2 9 2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



stricted to the Rocky Mountains and the adjacent plains ; while the 

 black bear takes his place in other parts of the North American Conti- 

 nent, except in the extreme northwest. The Malayan bear we found 

 distributed over the archipelago that bears its name, the southern 

 part of Asia, and even South America, though with slight modifica- 

 tions. The brown bear ( Ursus arctos), we have seen, holds undisputed 

 sway of Europe, of Asia north of the Himalayas, and that it probably 

 extends even to the northwestern part of North America. And, in 

 marked contrast with this wide range, we find the sloth-bear confined 

 to the Himalayas, and the polar bear to the Arctic Ocean. 



-+*+- 



WOMAN'S PLACE IN NATURE. 



By FKANCES EMILY WHITE, M. D. 



PROGRESS in knowledge is defined by Herbert Spencer as " the 

 bringing of thoughts into harmony with things." Plato enun- 

 ciated the same great truth more than two thousand years ago. 

 "Man," he says, "is not a system-builder; his loftiest attainment 

 reaches no higher than this : through endeavor, through discipline, 

 through virtue, he may see what is." Recognizing the profound wis- 

 dom of these utterances of the ancient and the modern master, I pro- 

 pose, in studying the nature and place of woman, to be guided by this 

 principle, which has led to results so satisfactory in other departments 

 of science, and, forgetting theories, to study woman as she is. Should 

 some onward glances be attempted, " a scientific use of the imagina- 

 tion" only will be indulged in, and the possibilities of the future will 

 be inferred from the actualities of the past and the present. 



As man's place in Nature is to be comprehended only by compari- 

 son with the various grades of organisms below him in the scale of 

 being, so woman's place, as compared with that of man, is to be right- 

 ly understood only by a study of the relations of the sexes through 

 the whole range of organized beings, involving a consideration of vege- 

 table existence even, since sex accompanies all its higher forms. Para- 

 doxical as it may seem, the less includes the greater evolution being 

 an unrolling or unfolding of that which potentially exists. It is by 

 means of such a review, if at all, that we may hope to find answer to 

 the questions of the day, relating to woman. How does she differ 

 from man, and to what extent do these differences modify or deter- 

 mine her place in life ? In other words, how does that differentiation 

 of the human germ which we designate as feminine, influence the or- 

 ganism as a whole ? Will these questions admit of complete solution ? 

 Probably not ; no great question has ever yet been fully answered 

 and, although the human organism may be divided, for purposes of 



