IS EDUCATION OPPOSED TO MOTHERHOOD? 757 



officers that the students improve in health and vigor during their 

 two years of residence." 



In America, the dulled automaton is not discoverable ; indeed, 

 the records are so much in favor of a healthier class than the 

 average of women that physicians who have hastily committed 

 themselves to an opposite opinion say, upon examination, that 

 they " utterly distrust the statistics " ! * The necessary amount of 

 this distrust, and the direction in which it is exercised, may be 

 estimated by citing the authorities for the health of women stu- 

 dents: Secretary of the Society of Associated Alumnse of Ameri- 

 can Colleges,! seven hundred and five alumnse who report person- 

 ally ; Committee of Education, 1883-84, Washington ; Addresses 

 of President Angell, of Michigan University ; ex-President White, 

 of Cornell; and President Horace Davis, of the University of 

 California. 



But, it may be asked, " Are doubting physicians not justified 

 at all are there no women students who break down % or die ? " 

 There are such cases of overstrain or feeble constitution which 

 find their parallel among men, but the percentage among women 

 is so small that it leaves the health average still above the gener- 

 ality of women. 



But, urges Mr. Allen, there is "the self-supporting spinster"; 

 " almost every woman should marry " ; and she is " a deplorable 

 accident." Now, it is possible that while I may deem her admi- 

 rable, another may consider her " deplorable " it is a matter of 

 taste merely. But, that she is not an " accident," rather an eternal 

 verity, stands confessed in Mr. Allen's " almost." Unless, indeed, 

 the entire community should be paired off which is not desir- 

 able for economic reasons spinsters and bachelors will continue 

 to exist. It does not materially affect the issues of the race 

 whether they are dependent or independent,* and we may fear- 

 lessly praise in them the qualities which please us most. If the 

 condition of "self-supporting spinsterhood " is more attractive 

 than the condition of wifehood, there is menace for the future. 



* Dr. Weir Mitchell, "Wear and Tear," p. 151. 

 f Report published at Boston, May, 1885. 



\ Rumors of this kind are sometimes too readily circulated. " Serious case, that of 

 Miss 0.," said a prominent physician in a Western city ; " she has returned from Vassar 

 thoroughly overworked." " Who, Carrie 0. ? " exclaimed a young lady hearer. " doctor, 

 that isn't possible ! She was the giddiest girl in our class, went to parties three or four 

 nights in the week, never had a lesson, and so Miss M. dropped her. When she found she 

 couldn't graduate, she went to Vassar as a special student, because, she said, ' it was so far 

 away no one would know whether she stood high or not, and she didn't intend to study her 

 eyes out.' " The doctor's countenance fell. One victim of "higher education" was crossed 

 off the score. 



* It is desirable that young women should support themselves for these reasons : (1) 

 that they may be free to marry ; (2) in case they fail of marriage ; and (3) beeause sickness 

 or accident to the husband may render a wife's support valuable. 



