92 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



impede the natural development of function, and that there may b.e a 

 number of women in every age whose case demands special consider- 

 ation. Though the births of males are slightly in excess of the births 

 of females, the females in the prime of life exceed the males in number, 

 and it follows, therefore, that, even could every male afford to marry, 

 there would still be some women husbandless. The difficulty which 

 here meets us is only one among many of those which appear irremedi- 

 able not only to statesmen, but to men of science ; it is no more prob 

 able that the body social will ever be so constituted as to secure the 

 happiness of every individual, than that the human frame will cease 

 to be subject to disease. There is, indeed, no doubt that the science 

 of health and the science of politics are closely allied, and that each 

 must be imperfect without the other. The end of both is the extinc- 

 tion of mental and bodily pain, but that end seems to be unattainable. 

 Anatomists and physiologists know only too well that, had freedom 

 from disorder been the object with which our organs are constructed, 

 the means would have been lamentably ill adapted to the end, that 

 every malady is easily induced, and with difficulty checked, and that 

 the greater part of mankind start in the career of life with some in- 

 herited weakness. It is true that much has been done toward the 

 mitigation of epidemic diseases, and it is possible that something may 

 be done toward the alleviation of social grievances ; but the success 

 which has been achieved in one case affords a very instructive lesson 

 toward the mode of proceeding in the other. Epidemics have been 

 deprived of their worst sting, not by any political theories, nor by a 

 (statement of human rights, nor by a definition of man or woman, nor 

 by a refusal to consider our physical organization, nor by any attempt 

 to alter it, but by a careful study of the facts of Nature, and by plac- 

 ing humanity, such as it is, in a more favorable condition toward the 

 outer world, such as it is. 



How the woman who cannot marry may be most favorably placed 

 is a problem which can hardly be solved in general terms, and which 

 must be answered according to the exigencies of each particular case. 

 But it may be safely asserted that the gift of votes to the whole female 

 sex would not in any way improve the condition of old maids ; wher- 

 ever keenness of observation and a retentive memory are of service, 

 there is a good prospect of success for a cultivated female intellect 

 In proportion as the instincts of sex are suppressed, the range of acqui 

 sition may be widened. Woman naturally loves to teach the young, 

 and, when she is without husband, home, or children, she may well 

 succeed in teaching more than children can learn. She naturally loves 

 to tend the sick of her family, and, when she is without family ties, she 

 may, perhaps with advantage, add a knowledge of medicine to hei 

 other gifts, and bring comfort to the bedside of strangers. In short, 

 she may exercise her feminine capacities in a more extended field of 

 action than that of her own house; but, should she ever enter fairly 



