466 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



HI GHEE EDUCATION OF WOMEN AND KACE SUICIDE. 



BY A. LAPTHORN SMITH, B.A., M.D. 

 MONTBEAL. 



EDUCATION on the continent of America, and more especially 

 in the United States, has reached a point of perfection which 

 hardly leaves room for any further development.* At first sight, this 

 would seem to be a very satisfactory state of affairs and, to the ordi- 

 nary observer, the question of still higher education would seem to 

 be deserving of all praise. ' You can not have too much of a good 

 thing/ they say, and the very highest possible degree of education for 

 women is none too good or too great for them. But to those who 

 look beyond the present and only a little way into the future a great 

 danger is gradually arising, a danger which will go on increasing until 

 it brings about a revolution the signs of which are already beginning 

 to be seen and which will effectually put an end to the evil which is 

 to form the subject of this paper. The author will limit himself 

 principally to a discussion of the harm resulting from too high an 

 education of women, because on that part of the subject he has had 

 exceptional opportunities for observation and for drawing accurate 

 conclusions; but, incidentally, he will take the liberty of questioning 

 the advisability of affording higher education freely to the people at 

 large, of the male, as well as of the female sex. 



The author regrets to be like a voice crying in the wilderness, a 

 note of warning against what the majority of people consider to be 

 an unalloyed blessing; and some will no doubt say that he is going 

 back to the time of the great preacher who said ' he that increaseth 

 knowledge increaseth sorrow.' And yet all the facts on which his con- 

 clusions are based are known to many thousands, and even millions, of 

 people in America, and even, though to a lesser extent, in England, 

 where the same disastrous results are following the same apparently 

 innocent cause. The author would crave the indulgence of his readers, 

 if, at times,- he is obliged to speak of delicate matters in rather a plain 

 way ; but where this has to be done he will endeavor to do it in such a 

 manner as not to offend the sensibilities of any scientific reader. 



In the human race, as among every species throughout creation, 

 as every well-informed person knows, there is constantly going on 



* The American boy is generally admitted to be the smartest on earth, 

 while the American girl is still more clever and brilliant than her brother. 



