300 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



emotional sensibility. And here, again, our anticipations are realized 

 by the figures. The interval between twenty and forty years consti- 

 tutes this period in women. For these ages inclusive we have 1,923 

 cases of insanity against 1,297 cases for all other ages. It therefore 

 follows that more than one-half the cases of insanity for this period 

 were of melancholia. We can gain a clearer idea of the intensity of 

 emotional activity in women by extending further the same line of 

 comparison in regard to men. For the ages between twenty and forty 

 inclusive we have 2,172 cases of insanity, and but 832 cases of melan- 

 cholia for all ages. This shows a marked contrast in the liability of 

 the sexes to this form of mental disease ; for, at this period, the num- 

 ber of male cases exceeding the female by 200, yet the percentage of 

 melancholia is thirty-three against fifty-three per cent, for women. 



I do not believe that I err when I say that this excess in the emo- 

 tional nature of woman over that of man is the outcome of physical 

 and functional sexual traits, and is, consequently, anotlier phase of 

 sexual cerebration. 



The above throws considerable light upon that peculiarity in 

 woman's character so gracefully alluded to by George Eliot, and 

 which I had so much difficulty in defining in the opening part of this 

 article. This gentleness springs from woman's exquisite emotional 

 susceptibility, as it is from the play of the emotions that this character 

 becomes manifest. Having in view its origin in the emotions, and 

 reaching its greatest development at the period of completion in 

 woman's sexual genesis, the evidence of its existence as a form of 

 sexual cerebration becomes complete. Were it otherwise, we would 

 expect to see it obeying laws other than those of sexual development, 

 and not existing in equal intensity during childhood, developed in ex- 

 cess of the male at womanhood, to disappear in the placidity of old age. 



I have been using these statistics of insanity for the purpose of 

 showing the extent of normal diflTerences in the mental constitution 

 of the sexes, and consequently of normal sexual cerebration. If we 

 were to consider this in its abnormal phases, we would have opened 

 before us another great field of investigation, the study of which would 

 throw much light upon many problems of sex. Puerperal and gesta- 

 tional mania, the singular perversion of the maternal emotion attend- 

 ing lactation, are of special importance with reference to abnormal 

 sexual cerebration. Hysteria, peculiarly a feminine disease, undoubt- 

 edly has its origin in sexual functional derangement, and is a striking 

 example of the extent to which the emotional nature may be perverted 

 by the abnormal actions of certain organs. Those cases of the social 

 evil which break out from the purest domestic surroundings, and 

 which defy all attempts at reform, are evidently due to the perver- 

 sion of a healthful psychical state. The services of a skilled physician 

 are needed to reform this class, and not the sentimental aid of reform 

 societies, or the visits of the colporteur. 



