580 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



size of the body, than men. Many external facts strengthen this 

 theory. But nervous matter distributed over the body, in the form 

 of threads and sensory ganglia, although it would certainly increase 

 the amount of sensitiveness, by giving more nervous surface in pro- 

 portion to the entire mass, would tend to create a preponderance of 

 emotion over thought. Very strong probability is lent to this expla- 

 nation by the liability of women to nervous excitement and disease. 



Before dropping the argument from physiology, I wish to refer 

 once more to the necessary relation between size and power. Let us 

 suppose two cases for experiment. Let them be respectively that of 

 a man weighing one hundred and fifty pounds, and that of a woman 

 weighing one hundred and thirty pounds. These figures are not far 

 from the average weight of man and woman. In the woman the 

 digestive organs will be smaller ; the absorbing surface will be less ; 

 the lung-surface will be less ; the quantity of blood will be less (and 

 here we may throw in the interesting physiological fact that the solid 

 constituents of the blood of woman are rated about eight per cent less 

 than in man i. e., the watery ingredient is larger in woman). Now, if 

 we suppose these two persons to be under similar and normal condi- 

 tions, with each organ bearing a harmonious relation in size to every 

 other i. e., if the brain of the man have the same proportion to the 

 weight of his body as the brain of the woman to the weight of her 

 body it inevitably follows (if both assimilate proportionate amounts 

 of food in a given time) that more blood will be sent to the brain of 

 the man within a given time than to the brain of the woman in the 

 same time. Consequently, the man will do more thinking in an hour 

 than the woman. Nor will the woman ever be able to overtake the 

 man in the race of thought, any more than she can overtake him in the 

 amount of circulation ; for his brain is of exactly the same quality as 

 hers, but it is larger. 



In order to see more clearly the importance of the factor of time in 

 this calculation, as well as to get a clearer understanding of the law of 

 the transformation of energy, let us make the further supposition that a 

 pound of bread is gradually converted into vital energy in both these 

 organisms. In the first place, the capacity for mastication and deglu- 

 tition will be smaller in the woman. She will not be able to swallow 

 her pound of bread in the same time as will the man. But supposing 

 that he gave her this advantage (since it would depend on his will), yet, 

 when the pound of bread had been transferred to the respective stom- 

 achs, the smaller lining membrane of the woman's could not secrete 

 as much gastric juice in a given time as the man's ; and as she could 

 make no gain in time from his generosity (for the bread would have 

 passed beyond the control of his will), she could not possibly get her 

 bread digested and absorbed in so short a time as he. His blood could 

 furnish the intestinal juices, reabsorb them with the food in solution, 

 and go about some other work, while hers, with just as much work 



