i8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of the brain, though in general it can. A person, for instance, may 

 have a large head and a large brain, and the layer of cortical substance 

 be very thin ; and another person, with a smaller brain, may have the 

 cortex so thick as to more than compensate for its small superficies. 

 Still, these are exceptional cases. As a rule, the larger the brain, the 

 greater the mental power of the individual. 



Another difference between the brain of man and that of woman 

 is found in the conformation of the organ. In man the frontal region 

 is more developed than it is in woman. There is a certain fissure, 

 called the fissure of Rolando, which I point out here on this model. 

 Now, if we take the entire length of the brain as = 100, there will be 

 found in woman 31 '3 in front of the upper end of this fissure, while 

 in man there will be 43 "O. 



Again, the specific gravity of the male brain, both of the white and 

 the gray substance, is greater in man than it is in woman. 



It is difficult from these facts to avoid the conclusion that the mind 

 must also be different in the two sexes — not necessarily that one is 

 superior to the other, but that they are different. In some respects 

 that of man excels, in other respects that of woman predominates. It 

 would be a bad state of affairs for mankind if the mind in the two 

 primary divisions of the human race were the same. In barbarous na- 

 tions, as we have seen, the difference in size is less than it is with civil- 

 ized peoples, and as one consequence of this fact we find that there is 

 not so great a difference in the mental development. The work of a 

 woman with these is almost the same as that of a man. Her mode of 

 life, her dress, are not essentially different, except in so far as they 

 must be different on account of her sex. But with civilized nations 

 there is variety in modes of thought and in other mental characteris- 

 tics, in occupation, in manner, in dress, so that the differentiation be- 

 tween the sexes is far more distinctly marked than it is in the nations 

 low in the scale of progress. Who can doubt that this is the direct 

 result of difference, not only in the brain but in other parts of the nerv- 

 ous system ? It appears to me, therefore, that while the education of 

 a woman should be just as thorough as that of a man, it ought not to 

 be the same. The two sexes move along paths that approach parallel- 

 ism at some points of their course, but they can never travel exactly 

 the same road till they have nervous systems presenting exactly the 

 same anatomical configuration and structure. 



Another point — and it is one of such practical importance that it 

 would scarcely do for me to pass it over — and that is the influence of 

 age in affecting the relations existing between the mind and the nerv- 

 ous system. 



Most civilized communities have enacted laws against the employ- 

 ment of children in severe physical labor. This is well enough, for 

 the muscles of young persons are tender and weak, and not therefore 

 adapted to the work to which cupidity or ignorance would otherwise 



