37 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The Sexes tiiroiujiiout Nature. B_v An^ 

 ToiNETTE Bkown Blackwell, Author of 

 " Studies in General Science." Pp. 240. 

 G. r. Putnam's Sous. Price $1.25. 



The line of argument upon the woman- 

 question which was opened by Mrs. Black- 

 well in an article in The Popular Science 

 Monthly on the alleged antagonism be- 

 tween growth and reproduction, and which 

 was subsequently still further pursued in 

 these pages by Dr. Frances Emily White 

 in papers on " Woman's Place in Nature," 

 is carried out in the present volume with 

 considerable elaboration. It is a mono- 

 graph, written to establish, on scientific 

 grounds, the equality of the sexes through- 

 out Nature. Both Mrs. Blackwell and 

 Miss White are students of science, and 

 recognize that in its later progress, especial- 

 ly in biology and psychology, it has direct 

 and important bearings upon the issues 

 raised in the women's movement. They 

 recognize Darwin and Spencer as represent- 

 ing the most advanced scientific results, but 

 object to the conclusions at which these 

 gentlemen have arrived, on the subject of 

 the relations of the sexes. Mrs. Black- 

 well's work is therefore not an attempt 

 merely to expound the present state of 

 science, but it aims to controvert conclu- 

 sions deemed erroneous, and which have 

 weight because emanating from high au- 

 thorities. Of her book we may say that it is 

 written in a clear and excellent style, con- 

 tains much interesting information which 

 will be fresh to many readers, and abounds 

 in acute suggestions and ingenious views, 

 while the publishers have got it up in an 

 attractive form. 



But, considered as an original scientific 

 argument, we fail to see that Mrs. Blackwell 

 has advanced or altered the position of the 

 question she has taken up. She undertakes 

 to prove that throughout all Nature the 

 sexes are equal. Wc will not say that this 

 is an impossible task ; but if it be attempted 

 in a truly scientific spirit we have no hesi- 

 tation in saying that even the proximate 

 solution of her problem belongs to the very 

 distant future. For what she proposes to 

 do is nothing less than to reduce the whole 

 organic world, with all its vital and psychi- 

 cal characters, into exact and demonstrable 

 quantitative expression. She puts the prob- 



lem sharply, saying: "This is a subject for 

 direct scientific investigation. It is a ques- 

 tion of pure quantity ; of comparing unlike 

 but strictly measurable terms. In time it 

 can be experimentally decided and sol tied by 

 rigid mathematical tests." Accordingly, she 

 reduces the elements of her subject to the 

 form of equations, and, making an analysis 

 of the characters and functions of the sexes 

 in insects, fishes, cetacea, birds, herbivora^ 

 carnivora, and man, she aims to establish 

 the equivalence of their relations. Special 

 attributes she admits to be variable, but, 

 taking the totality of attributes and bring- 

 ing them together as balancing quantities, 

 she maintains that throughout Nature the 

 sexes are strict mathematical equivalents 

 of each other. 



Mrs. Blackwell seems to us to be quite 

 oblivious of the difiSculties of the task 

 here undertaken. We know how long and 

 painfully even the lower and simpler sci- 

 ences toiled through their qualitative stages, 

 before they reached the possibility of en- 

 tering upon their quantitative relations. 

 And we know, too, how the difficulties have 

 thickened in prosecuting these sciences to 

 their higher stages, even where all the effects 

 are capable of being dealt with by direct 

 experiment. But when we pass to the organ- 

 ic sciences these difficulties are immensely 

 heightened. That organic phenomena are 

 governed by quantitative laws is no doubt 

 true, and it is the duty of science to work 

 them out as fast and as far as it can ; but,, 

 considering the vastness of the work, we 

 can hardly regard it as yet fairly begun. 

 Certain important physiological constants 

 have been determined with some accuracy 

 of general expression. The weight of the 

 parts skeleton, muscles, and brain the 

 proportions of chemical constituents, the 

 rates of respiratory change, the statistics 

 of circulation, the balance of assimilation 

 and waste, and the relation of the expendi- 

 ture of mechanical force to the food con- 

 sumed, have been arrived at in a general 

 and proximate way, after centuries of labor 

 by the physiologists of all nations. Even 

 to these results it would be wholly inadmis- 

 sible to apply the term exact. But, when 

 we rise to more complex organic manifesta- 

 tions, to the functions of the nervous sys- 

 tem, to feeling and thought, and those pro- 



