210 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



All facts are best studied in the light of an idea. It may be 

 conducive to clearness, therefore, to mention first the leading 

 theories now in the field concerning woman's peculiarities. It 

 has often been asserted since Aristotle that woman is a stunted or 

 inferior man and represents arrested development. Again, it has 

 been said that woman is a grown-up child, that she belongs to the 

 child type, and must ever to some extent retain the child relation. 

 Again, more recently, it has been maintained that although 

 woman belongs to the child type, yet the child type is in truth 

 the race type and represents greater perfection than is represented 

 by man, whose natural characteristic is senility. Finally, it has 

 been said that throughout the whole animal world, where arti- 

 ficial circumstances have not modified natural relations, the 

 female stands for physical superiority in size and vitality, 

 and more truly represents the essential qualities of the species. 

 Without prejudice for or against any of these theories, let us see 

 what evidence there may be for each. 



Psychology is no longer studied apart from physiology. We 

 must therefore first notice some of the secondary sexual charac- 

 teristics of woman in respect to her physical structure. Although 

 we are chiefly concerned with the nervous system, a few other 

 points may first be mentioned. Woman among all civilized races 

 is both shorter and lighter than man, except at the age of thirteen 

 or fourteen in our climate, when girls are both taller and heavier 

 than boys of like age. Woman's form is more rounded and grace- 

 ful, less bony and angular, having relatively more fat and less 

 muscle. Her muscular tissue contains a slightly larger percent- 

 age of water. As shown by the dynamometer, woman's strength 

 is at the most only about two thirds that of man, while her height 

 is as sixteen to seventeen and her weight as nine to ten. In 

 woman the trunk is, relatively to the length of the arms and 

 legs, longer than in man. Owing to the greater inclination of the 

 pelvis, woman is somewhat less erect than man. The head also is 

 carried less upright, and the gait is comparatively unsteady and 

 indirect. The greater length of the first finger as compared with 

 the third is a feminine peculiarity. This relation, seldom found 

 in man, is not uncommon among women. It gives grace to the 

 hand, and would seem to be an instance of higher evolution, not 

 being found among apes or savages. The vocal cords in woman 

 are shorter and the voice is higher and shriller. The larynx is 

 smaller and higher in the throat. The thyroid gland is con- 

 siderably larger than in man. It is thought that women in 

 respect to hair and eyes are slightly darker than men, but this 

 has not been verified. Woman's lung capacity is in proportion to 

 her size much less than man's, and the amount of carbonic acid 

 expired is relatively less. Differences in the blood are well 



