THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MONTHLY. 



JUNE, 1879. 



THE CONDITION OF WOMEN FKOM A ZOOLOGICAL 



POINT OF VIEW. ' 



Br W. K. BROOKS. 

 I. 



ZOOLOGY is the scientific study of the past history of animal life, 

 for the purpose of understanding its future history. Since man 

 has, in part at least, conscious control of his own destiny, it is of vital 

 importance to human welfare in the future that we should learn, by 

 this comparative study of the past, what are the lines along which 

 progress is to be expected, and what the conditions favorable to this 

 progress, in order that we may use our exceptional powers in harmony 

 with the order of nature. 



The study of the growth of civilization shows that human advance- 

 ment has been accompanied by a slow but constant improvement in 

 the condition of women, as compared with men, and that it may be 

 very accurately measured by this standard. Judging from the past, 

 we may be sure that one of the paths for the 'future progress of the 

 race lies in this improvement, and the position of women must there- 

 fore be regarded as a most important social problem. If there is, as I 

 shall try to show, a fundamental and constantly increasing difference 

 between the sexes ; if their needs are different, and if their parts in 

 the intellectual, moral, and social evolution of the race, are, like their 

 parts in the reproductive process, complemental, the clear recognition 

 of this difference must form both the foundation and superstructure 

 of all plans for the improvement of women. 



If there is this fundamental difference in the sociological influence 

 of the sexes, its origin must be sought in the physiological differences 

 between them, although the subject is now very far removed from the 

 province of ordinary physiology. While we fully recognize the insig- 



VOL. XV. 10 



