204 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



its parallel in the "subjugation" of the cow, the mare, the ewe, the 

 lioness ? 



That the women of the middle class in all civilized countries, and of 

 the higher in some, would be much healthier and stronger if they took 

 more exercise in the open air and swallowed less tea, we admit. But 

 in that case we contend that their increased vigor would descend not 

 to their daughters exclusively or specially, but to all their children. 



Further, in some countries and among certain classes, a great 

 amount of physical labor falls to the lot of the women, without their 

 being thereby rendered equal in strength to the men. Among the 

 North American aborigines the squaw has the monopoly of hard Avork, 

 while her husband — save when on the chase or on the war-path — in- 

 dulges in idleness. Yet he runs no risk on that account of being sur- 

 passed in strength by his wife, and ultimately finding himself in con- 

 sequence "subjugated." 



No less is the superior cerebral development of the male sex in the 

 human species, to which we have already referred as an indisputable 

 fact, devoid of functional importance. It has, indeed, been contended 

 that the difference in weight between the brain of the two sexes is a 

 mere " survival " from some lower state of civilization, or of existence 

 which we may expect to see ultimately disappear. Such hopes, if they 

 anywhere exist, must be abandoned in view of the results of M, le Bon, 

 already quoted. This biologist finds that "the difference between the 

 respective weight of the brain in man and woman constantly goes on 

 increasing as we rise in the scale of civilization, so that as regards the 

 mass of the brain, and consequently in intelligence, woman becomes 

 more and more difi"erentiated from man. The difference which exists 

 between the mean of the crania of contemporary Parisian men and that 

 of contemporary Parisian women is almost double the difference which 

 existed in ancient Egypt. 



Taking hold of this simple fact, that the brain in the male is not 

 merely larger, but increasingly larger, than in the female, we need not 

 long search for its meaning. As the same writer to whom we have 

 referred declares, " On examining series of crania sufficiently numerous 

 we find that in the human species the largest brains belong to the races 

 highest endowed intellectually, and in each race to its most intelligent 

 members." Just, therefore, as higher civilization is heralded, or at least 

 evidenced, by increasing bulk of brain ; just as the most intelligent and 

 the dominant races surpass their rivals in cranial capacity ; and just as 

 in those races the leaders, whether in the sphere of thought or of action, 

 are eminently large-brained — so we must naturally expect that man, 

 surpassing woman in volume of brain, must surpass her in at least a 

 proportionate degree in intellectual power. We are sorry to be com- 

 pelled here to own that while we know that in most, if not all, mam- 

 malian species the brain of the male exceeds in size that of the female, 

 we have no observations as to any corresponding difference in mental 



