202 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



" crotchet." In certain states of the moral atmosphere crotchets spread 

 just as do epidemics — which they closely resemble — in certain condi- 

 tions of the physical atmosphere and other surroundings of man. Who 

 would attempt to deal with the cholera or the small-pox by ridicule, 

 how pungent and incisive soever ? 



We purpose, therefore, to examine this movement in the light of 

 the principles of natural selection, of differentiation, and specializa- 

 tion, and to inquire whether the relations of the sexes in the human 

 species and the distribution of their respective functions are or are not 

 in genera] harmony with what is observed in that portion of the animal 

 kingdom which lies nearest to man — to wit, in the Mammalia. With 

 the origin and historj' of the agitation, with the hopes and motives of 

 its supporters, and with the ethical, sentimental, economical, and politi- 

 cal arguments used on either side we have no direct concern. 



Even a very superficial and popular survey of the class Mammalia 

 will satisfy us that the structural differences between the males and 

 the females of each species are by no means confined to the reproduc- 

 tive organs. The male ruminant, whale, bat, elephant, rodent, carni- 

 vore, or ape, is on the average a larger and heavier animal than his 

 mate. The tiger, for instance, exceeds the tigress in size by a propor- 

 tion of from ten to twenty per cent. In few, if any, species is the 

 superior stature of the male more striking than in the one which ap- 

 proaches man most nearly in its physical development — the gorilla. 



But the mere difference in size is not all ; the female is scarcely in 

 any normal case a mere miniature copy of the male. Her proportions 

 differ; the head and the thorax are relatively smaller, the pelvis broad- 

 er, the bones slighter, and the muscles less powerful. The male in 

 many cases possesses offensive weapons which in the female are want- 

 ing. In illustration we need only refer to the tusks of the elephant 

 and the boar, and the horns of manj^ species of deer. On the contrary, 

 there is no instance of a female mammal possessing any weapon which 

 is not also found, to at least an equal degree, in the male. 



Further, the superior size of the head in the male is not merely 

 due to the more massive osseous growth needful for the support of 

 tusks, horns, etc., but to a proportionately larger development of brain. 

 Thus, according to the recent investigations of M. le Bon,' "taking the 

 mean weight of seventeen brains of human males, of 154 to 164 centi- 

 metres in height, and comparing them with the brains of seventeen 

 women of the same stature, we find between the two a difference of 

 172 grammes (nearly six ounces) in favor of the male." 



Summing up these facts, commonplace but not the less important, 

 we see that in the whole mammalian class, man included, the males are 

 distinguished from the females, not merely by larger size, but by supe- 

 rior cerebral and thoracic development, and by the more general posses- 

 sion of offensive weapons. On the other hand, trite as the remark may 



' Compten-Rendus, Ixxxvii., No. 2, p. 80. 



