202 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



as the uniformity of thought among men is due to the uniform opera- 

 tion of the external senses, as they tliink alike because they have the 

 same number and kind of senses, so the uniformity of their fundament- 

 al passions is due probably to the uniform operation of the internal 

 organs of the body upon the brain ; they feel alike because they have 

 the same number and kind of internal organs. If this be so, these 

 organs come to be essential constituents of our mental life. 



The most striking illustration of the kind of organic action which 

 I am endeavoring to indicate, is yielded by the influence of the repro- 

 ductive organs uj)0n the mind ; a complete mental revolution being 

 made when they come into activity. As great a change takes place 

 in the feelings and ideas, the desires and will, as it is possible to im- 

 agine, and takes place in virtue of the development of their functions. 

 Let it be noted, then, that this great and important mental change is 

 different in the two sexes, and reflects the difference of their respective 

 organs and functions. Before experience has opened their eyes, tlie 

 dreams of a young man and maiden differ. If we give attention to the 

 physiology of the matter, we see that it cannot be otherwise, and if we 

 look to the facts of pathology, which would not fitly be in place here, 

 they are found to furnish the fullest confirmation of what might have 

 been predicted. To attribute to the influence of education the mental 

 differences of sex which declare themselves so distinctly at puberty, 

 would be hardly less absurd than to attribute to education the bodily 

 differences which then declare themselves. The comb of a cock, the 

 antlers of a stag, the mane of a lion, the beard of a man, are growths 

 in relation to the reproductive organs which correlate mental differ- 

 ences of sex as marked almost as these physical differences. In the 

 first years of life, girls and boys are much alike in mental and bodily 

 character, the differences which are developed afterward being hardly 

 more than intimated, although some have thought the girl's passion 

 for her doll evinces even at that time a forefeeling of her future func- 

 tions ; during the period of reproductive activity, the mental and 

 bodily differences are declared most distinctly ; and when that period 

 is past, and man and woman decline into second childhood, they come 

 to resemble one another more again. Furthermore, the bodily form, 

 the voice, and the mental qualities of mutilated men approach those of 

 women ; while women whose reproductive organs remain from some 

 cause in a state of arrested development, approach the mental and 

 bodily habits of men. 



Ko psychologist has yet devoted himself to make, or has succeeded 

 in making, a complete analysis of the emotions, by resolving the com- 

 plex feelings into their simple elements and tracing them back from 

 their complex evolutions to the primitive passions in which they are 

 rooted; this is a promising and much-needed work which remains to 

 be done ; but, when it is done, it will be shown probably that they have 

 proceeded originally from two fundamental instincts, or — if we add con- 



