2i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



terest lies rather with the finished product. Of the 483,517 patents 

 issued by the U. S. Patent Office prior to October, 1892, 3,458 were 

 granted to women. In general, woman's thought is less method- 

 ical and less deep. The arts, sciences, and philosophy owe their 

 progress more to man than to woman. Whether one studies the 

 history of logic, mathematics, or philosophic thought, of the spe- 

 cial sciences or scientific discovery and invention, of poetry or gen- 

 eral literature, of musical composition or technique, of painting, 

 sculpture, or architecture, one is engaged more with the names of 

 men than of women. Even in those spheres for which woman by 

 her peculiar physical or mental qualities is particularly adapted, 

 such as vocal music, the stage, and the writing of novels, it is 

 doubtful whether a list of the greatest artists would include more 

 women than men. Even in the arts of cooking and dressmaking, 

 when men undertake them they often excel. Woman, owing to 

 her greater patience, her intuition, and her retentive memory, as 

 well as her constant association with the young, is especially 

 qualified for teaching and has equal or greater success in this 

 work than man. Yet all educational reforms, from the kindergar- 

 ten to the university, have originated with the latter. 



What woman loses in profundity she gains in quickness. She 

 excels in tact, and extricates herself from a difficulty with aston- 

 ishing adroitness. In language she is more apt than man. Girls 

 learn to speak earlier than boys, and old women are more talkative 

 than old men. Among the uneducated the wife can express her- 

 self more intelligently than the husband. Experience in coeduca- 

 tional institutions shows that women are more faithful and punc- 

 tilious than men, and at least equally apt. In colleges where a 

 record of standing is kept the women gain probably a somewhat 

 higher average. In the years immediately following graduation 

 the men make much greater intellectual progress. Women reach 

 their mental maturity at an earlier age, and develop relatively less 

 after maturity. In many kinds of routine work, especially that 

 requiring patience, women are superior, but they are less able to 

 endure protracted overwork. 



We have seen that woman is less modified physically than man 

 and varies less from the average. The same is true mentally. 

 Women are more alike than men and more normal, as it were. 

 The geniuses have been men for the most part, and so have the 

 cranks. Woman's thought pursues old rather than new lines. 

 Her tendency is toward reproduction, while man's is toward pro- 

 duction. Woman loves the old, the tried, and the customary. She 

 is conservative, and acts as society's balance-wheel. Man repre- 

 sents variation. He reforms, explores, thinks out a new way. 



One of the most marked differences between man and woman is 

 the greater excitability of the nerve centers in the latter. Woman 



