (Edmund Gosse, "Christina Rossetti," Century Magazine, June 1893.) In fiction women are acknowledged to rank in- comparably higher than in any other form of literary art. Thus in England, at all events, in Jane Austen, Charlotte and Emily Bronte, George Eliot, we possess four story-tellers who, in their various ways, are scarcely, for the artistic quality and power of their work (although not for quantity and versatility), behind our best novelists of the male sex. In France, it is true, where the novel has perhaps reached the highest degree of artistic perfection, women, owing to a variety of circumstances, have produced little fiction of artistic value, but in many countries of Europe at the present day, both in the north and in the south, there are one or two women who stand in the first rank. It is only when (as in the work of Flaubert) the novel almost becomes a poem, demanding great archi- tectonic power, severe devotion to style, and complete self-restraint, that women have not come into competi- tion with men. But fiction in the proper sense makes far less serious artistic demands than poetry, inasmuch as it is simply an idealised version of life, and may claim to follow any of the sinuous curves of life. What it demands is a quick perception of human character and social life, coloured b-j ^-mox^ t ' " THE ARTISTIC IMPULSE. 325 those emotions which they feel and those emotions which it is considered their duty to feel. Women are, therefore, both by nature and social compulsion, more often than men in the position of actors. It is probable also that women are more susceptible than men to the immediate stimulus of admiration and applause supplied by contact with an audience. In the allied art of dancing women are also supreme. It is worth remarking, in connection with the superiority of women in acting', that it has frequently been found that women are also better readers. Thus Mr. Bryce, in a report on the state of education in Lancashire, remarks in regard to reading : — "This is one of the few things in which girls' schools are markedly better than boys'. There does not seeni to be much more direct training in the one case than in the other, so it is left us to suppose that the superiority of the girls is due to their more correct ear, their quicker perception of the meaning of what they read, and that more perfect harmony which seems CO exist between their intelligence and its expression in voice, feature, and gesture. Even where they have no special training, they are free from that plodding awkwardness which generally belongs to a Lancashire boy's reading. And in several schools, where the mistresses had accustomed their pupils to read aloud, and had carefully checked any tendency to affectation, the reading was everything that could be desired in point of grace, variety, and expressiveness." And Mr. Fearon, reporting on schools on the East Coast, also refers to the superiority of girls in reading; he found that even in mixed schools girls read better than boys. (D. Beale, Reports issued by the School^ Inquiry Commission, pp, 55 and 136.) Legouv^, who has had a long and intimate connection with the stage, has some remarks on the success of women in acting in his charming and acute though scarcely scientific Histoire Morale de la Femme, 6th ed., l874(p. 345):— "Whether actor or singer, the interpretative artist needs above all a talent for observing details, flexibility of the organism to follow the move- ments of thoujiht, and above all, that mobile, ardent, and varied impressionability which multiphes in an almost incredible de- gree the sensations and signs which represent it. For this reason the dramatic faculty is more native to women than to men. All great cantatrices, as experience shows, reach the supreme height of their talent before the age of twenty, that is to say, after four years of study; a man to be a great singer requires eight years. We have all seen a consutcimaSa. ■MSswa.^ who was not yet ten years old; and\i.Vi& ^ifttwte.'S.MN^A'ui'Ctifc MAN AND WOMAN. female sex to produce the marvel which wc admire tivday of i yuunK gill reaching in a few months the heig-hts of dramatic art which Talma, Lekain, and Karon only attained to after loa^ labour and in the maturity of their age." (See also a chapter if Upton's H'gman in Music on "Woman as the Interpreter ol Music") On the whole, there can be no doubt whatever that if we leave out of consideration the interpretative arts, the artistic impulse is vastly more spontaneous, more pronounced, and more widely spread among men than among women. There is thus a certain justification for Schopenhauer's description of women as the unajsthetic sex. Even in the matter of cooking wc may see how emphatic is the tendency for an art to fall into the hands of men. All over the world
an industry, is women's business, yet
wherever cooking rises from an industry to become lething of an art it is nearly always in the hands of a man. Gallon found, in investigating nearly 9CX) indi- viduals, that 28 per cent, males and 33 per cent females showed artistic tastes — i.e., were fond of music, drawing, etc. That is to say, that notwithstanding all that our education does to bring out artistic tastes in women, the sexes remain nearly equaL' If we go back to early times we may be perfectly sure that the rough drawings of men, animals, and other natural objects which are found on primitive implements and on rocks are the work of men. At the present day the impulse to scribble, draw, and carve — the artistic impulse in its most primitive form - — is very much more marked in boys and men than in girls and women. Both in colleges and prisons this difference is decided. Ferrero has sought the explanation of the small part played by women in art, and their defective sense for purely Esthetic beauty, in their less keen sexual emotions, This is doubtless an important THE ARTISTIC IMPULSE. 327 factor. The sexual sphere in women is more massive and extended than in men, but it is less energetic in its manifestations. In men the sexual instinct is a restless source of energy which overflows into all sorts of channels. At the same time, the rarity of women artists of the first rank is probably due to another cause which we shall be concerned with later on — the greater variational tendency of men. CHAPTER XV. MORBID PSYCHIC PHENOMENA. » — FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE ITS FREQUENCY — SEXUAL PROPORTIONS IN EUROPE THE INFLUENCE OF AGE — THE CAUSES OF SUICIDE METHODS OF SUICIDE — MEN PREFER ACTIVE, WOMEN PASSIVE METHODS —RACIAL SEXUAL DIFFER LNCES. INSANITY — IN VARIOUS PARTS OF THE WORLD—CAUSES OF INSANITY — FORMS OF INSANITY — ALCOHOLIC INSANITY AND GENERAL PARALYSIS INCREASING AMONG WOMEN — GENERAL PARALYSIS AS A TYPICALLY MASCULINE INSANITY — INSANITY AND CIVILISATION, CRIMINALITY — DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY OF THE STUDY OF SEXUAL DIFFERENCES— WHY WOMEN ARE CRIMINAL THAN MEN — THE SPECIAL FORMS women's criminality — CRIMINALITY AND ClVILISi TION. SUICIDE. The suicidal impulse is not necessarily morbid. BulJ there can be no doubt that in the majority of ca; suicide implies a considerable degree of psychic abnop^ mality, whether the lack of mental balance is th^ result of a sudden shock or is simply the last stagi in a slow disintegration. Suicide is rarely the result of a deliberate weighinfr of evidence resulting in tb' decision that, as Marcus Antoninus expresses it, t' house is smoky and must be quilted. The philoso- phers who have given this advice have rarely them-B selves found that the house was smoky. And thej proceedings at coroners' inquests show that in a veryt; MORBID PSYCHIC PHENOMENA. laj^e proportion of cases suicides are the eccentric, the perverse, the highly strung and the mentally unbalanced, who — under circumstances when all may have thought of suicide — have not preserved the mental integrity which enables men to see that beyond these circumstances life is stitl tolerable. The morbid nature of suicide, as it usually exists among us to-day, is shown by its curious parallelism with the pheno- mena of insanity! There are, it is well known, many cosmic, racial, and social factors influencing the frequency of suicide. The maximum of suicide, as of insanity, occurs during the early heat of summer. Among Europeans suicide is more frequent than among negroes and other lower races ; and in Europe it is more prevalent among the Teutonic than among the Latin races ; in America these racial differences are to a large extent persistent There are more suicides in towns than in the country; the rate is much higher in manufactur- ing than in agricultural centres ; among soldiers and sailors than among civilians; the liberal professions yield a higher proportion of suicides than any other class of occupations ; they are only exceeded, and that greatly, by those who have no occupation at ali.^ The unmarried, whether men or women, commit suicide more often than the married, this immunity of the married being especially marked when there ' The morbid character of suicide is usuidly recognised by juries in England, although it is not easy to justiiy the usual formula of " tempor- ary insanity," but the Eoglish law (and even the latest project (or its leiorm), with that curious canservalisro which makes English law so interesting to archasologists, continues to regard the attempt to comiiiil suicide as a crime. The man who succeeds in committing suicide is innocent ; the man who fails is a criminal. As Sir Frederick Pollock remarks {Qxferd Lectum')-. — "In our existing polity the latest mechanism of elaborate legislation may be found side by side with relics of a period of legal culture not less archaic than that of the twelve tables at Rome." ' Westergaard points out that the economic iactor in suicide is especially well marked in England and Wales, the suidde-rale rising whenever the amount of iuvports and exports per head falls. [Grundsugt der Theerie der SlalisHk, Jena, iSgo, p. 14.) L 3io «AN ^1 are cli,y„„ . ^^^Wl^^^^n selves tmce 'J°^"^ '<Jo».e„ 1 and in „u "'•en as «,. '"d WiVf " ('S4Q.r.\ 77 21 In.. United sLt ,'^ Maurice R accordji pfopc ■ ■ 79 I? ^ 7' 39 milljo, jfMttiiioS"?""' ttils; — -^ — ~~^-^ ■ r » sss^f^s^i^^^^lg^ ^'^S MORBID FSVCHIC PHENOMENA. It will be seen that Spanish women are more inclined to suicide than the women of any other country, the proportion being about i woman to 2.5 men, MorselU attributes this aptness of Spanish women to suicide to "the force of their passions, which brings them nearer to the male sex." This may possibly be so ; it will be noted that the propor- tion of women is almost equally high in Hungary and Scotland.^ In Switzerland the proportion of women suicides to men is lower than in any other European country, being (according to Morselli's figures) 12.2 per cent as against 28.8 per cent, in Spain. It appears that the oscillations are greater in the female than in the male sex. It will be seen from the table that there is a decided tendency for the proportion of women suicides to decrease ; or, one should rather say, women have taken a smaller share than men in the modern development of suicide.^ It will be seen that this is the case in France, England, and Norway, though not in Prussia, where suicide is decreasing in relation to population, but woman's share seems slightly on the increase, as is woman's share in criminality. On the whole, however, the proportion of male to female suicides is far more constant than the general proportion of suicides to the population; thus in Saxony, both in 1867 and in 1877, there were 18 female suicides to 82 male, but while in the former year suicides were 312 per million of the population, in the latter they were 394. In Italy again, in the year 1877, for example, suicides were only 41 per million of the population, but the sexual ratio was still the same as in Saxony, 80 to 20. This seems to hold good of European countries generally.* ' It is of interest to note that lowards the beginning af the century, when insanity Was nearly everywhere more common in men, in Spain (accord- inc to Esquirol) and in Scotland Iheie was an excess of female lunatics. ' This was observed some years ago by Legoyt, Ann. Mid.-Psyth., ■ ThtorU litT Slalislik, MAN AND WOMAN. Suicide among women appears to be everywhere more precocious than among men. In England the relative number of female suicides, very high at the age of lo, is almost equal to or greater than that of men at the ages of 1 5 to 20. Then for a few years the female rale sinks, to rise again, however, more especially about the age of 45 ; as old age comes on there is a much stronger tendency to suicide amongst males than amongst females. This is shown in a table, drawn up by Ogle, which exhibits the proportion of the male suicide-rate to the female suicide-rate (reckoned as 100) at successive age- periods : — ^ ABS-Pariod. FemaJe Bate. Male Rate. 10- 100 133 15- 100 87 20- 100 182 25- J36 35- 100 282 45- 100 363 55- 100 333 65- 100 349 7S- 360 8s- 100 491 With reference to the marked p red 01 female suicides over male suicides in the 15-20 age- period, Ogle remarks that this is also " the only period in which the general death-rates, as shown in the Registrar-General's returns, is higher in the former sex, and also is marked, as the census returns for i88r show, by an exceptionally higher rate of lunacy (exclusive of idiocy or imbecility) for females than for males." In France, from the ages of 7 to 16, suicide is 1 Relalion to Age, Stx, etc.," /aurnaf MORBID PSYCHIC PHENOMENA. equally frequent in both sexes; but of lOO women in France who commit suicide (taking the years 1876- 80), 9 have not yet reached their 21st year, while out of 100 male suicides, only 4 are below 21.^ In Prague, according to Morselli, six-tenths of all the female suicides are by women under 30. That suicide is comparatively so frequent among girls at about the age of 15 is a noteworthy fact. It is difficult not to connect it with the stress resulting from the precocious physical development of girls, which is just completed at this age. Probably an often hidden factor in the frequency of female suicides in early life generally is shame at the prospect of becoming a mother. In France, the chief age at which men commit suicide is from 40 to 50, while for women it is between 15 to 30; for women, however, there is comparative quiescence between the ages of 20 and 35 and from 65 to 75, after the epoch of the closing of sexual life has been safely passed. In England, during the last half century there has been a marked increase of suicide at all ages except for n above 65 years of age. It would be of interest to coi suicide in Europe with that in exi inferior races, but statistics here are India the ordinary European ratio accordinK to Chevers, 5.5 males to Major M'Leod, after staling that i; portion is loo males to 150 females the excess of females is even greater Sail [widow -burning] feeling in the country, the low social position of women, their ignorance and want of education, render them more prone to commit suicide than men." The causes of suicide correspond very nearly in sexual difference with the causes of insanity. Mental disorders, passions, and domestic troubles are much commoner causes of suicide in women ; overstrain and financial troubles are men ; while physical disease is about equal. ipare the sexual ratio of a-European lands and in not so easy to obtain. In is nearly reversed, being, 8 females. And Surgeon- 1 round numbers the pro- i, adds that it is probable "The survival of the (See Morselli's Suicide, pp. 309-10; also Lombroso and Ferrero, /^ Donna DcUnquenle, Part iv., Ch.ip. 7.) If we turn to Ihe Prussian statistics, for example in the year 1883, we find that passion is set down as accounting for 1.9 per cent, of the male suicides, but for 6.4 of the female, and in rSS? the percentages are respectively 2.5 and 6.;. Shame and remorse are set down as resjMnsible for 7.6 of the Prussian male suicides in 1883, and for 9.2 of the female, not a great disproportion. It is not possible, however, to attach much value to official statistics of the causes of suicide. Differences in the methods of accomplishing suicide throw a curious side-light on sexual psychology, and may be studied with more certainty than official records as to the causes of suicide. Throughout Europe the law, roughly stated, is that men hang themselves and women drown themselves, although a very large proportion of male suicides drown them- selves, and a very large proportion of female suicides hang themselves.^ With modifications this rule prob- ably holds good all over the world. In India, for example, it is modified through both sexes showing a greater preference than in Europe for drowning; according to Chevers, six out of seven women in India who commit suicide prefer the water, while men resort to drowning and hanging in about equal numbers. In Europe the great majority of boy suicides hang themselves, while the girls drown themselves. The greatest divergences in England between men and women are in the use of weapons and poison, men preferring the former, women the latter. Women also choose fails from heights, about twice as many women as men adopting this method, but on the other hand a much smaller number of women than of men throw themselves before trains. Ogle prepared the following table showing the ,82.9 per various methods adopted per looo suicides during the H years 18S8-83:— ■ 1 MBthod. Midn. Females. H Han^ring and Strangulation Drowning Cut or Stab Poison Gunshot Jump from Height Railway Trains Otherwise 417 152 ao7 i 24 33 X 1 129 H i 1 It may be said, generally, that while men prefer to ^M adopt active methods of suicide, which are at the same ^H time usually more deliberate and more repulsive, women ■ prefer more passive methods, which are at the same ^| time usually more decorous and require less resolute ^| preparation. The only exception is in regard to the passive method of suicide by being run over by a train. About three men resort to this for one woman. The reason probably is that, though a passive method ™ of self-destruction, it requires considerable resolution ^ orietv and their intense horror of making- a mess : H If it were possible to find an easy method of suicide H by which the body could be entirely disposed of, ^M there would probably be a considerable increase of " suicides among women. The sexual preferences in regard to active methods of suicide (hanging, shooting, cuttinp the throatl and passive methods Cdrowninp, poison, being run over by train, fall from height) is ^| very decisively shown if we sum them up. I take, H for instance, the year 1888 in Prussia, selecting a H country in which women show a more marked prefer- ^| ence than is usual for the masculine methods of hang- ^| ing and the use of the knife. In tKU -^li-M q-A'j 'i.-^ B MAN AND Wdl per cent of the male suicides adopted passive mcthoc as against 89 per cent, who adopted active methods^ not less than 57 per cent of the women adopted passive methods, 43 per cent adopting active methods. There is a constant change of opinion going on in the community as to the most desirable methods of committing suicide. This change, at all events in England, is remarkably rapid. I have selected for comparison the earliest and the latest years 1858 and 1891 — which can be profitably compared, with the results shown in the following table, dealing exclusively with the four chief methods of suicide : — M^.. Parnate. IBBS. la... issa ISOL Weapons and implements Hanging .... 37-9 52.4 35-4 33-8 Z0.4 10.4 28.2 16.8 15.5 36-8 25.9 The tendency of change in regard to weapons is anomalous ; this is emphatically a masculine method of suicide, rare among women ; while increasing among men, it is decreasing among women. In the progress of all three of the other chief methods of suicide a common tendency is visible : hanging has become much rarer in both men and women, while drowning and poisoning have become commoner in both. That is to say, that women have become more womanly than ever in their preferences for the passive methods of suicide, while men have become less manly in their suicidal preferences by exhibiting a growing dislike for active methods of suicide, only 69.2 having adopted active methods in 1891, in spite of the g ing taste for firearms, against 80.3 in " ' J.2 navtno^^H the grovn^H It i^H MORBID PSYCHIC PHENOMENA. impossible to regard these figures as purely fortuitous, and I believe that they possess a certain significance with reference to the trend of civilisation. There is another factor to be taken into consideration when dealing with methods of suicide— the factor of racial preferences, I am unable to throw any light on these, but Morselli has some interesting remarks on the point ; — " We find that those who exceed others in hanging amongst men are the Danes, Rus- sians, inhabitants of Wiirtemberg, and the Austrians ; amongst women, Russians with a number equal to the men, the Slavo- Croatians of the Military Frontiers, the Austro-Hungarians, and the Scandinavians. Hence it is evident that in women the Slavic origin betrays itself in a strong tendency towards hanging. On the other hand, drowning is at its maximum amongst the Celto-Latin nations, France, Italy, Belgium, and in Sweden and in Switzerland ; whenever the Slavic element comes into play the choice of water falls to its minimum. The largest proportion of suicides by firearms is that of the Slavo- Croatsof the Frontiers, and it is to be remarked that the numbers among the women are equally above the average. As to poisoning, its highest proportion is found amongst the Swedish and Austrian women. Among French women those who prefer firearms are hardly 6 per looo ; amongst Italian women 35 per 1000. It is curious that the strong tendency of Italian women as opposed to French women to use the knife or the mstol should be shared by the English and Americans, although the Anglo-Saxon habits are so different from the Italian," Is the comparative immunity of women from the suicidal impulse real or only apparent ? This question has sometimes been raised. It appears that those occupations which "by habit, physical and mental, bring women near to men," considerably raise the suicide-rate among women.' Association with men has a similar influence in increasing insanity and criminality. It is obvious that the more nearly women arc placed under the same condition as men the more closely their actions will approximate to men's. This fact tells us nothing with regard to the special p.sychology of women, and it is evidently not the only factor, for while women's work to-day more ' Jmiriial 0/ Almlal Science, vol. j MAN AND WOMAN. nearly resembles men's than it did fifty years ago, we have seen that on the whole women's tendency to suicide as compared to men's is decreasing. Male preponderance in suicide has been explained by saying that women are more sheltered in the struggle for existence, that they are more adaptable, more self-sacrificing, more resigned, more influenced by religious scruples and public opinion, and less given to alcoholism. One writer on the subject believes that the sexual disproportion would not be so great if we could lake into account all those who contemplate suicide — i.e., who are suicidal. " Many more women than men desire, or think they desire, but have not the courage to cause their own death,"^ Dr. Harry Campbell also thinks it "probable that the idea of suicide more frequently presents itself to the woman than to the man, because women so much more frequently suffer from the minor forms of melan- cholia," but he docs not think that women have less courage than men, but rather more resignation and a stronger sense of duty; ho believes that the sexual difference in the rate largely depends upon external circumstances.^ That external circumstances, save in a very general way and to a limited extent, have any marked influence in altering the sexual incidence I do not believe; the very slight variations in the sexual incidence throughout Europe make this unlikely. That women very often contemplate suicide is prob- able, and it may be added that a very large number of women fail ijv their attempts at suicide. If in determining the suicide-rate we could include un- successful attempts at suicide, it is probable that women's share would be larger. The passive methods of self-destruction are not always available, and they are also liable to miscarry; moreover, when a woman adopts a more energetic method of self-destruction MORBID PSYCHIC PHENOMENA. 339 she is more likely than a man to miscalculate from ignorance, violent methods of destruction being more within man's province. These circumstances doubtless do much to minimise the influence of the melancholic depression to which women are often subject. On the whole, however, there seems every reason to believe that the suicidal impulse, in Euro- pean races at all events, is somewhat stronger in men than in women. INSANITY. Aretseus, the Greek phy.sician of the first century, and Coelius Aurelianus, a writer of uncertain age and country, taught that men are more subject to insanity than women. Esquirol, who appears to have been the first who applied statistics to the matter, showed elaborately that more women are insane than men, the proportion being 3S women to 37 men.^ Georget, Ilaslam, and others confirmed this conclusion. Bur- rows, even before Esquirol, had said more women were insane than men in large towns, but that it was not so in the country. Parchappe made an important step in advance by pointing out that in order to form an accurate estimate of the sexual incidence of insanity we must consider the admissions to asylums, and not the actual number of inmates which is affected by the varying rates of mortality and recovery in the two sexes. He considered the admissions to various large asylums (Bethlem, Bicetre, Salp^trifere, Charenton, Turin, etc.), and found that with the very marked exception of Bicfitre and Salp^tri^rc, the admissions of men ex- ceeded those of women. He concluded that the solution of the question was still doubtful.^ A few years later Thurnam made a more accurate and decisive investigation than any that had gone before.* He showed that the probability of recovery is greater ' Maladies Mmta/cs, 183S. ' Rechenhes slalistiques sur Us Cansis de rAUhtation Mentah. sanity. Ijiwi<j&,\'bc,'t,. MAN AND WOMAN. 1 than in men, the recoveries of women exceeding those of men by from 4 to 28 per cent He showed also that there is a still greater difTerence in the rate of mortality, the mortality of men being 50 and sometimes nearly 90 per cent, greater than that of women — i.e., nearly double. In 1844, in England and Wales, there were 9053 male inmates of asylums to 9701 females, the admissions of women in London greatly predominating over those of men, in com- parison with the country. In 24 asylums out of 32 (including a total of 71,800 admissions), Thurnam found a decided excess of men among admissions, the average excess being 13.7 per cent. In a very large number of British asylums (including 67,876 admis- is) there were about 36 men to 32 women. Thurnam also observed that a larger proportion of women become insane relatively to men among the lower classes than among the higher. He concluded that " in nearly all points of view women have an advantage over men in reference to insanity ; for not only do they appear to be less liable than men to mental derangement, but when the subjects of it, the probability of their recovery is on the whole greater, and that of death considerably less. On the other hand, the probability of a relapse, or of a recurrence of the disorder, is somewhat greater in women than in men." Dr. Jarvis, a few years later, after examin- ing the statistics of asylums in Great Britain, Ireland, France, Belgium, and America, came to the similar conclusion that "males are somewhat more liable to insanity than females." ^ If we look only to the gross number of lunatics in the various countries of Europe, we shall find on the whole that throughout the century, as Esquirol showed, the women are more numerous than the men. There are, however, notable exceptions ; male lunatics are more numerous in Germany, Denmark, Norway, and Russia, In Italy in 188S there were 11,895 male ' Oh tkt Comparalive LiahUity of Main and Females to Insanity, 1850. MORBID PSYCHIC PHENOMENA. 341 lunatics to 10,529 female, being 78.1 males per loo.oooof the population, and 7ai females. Thereisa proportionately greater increase among the men in Italy than among the women, but to a very slight extent. On the whole, therefore, in this country, and it may probably be said nearly everywhere else, men have hitherto been more liable to insanity than women, any excess of insanity in women being apparent only. This is, however, no longer the case, at all events in Great Britain, For several years not only has there been in our asylum population an excess of women over men, but there has been an excess of women in the admissions to the asylums. Medical statisticians, when the change in the sexual incidence of insanity was pointed out,^ were on examination able to verify it The Lunacy Commissioners have admitted the change in the figures, and stated that they were not awareof any fallacy underlying them. It must, there- fore, be accepted that in this country men are no longer more liable to insanity than women. This greater liability of women to insanity is, more- over, not an accidental variation. It is the outcome of a gradual change which may be traced back in this country for more than a century. During the latter half of the last century there was an obvious excess of male over female lunatics, but that excess was tending to diminish. At the middle of the present century Thurnam found it necessary to analyse the figures carefully in order to show the greater liability of men to insanity. In the early days of the Lunacy Com- missioners (thirty years ago) the rate of increase of insanity to population, as Mr. Noel Humphreys has pointed out, was greater among males than among females; in more recent years the rate of increase among females has slightly exceeded that among ' This was done by the present wtiler ; "The Increase of Insanity amone Women," Pall Mall GomIU, 21st May 1893, and Art. " Sex, Influence of, in Insanity," Did. ef Fsych. Med., 1892. These have both been freely used in the preparation of the present section. 342 MAM AND WOMAN. males. During Ihe ten years 1878-87 the number of admissions of women to the public s private asylums of England and Wales was 69,56023 against 66,918 men. There is here an obvious excess of women, but if we take into account the excess of women in the general population, the liability of the sexes to insanity is found to be almost equal. During subsequent years, however, the excess of women, although slight, has become clearly marked, even when allowance is made for the excess of women in the general population. When we turn to the admissions to the public and private asylums of England and Wales for 1890 we find that 10,025 women were admitted against 9,109 men. The exact proportion of admissions per 100,000 of the population during the years 1S88-90 is as follows : — > i883 5.23 ... 5-34 It may be added that the excess of admissions of women is found in all classes of asylums ; it is not among the poor only that insanity is becoming more frequent In the United States of America and in the English colonies (as in foreign countries generally) there is an excess of male lunatics. The statistics for the United Stales are still very imperfect, but in Fennsylvnnia, where they receive most atten- tion, the excess is very clear; thus, during i88g, an average year, there were 1017 admissions of men to 836 of women. In New South Wales the number of insane persons on the official registers at the end of the year 1890 was 1906 men and i ig6 women. At the Cape, at the same time, the European and coloured inmates of the asylums numbered 335 men and 340 women, the excess of men being nearly as well marked among the white as among the black population. The study of sexual differences in the causes of insanity is not very satisfactory. Alcoholic excess (which, however, needs further analysis) is usually ' Art. " Statistics of Insanity," by Dr. Hack Take, Di^/. a/ Psych. MORBID PSYCHIC PHENOMENA. 343 ^B both in England and France set down as the chief H cause in men, followed by sexual excess and ^M pecuniary troubles; while in women, love, pecuniary | troubles, domestic misfortunes, rehgion, and ea lousy ^| are usually set down as the chief causes. ■ During the ten years 1878-87, 136,478 persons ■ (66,918 men and 69,560 women) were admitted into ■ all classes of asylums in England and Wales If we V consider the causes of their insanity, the proportion per cent, to total number admitted during the ten years was stated to be as follows : — Mole. FetrnJe. Alcoholic intemperance . . 19.8 7.2 Various bodily diseases and disorders 10.5 Domestic troubles (including loss of rela tions and friends) .... 4.2 97 Adverse circumstances (including business anxieties and pecuniary difficulties) 8.2 3-7 Parturition and ihe puerperal state . 6.7 Mental anxiety, " worry," and over-work 6.6 5-5 Accident or injury .... S-2 Religious excitement , . . =■5 2.9 Love affairs (including seduction) 0.7 2-5 Fright and nervous shock , 0.9 1-9 Sexual intemperance . 0.6 Venereal disease o!3 a2 Seir-abuse (sexual) . Over-exertion .... 0.7 0.4 Sunstroke 2.3 Lactation 2 2 Uterine and ovarian disorders . — J Puberty ..... 0.6 ■ Change of life .... ■ Fevers 0.7 Privation and starvation . ■ Old age 3-8 2.3 ■ Olher ascertained causes existed in ■ And the causes were unknown in 2t.3 ^ There had been previous attacks in 143 18.9 ~ Hereditary influence was ascertained in 19.0 22.1 Congenital defect was ascertained in . 5-1 3-S ^B 344 On the whole, It may be said that causes acting on the brain are more common in men; moral and emotional causes are more common in women; excesses, both intellectual and sensual, are common causes in r If we turn to consider sexual variations in the incidence of different forms of insanity, somewhat more reliable results are obtained, but we meet with the difficulty that the nomenclature is not yet uniform. Taking the admissions for this country for one year (1889), the proportions per cent were divided as follows between the forms of mental disorder recognised by the Lunacy Board : — Dementia (°'^;,';.">' Congenital Insanity (including idiocy and other mental defects from birth or infancy) Other forms of insanily . Garnier^ gives the following result of his experiences at the Paris Prefecture de Police as to the relative frequency of various types of insanity in men and women during the years 188S-88. He adopts Mag- nan's classification, and is dealing with 8139 persons (4831 men and 3308 women), I have arranged them in the order of frequency for both sexes, and reduced the figures to percentages. In making any com- parison with the English figures it must be re- membered that we are here dealing with an urban population. ' La FolU 1 Paris, 1890, I A!c< P Mei MORBID PSYCHIC PHENOMENA. Male. Famale, Alcoholism (acute, sub-acute chronic) Mental degeneration (idiocy, imbecility, psychic debility, hereditary degeneration) General paralysis ...... Inicllectual enreeblement (due to haemor- rhage, softening, or tumour) . Melanchoha Mania iSX„e„;a ::::;: Progressive systematic insanity, or para- 37.5 17.0 14.8 11-3 3-7 tl 3. 1 it.4 13-3 15.4 9-7 5-' 8-7 8.2 100 100 States of exaltation, speaking generally, belong to early age ; " mental exaltation," as Clouston remarks, "is perfectly natural in childhood. It is, in fact, the physiological state of brain at that period;" states of depression belong to a somewhat more advanced age, when mania is extremely rare. Among negroes, also, manias arc largely in excess of other forms of insanity.^ It seems to be generally agreed that, as shown in the tables already given, mania is more common in women than in men. Mendel finds that out of over 800 patients 5.2 of the males are maniacal, 9.6 per cent, of the females, or nearly double.^ In its most extreme form, also, — acute delirious mania, — it is more common in women, and in women at the same time there is better hope of recovery.^ While mania is more common in women than in men, melancholia is even, relatively, more common in women. It is worthy of note that while mania is an insanity of the young, the uncivilised, and the ' Winter, "Insanity in IheColouteH Rice," Alienist and JViure/s^st, Jan. 1891. ' Mendel, UU Manic, Wien, 1881, p. 141. " R. Fercy Smith, Art. "Acute Deliiicms Mania," Z>iW, of Psyek. savage, melancholia is an insanity of the adult a civilised. "To get a fine type of melancholia," Cloustoii, "you must get an educated brain." Am the educated, he remarks, there are more cases q melancholia, of "monomania," of paralysis of win power, oifolie circulaire. It is remarkable that these" typical examples of the insanities of the educated are all more common in women than in men. The greater prevalence of melancholia and of systematised delusional insanity (formerly called "monomania," and now more frequently called " paranoia ") may be seen in the tables already given; paralysis of will- power, in its chief form, for example, which is called folie du douie, is also more common in women, and circular insanity is found (according to Jules Falret) in the proportion of about one man to four or five women. On the other hand, the graver and more incurable forms of insanity, which chiefly prevail among paupers, such as epileptic insanity, are much more frequent in men. We must not, how- ever, generalise too hastily from these facts. The forms of insanity which are now most rapidly increasing amongst women are those which have hitherto been more especially predominant in men — alcoholic insanity and general paralysis. Inebriety, as is now happily beginning to be recognised, is some- thing more than a mere taste for drink: it is in a large number of cases the sign of a deep-rooted disorder of the nervous centres. Inebriety is not only an increasing cause of insanity among women, it is ioj great part responsible for the increase of recidiv' among women criminals in various countries. Iq Paris, as Garnier has shown, alcoholic insanity among; women has more than doubled in fifteen yearsj though, it must be added, the rate of increase in meiC is very little less. General paralysis has been called the maladie t sikcle. It is the disease of excess, of vice, of over-worte of prolonged worry; it is especially the disease of grea3 MORBID PSVCmC PHENOMENA. 347 urban centres, and its appearance usually seems to show that the organism has entered on a competitive race for which it is not fuily equipped. But it is con- fined to no social class, nor to any stage of intellect ; it is common among paupers, and it finds typical repre- sentatives in a Baudelaire and a Guy de Maupassant It is rare in Norway; it is rare among the sedate Arabs, and rare among lower races generally; it is very rare among priests and monks, also among Quakers. Genera! paralysis was formerly rare among women. Now, in all the great centres of civilisation, in England, in the United States, in France, in Germany, it is, by the evidence of nearly all com- petent observers, increasing at a rapid rate among both sexes, but with especial rapidity among women, although it cannot yet be said to be common among women. Its increase among men in England, and its proportionately still greater increase among women, has been noted by many alienists ; and Savage remarks that it is specially apt to occur among middle-ciass women who are taking the places of men. In Germany the growing proportion of women among general paralytics has been noted by Mendel, Sander, and others; the proportion was formerly i woman to 5 men; it is now i to 3. Siemerling, who does not consider that the statistics of the Charity, in Berlin, show any real increase of general paralysis in women, admits it for men; he finds a sexual difference in the symptoms, which are on the whole quieter in women, with a tendency to delusions, often of a sexual character. In France the increase of general paralysis in both sexes is well marked. Lunier and Dumesnil pointed out its in- crease among women in the asylums of the Seine between 1864 and 1874. Garnier finds that in Paris it has nearly doubled in men during fifteen years, and in women considerably more than doubled during the same period; so that there is i woma.'LV^ i^^aatv. I 34f* MAN AND WOMAN. We may regard general paralysis as a typically mascufal disease, and it is therefore of some interest from our presto I point of view lo analyse it more minutely. It is fundamentalli | a gradual disorder and paralysis of the finer movemenis muscular system and a otunling of the senses, coming on imperceptibly, or only betrayed lo observation by a pecifa I slow tremulousness of speech. There is some resemblance M | an early stage of drunkenness. Concomitantly with the sligti I Kralytic symptoms appear equally slight emotional and intd- I
iual disorders ; there is a general coarsening and exaggen- I
lion of the thoughts, feelings, and conduct, corresponding to the I lack of sensory and motor delicacy of discrimination, and at 6rsi ' there is often great over-activity, associated with, and due to, I loss of control. There are very_ frequently ideas of grandenr, 1 and Baudelaire's muse, as described by Swinburne, with "deep | division of prodigious breasts," is the characteristic goddess of the genera! paralytic. General paralytics, and those who are predisposed to genera! paralysis, seem to have to a certain extent a general common character. This has been admirably described in detail by Dr. G. R. Wilson, whose account, which is instructive from our present point of view, I will here summarise (joumai Menld Science, January iBgz.) They often belong to large famihes, and not infrequently one or both parents have lived rather loo freely. At school they aie usually fairly active and intelligent, and are apt to leave early and to show considerable determination and ambition in choos- ing a career which they very often change, for they are of rest- less spirit and they cannot stand the humdrum life of the country; they usually rush to the towns. What the occupation is makes very little difference; "'he will live like a genial jiaralytic whether he be a mason's labourer or a barrister." It cannot he said that they show any uniformity in physical type; that is a matter of race ; but they possess certain general physical characters. "As a rule they are well- nourished, and not of a neurotic, phthisical, or otherwise delicate appearance. On the contrary, they are spwken of as men of 'strong constitu- tions,' full-blooded and vigorous, well-favoured men. In short, they are good animals." They have good nerve and great power of endurance. But they are not generally athletic ; they usually eschew all kinds of sports, and seldom possess the play- instinct. "An inquiry into the life-history of these men brings out an important and almost constant characteristic. Their view of life is rarely, if ever, that of men commonly called 'good.' It is essentially a selfish, non-moral view. They are described as men who ' would do nobody a bad turn,' ' kind-hearted," 'generous,' 'hard-working,' sometimes even 'conscientious.' MORBID PSYCHIC PHENOMENA. But none oF the men whose history I have g'ot have been men with any religious interests or of any great moral ambition. The characteristic general paralytic is a man with a large belief in himself, restless, ambitious, and with a relentless desire for the good things of this life." He is sociable, and is often brilliant in society ; ansdous for the world's good opinion ; and his fits of depression or of quick temper are soon over. Unusually strong sexual impulses are among the fundamental characteristics of these patients, and often bring them into trouble; this characteristic seems also to lead to a considerable degree of resemblance in the wives they select. Dr. Savage says he has been struck by " the frequency of the occurrence of general paralysis in the husbands of some women of voluptuous physique," and Dr. Wilson remarks that it is frequently possible to pick out the general paralytic's wife in the visitors' room. " Such, in the rough," Dr. Wilson concludes, " are the fundamental characteristics frequently, though by no means invariably, associated in the victims of general paralysis. Regarded as a whole, the type is characteristic as much in what it lacks as in what it possesses. General intelligence and common-sense, ambition and enei^, sociability and a large capacity for enjoyment, a firm belief in one's self, and a preference for handsome women, are all eminently sane characteristics according to our present standard. On the other hand, some admirable qualities are notably wanting — qualities which make for a higher control to temper the tend- ency to excess, the selfishness, and the restlessness. 1 can- not refrain from mentioning Mr. R. L. Stevenson's beautifully drawn character of 'Will of the Mill' as a typical contrast to these restless general paralytics, exhibiting some of their characteristics, and many more besides which they conspicu- ously lack." It is worth while to compare this masculine insanity with the description of neurasthenia (p. 279), a. disorder which is typically feminine. It would be quite possible to take in detail the diseases of the brain and spinal cord generally, and to discuss their sexual incidence. I refrain from doing so, because although the difference in sexual incidence is often very marked, its significance can- not be said to be clear in detail. On the whole, the more serious diseases which produce very gross lesions of the nervous centres are more common in men ; the slighter and so-called " functional " dis- orders are more common in women. For this 350 MAN AND WOMAN. reason insanity and nervous diseases generally are much more fatal in men; women tend to recover easily, although they may again relapse. These facts are connected with a general sexual difference which we have met with already and shall meet with again. On the whole, we see that while, as a rule, men are more liable to insanity than women, there is a tendency for women to come into rank with men in this respect, and in England at the present time they have even surpassed men. This increase may be compared with the varying frequency of criminality among women. Roughly speaking, both tend to go together, and to reach a maximum in the restless industrial centres of civilisation; everywhere insanity and criminality follow in the wake of progress and prosperity, though insanity is probably a more certain and well-marked sign of the tension of civilisation than criminality. In France they are both on the increase, but the upward curve of both, so far as women are concerned, has been less well marked during the last few years. In Italy, where there is little crime among women, male lunatics greatly preponderate over female. Even a century ago the greater tendency of urban life to produce insanity in women could be traced in England. This increased tendency to insanity and to criminality is a tax — at the present moment unduly heavy — which women pay for the privilege of taking part in our civilisation. If English women are to be as free from insanity as Italian women, and as free from crime as Greek women, they must be content to take a back place in the forward movement. If at present there is a tendency for women to suffer to an undue extent, this is owing to external obstacles which will probably disappear. The present evil is that while obtaining their share of work women are not at the same time acquiring an adequate control of that work, and of the conditions under which it is carried out. They are forced to carry it out under conditions which were made for men by men, or — little, if at all, better — by 1 for women. Hence women are subjected to an undue stress. What we see here is not tlie result of work upon women, but the result of work under unwholesome and unnatural conditions which they have not themselves controlled. It has been repeatedly shown that the four chief evils from which the workers of to-day suffer — iong hours, low wages, irregular employment, insanitary conditions — in every case press more heavily on women ; apart from the fact that, as childbearers, women workers are already handicapped. The indications of this barometer of insanity need not therefore be received with undue alarm. They are merely the outcome of the stress of imperfect adjustment to new conditions, warning us that certain readjustments are necessary. CRIMINALITY, I do not propose to give more than a glance at the question of sexual differences in criminality. I have elsewhere said whatever I have to say on the general question, inclusive of feminine criminality.^ More- over, during the last few years the sexual relations of criminality have been studied in various countries so thoroughly, and from so many different points of view, that it is difficult either to bring any new contribution to the subject, or to present it more clearly. The most recent work on criminality in women, that of Lombroso and Ferrero, is the largest and most important of all, although it is not greatly concerned with statistical sexual comparisons.^ ' H. Ellis, Tks Criminal, 1890; see especially pp. zi4-2ai. ' Lombroso e Feiieio, La Doima DelinqtiaUe, la ProsUlvta e la Donna Noitnale, Tuiin and Rome, 1893. Among numerous studies ofa statistical, criminological, and psycholoeical character may be mentioned a chapter on " ScK, Age, and Crime in W. D. Morrison's excellent little book, Crimt and ils Causes, 1S91; various portions of Proal's elabomfe work, Lc Crime et la Peine, Paris, 1892; an interesting chapter on " La Criminality Fdminine " in Jol/s Li Crime, t88»-, 'a^- 352 MAN AND WOMAN. It must also be added that the study of the sexual differences in criminality is very complicated and fallacious, much more so than in the case of suicide, i or even in the case of insanity, which is at all events recognised by all as within the scientific province. Laws vary so greatly, the severity with which they are upheld is so uncertain a quantity, judicial and police proceedings are so unreliable, police statistics often so peculiar, that our conclusions would be doubtful, even if we were sure that the criminal w^as caught, that he was indeed the culprit, and the sole culprit This also we can by no means be sure of, and there can be no doubt that our ignorance often shields women who, although in the background, have either morally shared the responsibility for the crime, or have assisted in a subordinate capacity. Whatever deductions, however, have to be made, and however great may be the difficulties fn arriving at precisely accurate results, there can scarcely be doubt that the criminal and anti-social impulse is less strong in women than in men. In Europe generally the crimes committed by women, accord- ing to Hausner, who has made a special study of the subject, are i6 per cent, of all crimes. We should be inclined to suspect this, in the absence of definite facts, from what we know of the nature of women. Not only are women by their maternal functions more organically tied to the social relations of life, but their affectability renders an anti-social and unusual course of life much more organically Niicke of Hubertustierg on " Verhrechea und Wahnsinn beim Weibe" and " Die anlhiopologisch-bioloj^schen Betiehungen zum Verbrecfaei und Wahnsinn beim Weibe," Zeilschrift fur Psfchialrie, 1893-93; De Ryckere, " La. Criminality Yeaamne," Betgifue fudiciairg, 1891 ; Roncoroni, " Influenia del Sesso eulla. CriiniDaJiU in Italia," ArehivU di Psickiairia, vol. xiv., Fasc i. ; also A. Boaco's very careful and able statistical Eludy, Sludte della D/linqiienza, Rome, 1892. Ron- coroni has recently published a convenient summary of the main inter- national statistical facts regarding sei:ual differences in criminality, " La Criminaliti Femminile all' Ealero," Anhivia di Psichiatria, vol, xi-r.. MORBID PSYCHIC PHENOMENA. 353 , difficult. Their physiological timidity — for, as we have seen, the timidity of women has a neuro- muscular basis — makes the impulse to crime more difficult even by the very vaso-motor perturbation the impulse produces. The impulse is expended in emotion before it becomes a deed. The abnormal woman has much greater encouragement to become a prostitute, an occupation which is only incidentally connected with crime, and which is not viewed with the same unmitigated reprobation. It happens in this matter, as in many others, that women are protected by a quality which has its defects; it makes the attainment of criminality difficult for them by also making difficult the attainment of other forms of abnormal energy which are more highly esteemed. The forms of criminality into which women most easily fall are the subtlest (like poisoning) and also the more domestic forms. Murders, assaults, burglaries, thefts, commercial crimes — as well as the so-called political crimes — are comparatively rare among women. In Italy, for lOo men who commit any one of these offences the proportion of women is from six to below one. Poisoning, on the other hand, is a characteristically feminine criminal melhod. In Greek days Euripides makes Medea say that poison is the way of murder in which women excel, and they have retained that pre-eminence ever since.^ In France the proportion is about six women to three or four men; so that about two-thirds of detected cases of poisoning are by women. In Italy, for every lOO men found guilty of poisoning there are 123 women. Infanticide is the crime in which women stand out in greatest contrast to men ; in Italy, for example, for every 100 men guilty of infanticide there are 477 women. This must be so; immense social pressure is put on a woman to induce her to destroy or abandon the infant which all ' On [he frequency of poisoning among women in lower races, see Lombroso and Fetieto, La Donna Helinqiienlc, pp, zo8-z 354 "AN AND WOMAN. her natural instincts prompt her to cherish; and the man who commits this crime is usually doing it foi the sake of a woman. Women, as Quetelet long since remarked, arc domestic criminals ; this is simply because the home occupies so large a field in their life generally ; even against their own children, and apart from infanticide, mothers commit crimes some- what more frequently than fathers. This has, for instance, been the experience of the Society for the Protection of Children, which in one year (1891)0!)- tained convictions against 347 fathers and 356 mothers The crimes of women are usually more marked by cruelty than those of men. Boscohas pointed out that women are relatively more often guilty of aggravated than of simple homicide, and that this is a general fact, which can be demonstrated in England as well as in Italy, in Spain as in Germany, in France as in Hungary. De Ryckere, writing as a magistrate, says in his study of feminine criminality that the crimes of women tend to take on characters that are " more cynical, more cruel, more brutal, more depraved, and more terrible than those of men."' It must be said that beside this element of cruelty in women, which is perhaps founded on diminished sensibility aa well xs increased affectability, we have the element of com- passion which is founded on the maternal instinct In most respects, physical and psychic, as we have had occasion to see, women are more precopious than men. It is not so in respect of criminality. While in men the maximum is attained usually about the twentieth year or soon after, in women it is not usually attained until the thirtieth year or soon after. This to some extent explains the fact, which has often been pointed out, that more women criminals are married than men criminals. It is not so much that marriage acts as an incentive to crime in women — though it certainly opens out to them the domestic field in which their ■ Fenero Y L'lniiiroso -iml MORBID PSYCHIC PHENOMENA. criminality is by preference displayed— as that their criminality attains its maximum at a period when more persons of both sexes are married. It would be instructive to unravel the causes of this later development of criminality in women, but it is not easy to do so at present. To some extent the apparent increase of crime in women as age increases is due to the simple fact that in the advanced periods of life women are in a decided majority. Recidivism, it may be added, is in most countries distinctly less marked in women that in men. In France, for example (1876-80), 53 per cent, of male committals were of recidivists, but only 21 per cent. of the female committals. In Germany, twenty years ago, recidivism was also more common in men, but there has been a gradual change, and now it is at least as common in women. In drunkenness, as Kerr points out, recidivism is commoner in women than in men, and it is probable that the tendency to the increase of recidivism among women is largely due to the increase of drunkenness. In Great Britain, there seems to be little doubt, drunkenness is increasing among women, and this fact is clearly mirrored in the police records of London, Glasgow, and other large cities. Even to a greater extent than in suicide or in insanity, there is a social factor in criminality, and it is determined very largely by the differences between town and country. Towns modify the nature of crimes; thus the women who commit infanticide in the country practise abortion in towns. This influence is still more marked in increasing the total amount of crima This is especially so where we find women working in factories, and, above all, working for low wages and without any organisation. It is largely to this cause, doubtless, that, so far as women are concerned, Scotland occupies the position of being (except some parts of Germany) the most criminal cquuVs-^ "va. Europe; The bad record of Glasgow, for iostaiK as regards feminine criminality is notorious. & Glasgow (notwithstanding its municipal ener^ i« many directions) women workers are ill oi^aniseJ, and are only able to earn half as much as the woms' workers of Lancashire in the same industries. Ifw' turn to the United States we find, as Dr. F. 11. Winoi the chief American authority on criminal statistiB, has recently shown, that there is a rcmarkJile preponderance of feminine criminality in the Nortli Atlantic group of States as compared with the restol the country. Taking the white population only, it is found that in the nine States comprised in Nct England, New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut the number of female prisoners is 12 per cent of the total ; in the remaining thirty-five States they furnish only 4 per cent. The only explanation seems to be that the North Atlantic corner of the country is the oldest and most highly civilised; it is the region of cities and of factories, employ- ing immense numbers of women, who in ihc rest of the country are more home-living. If we take Europe generally we find that feminine crimin- ality is very high in Scotland, and generally in Germany; high also in England and Belgium and Holland and Denmark and Norway; somewhat lower in Ireland and France and Italy and Austria ; very low in Russia and Spain, and probably reaching a minimum in Greece. It will be seen that the ener- getic, independent, industrial Teutonic races stand clearly at the head as regards feminine ci-iminality, Belgium ranking with them because, though in a slighter degree Teutonic, it is a land of large towns and of factory industries. Russia and Spain, on the other hand, arc the two great predominantly agricultural countries of Europe, having in this, as in some other respects, much in common ; in Greece women may almost be said to have no activities outside their homes. Wc have clearly to recognise MORBID PSYCHIC PHENOMENA. 35/ at the tendencies of modern life are developing e criminality of women, notwithstanding that the ganic tendencies of woman's nature restrain her i a considerable extent from the commission of ime. There is, however, nothing fatal in these ndencies of modern life, and, in a very large degree, ey are assuredly within our control. CHAPTER XVI. THE VARIATIONAL TENDENCV OF MEN. ' MOST ABNORMALITIES MORE COMMON IN MEN THE » FLUENCE OF THE PELVIS ON THE SIDE OF MEDIOCEITV —STILL-BORN CHILDREN — SEXUAL PROPORTION Of CONGENITAL MALFORMATIONS— MUSCULAR ABNORMAL- ITIES—THE EAR AND ITS ABNORMALITIES— PSVCBIC ABNORMALITIES, IDIOCY, GENIUS, ETC ■ GHFJTES VARIABILITY OF THE MALE BRAIN THE PRIMIIIVE RACIAL ELEMENTS IN A POPULATION PERHAPS MOSS CLEARLY REPRESENTED BY WOMEN WOMEN MOSE DISPOSED THAN MEN TO PRESERVE ANCIENT CUSTOM AND ANCIENT METHODS OF THOUGHT THE ORGANIC CONSERVATISM OF WOMEN^NO CONNECTION WITH POLITICS— ADVANTAGES OF THIS SEXUAL DIFFERENCE. Both the physical and the mental characters ol men show wider limits of variation than do the physical and mental characters of women. Monsters arc more often male than female. If we take at random one hundred men and one hundred women, v.-e shall usually find that the women more closely re- semble each other than the men. Abnormal variations of nearly all kinds arc more frequent in men than in women. It was, however, at one time supposed that women are more variable and more liable to exhibit congenital malformations. This was, for instance, the opinion of Meckel, simply on the ground that women being inferior to men must necessarily show more frequently what were cons-dcrcd to be signs of inferiority. That VARIATIONAL TENDENCY OF MEN. 359 this is the reverse of the tnith there can be now no doubt John Hunterpointedoutiong since the greater tendency of males among the lower animals to exhibit modifications of structure.^ Burdach emphasised the greater variability of the human female. Darwin, in his Descent of Man, fully expounded and illustrated the same fact both in Man and in the lower animals. He instanced, for example, the sexual differences in hairiness among human races, and pointed out that while the differences in the amount and arrangement of the hair on the head and body in women are com- paratively slight, the variations in the distribution and amount of hair on the face in men arc very numerous among different races as welt as among different individuals. He also brought forward the evidence at that time existing to show the greater frequency of abnormalities of various kinds in males. Since Darwin wrote the evidence has accumulated, and the greater variational tendency of males has never been questioned. It cannot, however, be asserted that all the implications of this fact are yet clearly recognised. The tendency of men to be abnormal has to con- tend at an early period of life with a very powerful force on the side of equality and mediocrity. This, as we have already seen (p. ^G), is the narrowness of the maternal pelvic outlet, which, while usually allow- ing girls to pass through readily, sometimes places immense obstacles in the way of boys. Still-born children are much more frequently boys than girls, the proportion in this country being about 140 males to 100 females. If it were not for this levelling influence there can be no doubt that the proportion of men remarkable for exceptional physical or mental qualities would be even larger than it actually is. Thus Boyd's tables have shown that the average brain- mass in the children who are born dead at full time is larger than in those who live ; and that while the 360 MAN AND WOMAN. average new-born living male child at full time hasi total brain-mass only about ly^ ounces heavier ihan I the female (and the maximum brain-weight in s living child was actually found by Boyd in a female), I among the still-born the maximum male brain is I nearly seven ounces larger than the maximum female 1 brain, although the minimum still-born male brain is I only a little over an ounce larger than the minimuni female brain. Statistics of English and Scotch 1 infants collected by the Anthropometric Committee of the British Association showed that while the range of height in the male infants was 10 inches, in the female infants it was only 8 inches. Exceptional weight in new-born children is most usually found among the males ; in France, for weights above 3500 grammes there arc 29 boys to only 19 girls.^ Abnormalities of most kinds having their origin in some arrest of development, or unknown patho- logical accident at an early period of embryonic growth, are for the most part more common in males than in females. This is shown both by the Registrar- General's Reports and the surgical records of any large hospital. If we consider the deaths per million from congenital defects we find, taking the five years 1884-88 (as Campbell has pointed out), that the aver- age is 49.6 for the male sex, 44.2 for the female.' Surgical experience among the living gives a similar result Thus at St Thomas's Hospital, if we tak^ for instance, the years 1881-S7, we find that hare-lip, for example, was found in 43 males to 20 females, Bryant's note-book (according to Braxton Hicks) showed 44 males to 20 females, almost the same proportion, while Manley^ found 27 males to only 6 females. Double hare-lip is almost exclusively found in males. Hare-lip with cleft-palate is always more frequently found in males ; according to Bryant, ' Dcpaul, Art. " Hoavnavi-nf:" in Diet. etuy. dn Sci. MJd
H. Campliell, ifervons Organisalien of Man aud Woman, p. 133.
' ItitimatioHal Med. Mag., April 1893. VARIATIONAL TENDENCY OF MEN. in 17 males to only 4 females. Cleft-palate alone is, however, more often found in females; in 58 females to 37 males, according to the experience at St. Thomas's. Spina bifida is also usually slightly more common in females ; 13 males to 17 females, according to Bryant, though the records at St. Thomas's appear to show a majority of males. Nearly every other important form of malformation is found more frequently in males than in females. Talipes equino-varus, the most important form of club-foot, usually indicates an arrest ofdevelop- ment, as it represents the normal position of the foot in the apes and in man before birth ; it is much more frequent in males, the proportions being (according to experience at St Thomas's Hospital) 44 males to 26 females ; while, if we include all forms of club-foot, the proportion is 80 males to 53 females. If we take larger figures we find, according to Duval, that 364 males exhibit congenital club-foot as against 210 females, while the acquired forms are also more common in males. Imperforale anus, meningocele, ectopia vesiciE (i female in 10 cases, according to John Wood), abnormality of the vermiform appendix, are all more common in males. Con- genital dislocation of hip is a marked exception, the proportion being about 4 or 5 females to i male, and another exception (according to J. H, Morgan) is furnished by macrostoma congenitum or fissure of the check ; both these defects, like those which are more common in males, are probably due to arrest of development It is not yet quite clear that we can generalise concerning the developmental defects most common in males and in females, though this may be possible when our knowledge is more complete. Supernumerary digits are much more frequently found in males than in females. Supernumerary nipples are also much commoner in men ; among several hundred persons Mitchell Bruce found that 9.1 per cent men and only 4.8 per cent women possessed an extra nipple, so that it is nearly twice I L 363 MAN AND WOMAN. as Trcquent in males,' The majority of cases M transposition of viscera (in which the heart and thtl stomach arc found on the right side and the liver » the left) are found in males. An additional (ci^ll true rib is an interesting anomaly which has bwl especially studied by Professor Cunningham ; he finil it to occur twice in a male to once in a feiTiale;itl is normal among the lower apes and in the chb-l panzee, and may therefore be regarded as a reversiai' T The majority of muscular abnormalities are foumi I in male subjects. It would be of little interest to I consider in detail the results reached by Wood, I Schwalbe, Macalister, Wenzel Gruber, and otben, | but on the whole there seems to be little doubt c( I the fact, although there are exceptions as regards 1 certain muscles, and Testut is of opinion that the sexes may be regarded as about equal in this respect The following remaiks by Professor Macalister conceniing muscular anomalies are worth quoting; — "Varieties are prob- ably more common in males than females; those of fissioa and suppression occur more frequently in the latter, as they usually possess a weaker muscular system. Anomalies d duality, altered course and attachment, and coalescence most frequently arc to be found in males. New muscular germs are more frequently developed in the male sex, although an excep- tion has been claimed for some." The muscle g-erms are muscles usually found in other animals, not in Man. To Chii class belong also cases of muscular duality, depending on vegetative repetition, and some cases of suppression ; while muscle-fission and some cases of suppression depend on deficient growth, and are associated with weakness ; and coal- escence is dependent on exuberant growth and is associated with strength. (Alexander Macalister, " Further Notes on MnscuUir Anomalies," i'rcc. Jipy. JrisA Academy, vol x, 1867, p. 121,) The sexual differences in abnormality are somewhat complex. We may, for example, lake the anomalies of the ear, which have been carefully studied by numerous investigators in various countries. It is pretty generally agreed that, as Ranke Slates, the ear in women is more finely modelled and less ' fournal ef Aiusl., vol, xiii. p. 423. '"D. J. Cunningham, " Occasion nl Eighth True Riti in Mon," Journal of Anal., Oclobcr 1880. VARIATIONAL TENDENCY OF MEN. subject 10 abnormality than in men, though Schaeffer is of opinion that this difference is apparent only, and is merely due to the ear in women being smaller and defects less obvious. Schwalbe argues that the male ear is much closer to that of the apes than the female ear; "We are here concerned," he says, " with a very remarkable fact, that the female ses here does not exhibit the more primitive forms, as, for example, in the formation of the sexual organs, but the derived form." He shows that in various respects the ear in women is further removed from the apes than the ear in men, more especi- ally as regards the Darwinian tubercle; thus, taking chiefly Alsatians, he finds that among log men and io2 women 73.4 per cent, of the male ears showed the tubercle, and only 32.8 per cent, of the female ears ; while more than three-fourths of the men and nearly three-fourths of their ears, collectively, exhibited the Darwinian tubercle, hardly half the women and only a third of their ears showed it. Schaeffer found it in 47 per cent, women ; while in men it varied greatly in different regions, but was usually more frequent; he considers the peculiarity especially common in England, and very un- usually so among English women; while he found it in only 22 per cent, ears in Swabia and Upper Bavaria, he found it in 55 per cent, English ears; m Jewesses, on the other hand, abnormal ears are rare. Gradenigo finds the ear normal in 56 per cent, men, in 66 per cent women; he finds every abnor- mality, even adherent lobule, more common in men, Vali has found every abnormality with the exception of adherent lobule more common in men. Warner in an extensive investigation of English school children finds abnormal ears very much com- moner in boys than in sSrXs. Lannoi^s investigations show the proportion of normal ears to be 28 per cent, in men and 41 per cent, in women. The prominent outstanding ear {ad ansa) is everywhere more common in men (il per cent males and 3 per cent, females, according to Gradenigo) ; it is usually associated with a large mastoid process. Wilder- muth's ear (antihelix projecting beyond helix) is usually found to be more frequent in women ; Lannois found it in 27 per cent, women, zo per cent men; Gradenigo in 20 percent, women, 7 per cent men. Adherent lobule is also more common in women in the experience of most observers. Laycock many years ago considered that the lobule and also the helix are both relatively and absolutely smaller in women ; in men of feminine character he found the helix and lobule like those of women, and he thought that active instincts and appetites are often associated with large lobules. (J. Ranke, Der Mensch; Schwalbe, "Beitrage lur Anthropologie des Ohres," Rudolf Vircfww Festschrift, Berlin, 1891, Bd. i. ; Laycock, " Lectures on Physiognomical Diagnosis," Medical Times, 22nd March •CV '^'^^f.rr, ^^y = -^ C-o^ Sffjf Wea, DJ ^y-oid^Jf'o ' Oi = f I' VARIATIONAL TENDENCY OF MEN. 365 f and insanity and the tendency to suicide I have It with in another chapter ; they all usually arise It basis of congenital mental abnormality, and are all the whole more prominent in men than in women, iiat form of insanity which is sometimes called ^moral insanity," or perhaps more properly "moral Unbecility," and which is almost identical with what Li now frequently called congenital or instinctive ?;riminality, is a truly inborn abnormality, and is far aiore common in males than in females. The •' mattoid " or "crank," again, whose whole life pursues an eccentric and futile orbit of its own, is a congcnitally abnormal person, although his abnor- mality may not develop until late; the mattoid is very rarely a woman, although that very mild mattoid, the "faddist," is perhaps quite as usually a woman as a man ;i this fact is doubtless part of the general affectability of women under the influ- ence of minor stimuli (referred to elsewhere), and according to which, for instance, while women more often suffer from indigestion than men, the latter much more often suffer from cancer of the stomach. We found also when dealing with "hypnotic pheno- mena" that in their general and more physiological I! forms they are common in women; if we had taken some special violent and pathological varieties of such phenomena — epilepsy, for instance — we should no longer have found this to be the case. To turn to a somewhat higher but still undoubtedly congenita! form of mental abnormality, we may take arithmetical prodigies ; Dr. Scripture has studied these with some fulness.^ Taking into account all ' Sexual peiversions, again, are more common in men than in women. I find that of 198 cases recorded in detail liy Kraffi-Ebing, only about II per cent, are women {Psychopathia Sexiialis, Stutlgarl, 1S93). Although there may be some fallacy here, and it is prol^ble that minor anomalies of the sexual instinct are fairly common in women, there can be no doubt that the more developed perversions, congenital or acquired, are usually met with in men. ' K. W. Scripture, "Arithmetical Prodigies," Am. Journal Psych., April 1891. """Wert /-?'■ J/a"'' 'A*

"•do (, I'n ■°"i m ?'»'«?? I'M. kT. ""afr ScK„."'afof „,' '."".OaTl'" a'm, '«/„;; 7 .,„
?"«;o
'ttfa, fc.;. ":,"-, '4?^:^ Sc, ■"Ptu, ■'^'p^^'i

'^n« l"?"' it ;s r ,'nto 1, '»dc„°'^ea„ic" gmk,- 1* ,'!°'"=» i "ooi. ^- 5?;^'^/;r ' '" ».;■"' '■a' yiTl^ ' ">ok ■!«; ^i^a'1'.a -tie, '« G, tie ■Joo,; ^'^ t,.~ '"'we
aaje '"Oft
THo„ flfra/ "5'Pa,e„ --swi^':> 'WW ■ojjji-.-, .'■ar/ai,;,. -"5i?«?V»^^55^'S^»'^*
■ n VARIATIONAL TENDENCY OF MEN. 367
-^^^hadel," ArMv. Jiir Anih., Bd. iii,, 1868, p. 66). Many - jservers have pointed this out, besides finding that various ^normalities of the biain and skull are more Sequent in men, ^eiie late Professor Marshall, in his examination of Boyd's tables, WsgBS made some remarks on this question of variation which are ^^rorth C[Uoting. He insists that /niS'i/iVA'a/ variation is the chief ^- actor in producing brain differences, being much stronger than ^^ex or any other factor. The brain is thus an organ m some ^'degree independent of the body. While the sexual difference, - he remarks, is about S "z., the age difference about 3 oz., ami the stature difference about 3 ot, the individual varia- tion in 26 males is 19.3 oz., and in 26 females 14.3 oz. "As the range of stature in the males averaged 4.2 ins. ~ (69-64.8) and in the females 5 ins. (64.5-59.5), it is obvious 7 that not only does the male brain vary more than the _ female in its absolute weight, but also relatively to the stature. . . . Not only as regards absolute weight, but also as - regards the stature -ratio, the male brain vaiies more than the
female brain, the amount of variation in the former being. 245
13 shortest men, and also similar groups c different quinquennial periods of life, " the difference between the two groups of males is 2.4 oz., and that between the two groups of females is only 1.83 oz. ; and as the difference in the average statures are shown to be the same — viz., 12,7 ins., it is evident that the range of absolute variation between tall and short individuals is greater in the male sex." (J. Marshall, "On the Relation between the Weight of the Brain and its Parts," t\c. Journal of Anal, and Phys., July 1892.) From an organic standpoint, therefore, men represent the more variable and the more progressive element, women the more stable and conservative element, in evolution. It is a metaphorical as well as a literal truth that the centre of gravity is lower in women and less easily disturbed. In various parts of the world anthropologists have found reason to suppose that the primitive racial elements in a population are more distinctly preserved by the women than by the men. Lagneau has remarked with reference to the Saracenic element in France, to the Basques and to some other races, that the women seem to preserve ethnic peculiarities better than tlic men. Dally has some observations to the same "'" «« vvo«^ 368 "lore unir ^ecni fn r^^**< ' £ n.t... . "olvinj- n. ■'•P-So»fo,„ =' Ciao-Qii ,. V«/^ "•"Vi, . VARIATIONAL TENDENCY OF MEN. 369 Ipifficiilties of life are in the hands of women who have a ecognised position as witches and soothsayers, (Gregor Kupczanko, " Krankheitsbeschworungen bei russischen Bauem ki der Bukowina," Am Ur-Quell^ '891, p. 12.) In Sardinia, teicily, and the remote valleys of Umbria many ancient beliefs land pagan rites, which are perhaps of even prehistoric character. Bare still preserved by women. (Lombroso and Laschi, // Delitio ^Politico, vol. ii. p. 8.) Archawlogists carrying on excavations in Iremote districts of the north of Scotland have repeatedly found ■ tliat the women, still inspired by pagan feelings, have dissuaded ■ tbeir male folic from giving assistance. In some parts of J France artificial deformation of the skull still persists. It I {Lppears that in Normandy, Limousin, Languedoc — wherever the I custom persists at all — boys wear the bandages for but a short I time! with girls and women the custom is life-long. (Delisle, I " Sur les Deformations artificielles du crlne," Bull. Soc. d'Anik. dt Paris, S^rie III., t. xii. p. 649.) All forms of astrology are ! now chiefly supported by women, although at one time they were I equally sought after by both sexes; Mr. Edgar Lee, who has answered nearly thirteen thousand astrological queries, found that 70 per cent of the inquirers were women who wished to know if they were going to be married ; it should be added that they belonged chiefly to the middle and upper classes. (E. Lee, "Astrology Fin de Si&cle," Arena, Nov. 1892.) Lombroso and Ferrero have also given various eitaniples of the conserva- tism and misoneism of women. La Donna Delinguente., pp. 163-165. We have, therefore, to recognise that in men, as in males generally, there Is an organic variational tend- ency to diverge and to progress; in women, as in females generally, an organic tendency, notwithstand- ing all their facility for minor oscillations, to stability and conservatism, involving a diminished individual- ism and variability. So that when women do vary, as Burdach long ago remarked, they tend to vary more intemperately than men. Men show a more marked variational tendency than women, and this fact is closely allied with the fact to which I have had to call attention in another chapter, that men exhibit more marked pathological characters; for, as Virchow insists, every deviation from the parent type must have its foundation in a pathological acciilent. It may not be out of place to add that in emphasising 3^4 MAN AND WOMAN. " Uebet Ohrenlwickelung und Ohrformen," Archiv furAj/L, I Bd xxi., 1892; KUBfla, Nalureeschicki^ rf^t v..»A^\ StuUgart, 1893, pp. 75-8^, 270.) I If we turn to those congenital variations which are very closely allied to mental characters we still fimi, and in an even more marked degree, that men have J greater tendency to abnormality than women. There are nearly everywhere more male than female deaf- mutes ; thus, according to the last census, in Scotland 1 195 men and 930 women are deaf-mutes, and if we take the proportion to population for Great Britain (jeneraliy the sexual difference is still more marked; deaf-mutism is especially common among Jewish males; and in Norway, according to Uchermann, for every loo deaf-mute males there are only 8g femaiei Idiocy and imbecility probably possess very grtat significance as forms of congenital mental variability, and are probably to some extent mixed up with other forms of mental variability with which they are far from having any obvious relationship. Idiocy is almost everywhere recognised as more common in males than in females; Mitchell estimated the pro- portion as 100 males to 79 females in Scotland' The Prussian census shows that precisely the same proportion of idiots are born in that country; in France the proportion is lOO males to nearly ^t females. Langdon Down some years ago found that the ratio in which the sexes are afflicted is 2,1 to .9, and this is about the proportion in which the sexes are found in idiot asylums to-day in England — a somewhat larger proportion of males than among idiots in the general population. Endemic cretinism, a par- ticular form of idiocy in which there is degeneration of the thyroid gland, is also more common in males, in the proportion, according to Lunier, of J to 4, varying, however, according to the region. Crimin- ' Editi. Mei.Jouma}, vol. y.\. p. 639. VARIATIONAL TENDENCY OF MEN. ality and insanity and the tendency to suicide I have dealt with in another chapter ; they all usually arise on a basis of congenital mental abnormality, and are all on the whole more prominent in men than in women. That form of insanity which is sometimes called "moral insanity," or perhaps more properly "moral imbecility," and which is almost identical with what is now frequently called congenital or instinctive criminality, is a truly inborn abnormality, and is far more common in males than in females. The " mattoid " or "crank," again, whose whole life pursues an eccentric and futile orbit of its own, is a congenitally abnormal person, although his abnor- mality may not develop until late; the mattoid is very rarely a woman, although that very mild mattoid, the "faddist," is perhaps quite as usually a woman as a man ;^ this fact is doubtless part of the general affectability of women under the influ- ence of minor stimuli (referred to elsewhere), and according to which, for instance, while women more often suffer from indigestion than men, the latter much more often suffer from cancer of the stomach. We found also when dealing with "hypnotic pheno- mena" that in their general and more physiological forms they are common in women; if we had taken some special violent and pathological varieties of such phenomena — epilepsy, for instance — we should no longer have found this to be the case. To turn to a somewhat higher but still undoubtedly congenital form of mental abnormality, we may take arithmetical prodigies ; Dr. Scripture has studied these with some fulness.^ Taking into account all ' Sexual perversions, again, me more common in men Ihan in women. I nnd that of i^ cases recorded in detail by KrafTt-Ebing, only about ri per cent, are women {Psyihopalhia ScxiiaSs, Stullgarl, 1893). Although there may be some fallacy here, and it is probable tbat minor anomalies of the sexual instinct are fairly common in women, there can be no doubt that the more developed perversions, congenital or acquired, are usually met with in men. " E. W. Scripture, "Arithmetical Prodigies," Abi. Jonriiat Piy<h., April 1S91. ihosc or whom we have record, from NikomaehiBl down, he finds not less than twenty-one men to ostl woman — Lord Mansfield's daughter, who aloiKil equalled Colbourn. The only calculator of the fa § rank who has appeared since Scripture wrote, Inaudi,! serves to increase the male proportion. While a fe I distinguished men, like Ampere and Gauss, aretobcl numbered among arithmetical prodigies, this abnotl mality is by no means due to education, and is I sometimes found in uneducated persons who arc I almost idiots. Scripture gives further references to 1 extraordinary memory for figures, though not strictly I of calculation. All the examples given are men. I The arithmetical prodigy leads us up to the mosl \ interesting and important of all forms of psychic I abnormality, that which we usually call "genius." We must regard genius as an organic congenital abnormality (although the evidence in proof of this cannot be entered into here), and in nearly every department it is, undeniably, of more frequent occur- rence among men than among women. The state- ment of this fact has sometimes been regarded by women as a slur upon their sex ; they have sought to explain it by lack of opportunity, education, etc It does not appear that women have been equally anxious to find fallacies in the statement that idiocy is more common among men. Yet the two state- ments must be taken together. Genius is more common among men by virtue of the same general tendency by which idiocy is more common among men. The two facts are but two aspects of a larger zoological fact — the greater variability of the As might be anticipated, the greater variability of men in mental capacity is on the anatomical side connected with a greater variability in the size of tbe skull and tbe brain. Tlie very large-headed are more usually men ; so also are the microcephaJic, or very small-headed. Weisbach found that in nearly every respect the limits of variation in the male skull are grc^ilcr than in the female sl:ull ("Dcr duu'.sche Weiber- echadel," Archiv. fiir Anih., Bd. iii,, i368, p. 66). Many observers have pointed this out, besides finding that various abnoimalitics of the brain and skull are more frequent in men. The late Professor Marshall, in his examination of Boyd's tables, lias ma.de some remarks on this question of variation which are worth quoting. He insists that individual variation is the chief ir in producing brain differences, being much stronger than yc any other factor. The brain is thus an organ in some degree independent of the body. While the sexual difference, be remarks, is about 5 oz., the age difference about 3 oz., [ and the stature difference about 3 oz., the individual varia- tion in 26 males is 19.3 oz., and in 26 females 14.3 oz. "As the ran^e of stature in the males averaged 4.2 ins. (69-64.8) and in the females 5 ins. (64.5-59.5), 't 's obvious that not only does the male brain vary more than the female in its absolute weight, but also relatively to the stature. . . . Not only as regards absolute weight, but also as regards the stature- ratio, the male brain varies more than the female brain, the amount of variation in the former being .245 oz., and in the latter only .175 oz. [expressed in decimal parts of an ounce to an inch of height]." Taking the 13 tallest and (he 13 shortest men, and also similar groups of women, at the different quinquennial periods of life, " the difference between the two groups of males is 2.4 oz., and that between the two groups of females is only 1.83 oz. ; and as the difference in the average statures are shown to be the same— viz., 12.7 ins., it is evident that the range of absolute variation between tall and short individuals is greater in the male sex." (J. Marshall, "On the Relation between the Weight of the Brain and its Parts," ^\z.. Journal of Anat. and Phys., July i8gz.) From an organic standpoint, therefore, men represent the more variable and the more progressive element, women the more stable and conservative element, in evolution. It is a metaphorical as well as a literal truth that the centre of gravity is lower in women and less easily disturbed. In various parts of the world anthropologists have found reason to suppose that the primitive racial elements in a population are more distinctly preserved by the women than by the men. Lagneau has remarked with reference to the Saracenic element in France, to the Basques and to some other races, that the women seem to preserve ethnic peculiarities better than the men. Dally has some observations to the same ■«* fee ;t """= OniZ ' «4 to T"" "alin, ^i,?"""" for ,1°"'=" or^°, "'^T oriia P-P-lat/ontfA'"," =^ '=«,,'■:■•• «d nob? "'.«' P'»™ was ^=« 1-ken ft, ' ""! eh, '"'"'« 2f. P--°™? =■ f-Pari" : "">( ;g^ an,„„/^ '"■^ve that ,; ' °f a Prim/f,-" """i is c„„ " '""'I"* "'mbers J,S fnd fiat t", ™'""er3„5°°«» """"'f— « probably -'"^oflra-r^TOle ,„'■ Women t, P,.^°"»P-«c -H '""««"»• ">« Probabli y- '■a. „ J- Jacobs "X ^Wnies " n.* ««.■■"«» aiSSS ' "" '» Oi„ '■ 507) fc. son,, "'"^'^ Kay ^^V VARIATIONAL TENDENCY OF MEN. 369 ^^^Bties of life are in the hands of women who have a HRgmsed position as witches and soothsayers. (Gregor Bbpczanko, " KrankheitsbeschwSrungen bei nissischen Bauern K der Bukowina," Am Ur-Q^ell, 1891, p. 12.) In Sardinia, Kcily, and the remote valleys of Utnbria many ancient beliefs bod pagan rites, which are perhaps of even preliistoric character, be still preserved by women. (Lombrosoand Laschi,//Z>f/i//o VoUtiira, vol. ii, p. 8.) Archteologists carrying on excavations in ^tnote districts of the north of Scotland have repeatedly found ^at the women, still inspired by pagan feelings, have dissuaded their male folk from giving assistance. In some parts of France artificial deformation of the skull still persists. It appears that in Normandy, Limousin, Languedoc — wherever the oistom persists at all — boys wear the bandages for but a short time ; with girls and women the custom is life-long. {Delisle, " Sur les Deformations artificielles du cr4ne," Bull. Sac. d'Atiih. de Parisy S^rie III., t. xii. p. 649.) All forms of astrology are now chietly supported by women, although at one time they were equally sought after by both sexes; Mr. Edgar Lee, who has answered nearly thirteen thousand astrological queries, found that 70 per cent of the inquirers were women who wished to know if they were going to be married ; it should be added that they belonged chiefly to the middle and upper classes. (E. Lee, "Astrology Fin de SiMe," Arena, Nov. i8g2.) Lombroso and Ferrero have also given various examples of the conserva- tism and misoneism of women. La Donna Delinguente, pp. 163-.65. We have, therefore, to recognise that in men, aa in males generally, there is an organic variational tend- ency to diverge and to progress; in women, as in females generally, an organic tendency, notwithstand- ing all their facility for minor oscillations, to stability and conservatism, involving a diminished individual- ism and variability. So that when women do vary, as Burdach long ago remarked, they tend to vary more intemperatcly than men. Men show a more marked variational tendency than women, and this fact is closely allied with the fact to which 1 have had to call attention in another chapter, that men exhibit more marked pathological characters; for, as Virchow insists, every deviation from the parent type must have its foundation in a pathological accident. It may not he out of place to add that in emtjKM,\=.v(\^ J70 "IK M, 'f^" "■«y m "' '"""n ,> Poli"t"">'l!'m J -' "uc Out „r 7 "^ 's off '-^a/ an ."'-" roa ^"'S' Tf,!, Marine- '7 ^idude fk ' «er
"'of£j_ "= verjiaf,, ^ "ret ri, ■ "^ cn» ' '"ve
VARIATIONAL TENDENCY OF MEN. 371 'de Psycho-philosophigue, Paris.) It is curious to note that aspect of the matter had not suggested itself to the founders Christianity, and New Testament writers, notably St. I'aul, Tjarded the functions of women as very subordinate ; hence,
Obahly, the dubious influence exerted by Christianity on
practical position of women. But if Christianity had L made for women only it could scarcely' have been ettered. The erotico-mystic character of Russian social and Evolutionary movements is well known ; it approximates them ^^^ early Christian movements, and in a large measure accounts ^V^r the part which women have played in them. i^K A large part of the joy that men and women take Meun each other is rooted in this sexual difference in ^ variability. The progressive and divergent energies 1^ of men call out and satisfy the twin instincts of IK women to accept and follow a leader, and to expend ,^ tenderness on a reckless and erring child, instincts a often intermingled in delicious confusion. And in women men find beings who have not wandered so far as they have from the typical life of earth's creatures ; women are for men the human embodi- ments of the restful responsiveness of Nature. To every man, as Michclet has put it, the woman whom he loves is as the Earth was to her legendary son ; he has but to fall down and kiss her breast and he I is strong again. Woman is more in harmony with Nature than man, as Burdach said, and she brings man into harmony with Nature. This organically primitive nature of women, in form and function and instinct, is always restful to men tortured by their vagrant energies; it was certainly with genuine satisfaction that the tender and sympathetic Diderot wrote of women that " they are real savages inside." It is because of this that the ascetics, those very erratic and abnormal examples of the variational tendency, have hated women with hatred so bitter and intense that no language could be found strong enough to express their horror. They knew that every natural impulse of a woman is the condetnna.- I tion of asceticism. All tn\e lovexa ol fee. ■a.^\;\^c:\-^ 372 Tf I^rvors^ flow '^^^'^^r. "f uraj." n'X find ^ °^° to tb I I I iJ i •• r CHAPTER XVII. NATALITY AND MORTALITY, THE BIRTH-RATE OF MALES HIGHER THAN OF FEMALES — THEIR DEATH-RATE STILL HIGHER — CAUSES OF THE GREATER MORTALITY AMONG MALES — THE RESISTANCE OF WOMEN TO DISEASE— AS ILLUSTRATED BV SCARLET FEVER, SMALL-POX, INFLUENZA, ETC. — RECENT IM- PROVEMENTS IN THE DEATH-RATE HAVE SPECIALLV BENEFITED WOMEN — GREATER LONGEVITY OF WOMEN — THE CHARACTERISTIC SIGNS OF OLD AGE LESS MARKED IN WOMEN — THE GREATER TENDENCY TO SUDDEN DEATH IN MEN — THE GREATER RESISTANCE OF WOMEN TO DISEASE AND DEATH A ZOOLOGICAL FACT. In turning to the birth-rates and death-rates to seek what light they may have to throw on the organisa- tion of man and woman, we arc entering the region of demography. It requires a skilful statistician to reach any assured results here, and I propose to touch very lightly on the matter. From the most reliable investigations into sexual differences in natality and mortality, however, emerge certain results which have a very distinct bearing on the points we are here mainly concerned with. It is necessary at all events to point out this bearing, however briefly. It is well known that while in England, and in most other old countries, there is an excess of females in the adult population, at birth there is an excess of males nearly everywhere.' There are more boys than ' There is considerable reason lo conclude that the same holds true of at all events a large number of the lower animals; see, for example, Daiwin, Dts<ent of Man, Part II., chap. viiL 374 ei'ls born a,„ "OKAW. I ""■'ous COM to ,iJT""" '884, H," '-■epared r— Scoiiand Prussia J«var,j Thurtajia' • fc"»"and • Holland . Tfte notable thp - ■' '"^ '"She/ ?h°"S -'^severS "= """n to " "PPMrs NATALITY AND MORTALITY. 375 ^holc the variations from year to year are not ■great, as the following table, which presents the ►er of boys in looo children at birth in i, clearly shows : — ' 1 Italy. gCDtUnd. Irsland. S.-a™,. BbadeLdand. I 1878 . 516 1879 . 516 512 516 514 S" S'S S12 51S SM 5"f SIS S13 SIS Sog 517 SI4 51Z 514 512 5'4 .833 ■ S'S S'3 S14 S12 504 It is unnecessary to accumulate figures, but it may be added that in most countries there is some differ- ence in this respect between legitimate and illegitimate births, the preponderance of boys being less among the illegitimate births than among the legitimate by I or 2 per cent., notwithstanding the fact that, accord- ing to Bertillon, a woman's first children arc more likely to be boys than girls.^ In England and Wales, according to the Report of the Registrar- General for 1891, if we take the births for thirty years as a basis, the proportion of male infants to 1000 female infants varies from 1032 to 1033 in some counties to 1055, 1056, and 1058 in others. He adds some suggestions as to the possibility of the variations being due to racial difference. " It may be noticed that the registration counties with the highest proportions are Cumberland, Comwal!, and North Wales, while South Wales, though it has not the next highest proportion, comes only a little way down in the list, its proportions being 1046, and considerably above the average for the whole country. , . . The Celtic character of the areas mentioned above as having the highest proportions of male infants suggests the idea that rot impossibly race has some influence in the matter; a surmise which is oot inconsistent with the fact that the pro- portions are invariably much higher both in Ireland and in Scotland than in England." I question if this suggestion will I, Thto^ I »'.IA ^S^t^^^'^ d I'ttlc tke. ■yarc ""■"i; 7„ '"■^ '"•» foi °'=':ud3,' """I lit! S^i}^tSt^^S^'-^t ' dun. "1? ,„ 'wt. 'potion rf ','0°fe NATALITY AND MORTALITY. 377 ^^^^^^ to their smaller size, possess at tlie outset ^^^^Hser chance of slipping safely into the world. ^^^^Hbome little time after birth the same factor is ^^^^Hpive. Collins, of the Rotunda Lying-in Hospital, ^^^Hh,^ showed that within half-an-hour after birth ^^^^^P female died to 16 males; within the first hour ^^^^PS females to 19 males, and within the first six
ft_-«irs only 7 females to 39 males.
IKjf The larger size of the male head can, however, only ME^- ^ factor at birth, and for a short time afterwards, ^Q.ut there is still a greater male mortality; male ^^hildren under one year of age are very liable to die, ^jind this, as Sir G. Humphry remarks in his study of A^Dld Age, is alone enough to suggest, though by no ^ means to prove, that the superiority of females in this jj^respect is not due to their comparative freedom from jt exposures and to their greater temperance. Dr. ,, Longstaff also considers that the great mortality of ^ males during the first year of life "must depend on L some constitutional difference." During the first dentition male children are much more apt to die of diseases of the nervous system than female children. From the third until towards the thirty-fifth year there does not appear to be great sexual difference in mortality; this is no doubt due to the great mortality of males at the beginning of life; only the more robust out of a large number being left to compete . with the smaller but apparently more vigorous females; after the development of puberty in women, from the fifteenth to the twentieth years, the female mortality is usually greater than the male; this is the period of special danger for women. After the thirtieth or thirty-fifth years there is a difference in favour of women which steadily increases. It is this superior tenacity of life which to a large extent accounts for the excess of women in this country, ' As quoled by Braxton Hicks, " Croonian Lectures on Ihe Differ- ences between the Seses in regard to the Aspect and Treatment of Disease," Bril. Med. Journal, 1877. 378 MAN AND 1 four-fifths of that excess consisting of widosK'l The farther we proceed towards the extreme liraiuil life, and the more wc are able to eliminate all but tkl inherent constitutional factors of vitality, the motil marked is the preponderance of women. Sir G I Humphry, in his Old Age, found opportunities forltif I detailed study of 36 female centenarians as against L only 16 males. The Registrar-General's Reports 1 show that of those persons who at death are supposd I to have died over the age of 100, only a small proper- 1 tion are males. In England in 1891, at the age of J^; '^ and upwards, 8291 women died to only 5320 men, I between 75 and 85, it is worth noting, the excess oi 1 women is by no means so great ^34,506 men to I 28,785 women). According to the last census, IC4 I women were centenarians to 43 men. I n France, from 1 1866 to 1885, the yearly average of deaths of cen- I tenarians has been 27 men to 46 women. Among the more primitive human races it is not so easy to obtain deBnite statistics, but it is probable that the same relation holds good as in civilisation; thus among the Nicobarese Islanders, according to Man, of those who survive the sixtieth year fully two-thirds are women. ^ It may be added that, if we take a broader zoological view, the same truth holds good; it is certainly well marked in crustaceans, rotifers, etc, among whom the female is often much longer lived than the male. If we turn to consider the bearing on this point of the mortality from definite diseases, the impression given by a glance at the birth-rate and death-rate as a whole is confirmed. If, for instance, we take the zymotic group of infectious diseases which chiefly England ai ' Turquan, " Statistique des Cenleoaires," Rcoia Scientifigue, ls[ Sept. 1888. i Journal Anth. ImtUulc, May iSSc), p. 385. -I < UJ IL Vi lU < u z _ >o n:::: "^•^^ M v «• 1 n • V «0 « • m • 1 • 1 • • •
•
m • tn « • m • I • I • 1 • m • 1 • « • lO 1 • It 1 • ■ • 1 • 1 • 1 • •A I* ■ • I* u 1 < • I 1 rt • 1 Ml • • 1 r 1 • • 1 • f A,' 4\ i • ( • o m t m Kt / ■ __^-^ . !•• ^^^ o o c 3 o < 5 < > O u H CO o •o M 3So MAN AND WOMAN. afTcct young children, we find nearly always that lit advantage is on the side of the female. Whooping- cough and diphtheria only are more fatal in the femafe a result which has been attributed to the smaller larynx of girls, and to their customs of frequent kissin?, sharing sweets, etc Even when we take stab'slics which show on the whole a greater liability to fcction in women, the mortality is not equally greit Thus if we take the figures of the Metropolitan Asylums Board Hospitals during the years 1871-91 as given by Dr. VVhitelegge, we find: — ^ Scarlel Fever Males ... 19,887 . 2 or, Females... 22,224 ■ .,'982 Enteric Fever Males ... 4,041 .. 676 3,674 - 662 Typhus Males Z 964 .. 216 Females... I. '75 ■■ Diphtheria Males ... 1,360 .. 47S (1888-gi) „ Females... 1,71s .. 555 32'4 So that even in diphtheria, if we take into account the number of individuals attacked, the mortality oi females is not greater than that of males. This small fatality with considerable susceptibility is what we see in brain disease also in a marked manner; nervous disease of a slight and non-fatal character is extremely prevalent among women; nervous disease of a grave character is comparatively rare. This is probably another aspect of the affectability of women. An analysis of the phenomena of one of the most important of the zymotic diseases, scarlet fever, brings out the characteristic sexual differences. From the Registrar-General's Reports for 1859-85 it appears that the highest mortality from scarlet fever occurs in both sexes in the third year of life, and diminishes with each successive year-period. Up to the end of NATALITV AND MORTALITY the tenth year of Ufe the mortality among males con- siderably exceeds that among females, but in all sub- sequent periods the reverse is the case— />., women remain nearer to children than men. On the whole, the liability of males to a fatal result is consider- ably greater than that of females. But though the attacks in males are more likely to end fatally, the female sex throughout life, with the possible exception of the first year, is more liable to be attacked by scarlet fever than the male sex.^ Small-pox is more fatal to males than to females throughout nearly the whole of life, except during the years from ten to fifteen. Cholera attacks women more often than men, but less often fatally; during the epidemic of 1854 the mortality for males was 8.02, for females 7.78. Influenza, according to most observers, attacks women more frequently than men, but the mortality among men is much greater than among women, being as i to 2; children are more rarely affected, and suffer but slightly. It would be easy to show by the examination of other groups of disease that while women are frequently, as in the zymotic group, more susceptible, men usually suffer more severely. It is an interesting fact, as pointed out by Dr. Longstaff, that recent improvements in the death- rate have on the whole benefited women more than men. In childhood and youth girls suffer more than boys from phthisis, whooping-cough, diphtheria, and heart disease, which are all diminishing in fatality. On the other hand, boys suffer more than girls from violence, kidney disease, brain disease, "all other causes," lung disease, and to a less degree from diarrhceal diseases, small-pox, measles, and scarlatina. Of these, lung and kidney disease are increasing in fatality, the rest declining; the net result being that girls gain more than boys in the proportion of 7 ' For a summary of (he statistics of this disease, see Sanitary Jfecord, l6lh Januaiy iSSS. 382 MAN AND WOMAN to 6, During adult life it is only from cancer tliji women suffer more than men — the loss here beinj more than double— but the rate of increase in cancc is greater in males than in females. The netresulls show that females gain more than males in the pro- portion of 7 to 3. So in old age ; the mortali^ol both old men and old women is increasing, but iht death-rate of old men three times as fast as ihil I of old women. "It is quite plain," Dr. Longstili ] concludes, "that the recent fall in the death-rate favours the accumulation of surplus women, if one may be allowed such an expression, and should tlic change of mortality go on in the same direction the rate of accumulation will be increased."' The greater tenacity of life in women and their great constitutional youthfulness are shown also in the less frequency with which they exhibit the char- acteristic signs of old age. Baldness is rare in women ; it is equally rare among the less civilised races; for example, among the Nicobarese Islanders, with whom baldness in men is not uncommoa Degenerative disease of the arteries is less common in old women than in old men. Sir G. Humphry found among his centenarians that the elasticity of the thorax, as evinced by the condition of the costal cartilages and its capacity for dilatation during inspir- ation, is better preserved in women than in men. He also found (as may, indeed, be stated to be the rule) that the arms senilis m the eye, a very characteristic indication of old age in men, is less marked in old women. The specific gravity of the blood, also, as Lloyd Jones has found, is higher in old women than in old men. The mental derangements of old age, again, are commoner in men than in women; thus Wiile finds 10 per cent, males to only 6 per cent. females,* There is also some reason to believe that ' G. B. LoQgstaff, Sludies in Statistics, pp. 24S-25t. ' Ludwig Wille, Art, "Old Age and its Psychoses," Did. of Psych. NATAUTV AND MORTALITY. 383 old age produces relatively less loss of brain tissue in women than in men. One other fact may be brought forward in proof of the greater tendency of men to die. The majority of sudden deaths from internal or pathological causes are in men. French statistics show a very consider- able difference in the frequency of sudden death from the sexual point of view. Devergie gives 39 cases in men to only 5 in women, a proportion of males equal to 8S.7 per cent. Tourdes, among 88 cases, found 59 men — i.e., 67.3 per cent, Lacassagne, consulting the archives of the Lyons Morgue, found that from 1S54 to 1880, out of 459 cases of sudden death 365 were men— ?>., 79.6 per cent. Out of 63 cases under the observation of Lacassagne, Coutagne, and P. Bernard, there were 41 men — i.e., 66.1 per cent We may con- clude that about three-fourths are men. It is rare among children, and commonest between the ages of 50 and 60.^ It should be added that a greater liability to sudden death may to a considerable extent be regarded as the manifestation of a greater liability to degenerative disease of the arteries. All the evidence brought together or referred to in this chapter points, with varying degrees of certainty, to the same conclusion — the greater physical frailty of men, the greater tenacity of life in women.^ Although this conclusion may not be altogether in harmony with the popular notion, it is in harmony with many other groups of facts, some of which are elsewhere dealt with in this book. It is in harmony also with the impression that we obtain on glancing across the zoological field. The female is the mother of the new generation, and has a closer and more permanent connection with the care of the young; ' Paul Bernard, Arch. detAnth. Crim., ISlh March 1890. ' An independent collecLion of d^ta on the same subject iriU be found in Dr. H. Campbell's Ntmmts Organisalioa of Man and Woman, pp. tzi-tzS, He concludes that women possess "a gteilet
e Mcupentive powei."
^'^ MA» AND WOMAN "d longer ltd SX'S^"' "> "^v'ST CHAPTER XVIII. CONCLUSION. THE KNOWLEDGE WE HAVE GAINED DOES NOT ENABLE US DEFINITELY TO SETTLE SPECIAL PROBLEMS — WHAT IT DOES ENABLE US TO DO — WOMEN ARE NEARER TO CHILDREN THAN ARE MEN — BUT WOMAN IS NOT UNDEVELOPED MAN — THE CHILD REPRESENTS A HIGHER DEGREE OF EVOLUTION THAN THE ADULT — THE PROGRESS OF THE RACE HAS BEEN A PROGRESS IN YOUTHfULNESS — IN SOME RESPECTS IT HAS BEEN A PROGRESS IN FEMINISATION — ABSURDITY OF SPE.^K- ING OF THE SUPERIORITY OF ONE SEX OVER ANOTHER — THE SEXES PERFECTLY POISED — BUT SOCIAL RE- ADJUSTMENTS MAY STILL BE NECESSARY WE MAY FACE ALL SUCH READJUSTMENTS WITH EQUANIMITY, We have examined Man and Woman, as precisely as may be, from various points of view. It is time to pause, as we do so bringing together a few general observations suggested by the multifarious facts we have encountered. It is abundantly evident that we have not reached the end proposed at the outset, We have not suc- ceeded in determining the radical and essential characters of men and women uninfluenced by external modifying conditions. Sometimes a suffi- ciently wide induction of facts (as in the question of the alleged sexual differences in respiration) suffices to show us what is artificial and what is rea.\-, ■^^^ y 386 MAN AHl other times (as in the question of difference in tactile sensibility) the wider our induction of factsthi more complex and mobile become our results. Wt have to recognise that our present knowledge of inai and women cannot tell us what they might be a what they ought to be, but what they actually are, under the conditions of civilisation. By showing u; that under varying conditions men and women are, within certain limits, indefinitely modifiable, a precis: I knowledge of the actual facts of the life of men and women forbids us to dogmatise rigidly concerning the respective spheres of men and women. It is a maltci which experience alone can demonstrate in detail. If this is not exactly the result which we set ouE Ic attain, it is still a result of very considerable impon- ance. It lay-i thp avp at the root nf n ianv pscudfr scientific siip. grstiti ons. It clears the ground of raucli Urfnecessary verbiage and fruitless discussion, and enables us to see more clearly the really essential points at issue,, The small group of women wlio ,. wisE^ to prove the absolute Inferiority of the male sex, , the larger group of men who wish to circumscnlx , rigidly the sphere of women, must alike be ruled out \of court. Nor may we listen to those would-be scientific dogmatists who on a priori grounds, on the strength of some single and often doubtful anatomical fact, lay down social laws for mankind at large. The ludicrous errors of arrogant and over-hasty brain anatomists in the past should alone suffice to teach us this caution. The facts are far too complex to enable us to rush hastily to a conclusion as to their significance. The facts, moreover, are so numerous that even when we have ascertained the precise signi- ficance of some one fact, we cannot be sure that it is not contradicted by other facts. And so many of the facts are modifiable under a changing environment that in the absence of experience we cannot pro- nounce definitely regarding the behaviour of either the male or female organism under different condi- CONCLUSION. lions. There is but one tribunal whose sentence is final and without appeal. Only Nature can pronounce concerning the legitimacy of social modifications. The sentence may be sterility or death, but no other tribunal, no appeal to common-sense, will serve instead. Yet there arc certain general conclusions which have again and again presented themselves, even when we have been occupied in considering very diverse aspects of the physical and psychic phem mena of human life. One of these is the g [gate r vi y^iabij ity of the male; this is true for almost tlie whole of the field we have covered, and it has social and practical consequences of the widest significance. The whole of our human civilisation would have been a different thing if in early zoological epochs the male had not acquired a greater variational tendency than the female. Another general con- clusion of an equally far-reaching character is ihe precocity of women, involving greater rapidity of growth and its earlier arrest than in men. The result of this pr^ocity is that wo^nen, taken altogether, present the characters of short men, and to some extent of children. The whole organism of the average woman, physical and psychic, is fundament- ally unlike that of the average man, on account of this fact alone. The differences may often be of a slight or subtle character, but they are none the less real, and they extend to the smallest details of organic constitution. We have found over and over again that when women differ from men, it is the latter who have diverged, leaving women nearer to the child-type. The earlier arrest of development in women is thus connected with the variational tendency of men. And all these sexual differences probably have their origjn in the more intimate co nnection of women with offspring . ~Further evidence regarding the i nfantile diathesis. "^ of women, as we may call it, is found in pathological statistics. It is difficult to find diseases that are i 388 MAN AND WOMAN. common in children and men and rare in womBl and still more difficult to find diseases that are rareii children and men and common in women. On tlr other hand, it is very easy to find diseases whicbm common in children and women and rare in ms^ and diseases which are rare in children and woeV and common in men. Asthma is a well-ascerlained example of a disease aW is common in children and men and rare in women; £Wta gives the propoition as two men to one woman in Enjiui and S^e agrees with Naumann ihat in France and C '" it is as much as six times more common in men than in The case of asthma does not, however, possess much siCT* cance, as it is a symptom rather than a disease. Typblitit(a appendicitis) is also common in children and in men but oS in women, while chyluria seems to be a disorder that is aa't childhood but commoner in females than in males. There are a lar^e number of important and fully-stodili pathological conditions which reveal children and wonKn i> association for good or for ill. As an example of thosil which they are associated for good may be mentioned an^ pectoris, which is extremely rare in women, while vwy ff cases in children are recorded. Diabetes, again, is essentiaDf a disease of adult life, occurring chiefly between the ages of(l and 50, but in women somewhat earlier, between 30 and ^ b is much more frequent in men than in women ; in England tai 1E50 to 1870 there were nearly twice as many deaths of menii of women from diabetes ; Oppolzer, at Vienna, found the propor tion to be four cases in men to one in women j while in FiaiKA L^corch^, uniting various statistics, found 11;' women to jn men. Biabetes . it may be added, is a disease of towns rathi than of the country, and is therefore increasing, though well known to both Gree ks and Romans at the commencement of the Christian era ; among' the higS&li fducat ed and non-fJesh-e^J Bg inhabitants of India it is very prevalent, as welPa"s amonguc Jews, but the yelTow and black races are almost entirely ftet' fram it ^R. Saun"3by, Lectures on Diabetes, l8gi). Dupuytmn contraction of the finders is an interesting example of a patho- logical condition to which there is undoubtedly strong hereditary predisposition, but which is almost unknown in childhood; in 800 children no trace of the disease was to be found, and among 203,000 soldiers between the ages of seventeen and thirty-five only three cases came under Ircatmenl; it is not until late middle life that an appreciable percentage of cases can be found, and of these only half are women, or, according to one CONCLUSION. authoritj-, only a fifth (W. Anderson, " Lectures on Contrac- tions of the Fingers and Toes," Lartcel, July 4, 1891). Brigbt's disease is a disease of middle life, rare in childhood, and it afiects about twice as many males as females. Sciatica, again, is an affection of mature life which is much commoner in menj thus Gibson, at Buxton, in 1000 consecutive cases found 33.4 per ceot in men, 11.6 per cent in women. Hay-fever rarely attacks children, and among adults it affects about three men to one woman ; it is a disease of the town rather than the country, and is chiefly found among the refined and educated. Aneurism is much commoner in men than in women, and is very rare in children, but carotid aneurism is about equally common in men and in women, and appears to be found at a somewhat earlier age than other forms of aneurism. Some of the diseases that are common in men and rare in women and children, it can easily be seen, owe their discrepancy in sexual incidence merely to the greater exposure of men to excesses and strains of various kinds. The predominantly masculine diseases are thus often associated with high mental or physical development ; they are also very often diseases that are on the increase, and that are favoured by town life and by civilisation. If we turn to the group of diseases which tend to affect both children and women, we find that scarlet fever, as Sannd con- cludes (Art. " Scarlatine," Diet. ency. des Sci. Mid.\ is about equally common in both sexes up to about twenty years of age, while after that women are more liable to it Subungual exostosis is common in early life, and more frequent in girls. Scleroderma (or hide-bound disease) is much commoner in women than in men (at least three women to one man), and while it attacks all ages, is very freijuently found among the young. Herpes loster is as common in children above the age of two as in adults, and is much more frequent in females than in males. Aphtha of the mouth, which is chiefly found in infants, is, among adults, more often found in woa^e^ than in men. There are two important pathological conditions of the heart, one affecting the mitral valve, the other the aortic valve. Mitral disease is comparatively common in children ; aortic disease is very rare in children. But among adults it is universally agreed that mitral disease is much commoner in women, and aortic disease in men ; Bamberger found aortic insufficiency three times as frequent in men as in women, and mitral stenosis, according to various authorities, is found to be from two to four times more frequent in women than in men. It is scarcely necessary to add that not all these sexual differ- ences correspond to radical organic differences. This general character of woman's orgatvvc d.e.M^<3^- MAN AND WOMAK. ment has Ions ^^" recognised.' Its significance by no means been so clearly recognised. To assu J( as Herbert Spence r and many others haveassnia' thafon this account woman is " undeveloped man," is to state the matter in an altogether misleading marnig That the adult man diverges to a greater extent from the child-type than the adult woman is on the whole CH' tainly true— though even this is not entirely Inieoflbc more primary sexual organs and functions— and.sofa as it is true, it is a fact not merely of human life, bLtd animal life generally. To add, however, thatwoim is undeveloped man is only true in the same.. it is to state that man is undeveloped woman; ineact sex there arc undeveloped organs and functions whidi in the other sex are developed. In order to appraise rightly the significance of the fact that women remaic somewhat nearer to children than do men, we (nnS I have a clear idea of the position occupied by tilt 1 child in the human and allied species. In Chapter 11 1 I alluded to the curious fact that among the anthw ' poids the infant ape is very much nearer to Man than the adult ape. This means that the infant ape is higher in the line of evolution than the adult, andik female ape, by approximating to the infant type.i? | somewhat higher than the male. Man, in carrying nt t the line of evolution, started not from some adult L male simian, but from the infant ape, and in a less I degree from the female ape The human infant beats 1 precisely the same relation to his species as the simian \ infant bears to his, and we are bound to conclude that , his relation to the future evolution of the race is ' similar.' The human infant presents in an exag- gerated form the chief distinctive characters of ■ Thus Topinard points out that, slraclurally, woman is intennedi»le between the child and the adult man. Dr. H. dmpbell {JfentM Organisation ef Man and Woman, chaps, viii., ix.) has an interesting diacussion of this question. ' It may be argued, in explanatiotJ of the phen has descended from a more human ancestor, but there is SDCh an assumption. CONCLUSION. 391 lumanity — the large head and brain, the small face, he hairlessness, the delicate bony system. By some itrange c onfusion of though t we usually ignore this fact, and assume that the a dult forni . is more highly de\felopcd than the infantile lorm.' From the point of view' of adaptation to the environment it is un- doubtedly true that the coarse, hairy, large-boned, and sraali-brained gorilla is better fitted to make his way in the world than his delicate offspring, but from a zoological point of view we witness anything but pro- frcss. In Man, from about the third year onwards, urther growth — though an absolutely necessary adap- tation to the environment — is to some extent growth in degeneration and senility. It is not carried to so low a degree as in the apes, although by it Man is to some extent brought nearer to the apes, and among the higher human' races the progress towards I senility is less marked than among the lower human races. The child of many African races is scarcely if at all less intelligent than the European child, but while the African as he grows up becomes stupid and obtuse, and his whole social life falls into a state of hide-bound routine, the European retains much of his childlike vivacity. And if we turn to what we are accustomed to regard as the highest human types, as represented in men of genius, we shall find a striking approximation to the child-type. The average man of geniu s is short and large-brained — the two chief characteristics of the child— and his general facial expression, as well as his temperament, recall the child.' "You Greeks are always children;" such was the impression given by the ancient people whom we are taught to regard as the highest type ' The confaaion has, however, often been pointed out. " It is a gross error," remarked Burdach, whose inluLlions were rarely wrong, "to suppose that increase in age is increase in the scale of perfection." IPAys. i. p. 383.) , . " I do not here insist further on the infantile characters of genius, as I hope to deal elsewhere with the man of genius, so far as it is at present possible to study him from the anthropological standpoint 392 MAN AND WOMAN. the world has reached- According to the formuUd an old mystic, the reign of the Kather gave place It the reign of the Son, which roust be succeeded bytbe reign of the Holy Ghost It might be said that this formula corresponds to a zoolc^ical verity. The pre- gress of our race has been a progress in youthfulnea' When we have realised the position of the child in relation to evolution we can take a clearer view as to the natural position of woman. She bears the speti'al characteristicsof humanity in a higher degree than nun {as Burdach pointed out), and led evolution in the matter of hairiness (as Dar«in, following BunJach, pointed out), simply because she is nearer to the chili Her conservatism is thus compensated and justified by the fact that she represents more nearly than man the human type to which man is approximating. This is true of physical characters: the large-headed, delicate- faced, smail-boned man of urban civilisation is much nearer to the typical woman tlian is the savage. Not only by his large brain, but by his large pelvis, the modern man is following a path first marked out by woman: the skull of the modern woman is more markedly feminine than that of the savage woman, while that of the modern man has approximated to it; the pelvis of the modem woman is much more feminine in character than that of the primitive woman, and the modern man's pelvis is also slowly becoming more feminine. We may note also that, as many investigators have found, the student (to whose type the modem man has approximated) occupies, both physically and I mentally, a position intermediate between that of | women and ordinary men. Throughout the whole , course of human civilisation we see men following I women and taking up their avocations, with more' energy, more thoroughness, often more eccentricity, i Savagery and barbarism have more usually than not J CONCLUSION. 393 been predominantly militant, that is to say masculine, in character, while modern civilisation is becoming industrial, that is to Say feminine, in character, for the industries belonged primitively to women, and they tend to make men like women. Even in quite recent times, and in reference to many of the detaiis of life, it is possible to see the workings of this feminisation ; although, it is scarcely necessary to caution the reader, this is but one tendency in our complex modern civilisation. I have pointed out (p. 336) how, even during very recent years, there appears to have been a movement amongst men in favour of adopting feminine methods of committing suicide. We have, again, but to compare the various conveniences of our streets, and of locomotion to-day, with the condition of the streets of a large city a century ago, or even in many respects ten years ago, to realise the progress that has been made in affording equal facilities for women with men, and in so doing to make life easier for men as well as for women. St. Clement of Alexandria was of opinion that women should be allowed to wear- shoes; it was not, he said, suitable for their feet to be shown naked; "besides woman is a tpnder thing, easily hurt. But for a man bare feet are quite in keeping."^ To-day a man also is a " tender thing," and there is less and less inclination to recognise any distinctions of this kind. It would not be difficult, had it been pait of my task, to multiply examples of the ways in which women are leading evolution. In the saying with which Goethe closed his Faust lies a biological verity not usually suspected by those who quote it Any reader who has turned to this book for facls or arguments bearing on the everlasting discussion regarding the "alleged inferiority of women," and vs'ho has followed me so far, will already have gathered the natural conclusion we reach on this point We may regard alt such discussion as absolutely futile and ' Fadogogin, Bk. II., Chap. xii. "'•'■"•72° "? fi-doth **?■•=» o/"'^ »•, »orfM._ '«■ a/so n,„_," ">am, k...Krea[g^ ^^ !!■ '^e^„t^ ?-«« ;i°H .'""■'Mess n; " pi "«' W ape, ■■ »ome„ h™ «moi ^^aterj »M broadly'" fnd senile «"" "'aVth ™ 5 '"■^Pwjaf CONCLtJSION. 395 ^ction. But so far as this is a fact it is a logical and not a merely human fact. The female imal everywhere is more closely and for a longer riod occupied with that process of reproduction ?hich is Nature's main concern. This is, indeed, (more than a zoological fact ; it is a biological fact ; iamong plants we find that the stamens soon fall away while the pistil remains. The female retains her youthfulness for the sake of possible offspring; we all exist for the sake of our possible offspring, but this final end of the individual is more obviously woven into the structure of women. The interests of women may therefore be said to be more closely identified with Nature's interests. Nature has made women more like children in order that they may better understand and care for children, and In the gift of children Nature has given to women a massive and sustained physiological joy to which there is nothing in men's lives to correspond. N^tuLc has done her best to make w ome n h ealthy and glad, and has on the whole been content to' let men run some- what wild. Men ^ave had their revenge on Nature and on her prot^gh. While women have been largely absorbed in that sphere of sexuality which is Nature's, men have roamed the earth, sharpening their aptitudes and energies in perpetual conflict with Nature. It has thus come about that the subjugation of Nature by Man has often practically involved the subjugation, physical and mental, of women by men. The periods of society most favourable for women appear, judging from the experiences of the past, to be somewhat primitive periods in which the militant tendency is not strongly marked. Very militant periods, and those so-called advanced periods in which the com- plicated and artificial products of the variational tendency of men are held in chief honour, are not favourable to the freedom and expansion of women. Greece and Rome, the favourite types of civilisation MAN AND WOMAN. mcnt has long been recognised.^ Its significance by no means been so clearly recognised. To a^tl IS as Herbert Spence r and many others have ass^j tharon this account woman is " undeveloped man,! to state the matter in an altogether misleading maimii That the adult man diverges to a greater extent ftoo the child-type than the adult woman is on the wholeca- tainly true— though even this is not entirely tmeoftlii more primary sexual organs and functions — and.sotn as it is true, it is a fact not merely of human life.bntof animal life generally. To add, liowever. that wonia is undeveloped man is only true in the same senses it is to state that man is undeveloped woman; inrad sex there are undeveloped organs and functions whick in the other sex are developed. In order to appraist rightly the significance of the fact that women remain somewhat nearer to children than do men, we mid have a clear idea of the position occupied by iht child in the human and allied species. In Chapter li. I alluded to the curious fact that among the anthro- poids the infant ape is very much nearer to Man than the adult ape. This means that the infant ape is higher in the line of evolution than the adult, and ihc female ape, by approximating to the infant type, isj somewhat higher than the male. Man, in carrying on the line of evolution, started not from some adult male simian, but from the infant ape, and in a less! degree from the female ape. The human infant bearsi precisely the same relation to his species as the simianl infant bears to his, and we are bound to conclude that his relation to the future evolution of the race iK similar.^ The human infant presents in an exa"- gerated form the chief distinctive characters ol ' Thus Topinard points out that, Blnicturall)', woman !s inlennediklfl between the child and the adult niaji. Dr. H. Cnmpbell (A'sn-^ Organisation of Man and Woman, chaps, viii., ut.) has " discussion of this question. ' It may be argued, in explanation of the phenomena, that ihe B has descended from a. more human ancestor, liut there is no ground fc such an assumption. CONCLUSION. 391 inity — the large head and brain, the small face, the hairlessness, the delicate bony system. By some itrange c onfusion of thou° ht we usually ignore this and assume that the a dult forrn_ is more highly iloped than the infantile form.' From the point ■of ^eS~of adaptation to the environment it is un- doubtedly true that the coarse, hairy, large-boned, and small-brained gorilla is better fitted to make his way in the world than his delicate offspring, but from a zoological point of view we witness anything but pro- gress. In Man, from about the third year onwards, further growth — though an absolutely necessary adap- tation to the environment — is to some extent growth in degeneration and senility. It is not carried to so low a degree as in the apes, although by it Man is to some extent brought nearer to the apes, and among the higher human races the progress towards senility is less marked than among the lower human ■ races. The child of many African races is scarcely t if at all less intelligent than the European child, but while the African as he grows up becomes stupid and obtuse, and his whole social life falls into a state of hide-bound routine, the European retains much of his childlike vivacity. And if we turn to what we are accustomed to regard as the highest human types, as represented in men of genius, we shall find a striking approximation to the child-type. The average man of geniu s is short and large-brained — the two chief characteristics of the cKiId— ah"d~liis general facial expression, as well as his temperament, recall the child. "You Greeks are always children;" such was the impression given by the ancient people whom we are taught to regard as the highest type ^ The confusion has, however, oflen been pointed ont. "It is a giDSS error," lemaiked Burdach, whose inluilions were rarely wrong, "to suppose that increase in age is increase in the scale of perfection." {FAys. i. p. 383.) ^ I do not here insist further on the infantile characters of genius, ai I hope to deal elsewhere with the man of genius, so far as it is at present possihie to study him from the anthiopological standpoint. ■'-.it',"/.),. cA, tie a„d ,11'r^c,,. mod, "an 'an S€lfii5S II- CJ,; ■Sa4-^y»o., '"'"'Ph .;!" "^ns CONCLUSION. 393 •en predominantly militant, that is to say masculine, Ir. character, while modern civilisation is becoming ifcidustrial, that is to 3ay feminine, in character, for the industries belonged primitively to women, and they ^nd to make men like women. Even in quite recent J'imes, and in reference to many of the details of life, t is possible to see the workings of this feminisation ; although, it is scarcely necessary to caution the reader, ithis is but one tendency in our complex modern civilisation. I have pointed out (p. 336) how, even during very recent years, there appears to have been a movement amongst men in favour of adopting feminine methods of committing suicide. We have, again, but to compare the various conveniences of our streets, and of locomotion to-day, with the condition of the streets of a large city a century ago, or even in many respects ten years ago, to realise the progress that has been made in affording equal facilities for f women with men, and in so doing to make life easier for men as well as for women. St Clement of Alexandria was of opinion that women should be allowed to wear shoes; it was not, he said, suitable for their feet to be shown naked; "besides woman is a tender thing, easily hurt. But for a man bare feet are quite in keeping."' To-day a man also is a "tender thing," and there is less and less inclination to recognise any distinctions of this kind. It would not be difficult, had it been part of my task, to multiply examples of the ways in which women are leading evolution. In the saying with which Goethe closed his Fausi lies a biological verity not usually suspected by those who quote it Any reader who has turned to this book for facts or arguments bearing on the everlasting discussion regarding the "alleged inferiority of women," and who has followed me so far, will already have gathered the natural conclusion we reach on this point We may regard all such discussion as absolutely futile and ' Pjdagosits, Bk. II., Chap. xii. MAN AND WOMAN. roolt»Ii. If it is a question of determining the existew' and significance of some particular physical or psydK sexual diftcrence a conclusion may not be imposablt To make any broad statement of the phenomena to recognise that no general conclusion is po5s& Now and again we come across facts which grouf themselves with a certain degree of uniformity, but u wc continue we find other equally important ficts which group themselves with equal uniformily in another sense. The result produces compensation Thus we find that the special liability of women to he affected by minor vital oscillations is balanced by a special resistance to more serious oscillations; that against the affectability of women we must plare their disvulnerability. Again, the greater variability of men, while it produces many brilliant and startling phenomena, also produces a greater proportion of worthless or even harmful deviations, and the balance is thus restored with the more equable level of women. In the intellectual region men possess greater apti- tude for dealing with the more remote and abstract interests of life ; women have, at the least, as great an aptitude in dealing with tlie immediate practical interests of life. Women, it is true, remain nearer than men to the infantile state; but, on the other hand, men approach more nearly than women to the ape-like and senile state. The more clearly and broadly we investigate the phenomena the more emphatically these compensations stand out. It could scarcely be otherwise. A species in which the maternal half exhibited a general inferiority of vital functions could scarcely survive; still less could it attain the somewhat special and peculiar position which — however impartially we may look at the matter — can scarcely be denied to the human species. ^ From many groups of facts, it is true, one may /conclude that the world, as it is naturally made, is a ( better world for women than for men. Nature, as XHuniboldt put it, has taken women under her special! CONCLUSION. 39S iction . But so far as this is a fact it is a ogical and not a merely human fact. The female 'ftnimal everywhere is more closely and for a longer r/period occupied with that process of reproduction ■which is Nature's main concern. This is, indeed, imore than a zoological fact ; it is a biological fact ; i among plants we find that the stamens soon fall away [ while the pistil remains. The female retains her youthfulness for the sake of possible offspring; we all exist for the sake of our possible offspring, but this final end of the individual is more obviously woven into the structure of women. The interests of women may therefore be said to be more closely identified with Nature's interests. Nature has made women more like children in order that they may better understand and care for children, and in the gift of children Nature has given to women a massive and sustained physiological joy to which there is nothing in men's lives to correspond. Nature has done her best to make w ome n h ealthy and glad, and has on the whole been content to" let men run some- wliat^vild. "~ Men Have had their revenge on Nature and on her prot^gie. While women have been largely absorbed in that sphere of sexuality which is Nature's, men have roamed the earth, sharpening their aptitudes and energies in perpetual conflict with Nature. It has thus come about that the subjugation of Nature by Man has often practically involved the subjugation, physical and mental, of women by men. The periods of society most favourable for women appear, judging from the experiences of the past, to be somewhat primitive periods in which the militant tendency is not strongly marked. Very militant periods, and those so-called advanced periods in which the com- plicated and artificial products of the variational tendency of men are held in chief honour, are not favourable to the freedom and expansion of women. Greece and Rome, the favourite types of civilisation ' 'Sa, We^lr^ < i?^;;.^:> ^, 5<!J-(, S»c(, ■ail, X "='■< ,?""« I!!™', af'^ucc, £ ,":°'«o„5'»al «'a,., "■alter. ?°ot "<"»»i -::.e;??^'^'-i: '"'■^..■."-fcA "or "ital -^^5^^2T ' "Id,
?""i"
CONCLUSION. 395 tection . But so far as this is a fact it is a
ological and not a merely human fact. The female
fciimal everywhere is more closely and for a longer fciiriod occupied with that process of reproduction ■ •hich is Nature's main concern. This is, indeed, feiore than a zoological fact; it is a biological fact; ^.mong plants we find that the stamens soon fall away tvhile the pistil remains. The female retains her lyouthfulness for the sake of possible offspring ; we ^11 exist for the sake of our possible offspring, but |this final end of the individual is more obviously , woven into the structure of women. The interests of , women may therefore be said to be more closely . identified with Nature's interests. Nature has made women more like children in order that they may better understand and care for children, and in the gift of children Nature has given to women a massive and sustained physiological joy to which there is nothing in men's lives to correspond. Ng^nre has done her best to make w ome n h ealthy and glad, and has on the whole been content to let men run s ome - w hat wild. Men Kave had their revenge on Nature and on her protig^e. While women have been largely absorbed in that sphere of sexuality which is Nature's, men have roamed the earth, sharpening their aptitudes and energies in perpetual conflict with Nature. It has thus come about that the subjugation of Nature by Man has often practically involved the subjugation, physical and mental, of women by men. The periods of society most favourable for women appear, judging from the experiences of the past, to be somewhat primitive periods in which the militant tendency is not strongly marked. Very militant periods, and those so-called advanced periods in which the com- plicated and artificial products of the variational tendency of men are held in chief honour, are not favourable to the freedom and expansion of women. Greece and Rome, the favourite types of civilisation 390 MAK AND WOMAN. mcnt has long been recognised,' Its significance is by no means been so dearly recognised. Toassume, 1^ as Hcfber t_Spence r and many others have assumed, that on this account woman is " undeveloped man," is to state the matter in an altogether misleadine mannei. That the adult man diverges to a greater extent from the child-type than the adult woman is on the whole «i- tainly true — though even this is not entirely trueof ihs more primary sexual organs and functions — and.sofii as it is true, it Is a fact not merely of human life, but of animal life generally. To add, however, that woman is undeveloped man is only true in the same sense as it is to state that man is undeveloped woman ; in ead sex there are undeveloped organs and functions whicb in the other sex are developed. In order to appraise rightly the significance of the fact that women remain somewhat nearer to children than do men, we must have a clear idea of the position occupied by the child in the human and allied species. In Chapter 11 I alluded to the curious fact that among the anthro- poids the infant ape is very much nearer to Man than the adult ape. This means that the infant ape is higher in the line of evolution than the adult, and the female ape, by approximating to the infant type, is somewhat higher than the male. Man, in carrying on the line of evolution, started not from some adult male simian, but from the infant ape, and in a less degree from the female ape. The human infant bears precisely the same relation to his species as the simian infant bears to his, and we are bound to conclude that his relation to the future evolution of the race is similar' The human infant presents in an exag- gerated form the chief distinctive characters of ■ Thus Topinard points out Ihat, slniclurally, woman is inlertnediale between Ihe child and the adult m.iii. Dr. H. Campliell {JVemous Orsanisaticn of Man and Woman, chnpa. viii., ix.) has an interesting discu^ion of this question. ' It may be aigued, in eiplanalion of the phenomena, Uiat the ue has descended from a more human ancestor, but there is do gimnd nr auch an assumption. CONCLUSION. 391 humanity — the large head and brain, the small face, the hairlessness, the delicate bony system. By some strange c onfusion of thoug ht we usually ignore this fact, and assume that the a .dult forni_ is more highly deve loped than the infantile iorm.' From the point of vTeS^^ adaptation to the environment it is un- doubtedly true that the coarse, hairy, large-boned, and small-brained gorilla is better fitted to make his way in the world than his delicate offspring, but from a zoological point of view we witness anything but pro- gress. In Man, from about the third year onwards, further growth — though an absolutely necessary adap- tation to the environment — is to some extent growth in degeneration and senility. It is not carried to so low a degree as in the apes, although by it Man is to some extent brought nearer to the apes, and among the higher human races the progress towards senility is less marked than among the lower human races. The child of many African races is scarcely if at all less intelligent than the European child, but while the African as he grows up becomes stupid and obtuse, and his whole social life falls into a state of hide-bound routine, the European retains much of his childlike vivacity. And if we turn to what we are accustomed to regard as the highest human types, as represented in men of genius, we shall find a striking approximation to the child-type. The average man of geniu s is .short and large-brained — the two chief characteristics of the clilld^— aricl his general facial expression, as well as his temperament, recall the child.^ "You Greeks are always children;" such was the impression given by the ancient people whom we arc taught to regard as the highest type ' The confusion has, however, often been pointed out. "It is a gross error," remaiked Bucdach, whose intuitions were rarely wrong, " to suppose that increase in age is increase in the scale of perfection." (/■to,. 1. p. 3S3.1 ' I do not here insist further on the infantile characters of genius, as I hope to deal elsewhere with the man of genius, so fai as it is at present possible to study him from the anthropological stuid'^tA. 3P3 "": worid has r , ' '^ ^^'^mZ!^^^} """Iter of ? P?""'=<i out) » ^'"e'lcrS?" ""[«< "■« fan Ik'?'"" 's tllo, c„™^= 's near "^ B"** '"ain. b,„ k?°. « the .'?" '» " "; He „•! ■ ""= modern "^ "le .,, ^" more
oma„,(„,V Maracter th/„ """an £ „ "^ted ,„
, We„,f ""=f=m/„i„,. """>» pelws i"^, Pnmit/™ """"l. the sZ »» "■at a, ,„ ° "'""'j' fo^d. the sZ° » that a, ,„ ° "'""'j' t?l?„f"-"'»atio„ 3:;™"eo„t tt/'S of rs;sei^^:?t!s?"s'xi;-e^ '^"'»!?->'a„d &"?'■"'» ofter«°°». ."S ""'"S ' n= f. . ™™ansm !,aV» ""ore ccrl ""ore
-..„.';(;.».„„, ,^ """-o more u,„air,l"'"nty.
■"^'»"Vfe« I CONCLUSION. 393 I been predominantly militant, that is to say masculine, I in character, while modern civilisation is becoming I industrial, that is to Say feminine, in character, for the ' industries belonged primitively to women, and they tend to make men like women. Even in quite recent times, and in reference to many of the details of life, it is possible to see the workings of this feminisation; although, it is scarcely necessary to caution the reader, this is but one tendency in our complex modern civilisation. I have pointed out (p. 336) how, even during very recent years, there appears to have been a movement amongst men in favour of adopting feminine methods of committing suicide. We have, again, but to compare the various conveniences of our streets, and of locomotion to-day, with the condition of the streets of a large city a century ago, or even in many respects ten years ago, to realise the progress that has been made In affording equal facilities for women with men, and in so doing to make life easier for men as well as for women. St Clement of Alexandria was of opinion that women should be allowed to wear. shoes; it was not, he said, suitable for their feet to be shown naked; "besides woman is a tpnder thing, easily hurt. Hut for a man bare feet are quite in keeping."' To-day a man also is a "tender thing," and there is less and less inclination to recognise any distinctions of this kind. It would not be difficult, had it been pait of my task, to multiply examples of the ways in which women are leading evolution. In the saying with which Goethe closed his Faust lies a biological verity not usually suspected by those who quote it Any reader who has turned to this book for facts or arguments bearing on the everlasting discussion regarding the "alleged inferiority of women," and who has followed me so far, will already have gathered the natural conclusion we reach on this point We may regard all such discussion as absolutely futile and ' Padagogtis, Bk. II., Cliap. xii. MAN AND WOMAN. If it is a question of determining theexistet and significance of some particular physical orpsyd sexual difference a conclusion may not be impossiblt | To make any broad statement of the phenomena is I to recognise that no general conclusion is possible, Now and again we come across facts which group ' themselves with a certain degree of uniformity, buf is we continue we find other equally important facts which group themselves with equal uniforraiiy in another sense. The result produces compensation. Thus we find that the special liability of women to \ be affected by minor vital oscillations is balanced by i a special resistance to more serious oscillations; that j against the affectability of women we must place their disvulnerability. Again, the greater variability of men, while it produces many brilliant and startling phenomena, also produces a greater proportion of worthless or even harmful deviations, and the balance is thus restored with the more equable level of women, In the intellectual region men possess greater apti- tude for dealing with the more remote and abstract interests of life; women have, at the least, as Rreat an aptitude in dealing with the immediate practical interests of life. Women, it is true, remain nearer than men to the infantile state; but, on the other hand, men approach more nearly than women to the ape-like and senile state. The more clearly and broadly we investigate the phenomena the more emphatically these compensations stand out It could scarcely be otherwise. A species in which the maternal half exhibited a general inferiority of vital functions could scarcely survive ; still less could it attain the somewhat special and peculiar position which — however impartially we may look at the matter — can scarcely be denied to the human species. From many groups of facts, it is true, one may conclude that the world, as it is naturally made, is a better world for women than for men. Nature, as Humboldt put it, has taken women under her special CONCLtTSION. 395 I p rotection . But so far as this is a fact it is a ological and not a merely human fact. The female I animal everywhere is more closely and for a longer period occupied with that process of reproduction which is Nature's main concern. This is, indeed, more than a zoological fact; it is a biological fact; among plants we find that the stamens soon fall away while the pistil remains. The female retains her youthfulness for the sake of possible offspring ; we all exist for the sake of our possible offspring, but this final end of the individual is more obviously woven into the structure of women. The interests of women may therefore be said to be more closely identified with Nature's interests. Nature has made women more like children in order that they may better understand and care for children, and in the gift of children Nature has given to women a massive and sustained physiological joy to which there is nothing in men's lives to correspond. N ature has done her best to make women h ealthy and glad, and has on the whole been content to' let men run some- what wild. Men Tiave had their revenge on Nature and on her prot/g^e. While women have been largely absorbed in that sphere of sexuality which is Nature's, men have roamed the earth, sharpening their aptitudes and energies in perpetual conflict with Nature. It has thus come about that the subjugation of Nature by Man has often practically involved the subjugation, physical and mental, of women by men. The periods of society most favourable for women appear, judging from the experiences of the past, to be somewhat primitive periods in which the militant tendency is not strongly marked. Very militant periods, and those so-called advanced periods in which the com- plicated and artificial products of the variational tendency of men are held in chief honour, are not favourable to the freedom and expansion of women. Greece and Rome, the favourite types of civilisation MAN AND WOMAN. the world has reached. According to the formula ii an old mystic, the reign of the Father gave place to the reign of the Son, which must be succeeded bytk reign of the Holy Ghost. It might be said thilte formula corresponds to a zoological verity. Thepw gress of our race has been a progress in youthfulniai' When we have realised the position of the child ii! relation to evolution we can take a clearer view as lo the natural position of woman. She bears the speciil characteristicsof humanity in a higher degree thanmin (as Burdach pointed out), and led evolution in Hit matter of hairiness (as Darwin, following Burdacli. pointed out), simply because she is nearer to the child, Her conservatism is thus compensated and justiiied \fj the fact that she represents more nearly than man the human type to which man is approximating. Thisii true of physical characters: the large-headed, delicate- faced, small-boned man of urban civilisation is much nearer to the typical woman than is the savage; Not only by his large brain, but by his large pelvis, the I modern man is following a path first marked out by woman: the skull of the modern woman is mote I markedly feminine than that of the savage woman, while that of the modern man has approximated lo | it; the pelvis of the modern woman is much more feminine in character than that of the primitive woman, and the modern man's pelvis is also slowly ' becoming more feminine. We may note also that, as many investigators have found, the student (to whose type the modem man has approximated) occupies, both physically and mentally, a position intermediate between that of women and ordinary men. Throughout the whole course of human civilisation we see men following women and taking up their avocations, with more energy, more thoroughness, often more eccentricity. Savagery and barbarism have more usually than not CONCLUSION. been predominantly militant, that is to say masculine, in character, while modern civilisation is becoming industrial, that is to 3ay feminine, in character, for the ' industries belonged primitively to women, and they tend to make men like women. Even in quite recent times, and in reference to many of the details of life, it is possible to see the workings of this feminisation; although, it is scarcely necessary to caution the reader, this is but one tendency in our complex modem civilisation. I have pointed out (p. 336) how, even during very recent years, there appears to have been a movement amongst men in favour of adopting feminine methods of committing suicide. We have, again, but to compare the various conveniences of our streets, and of locomotion to-day, with the condition of the streets of a large city a century ago, or even in many respects ten years ago, to realise the progress that has been made in affording equal facilities for women with men, and in so doing to make life easier for men as well as for women. St Clement of Alexandria was of opinion that women should be allowed to wear shoes; it was not, he said, suitable for their feet to be shown naked; "besides woman Is a tpnder thing, easily hurt. Rut for a man bare feet are quite in keeping."^ To-day a man also is a " tender thing," and there is less and less inclination to recognise any distinctions of this kind. It would not be dii^icult, had it been part of my task, to multiply examples of the ways in which women are leading evolution. In the saying with which Goethe closed his Faust lies a biological verity not usually suspected by those who quote it. Any reader who has turned to this book for facts or arguments bearing on the everlasting discussion regarding the "alleged inferiority of women," and who has followed me so far, will already have gathered the natural conclusion we reach on this point We may regard all such discussion as absolutely futile and ' P^dagcgus, Bk. II., Chap. xii. 394 ^^ foolhh If:,. ^"^ "'Orf!!^^ ofmen,.?, "ability, -^ °r "-omen „ ""ons; a '■«""" ","? »'■"■ ^1.. C; P°««» e/e:"™'"- S™ri-srir^s„s.r;?";J^s.s and broarfl " '"d senile , ' nearly ,?"• oo lilt srarcdy b, .?" ™"ipensa ? P™»mena?^ «/ '"nction, " , "'"Weed a P"'"' in „,.. rouM a'tainSe "'■' "a^ly ,„f •"»' '■"firt^'^A the -m„JZT' ™PartS?v "" P«"Sr ™" "* ^^"n, ma„"™'j'f«dc„Ted7,?'ay loo" P°»"»» ^<'»ert„'l";'>e„„P|j°4'ac,., ;, ,, ™/" -Peeler. HnmI,T_,. 'd for vur,™.'"'." is nal„r=rr ' on- ~ I teeter «,„' m /"" "-orl ■protection. But so far as this is a fact it ia a psoological and not a merely human fact The female lanimal everywhere is more closely and for a longer tpcriod occupied with that process of reproduction i which is Nature's main concern. This is, indeed, ^ more than a zoological fact; it is a biological fact; I among plants we find that the stamens soon fall away f while the pistil remains. The female retains her youthfulness for the sake of possible offspring; we all exist for the sake of our possible offspring, but this final end of the individual is more obviously I) woven into the structure of women. The interests of , women may therefore be said to be more closely identified with Nature's interests. Nature has made women more like children in order that they may better understand and care for children, and in the gift of children Nature has given to women a massive and sustained physiological joy to which there is nothing in men's lives to correspond. Naiuip has done her best to make women h ealthy and glad, and has on the whole been content to" let tn^n run ~some- wt^_5vnd. Men Have had their revenge on Nature and on her prot^gSe. While women have been largely absorbed in that sphere of sexuality which is Nature's, men have roamed the earth, sharpening their aptitudes and energies in perpetual conflict with Nature. It has thus come about that the subjugation of Nature by Man has often practically involved the subjugation, physical and mental, of women by men. The periods of society most favourable for women appear, judging from the experiences of the past, to be somewhat primitive periods in which the militant tendency is not strongly marked. Nzxy militant periods, and those so-calied advanced periods in which the com- plicated and artificial products of the variational tendency of men are held in chief honour, are not favourable to the freedom and expansion of women. Greece and Rome, the favourite types of civilisation L CONCLUSION. 397 . child-like, yet patient study of the natural of life can only lead us to be reverent in the of those facts. This conclusion must not, however, be misunder- l^ood. A cosmic conservatism does not necessarily lenvolve a social conservatism. The wisdom of Man, Bvorking through a few centuries or in one corner of ■ihe earth, by no means necessarily corresponds to the iwisdom of Nature, and may be in flat opposition to it. This is especially the case when the wisdom of Man merely means, as sometimes happens, the experience of our ancestors gained under other conditions, or merely the opinions of one class or one sex. Taking a broad view of the matter, it seems diflicult to avoid the conclusion that it is safer to trust to the conserva- tism of Nature than to the conservatism of Man. We are not at liberty to introduce any artificial sexual barrier into social concerns. The respective fitness of men and of women for any kind of work or any kind of privilege can only be ascertained by actual open experiment ; and as the conditions for such experi- ment are never twice the same, it can never be positively affirmed that anything has been settled once and for all. When such experiment is success- ful, so much the better for the race ; when it is unsuccessful, the minority who have broken natural law alone suffer. An exaggerated anxiety lest natural law be overthrown is misplaced. The world is not so insecurely poised. We may preserve an attitude of entire equanimity in the face of social readjustment. Such readjustment is either the out- come of wholesome natural instinct, in which case our social structure will be strengthened and broad- ened, or it is not ; and ifnot, it is unlikely to become organically ingrained in the species. Our investigation, therefore, shows us in what state of mind we ought to approach the whole problem ; it can scarcely be said that it gives us the definite solution of definite problems. It is not on that 398 MAN AMD WOUAM. account fruitleaa There is distinct advantage a clearing away, so far as we can, the thick itodo- growth of prepossession and superstition wbidi fiourishcs in the region we have traversed to i greater extent than in any other r^on. It a something to have asked the right question, and to be set on the right road. It is something, aki| to realise that we may disr^ard the assertions, a even the facts, of those who have not faced all thr difficulties that must be encountered. At the vet] least it seems impossible to follow the paths «i have here traversal without gaining a more vin and tolerant insight into what for us must alway be the two most interesting beings in the world. t: INDEX OF AUTHORS. ACKBRMANN, 29 Alderson, Sir J., 219 AUbutt, Prof. Clifford, 222 Allison, Mrs., 2 Anderson, Prof. W., 61, 3S8 Andral, 203 Anstie, Dr., 295 Aristotle, 245 Arndt, Prof., 279 Backhouse, 2 B'alz, 224 Bailey, Prof. E. H. S., 125, 128, 130 Baker, Dr. F., 59, 65 Balfour, H., 315 Ball, Prof. B., 230 Ballantyne, Dr., 204 Bancroft, H. H., I Barbour, Dr., 242 Barnes, Prof. Earl, 140, 178 Barnes, Dr. F., 250 Barnes, Dr. R., 252, 255 Bartels, Dr. Max, 6, 30, 44, 55, 67. 89, 244, 293 Bastanzi, 262 Bastian, Prol A., 262 Baxter,'!. H., 229 Beale, D., 189, 325 Beard, Dr., 278 Beaunis, 213, 214, 260, 274 B^clard, 200, 237 Becquerel, 214 Beddoe, Dr., 225, 228 B^hier, 202 Beigel, 213, 215 Benedikt, Prof. M., 75, 78, 83, 93, 122 Beneke, 213, 238 B^rillon, Dr. E., 260 Berlioz, 214 Bernard, P., 382 Bertillon, 375 Bertin, 301 Besant, Mrs., 186 Bianchi, Prof., 74 Bibra, 155 Bichat, 71 Bickerton, T. H., 141 Billroth, Prof., 124 Birmingham, Prof., 64 Bischoff, T. L. W. von, 41, 95, 97, 100, 104, 105, 112 Bishop, Mrs., 6 Blake, 143 Bleeler, 146 Block, Maurice, 330 Blosfeld, 241 Boas, Dr. F., 8, 317 Bocalosi, 299 Bodin, 261 Boerhaave, 204 Booth, 160 Borrow, G., 280 Bosco, A, 352, 354 Bouchard, 41 Bouchut, 278 Bourke, Capt J. G., 61 Bowditch, 33, 37 Boyd, Dr., 95, 102, 103, 104, 238, 239, 240, 241, 359 Brierre de Boismont, 253, 255, 257 Briquet, 284 Broadbent, 222 Broca, 37, 44, 73. 75i 76, 79, 95, 104, 105, 106, 109 400 INDEX OF AUTHORS. Browne, Dr. C, 317 Browne, Lennox, 306, iSi Bruce, Milchell, 361 BiUcke, E., 44,46,49 Brunlon, Di. L., zi8, att Bryan, Prof. W. I-., IJ* Bryinl, Mrs. S., 311 Biyint, T., 360 Bryce. 325 BuccDlii, 173 Buckle, 176 Buckley, 9 Bucknill, Dr., 277 Butdach, 29, 30, S7, 105, T4S, 186, 191, 339, 140, 359, 369, 390. 391 Cad ST, 197 Calkins, Mary W., I47 Calori, 76, 7S, 80 Camper, 85 Campbell, Dr. Harry, 30, 134, 173, 248, 256, 301, 3j8, 360, 381. 389 Carrara, 51 Carler, R. B. Callell, 152 Catullus, 233 Chnmbeis, Ut., 259, 261 Chambreknt, 216 Charcot, 281,284 Cbarpy, Adrien, 45, 62, 306, 342 Chateau biiand, 19 Chevers, 333 Child, C M., 366 Clapham, C, 76, 78, 80, 95, 101, 106, 109, no Cleland, 60, 7S> 53 Clement of Alexandria, iiS, 392 Clouston, Dr., 354, 255, 283. 307, 345 Cobbe, MissF. P., 247 Codringlon, 11 Coletidge, S. T., 149 Coles, O., S6 Collet, Clara, 160 Collignon, 225 Coutagne, Dr., 382 Colt, Dr. F. A., 217 C rich Ion- Bra wne. Sir/., 95, 106 Crocker, Dr. R., 219 "34 Cullen, 250 Cunningham, Prof. D„ (J, fc 62, 64, iu6, 109, 110, lA 362 Curr, K, 9 Cuvier, III D'Albbrtis, 224 D="y. 37, 36S Daniels,' A. H., 293 Darwin, iS, 20, 30, 238, 14S. 3til> | „3S9, 373. 39' Davis, B., 72, 75 I Delaiinay, G., 30, 59, 6c% 78, IS- J 177. 180, aoo, 30I, -" •" ■ 3(5. 236, 237. 240 Del isle, 369 Demme, Prof., zas Deoiker, J., a, 33 Deuis, scf6 Dcpaul, 201, 304, 360 Deschamps, 234 Diderot, 174, 262 Down, Langdon, 364 Ducnastelet, 243 Duchenne, 62 Durand de Gros, 78 Duiral, 'm., 54 Dwieht, Pro£, 44 Eiselsberg, Prof., 134 Ellis, H., 304, 306, 341,351 Esqnirol, 255, 339 Favre, 141, 143 Fawcett, Mrs , 247 Fechner, 147 Fehling, 5S 177 Felkin, Dr., 119 Fer^, 283. 301, 310 - Ferrero, 30, I49. 174, ,77, ,S[, 187.261,305.326,351.354 ' Ferrier, Dr., loS, --- Filippe, De, 117, 1 Finkelstein, 351 Fisher, Dr., 354 Fison, I, 9 INDEX OF AUTHORS. 401 Flower, Sir W. H., 86, 88, 90 Fonssagrives, 221 Fothergill, Dr., 246 Fox, Dr. L. W., 143 Foxwell, Dr., 312 Frankenhausen, 201 Franklin, 143 Fraser, A., 194 Freund, H., 233 Fritsch, 224 FuUerton, 152 Galen, 210 Galiani, 246 Galippe, 88 Gall, 71, III Gallon, F., 38, 39, 134, 136, 146, 149, 151, 178, 310, 326 Garnier, Dr., 344, 347 Garson, Dr., 55, 59 Gaston, 241 Gavarret, 203, 212, 275 Ge|;enbaur, 44, 240 Gcisler, 33, 36 Gell4 133 Genouville, 242 Gibb, Sir D., 236 Gilles de la Tourette, 281, 283 Giraldus Gimbrensis, 61 Gocke, 241 Goodell, 304 Gorham, 86 Gosse, Edmund, 322 Gowers, Dr., 305 Gradenigo, 363 Green, 138 Greenfield, Prof., 234 Griiber, 146 Guest, Haden, 229 Gunn, 272 Gurrieri, 116 Guy, 201 Hachb, 242, 304 Haddon, Prof. A. C, 3, 227 Hagemann, 215 Haig, Dr. A., 213, 252 Hale, Horatio, 10 Hall, Prof. Stanley, 170, 185, 1S6 Halliburton, Prof., 157, 202 Hammond, Dr., 306 Hamy, 76 Hardy, Dr., 202 Harless, E., 41 Harrison, Rev. C, 9 Harrison, F., 247 Hart, Dr. B., 242 Hayem, 196, 197 Heame, 4 Hecker, 287, 289 Heerwagen, 265 Heidenreich, 233 Hein, 6 Heitzmann, 242 Hermann, 222 Herodotus, 61 Herzen, 172 Hesiod, 61 Hicks, B., 360, 377 Hickson, S. J. 318 Hippocrates, 210 Hitzig, 107 Holder, Dr., 245 Holmgren, 140 Horsley, Prof, V., 108, 123, 144, 232 Howitt, I, 9 Huchard, 282 Hultkrantz, 209 Humphreys, Noel, 341 Humphry, Sir G., 48, 229, 377, 378, 381 Hunter, J., 18, 359 Huschke, 95, 105 Hutchinson, J., 204, 217 Hyades, 2 ICARD, 255 jACOBiEUS, 71 Jacobi, Dr. Mary, 212, 215, 248, 25o» 257, 310 Jacobs, J., 91, 136, 142, 368 James, Prof. W., 299 Janet, P., 281 Jastrow, Prof., 118, 133, 137, 152, 162, 166, 168, 265 Jeffories, Dr. Joy, 141 Jennings, Vaugban, 158 Johnstone, H. H., 4 }ones. Dr. E. L., 197, 198, 381 udson, Dr. A. B., 122 jUrgens, 56 Jung, Prof., 267 402 INDEX OF AUTHORS. Kbllosc, Dc. I. H., 107 Key, Prof. Axel, 33, 35, 36, 3 Kocher, J4 Kollmann, Si KornilolT, 197 Krabbei, J.. 13 Krafft-EliinB, Ptof,.29Si 3^5 KnigdsteiQ, 255 Kupcianlto, 369 Kurella, Dt. H., 300, 364 La AC HE, 197 LacBxsigne, jSa Lafille, P., 188 Lagneau, 367 Lnndob, 151, 314 Lange, Prof. C, 300 Langer, C, 49, 237 Latinois, 363 Lnpouse. 39 I^jschi, 192 Laulnni^. 216 Laycack, 297, 363 Le Bon, G , 89 LecUre, 178 Lee. Edgar, 369 LeHingweH, 277 LcHOuett. 123 I^ouvi, 325 Leiioyi, 330, 333 Legrand du Saulle, 255 Lemenberg, 374 Let-urn^u, C. 9 Lewis. W. B., 38, lao Lichicostein, 1 97 Lifbauli, 260 Lilzmann. 56 Lomlitoso, 30, Il5, 120, 123, 149. 174. 177. 181. 1S7. 192. 255. 26[, 267 283, 306. 334, 351 Lnniisiaf, Dr., 378, 380, 381 Lubbiick, 9 Macausteh, Prof. A., 362 Maephail, Dr., 197 Magilol, 87 Malgaigne, 122, 123 Mai ling- Hansen, 27S Man, E. H.. 6, 39, 37» J " -ng, Cardin ' — Man . 43. 7h 93. 99. 15' Manti^nEza, 47, 73, 73, So, 21S Marri, B., 55 Marshall, J., 100, ^67 Mania], 210 Martin, Dr. S., no Manias, 2t2 Masini, Prof., 237 Mason, Prof. Otis, t 318 Mayi. 229 Mays, Dr., 307 McCormac, Sir W., laa Meckel, 233, 358 Mendel, 173, 279, 345 Menlz, 264 Meyer, H., 60 Meyoerl, 105, 106, 109, I Michelel, 247, 371 Mies, 103 Miklucbo-Macleay, 316 I Mill.J. S.. 193 Millingen, 261 Minot, Prof., 1; M'Kendrick, Prof., 157, 197,201, Moeli, 303 Mondiire, 87 Moreau de Toun, 255 Morgan, L, 395 M.irrison, W. D., 351 Morselli, 78, 85, 100, 33'. 333- 337 Mq51( ,214 "TsTflM Mosso, A., 232, 242, 299, 300^ 303 Muri, Dr., 116 Nacke, 2SS, 307, 352 Nichols, Prof. E. U, 129. 138 Nieolson, Dr., 235 Norman, Dt. C, 282, 295 Notoficb, O. K., 370 INDEX OF AUTHORS. 403 Ogle, Dr., 212, 332 Oliver, Prof. T., 219 Oppolzer, 387 Orchanski, 85 Ott, Prof, van, 248, 250 Ottolenghi, Dr., 51, 127, 130 Pagliani, 33, 36, 37, rsi, 155. 202 Panichi, R., J2 Parchappe, 97, 277, 339 Parke, T. H., 4, 122 Parker, R. W., 218 Parkes, E. A., 214 Passet, 105 Paterson, Prof., 65 Peacock, Dr., 112 Pearce, N., 292 Pellacani, 242, 303 Perrin, Maurice, 270 PfafF, 224 rfitzner, 46, 48, 50, 71, 228 Pidoux, 217, 218 PirogoflF, 122 Pitres, 260, 261, 284, 289, 306 Plicque, 254 Pliny, 261, 262 Ploss, 30, 44, 55, 67, 89, 223, 224, 244 Pollard, Myra, 207, 210 Pollock, Sir F., 329 Popow, 80 Potter, Dr., 66 Preyer, 197 Pruner Bey, 78 Pye, W., 42 QUATREFAGES, De, 76, 229 Quetelet, 27, 33, 37, 39, 4h 42, 44, 47, 48, 100, 202, 203, 354 Quintilian, 261 Ranke, Prof. J., 23, 26, 42, 45, 47. 91 Raseri, 201, 230 Rectus, Elisee, 368. Reid, 112 Reinl, 248 Renan, 67 Retzius, 76, 89 Rey, Dr. P., Ill Reyburn, Dr., 122, 223 Riccardi, Prof., 41, 151, 179 Richardson, Sir B. W., 301 Richet, Ch., 203 Rios, Conrado, 143 Roberts, C, 33, 48 Robin, Ch., 197 Robinson, Dr. L., 210, 301 Rodier, 214 Rolleston, 89 Rollet, 39 Romanes, 172 Romiti, G., 56 Roncoroni, 116, 117, 133, 352 Rosenberg, 64 Rosenthal, 204 Ross, Dr. A., 230 Rossi, De, 192 Roussel, P., 324 Roussel, T., 179 Rubenstein, 320 Rudinger, 103, 105, 109 Salter, Dr., 387 Sannd, 388 Sansom, 219 Sappey, 55, 60, 242 Sargent, Dr., 33, 39. 40, 45, 49, 54, 151, 211 Saundby, Dr., 387 Schaafihausen, 5, 73, 86, 88, 229 Schafer, Prof., 108 Schaffer, Dr. O., 363 Schellong, 4, 142 Schimmer, 229 Schmidt, E., 33, 86 Schmidt, Prof. Waldemar, 228 Schopenhauer, 30 Schwalbe, 46, 363 Scripture, E. W., 365 S6e, Dr. Germain, 218, 387 Sergi, Prof, 121, 204 Sewall, Prof. H. , 207, 210 Shaw, Dr. T. C , 307 Sibson, 203, 204 Sidgwick, Prof. H., 267 Siegel, 197 Silk, Dr. J. F. W., 269, 271, 273 Skoff, 79 Smith, Priestley, 83, 301 Smith, R. Percy, 345 Smith, Wilberforce, 205 Soemmering^ 71 ' 404 INDEX OF AUTHORS. Spencer, Herbert. 30. 188 389 Vetneau, R., 55 Spielman, 91. 136, 142 Vierordt, 97, 239, 240, 241 Sikotski, 177 Virchow, 71, 78, 79, 84, 94, Stein, Dr. von den, 159 369 Stephenson, Dr., 248 Vitruvius. 43 Suwart, Prof. C, 20 Vogt, C. Stirling, 151, 214 Voisin, 2ig H Strauss. D. F., 67 Veil, 98 ^H Sullies, 344 ^H Wad N BR, 9 a ^^^M Witht, 27S ^H Taquchi, Prof. K., 237 Waldeyer, 323 Tait, Lawson, 333 Waller, Dr. A..9S. j,a Tanquetel d« Planches. 2 9 Warner, Dr. F., 302 Tnrnier, 233 Webb. Sidney, 161, l68, 180, Tarnowsky, Dr. Pauline. >9 184,203 ^ Taylor, Dr. Seymour, zoo Weil, 133 j^M Thum, E. Im, 2. 6, 149 We«bach. 45. 75, 90, 93, ^H Thuinam, 7a, 97, 339 366 i^H Weisuiann, Prof. A., 20 ^^H TiEges. 9S. 100. lo5, 109 Welcker, 75, 76, it3 ^^M Tilt, Dr., 153, 301 Wernich, 61 ^H Tomes, C. S., 86, 87 West. Prof, a, 80, Si, Ijt^^H Tonnini, 284 Westergaard, 329, 33,, 37j^^H TopmarJ, 39. 41, 42, 45 47,48, Whitehead, Dr., 244 ""^^H 58, 76, 73. Si, 82, 85. 90, 93, Whilelee^e, Dr., 379 ^^B 96, 100, 101. 104, 389 Widal, 30G ^^H Tourdes, 382 Wiedersheim, 64 ^^^H Trcgear, 61 Wie^ner, 240 ^^H Trelal, 230 Wilks, Dr. S., 93 ^^H Trousseau, 217, 218 Wille, 381 ^H Tsakni, N., agi Wilson, Prof. G., 142, uf^^H Wilson, Dr. G. K., 348 ^^^^H Take. Dr. D. Hack, 261, 277, 306, 330. 342 Wiltshire, Dr., 245 .^^H Turin, 117,120 Winckel, 242 ^^H Turner,!. S., 88 Wines, Dr. F. H., 356 ^^H Wolseley, Lord, 17$ ^^^1 Turner. Sir W., 73, 92 Turquan, 37S Wretlind. 2^3 ^^H Tylor, E. B , 294 Wunderlich, 212 ^^H Ulitzsch, 33. 36 Vatsutv, 221 ^^^H Umpfenbach, 2iS Yeo, Dr. fiumey, 334 ^^H Upion, G. P., 319 Vvon, 2.4 ^^M Vall^e, 241 133 ^^^H ^^^m ^ Zuccarelli, 21S ^^^^1 INDEX OF SUBJECTS. Abdomen, 43, 63 Abstract thought, 185-190 Acrobats, women, 155-156 Acting, 324-325 Affectability, 49, 297 et seq, Afghans, 4 Agriculturists, women the first, 5 Alcoholism, 222-223, 343, 346,355 Americans and English, differ- ences between, 34 Anabolism of women, 99, 156 Anaemia, 199, 312 Ansesihetics, 269 ei seq* Andamanese, 59 Andombies, 4 Antipyrine, 218 Anus, 60 Ape, morphological position of, 21-26, 389 Apellseans, 285 Appetite, 240, Arabs, 54 Architects, women the first, 5, 7 Arcus senilis^ 381 Arms, 45, 49 Arsenic, 217 Art, 7, 316 et seq. Asceticism, 14, 15 Asthma, 387 Astigmatism, 135 Astrology, 369 Australians, I, 4, 9, 92, 177 Baldness, 381 Birth-rate, 373 et seq. Bladder, 241-242, 303-304 Blood, 196-202 Blushing, 301 Bourignon, Mme., 190 Brachycephalism, 76 Brain, 94-114, 366 Breakings-out, 306-307 Breasts, 44 Brewing, 3, 6 Bromide, 218 Buchan, Mrs., 190 Business capacity, 180-185, 257 Cambodgians, 178 Camisards, 287 Castration and voice, 237 Catalepsy, 261 Centenarians, 378 Cephalic index, 76-81 Cerebellum, 111-112 Chest, 44.45 Child, morphological position of, 21-26, 389 ; cephalic index, 79 ; face, 81 ; bram, 103 ; disvul- nerability, 122-123; psychology, 170; precocity among savages, 177 ; respiration, 204 ; som- nambulism, 259 ; hypnotism, 260; anaesthetics, 270; dis- eases, 387 Childbirth, 10, 66-67 Chimpanzee, 62 Chin, 85 Chloroform, 219 Cholera, 380 Chorea, 305 Christianity, 192, 370 Clavicle, 44 Cleft-palate, 360 Club-foot, 361 Colour-blindness, 140-145 4o6 &.:■!«?• " Ecstasy ,«, f"". S1.85 i^c'al angle s,l! °° io-51* '"DEX o^ W=arl 2,S '""fed ,.fi , 30, "^.S7»-jSj,,^ w, 31; " "MM,,,, i^ H INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 407 Law, S5, S6 Montaniats, 285 ^Baws aoii Jewesses, 91, 122, 141- Moral insanity, 36; HHI^ 3^3. 374 Motlttlity, 373 el stq. Motor sexual differences, 150-164, ^HhWIks, 143 248 ■i^Bbotism, 156 Music, 318-321 P Kidneys, 341 Myopia. 13s ■ Klikuschi, 292 Mysticism, 32. ' Kurds, 6 Myxcedema, 234 Kurnai, I Nadkn, C., 1S7 ■ Larynx. 235-23S Natality, 373 et siq. Navel, 43 Lata, 293 Lai [ah, 293 Laughler, 301 Negro, disTulnerability, 122; elo- iinence, 177; suicide. 329 Lead sails, 219-221 Legs, 48-50 Neurasthenia, 27S-285 Nicobarese, 39, 381 Liver, 240 Nilrous oxide, 269 el teq. Longeviiy, 229, 377 ^/ scq. Long-sigbt, 13s Number-forms. r46-I47 Lambo-venebiat index, 62 Obksity. morbid, 41 Lungs, 239 Otacenity, 309 Occipital refiion, 93, 110 Magic, 261 Old age, 378, 381 Mai roroiat ions, 35S Opisthotonus, 273 Mania, 344-345 Opium, 218, 221 - Manual dexlerily, 156-161 Orbit, 70 Manyuema, 4 MaiavetS, 91 Pain, i2o-tz5 ^^m Maihematics, 189 ^^^^H Mai to ids, 365 ^^^^H Maxillary angle, S5 Paranoia, 346 ^^^^H Medicine-craft. 6 Parietal regions, 91, 109 ^^^ Medulla, 112 Patagonians, 4 Melancholia, 344-34S Pelvis, 55 « "?• Perception, 171 Memory, 169 Periodiciiy, 244 el seq. ' Menslruilion, a ptitoLtive source Philosophic thought, 187-190 of mystery, 14; customs con- necled with, 15; inteUectual Pigmentation, 223-230, 245, 253 influence on women, 175; Poetry, 322-323 effects on blood, 199; on urine, Poisons, susceptibility (0, 216-223 115; thyroid, 233; phenomena Politics, 192-193 of, 244 tl teq. i is continuous. Pons varolii, I12 Post-oiHce, women at the, 181-184 etc, 254; and magic, 262 Potters, women as, 5-6, 316 Metaphysics, 321 Pouting, 301 Precocity of women, in height. Metabolism, 195 d stq. 34; in brain, 103; intelligence. Millers, women the first, 7 177; asupposed cause of, 246; 1 Modesty, 175 in Euicide, 333 L _^M y^j^^^B INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 409 DD, 60-62, 213, 242, 252, 304 213-216 L, 60 >nal tendency of men, 103, 138, 171, Z^^etseq,, 386 Dtor changes and emotion, s, 90 , Society of, 191 , 231 ^/ seq, l^^ef seq,, 251 Vital capacity, 202, 248 Voice, 235238, 252-253 Vomiting, 273 Weight, 32-40 Whooping-cough, 379 Wilhelminians, 191 Witchcraft, 13, 261-262, 369 Yahgan, 2 Zanzibaris, 122 Zymotic diseases, 379 tRE WALT£A SCOTI PAESSi NfWCASXL&Oli^-tt^^. ■ NEW BOOKS IMPORTED BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, NEW YORK CITY. GREAT "WRITERS. LIBRARY EDITION. 1 large paper of extra quality, in handsome binding. Demy Svo, price $\.Qa each. ALPHABETICAL LIST. n>a PRESS NOTICES. Life of Jane Austen. By Goldwin Smith. •' Mr. Goldwin Smilh has added another lo the of eminent men who have found their delight ir a fascinating book. "— Vec/a/or. Life of Balzac. By Frederick Wedmore "A finished study, a concentrated suraniary, a succinct analysis of j Balzac's successes and failures, and the causes of these s failures, anii of the scope of his genius." — Scellisk Leader. Life of Charlotte Bronte. By A. Biirell. " Those who know much of Charlotte Bionte will learn more, and thoH I who know nothing about hei will find all that is best worth learning in f Mr. Birtell's pleasant book. "— ^/. /fliwj' GoMtte. ' Life of Browning. By William Sharp. " This little volume is a model of excellent English, and in every respect 1 ' ieems to ua what a biograpby should be." — PubHc Opia,' 4o6 INDEX OF SUBJECTS. Coloui-peTMplian, 138-140 Colanred hearing, 146-147 CoiiTentioQaltiy, 186 CoMinence, 395 Convenion, 391, 395 Cortets, 209-11 1 Cranial capidly, Eg-94 Cranki, 36s Cieiinism, iporadic, 334 ; endi mic, 364 Cnminntily, 154-255, .1SI-3S7 Dancing, 2, 3. 307. 325 Dancing mania, 3S7 Deaf-mutes, 364 Dealh-rate, iJZtttej. Defecalion, 273 Dental index, 8S Dulrucliveness, 30S Diabetes, 3S7 DiRestion, 240 Diphtheria, 379 Diplomacy, 9 Disvulnernbilily, 132 Dolichocephalism, 76 Dreams, 263-267 Dwarf, 42 Eae, 362.364 Ecstasy, 261, 295 Emotion, 243, 298 u sif. English and Amtricant, difle ences between, 34 Epilepsy, 254, 305, 365 Epislolary style, iS3 Elect and quidnipedal postur 59-60, 65-66 Erotic phenomena, 272-273 Eskimo, i, S, 178 Excretion, 213-216 Exercise, 46, 209 Eye, 82, 251 Fighting, s, 4 Finger, 47 Fishing, 2 Foot, 50-51 Fright. 234-235. 30s Frontal region, 92, 105 Kronlo-iygomatic index, 8j Fuegians, 2, 43 General paralysis, 346-Jffl Genius, 366, 390 Oigaolism, 42 Glabella, 74 Glaucoma, 301 Glultony, 240 Goifre, 234 Gorilla, 33 Growth, 32-40 Guiana Indians, 3, 6 196-197 HEMOGLOBIN, Hair. 223-230, 359 Hallucinations, 267 Hand, 46 Hare- lip, 360 Head, 41-42, 6g ef . Hearing, 133-134 Hearing, coloured, r46<l47 Heart. 238-239, 300,^" Height, 32-40 Hip ,54 147 I Hunting, Hypatia, 187' Hypermeltopia, 135 Hypnotism, 259-261 Hysteria, 261, 264, 278-285. ilgi 301 Idiots, 364 Ikota, 392 Indnst rial capacity, 180-185 Infancy, 31, 102 Infanticide, 353 Infantile and childlike cfaaracteij of women, skull, 74, 75, 82J instincls, IBs I pulsc-rale, JOll old-age, 381 ; diseue, 387J generally, 388 Influenza, 3S0 I Insanity, 95, 355, 277, jor-ild 339-3S" 1 Intellect, 165 tl seg. \ liasdbility, 306 Iris, 303 '49,
INDEX OF
SUBJECTS. 407 ^ Jaw. 85, 86 I Jews and Jewesses, 91. 122, 141- Monlanists, 285 Moral insanily, 365 » '4. 363. 374 MorLalily, 373 el seq. Motor sexual differences, 150-164, Kaffirs, 142 243 Music, 318-321 Kidneys, 241 Myopia, 135 Klikusch!, 292 Mystieisco, 321 Kurds, 6 Myxade-na, 234 Kumai, I Naden, C, 187 Larynx. 235-238 Lata, 293 Lanah, 293 Laughter, 301 Natality, 373 «/«?. Navel, 43 Negro, disvulnerability, 122; elo- ([uence, 177; suicide, 329 ]>Bd sails, iI9-22I NaURABTKENIA, 278-285 Legs, 48-50 Nicobareae, 39, 381 Nitrous onidc, 2tg el seq. Number-forms, 146-147 Liver, 240 Longeviiy, 229, 377 tt seq. Long-siglit, 13s Lumbo-vertebial indei, 62 Obbsitv, morbid, 41 Lungs, 239 OtJScenily, 309 Occipital rcEion, 93 110 Maoic, a6i Old age. 378, 3S1 Opisthotonus, 273 Mania, 344-345 Opium, 2t8, 221 Manual dexleiity, 156-161 Orbit, 70 Manjmema, 4 Maravers, 91 Pain, 120-125 Malhemalics, 189 Painting, 318 Maltnids, 36S Papuans, 4, I42 1 Maxillary angle, 85 Paranoia, 346 Medicine-cratt, 6 Parietal regions, 91, 109 Medulla, 112 Pataconians, 4 PelvS, ss^;«4.. Melancholia, 344-345 Melanesiana, 11 Perception, 171 Memory, 169 Periodicity, 244 el seq. of myslery, 14; customs con- inQuence on women, 175; Poetry, 322-323 effects on blood, 199; on urine, Poisoni, susceptibility to, 216-223 215; ihyioid, i^y, phenomena Politics, 192-193 of, 244 el siq. ; is continuous, Pons varolii, 112 248; relation to criminality. Post-office, womenat the, 181-184 etc., 254; and magic, 262 Potters, women as, 5-6, 316 Metaphysics, 32 1 Pouting, 301 Precocity of women, in height. Metabolism, 195 rf iw. Millers, women the first, 7 I77i a supposed cause of, 246; Modesty, 175 1 in 5u.cide, 333 L _^ B_ _iL h^ ft""'- V " INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 409 ation, 60-62, 213, 242, 252, 3.304 e, 213-216 INA, 60 itional tendency of men, 103, 4, 138, 171, 358^/5^^., 386 -motor changes and emotion, 9 lahs, 90 ms, Society of, 191 tiA, 231 «/ se^, >n, iz^etseq.y 251 Vital capacity, 202, 248 Voice, 235-238, 252-253 Vomiting, 273 Weight, 32-40 Whooping-cough, 379 Wilhelminians, 191 Witchcraft, 13, 261-262, 369 Yahgan, 2 Zanzibaris, 122 Zymotic diseases, 379 tHE WALTEB SCOTT FA£SS, N£WCASXL&0¥(-ttl^%.
i!
1/ NEW BOOKS IMPORTED BY CHARLES SCR/BNER'S SONS, NEW YORK CITY. GREAT WRITERS. LIBRARY EDITION. Prinled on lar^^t paptr of extra quality, in handsome iitidins;, Demy Zvo, price Ji.oo each. ALPHABETICAL LIST. PRESS NOTICES. Life of Jane Austen. By Goldwin Smith. " M[. Golitwin Smith has added another to the not inconsiderEiblc loll eminent men who have found their delight in Jane Austen. Certainly ascinating book." — Spectator. Life of Balzac. By Frederick Wedmore. " A finished stud^, a concentrated summary, a succinct aoalysii of Balzac's successes and failures, and the causes of these successes and failures, and of the scope of his genius," — Stoltiih Leader. Life of Charlotte Bronte. By A. Biirell. "Those who know much of Charlotte Bronte will learn more, and thtise who know nothing about her will find all that is beat worth learning id Mr. Birrell's pleasant book." — Si. James' Gaulle. Life of Browning. By William Sharp, " This little volume is a model of excellent English, and in every respect a what a Hography should be." — Puilic Opinion. Index of subjects. I'reeaancj, 213, 233 Prehenailily, $1 Pn^iulhUiii. 8 J Trophelcsses, zSj Piostitules, 117, 118, Ito, 237 Pieudo-chtomxslhesia, 146-147 Psychology, the science of, 193 194, 251 Poberiy, development at, 34-36; influences aflccling,36-3S; mus- cular force al, 150; changes in blood, ipg; voice at, 236; menstrual phenomena at, 244 Faeliloi, 4 Pulse- laie, 100102, 350 Quadrupedal and erect pos- tures, ;9-6o, 65-66 Quakers, 141 Quintilians, 2S5 Rapiditv of perception, 171 Reaction- lime, 17Z, 24S Reading, 173, 325 Recidivism, 335 Religion, man's part in, 6; sexual differences among children, 171J hypnotic phenomena in, 285- 296; mystical authors, 321 Respiration, 202-212 Sacrum, 59, 63 Sod die back, 62 Salvation Army, 192 Savage chaiacleis of men, 74, 75 Scarlet fever, 379, "" Sculpture, 318 Secondary sexual charaeter, the term, 1S-21 Senses, 115;/ seg. Sense-judgmenls, 161-164 Sensibility and irritability, 149 Sewing es man's work, 5 ; as ■ 161 Sexual emotion and development of pelvis, 67'68; its period- icity, 250; under aneesihetics, 271-273; in hysteria, 283; in religion, 295; in insanity, 309; and Ibe artistic impulse, 326; perversions, 365 Sexual selection. Shaker . Short -sight. Sight, 134-147 Simian character . Similltaaieen Indians, z Singing, 325 Skpptsy, 291 SWuII. 70 K/ sef. Sleep. 259, 266 Smell, 125- 12S Somnal, si 8 SomDambulism, 259 Southcoltiant, 191 Spanish women, 62 Spinal column, 62-65 Spleen, 241 StammerinE, 177 Still-bom children, 35^1 Stomach, 239 Strength, 4, 155 Students, 391 Sudden death, 382 Suggestibility, 175, 185,281,293, 297, 306 Suicide, 25s, 275, 30s. 33^-339 Sul phonal, z6S Swedish boys and girls, develop-' mcnl of, 34-38 Tactfulnbss, 174, 303 Tactile sense, educability of, 115 . Tailoring, 3, 5 < Taste, 128-133 Tattooing, 317 Tears, 30 1 Teeth, 85-89 Temperatore, 212, ago, ghs, 4S, 4849 INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 409 Urination, 60-62, 213, 242, 252, 273. 304 Urine, 213-216 Vagina, 60 Variational tendency of men, 103, 134. 138, 171. 358^/^^^., 386 Vaso-motor changes and emotion, 299 Veddahs, 90 Victims, Society of, 191 Viscera, 231 et seq. Vision, I'^^etseq,, 251 Vital capacity, 202, 248 Voice, 235238, 252-253 Vomiting, 273 Weight, 32-40 Whooping-cough, 379 Wilhelminians, 191 Witchcraft, 13, 261-262, 369 Yahgan, 2 Zanzibaris, 122 Zymotic diseases, 379 tHE WALTER SCOTT FAESS, N£WCASTL&01!(-tt^%. I! ii 'I. I ' f I ! i ij • J I N ■■ A II 91. !r 1 1 r' I I! 1 1. I..
i^
1 3. I . I •i i i > I NEW BOOKS IMPORTED BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, NEW YORK CITY. GREAT WRITERS. LIBRARY EDITION. e paper of extra quality, in handsome binding. Demy &vo, price ^i.oo each. ALPHABETICAL LIST. PRESS NOTICES, Life of Jane Austen. By Goldwin Smith. " Mr. Guldwin Smith has added another to the not incomidetabi of eminenl men who have found their delight in Jane Austen. Cert a fascinating Imok." — Speclater. Life of Balzac. By Frederick Wedmote, " A tinished study, a conceutrnled summary, a succinct analyaia of I Baliac's successes and failures, and the causes of these successes and j failures, and of the scope of his genius." — Scaltish Ltadtr. Life of Charlotte Bronte. By A. Birrell. "Those who know much of Charlotte Bronte will learn more, and thoK \ who know nothing about het will find all that is best worth learning ii Mr. Birrell's pleasant book. "—Ji'./oBwj' Gaalle. Life of Browning. By William Sharp. " This little volume is a model of excellent English, and in every respect it seems to us what a biography should be." — Public Opinion. Life of Byron. By Hon. Roden Noel. ■* Ho (Ml. Noel) has at any fale given to the world llie wetL and comprehensible jwrttait of the poet ever drawn with peaildM MamfMUr Examintr. I Life of Bunyan. By Canon Venables. ■• A most inteUiEent, appreciative, and valuable memQir."^i«i«| Life o( Bums. By Professor Blackie. "The editor certainly made a hit when he persuaHed Bliriie m altoul Hums."— /"a// MitH Gazette. Life of Thomas Carlyle. By R. Garnett, LL.D, "This is an adiciiable book. Nothing could be mors fcliciU fairer ihan the way in which he takes us throiit»h Catlvle's life ui —Pall Malt Caulle. ' Life of Coleridge. By Hall Caine. " Itriet and vigorous, written throughout with stiiril and iTtttt ikilL"— 5nWj«WM. ^ * Life of Congreve, By Edmund Gosse. " Mr. Gosse has written an admirable and most ialerestiue a man of lellen who ii of particular intere^it to other men ( Till Academy. Lif- of Crabbe. By T. E, Kebbel. " No English poet since Shakespeare has observed cerlai nature and of human life more closely; and in the qiia!ilie5 and ot sincerity he is surpassed by none^ . . . Mr. Kebbel is worthy of the sulqect." — Athemiam. Life of Darwin. By G. T. Bettany. " Mt. G. T. Beilany"s Ufi of Danoin is a aound and . work," — Saturday RtviftU. Life of Dickens. By Frank T. Marzials. " Notwithstanding the mass of matter that has been printed reUtifll' Dickens and his works ... we should, until we came across this vol™ have been at a loss to recommend any popular life of England's"! popular novelist as being really satisfactory. The difficulty is remo """ Mr. Mariiala's little book. "—//A!n<™Hi. Life of George Eliot. By Oscar Browning. " We are thankful for this interesting addition to our knowledge □' t^- great novelist."— iiVerary Warld. Life of Emerson. By Richard Garnett, LL.D. " As to the larger section of the public, to whom the series of Gw i Writers is addressed, no record of Einersoa's life -and work could ba murt desirable, both in breadth of treatment and lucidity of style Ibao D Garnett'. " — Saturday Xtview. Life of Goetbe. By James Sime. "Mr. James Sime'a compelenee as a biographer of Goethe, bath it respect of knowledge of his special subject, and of German liieralart generally, is beyond queslion."— iWan^Aeift/- Guardian. Life of Goldsmith. By Austin Dobson. "The story of his literary and social life in London, with all its humorous and pathetic vicissitudes, is here retold, as none could tell il beller."— ZJaiVji JVtuis. 'athaniel Hawthorna By Moncure Conwa^r conversaliooal as the tone is ihroughdul, no import; useless fact is recalled." — Speaker.
eine. By William Sharp.
.n admirable monogcaph . . . mote fully wtiltca up to the . 1 i-j™-_j — ..- f :.. thenie than any olhcc English ^ of Victor Hugo. By Frank T. Marzials. "Mr. Marzials's volume piesents to us, in a more handy farm thia any English, or even French handbook gives, the summary of what, up to the moment in which we write, is known or conjectured about the life of the creal poet." — Saturday Review. % of Samuel Johnson. By Colonel F. Grant " Colonel Grant has peTformed his task with diligence, sound judgment, od taste, and accuracy." — fHitslralsd Lendon Ntwt. e of Keats. By W. M. Rossetti. "Valuable for the ample information which it contains." — Cambridge Ivdepeitdent. ife of Lessing. By T. W. Rolleston. " A picture of Lessing which is vivid and tiuthrul, and has enough of detail for all ordinary purposes." — Nalioit [New York). fc of Longfellow. By Prof. Eric S. Robertson. " A most readable little boo'&." ^Liverpool Mercury, ife of Marryat By David Hannay. t Mr. Hannay had to do — give a crafts man -like account of a .ftsman who has been almost incomprehensibly undervalued — could hardly have been done better than in this little volume."— ^/ai<- ehaler Guardian. ife of MjlL By W. L. Courtney. it sympathetic and discriminating memoir." — G/asgnui Htridd. ife of Milton. By Richard Garnett, LL.D. " Within equal compass the life-story of the great poet of Furitaoism has ver been more charmingly or adequately told." — Scaltish Leader. e of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. By J. Knight. "Mr. Knight's picture of the great poet and painter is the fullest and \ beat yet presented to the public."— TAe Graphic. lUfe of Scott. By Professor Yonge. r " For readers and lovers of the poema and novels of Sir Waller f.20lt, this is a most enjoyable book." — Aberdeen Free Press, Life of Arthur Schopenhauer. By Williarei Wallace. "The series of ' Great Writers' has hardly had a coniribulion of more marked and peculiar excellence than the book which the Whyte Professor of Moral Philosophy at Oxford has written for it on the attractive and still (in England) little known subject of Schopenhauer." — Manckttttr Guardian. Life of Shelley. By William Shaip. " The criticisms . . . entitle this capita! moni^raph to be ranked with I the best biographies of Shelley." — Wtstminster Rrview. L s ScKiBNEs's Sons. 'II l, .( .11 r ' NEW BOOKS IMPORTED BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, NEW YORK CITY. GREAT WRITERS. LIBRARY EDITION, Printed on lar^t paper of extra quality, in handsome binding. Demy Zvo,price ^i.oo tacit. ALPHABETICAL LIST. t analyiis of 'I PRESS NOTICES. Life of Jane Austen, By Goldwin Smith. " Mr. GoHwia Smith has added another to the of eminent men who have found their delight ia Ja a fascinating \/oo\." ^Sptetalor, Life of Dakar:. By Frederick Wedraore. " A linlshed studf, a concentrated summacy, i Balzac's successes and failures, and the causes of these s failures, and of the scope of his genius. " — Scalliik Leader, Life of Charlotte Bronte. By A. Birrell. "Those who know much of Charlotte Bionte will learn more, and thoaftj who know nothing about her will find all that is best worth learning In'T Mr. Birrell's pleasant book. "— Xi. /ojwj' Gazelle. " Life of Browning. By William Sharp. " This little. volume is a model of excellent English, and in every respect I it seems to ua what a biography should be." — Public Ofiinim Jipf Nathaniel Hawthorne. By Moncure Conway. _^j,' Easy and conuersational as ihe tone is throughout, no impurtant fact ^^jOmitled, no useless fact is recalled." — Sptakcr. of Heme. By William Sharp. '■_ " This 15 an admirable monogtaph . . . more fully written up to the ■^ vel of recent knowledge and criticism of its theme than any other English __l oik." —Scotsman. _ ; of Victor Hugo. By Frank T. Marzials. " Mr. Marzials's volume pre&eals to us, in a more handy form than any ^-.Snglbh, or even French handhook gives, the summary of what, up to the ^^nomenl in which we write, is known of conjecluied about the hfe of Che jreal poet."— Sa/urday Xevit!0,
e of Samuel Johnson. By Colonel F. Grant
" Colonel Grant has performed his task with diligence, souni! judgment, ^good taste, and accuracy." — IKmlrated Lendon News. fe of Keats. By W. M. Rossetti. "Valuable for the ample information which it contains." — Cambriii^ Independenl. fe of Lessing. By T. W. Rotleston. " A picture of Lessing which is vivid and truthful, and has enough o( detail for all ordinary purposes." — Nation (New York). fc of Longfellow. By Prof. Eric S. Robertson. " A most readable liltlE hooV." ^Li-nerpotil Mercury. e of Marryat. By David Hannay. ■' What Mr. Hannay had to do-give a craftsman- like account of a great craftsman who has been almost incomprehensibly undervalued— could hardly have been done better than in this little volume." — Man- theslir Guardian. it of Mill. By W. L. Courtney. " A most sympathetic and discriminating memoir." — Gias^OTV Herald. e of Milton. By Richard Garnett, LL.D. " Within equal compass the life-story o( the great poet of Puritanism has never been more charmingly or adequately told."— .Sf:>//i>A Leader. ife of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. By J. Knight. " Mr. Knight's picture of the great poet and painter is the fullest and best yet presented to the public. " — The Graphic. jfe of Scott By Professor Vonge. " For readers and lovers of the poems and novels of Sit Walter £.Mll, Lhia ia a most enjoyable book." — Aberdeen Free Press. Life of Arthur Schopenhauer. By William Wallace. " The series of ' Great Writers' has hardly had a co[ilribulion of Uiore marked and peculiar excellence than the book which the Whyte Professor ot Moral Philosophy at Oxford has written for it on the altraclive and Etill (in England) little known subject of Schopenhauei Guardian. life of Shelley. By William Sharp. r " The criticisms . . . entitle this capital monograph tc the best biographies of Shelley. "—(fe/miwirtr^fffiiia/. — MancAescir t-ife ""»« L""-y. ■etj-^'-^". A^ ■"J-Jf, nil,,, '^'an,., ■ "'"Ph. . "S, LIBRARY OF HUMOUR. EDITED BY W. H. DIRCKS. mill ionlainfmm JO lo 70 lUuilraiions and from 3S0 lo SOO pages. In each of these volumes the object will be to give an anthology of the humorous literature of the particular nation dealt with. France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain, and Holland ii li will each have their respective volumes; England, Ireland, and Scotland will each be represented, I as will also America and Japan. 'From China to Peru' the globe will be traversed in search of its jokes, in so far as they have recorded themselves in literature. The word Humour admits of many interpretations; for the pur- poses of this Series it has been interpreted in its broadest generic sense, to cover humour in all its phases as it has manifested itself among the various nationalities. Necessarily , founded on a certain degree of scholarly knowledge, these I I volumes, while appealing to the literary reader, will new* theless, it is hoped, in the inherent attractiveness and varietf of their contents, appeal successfully and at once to the in- lerest of readers of all classes. Starting from the early period) of each literature — in luty, for iostanc^ from the fourteenlh | century, with Boccaccio, Sacchetti, and Parabosco; in Francs with the amusing Fabliaux of the thirteenth century ; in Gernunj i from Hans Sachs; characteristic sketches, stories, and eslracis l from contemporary European and other writers whose genius is especially that of humour or esprit will be given. Indicating and suggesting a view and treatment of national life from i particular standpoin:, each volume will contain matter suggestive of the development of a special and important phase of nationil spirit and character, — namely, the humorous. Proverbs and maxims, folk-wit, and folk-tales notable for their pith and humour, will have their place; the eccentricities of modern newspaper humour will not be overlooked. Each volume will be well and copiously illustrated ; in many cases artists of the nationahties of the literatures represented will illustrate the volumes. To each volume will be prefixed an Introduction critically disengaging and marking the qualities and phases of the national humour dealt with ; and to each will be appended Notes, biographical and explanatory. LIBRARY OF HUMOUR Cloth Elegant, Larg VOLUMES ALREADY ISSUED. THE HUMOUR OF FRANCE. Translated, Introduclion and Notes, hj Elizabeth Lee. With i Illustralions by Paul Frfinieny. "From Villon lo Paul Verlaine, from daleless yiiWiHiijr to news- papers ftcEh from the kioEk, v/e have a tiemendous range of seleclioni." — Birmingham Daily Gazttte. " Frencti wit is excellently represented. We have here examplei of Villon, Rabelais, and MoliJrre, but we have specimens also of La Rochefancauld, Regard, Voilaiie, Beaumarchais, Chamfort, Dumas, Gautifi, Labiche, De Banville, Failleion, and many others. , . . The book sparkles from beginning to end." — Gicie (London). THE HUMOUR OF GERMANY. Translaied, with an Introduction and Notes, by Hans MuUer-Casenov. With numerous Illustrations by C. E. Brock. An excellently representative volume. — Dmly Teli^rapk (London). "Wh^her it is Saxon kinship or the line qualities of the collec- tion, we have found this volume the most enleilaining of the three, lis riotous absurdities well overbalance its examples of the oppres- sively heavy, . . . The national impulse to make (un of the war correspondent has a capital example io the skit from Jul] Sleltenheim." — New York liidepindcHl. I I Sleltei ^ewVork: CHARLES SCB Life of Byron. By Hon. Roden Noel. " He (Mt. Kocl) has at any rale given t( and comprehensilile porlrnit of the poet eve Mmuhisltr Eiamiiur. Life of Bunyan. By Canon Venables. " A moat inielligeti!, appreciative, and valuable memoii." — ScMmt Life of Burns. By Professor Blackie. " The editor certainly m.ide a hit when he periUaHed Blarkie U about tiatBi"— Fall Mall GasxUi. Life of Thomas Carlyle. By R. Garnett, LL.D. "Thii is an admirable book. Nolliiiig could be more felidtotu ij fairer than the way in which he lakes us throug'i Carlyle's life and » " —Fall Atal! Ga-Mte. Life of Coleridge. By Hall Caine. " Uiiet and vigorous, written tlicoughout with spirit and great 1i sk ilL ' ' — Siolsman. Life of Congteve, By Edmund Gosse. " Mr. Gassc has written an admirable and most interesting biogradL a man of letters who is of patlicular interest lo other men of lellen?^ 77it Atadtmy. Lif- of Crabbe. By T. E. Kebbel. " No English poet since Shakespeare has observed certain aspect* ol nature and of human life more closely; and in the qualities of minlin^ and of sincerity he is surpassed by none, , . . Mr. Kebbel's morograpli is worthy of the subject." — AlhcititHm, Life of Darwin. By G. T. Bettany. " Mr. G. T. Bettany's Life af Darwin is a sound and conscientioDS work." — Saturday Kevieai. Life of Dickens, By Frank T, Marzials. " Not withstanding the mass of matter that has been printed relating lo Dickens and his works ... we ahoHld, until we came across this volume, have been at a loss to recommend any popular life of England's moil popular novelist as being really satisfactory. The difSculty is removed by Mt. Mariials's little book." — Alienauni. Life of George Eliot. By Oscar Browning. "We are thankful for this inleiesting addition to our knowledge of the great novelist." — Literary iVarld. Life of Emerson, By Richard Garnett, LL.D, " As to the larger section of the public, to whom the series of Great Writers is addressed, no record of Emerson's life -and work could be more desirable, both in breadth of treatment and lucidity of style, than Dr. Garnctt's." — Saturday Reoiaa. Life of Goethe. By James Sime. "Mr. James Sirac's competence as a biographer of Goethe, bath in respect of knowledge of his special subject, and of German literature generally, is beyond question." — Manchesltr Guardian. Life of Goldsmitli. By Austin Dobson. "The story of his literary and so::i.il life in London, with all its humorous and pathetic vicissitudes, is here retold, as none could tell it \^tKKet"— Daily News. New Yorki Chakuk Sckibnek's Sws. Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne. By Moncure Conway. " Easy s.ai] conversational is the tone is ihroughout, no inip<iita.nt s amitted, no useless fact is recalled." — Spcaiir. Life of Heine. By William Sharp. "This is an admirable n]on<^rEiph , . . more fully written up to the I level or recent knowledge and criticism of its Ibeme than any other Ei^lish I work. " — Stutsman. Life of Victor Huga By Frank T, Marzials. " Mr. Mariials's volume presents to us, in a more handy form tha.D any I English, or even French handbook gives, the summary of what, up to the ' moment in wbich vre write, is known or conjectured about the life of the great poet."^Sti/urday Savi^tv. Life of Samuel Johnson. By Colonel F. Grant. " Colonel Grant has peiforraed his task with diligence, sound judgment, good taste, and accuracy." — lliustraltd Lendon News. Life of Keats. By W. M. Rossetti. i "Valuable for the ample information wbich it contains, "^Cam^rii^ J Life of Leasing. By T. W. Rolleston. " A picture of Leasing wbich is vivid and trulhrul, and has enough ot I detail for all ordinary purposes. "—A'B^ii'B (New York). -Life of Longfellow. By Prof. Eric S. Robertson. " A most readable little book." — Liverfeal Mtrcurj: Life of Marryat By David Hannay. "What Mr. Hannay had to do— give a craftsman-like account ol a great craftsman who has been almost incomprehensibly undervalued— f could hardly have been done better than in this little volume."— ^iw- J chislir Ctuan/iaii, Life of Mill. By W. L Courtney. "A most sympathetic and discriminating memoir." — Glas^imi Herald. Life of Milton. By Richard Garnett, LLD. " Within equal compass the life-story of the greal poet of Puritanism ba| ever been more charmingly or adetjuately lolJ." — Scuttish Leader. Life of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. By J. Knight. " Mr. Knight's picture of the great poet and painter is the fullest and ! est yet presented to the ^a\i\\z."—Tht Graphic. Life of Scott. By Professor Yonge. " For readers and lovers of the poems and navels of Sir Walter S::xit|^fl lis is a most enjoyable book." — Abirdein Ftce Press, Life of Arthur Schopenhauer. By William Wallace. " The series of ' Great Writers ' has hardly had a coiiiribution of i; marked and peculiar excellence than the hook which the Wbyle Profiasor of Moral Philosophy at Oxford baa written for it on the attractive S-id atill (in England) little known subject of Schopenhauer." — Manciestcr Guardian. Life of Shelley. By William Sharp. " The criticisms . . . entitle this capital monograph to be raoked wiCb-J the best biographies of Shelley." — IVcslminsler Review. ^^^^ New York; Chaklbs ScaiBNBa's SOM! "^•"Slwdtt B,r. ^^ IfcwL'^,"" •« PoU.,„r '"° '"°-^'»"J,", "I" ■'I ■""■nes loot „ tr'^'^J economy. . * '<> e'udd.iej Life -Life Life Life °'!^iei.H„, % Franci, ^'fJassc. J-ife of '" Kenan. % Fran, i-ompie, BiU. " ^Spinas 'ton, wnasse. ^'J' J. i-. I LIBRARY OF HUMOUR. EDITED BY W. H. DIRCKS. Each Volumi will contain freni Jo « ^o Illustralions atu from 3SO t' 500 page!. In each of these volumes the object will be to give an anthology of the humorous literature of the particular nation dealt with, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain, and Holland ^j willeachhavetheirrespectivevolumes; England, I Ireland, and Scotland will each be represented, I as will also America and Japan. ' From China to Peru' the globe will be traversed in search of its jokes, in so far as they have recorded themselves in h'terature. The word Humour admits of many interpretations; for the pur- poses of this Series it has been interpreted in its broadest generic sense, to cover humour in all its phases as it has manifested itself among the various nationalities. Necessarily founded on a certain degree of scholarly knowledge, these V
^ each J(,p„. ^f all ^. "cca
'"""■7. Srr-'n rSf^'^^l ■' '^ appended j^^ LIBRARY OF HUMOUR Ciolh Elegant, Large 121110, Price $1.25 fer vol. VOLUMES ALREADY ISSUED. THE HUMOUR OF FRANCE. Translated, with an Inttoduclion and Notes, by Eliiabeth Lee. Wilh numetoiu lUuslralions b; Paul Frfnzeny. "From Villon to Paul Vcrlaine, from daleless /ai/taict lo news- papers fresh (rom the kiosk, we have a tremendous range of Sa\eziiaci."—Birruinsham Daily Gazellt. " French wit is eKcellcntly represented. We have here examples of Villon, Rabelais, and Moliirc, but we have apeciraens also of La Rochefoucauld, Regnard, Voltaire, Beaumarchais, Chamfort, Dumas, Gautier, Labiche, De Bonville, Pailkron, and many otheis. . . . The book spatltles from beginning to end. " — G/pfe (London). THE HUMOUR OF GERMANY. Translated, with an Inlroducli™ and Notes, by Hans MuUer-Casenov. \Vith numerous Illustntions by C. E. Brock. An excellenlly represenlalivevolume.— Z'lW'/ii Tih^raph (London), "AVbpther it is Saxon kinship or the tine qualities of the collec- tion, we have found this volume the most enterlaiaiog of the three. Its riotous absurdities well overbalance its examples of the oppres- sively heavy. . . . The oalional impulse lo make fun of tht war correspondent has a capital example in the skit from Julius Steltenheim." — Neai York Indepindenl. THE HUMOUR OF ITALY. Translated, with an In- tioduction »nd Notes, by A. Werner. With 50 Illustralions and ■ Ftonlispiece by Arturo FaldL " Will reveal to English reaiieis a ubolc new world of literature. — Aiktnaum (London). "Apart ftom selectioDS of writers of classical reputation, the book conlaina tome delightful modem short stories and skeldl^ We may paTticularly mention those by Verga, Capuana, De Amicii. ■ . - Eiccllcnt also are one or two of the jokea and 'bulls' which fignie under the heading of newspapei humour." — Lrteraty JF(»-/rf(Londonl- THE HUMOUR OF AMERICA. Selected, with a copious Biographical Inde* of American Humorists, by James Bart, " There is nol a dull page in the volume ; it fairly sparkles nnd ripples with good \\i\'a^s' —ManchisUr Exavihter, THE HUMOUR OF HOLLAND. Translated, with an Introduction and Notes, by A. Werner. With nuraeroui Illustrations by Dudley Hardy. "There are some quite irresistible pieces in the volume. The illustralions are excellent, and the whole style in which the book b produced reflects credit on the publishers." — British Weekly. "There are really good things in the book — things of quaint or piettyfancy, thingsofstrongorsubtlesalire. . . . Even Mark Twain, in ' Tom Sawyer and ' Huck Finn,' does nol show a finer knowledge of the humours of imaginative boyhood than is displayed by Conrad van del Liede in ' My lllero.' " — Daily Chtsniclt. THE HUMOUR OF IRELAND. Selected by D. J. O'Donoghue. With numerous Illustrations by Oliver Paque. "A most conscientiously, exhaustively, excellently compiled book ; the editor could not have done his work better. . . . Every gen'e of Irish Humour as it is, or has been, written, ftom the twelfth century down to the evening -newspaper age." — Thi Speaker (London). THE HUMOUR OF SPAIN. Translated, wnh an Intro- duction and Notes, by S. Taylor. With numerous Illusltations. THE HUMOUR OF RUSSIA, by E. L Boole, and an Inlroduci Illustralions by Paul Ft^nieny. Translated, with Notes, on by Slepniak. With 50 THE HUMOUR OF JAPAN. Translated, with an Introduction, by A. M. With Illustrations by George B^pic (&Dfn Drawings made in Japan). f/rhe Contemporary Science Series. Edited by Havelock Ellis. Crown 8vo, Clo(h. Price $1.35 per Volume. I. THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. By Prof. Patrick Geddes and J. A. Thomson. With 50 lUusiraiions. Second Edition. '* The amhoTE have brought to Ibe task — as indeed iheir names guarantee — a wealth of knowledge, a lucid and attiactive method of treatment, and % rich vein of picturesque langnBge," — Nature. IL ELECTRICITY IN MODERN LIFK By G. \V. de TUNZELMANN. With 8g Illuslrations. " A cleaily-wiilten and connected sketch q( what is known about eles- tricily and magnetism, the more prominent modem applications, and the principles on which they are baled." — Salurday Hcvievi. IIL THE ORIGIN OF THE ARYANS- By Dr. Isaac Taylor. Illustrated. Second Edition. " Cation Taylor is probably the mosl encyclopedic all-round Echolar now living. His new volume on the Origin of the Aryans is a (irst-rate example of the excellent account lo which he can turn bii exceptionally wide and varied iniormailon. . . . Masterly and eihaustive." — tail Mall Gaulle. IV. PHYSIOGNOMY AND EXPRESSION. By P. Mante- GAZZA, lUustrated- Brings this highly interesting subject cien with the latest researches. . . . Professor Mantegazia is a writer full of life and sjiirit, and the natural alimcliTenesa of his subject ts not destroyed by his scieniilic handling o.'il. Liltraty Jfor/rf (Boston). V. EVOLUTION AND DISEASE. By J. B. Sutton, F.R.C.S. With 135 Illustrations, "The book is as interesting as a novel, without sacrifice of accuracy or system, and is calculated to give an appreciation of the fundamentals of pathology 10 the lay reader, while forming a useful collection of illuslrations of disease for medical lelcieacc. —Journal a/ Aleiital Ssimce. VI. THE VILLAGE COMMUNITY. By G. T.. Gomme. Illustrated- '■ His book will probably remain for some lime the best wotk of reference for facts bearing on those traces of the village community which have not been eflaced by conquest, encroachment, and the heavy hand of KomiO law."— 5[o//i"jA LeaJtr. VIL THE CRIMINAL. By Havelock Ellis. Illtisirated. " An ably written, an instructive, and a most entertaining book," — Lav/ Quattirly Reviem. "The s[>ciologist, the philosopher, the philanthropist, the novelist — all, indeed, lot whom the study of human nature has any attraction — will End Mt. Ellis full of interest and snggestiveDBss." — AcatUmy. \ .,„H..SENCE OF K^,sy "■■'>«. >v.^^. ""•■'mi. »kihg'^/«W.,d b?»p«ti., „,* — ■-'-I- in Af,'„j — ■"'/ D 115 ,„,"""' any otw t — '^>'e ha ^^'- .^"'^ MA« OP .J "■°-' "°»""»ct3l j,.VII. THE GRAMMAR OF SCIENCE. By Prof. Karl Pearson, Illustrated. " The problems discussed with great abillly and lucidity, and often in n raoat suggestive manner, by Prof. Pearson, are such as should interest all students of natural science." — Natuial Science. CVIII. PROPERTY: ITS ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT. By Ch. LETO0RNEAO, General Secretary to the Anthropo- logical Society, Paris, and Professor in the School of Anthropo- ^ log'y, Paris. "M. Leloumeau has read a great deal, and he seems to us to have t selected and interpreted his facts with considerable judgment and learniac;." —WittmimUr Jx'niiew. -XIX VOLCANOES, PAST AND PRESENT. By Pro£ Edward Hull, LL.D., F.R.S. " A very readable account of the iihenomena of volcanoes and eailh- quakes." — Na'urc. XX. PUBLIC HEALTH. By Dr. J. F. J. Sykes. With numerous Illustrations. " Not by any means a mere compilation oi a dry record of details and ■latistics, but it takes up essential pointi in evolution, eDviionment, prophy. "s, and sanitalion bearing upon the preservation of public health." — lul. * KXL MODERN METEOROLOGY. An Account of the Growth and Present Condition of some Branches OF Meteorological Science. By Frank Waldo, Ph.D., Member of the German and Austrian Meteorological Societies, etc; lale Junior Professor, Signal Service, U.S.A. With lu Illustrations. " The present volume is the best on Ihe subject fof general use Ihal we have % » hyfinttised, and under their creator's imperiota demand 10 rental There never was such a mirrer held up to nature Ufgre : it it ■ . ■ Yet vie must return ta Ibsen, vdli his remsrseless surgery, il rtmsneles! eleetric-ligkt, until a/e, leu, have grown strong and learned to r fate the naked — if necessary, the fiayed <md bleeding-— reality." — Spbakeb [ (London). Vol. I. "A DOLL'S HOUSE," "THE LEAGUE OF YOUTH," and "THE PILLARS OF SOCiETV." Wiih Portrail: of the Aulbor, and Biographical Introduction by WilliamArcher. Vol. IL "GHOSTS," "AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE," ■ "THE WILD DUCK." With an Introductory Note. Vol. in. "LADVINGEROFOSTRAT," "THEVIKINGS AT HELGELAND," "THE PRETENDERS." With an Introductory Note and Portrait of Ibsen. Vol. IV. "EMPEROR AND GALILEAN." With an Introductory Note by WILLIAM ARCHER. Vol. V. "ROSMERSHOLM," "THE LADY FROM THE SEA," "HEUDA GABLEE." Translated by WILLIAM Archer. With an Introductory Note. Vou VL "PEER GVNT: A DRAMATIC POEM." Authorised Translation by William and CHARLES ARCHER. The sequence of the plays in each volume is chronologica] ; the complete set of volumes comprising the dramas thus preaenis them in chronological " The art of prose translation does not perhaps enjoy a very high literary status in England, but we have no hesilation in numbering the present version of Ibsen, so far as it ha3 gaae (Vols, I. and II.), among the veiy best achievements, in that kind, olour generation." — jitademy. "We have seldom, if ever, met with a ttansUtion h absolutelr idiomatic " — Claigoiii Herald. New York ; Chaklks Scribnbr's Sons. I I IBSEN'S DRAMASJ Edited by William Archer. lamo, CLOTH, PRICE S1.2S PER VOLUME. ^t stun at latl ta be sheiuK van and TuomtH at iluy art ; and ai firil it ^ Kji mere Ihan we can endure. , . , All Jbten's chatacters speak and act at if \ ■ 4ity were kypnetised, and under their crealot's imperious demand te reveal ] MMttnukiet, There never wat such a mtrrer held up lo nature before B'/M lirrible, , , , Yet we must return la Ibsen, with his remorseless si jT his remorseless elcclrie-Hght, until we, too, have groain strong and leai ■ face the naked — if necessary, the flayed and bUeding^Teality." — Sp. T (London). Vol- I. "A DOLUS HOUSE," "THE LEAGUE OF YOUTH," and "THE PILLARS OF SOCIETY." Wilh Portrait of the Author, and Biographical Introduction by Willi amArcher. Vol. II. " GHOSTS," " AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE," and "THE WILD DUCK." Wilh an Inlroduclory Note. Vol. in. "LADY INGER OF OSTRAT," "THE VIKINGS AT HELGELAND," "THE PRETENDERS." With an Iniroduciory Note and Portrait of Ibsen. Vol. IV. "EMPEROR AND GALILEAN." Wilh an Introductory Note by WILLIAM Archer. Vol. V. "ROSMERSHOLM," "THE LADY FROM THE SEA," "HEDDA GABLEE." Translated by WILLIAM Archer. With an Introductory Noie. Vol. VL "PEER GVNT: A DRAMATIC POEM." Authorised Translation by William and Charles Archer. |[ The sequence of ihc plays in each volume is chronological [ the complete set of volumes comprising the dramas thus presenls them ia chronological "The »rt of prose translation doe« not perhaps enjoy a very high literary status in England, bat we have no hesitation in numbering the present version of Ibsen, so far as it has gone (Vols. \. and II.}, among the very ^_ best achievements, in that kind, of our generation."— ^faii^;n>'. ^H I "We have seldom, if ever, met with a translation so ahsolulely ^| ' Idiomatic."— Ci^i^mK Herald. ^H I New York 1 Charles Scrienbr's Sons. ^H I LAN! W;:2:CAL IISRAKV r -.^: r* :h< date '-ast stamred "cwlcw. Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Man and Woman (Havelock Ellis)" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

Retrieved from "http://artandpopularculture.com/Man_and_Woman_%28Havelock_Ellis%29"

Man and Woman (Havelock Ellis)

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

See also

Full text[1]

Views

Personal tools

Search

Metas

Navigation