272 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



In my first quotation, alimentation, respiration, innervation, and 

 circulation, are spoken of, but no word of the development of sex, the 

 very thing our author is writing about. Now, the normal evolutions 

 of Nature, either physically or psychologically, are never paroxysmal. 

 If the forces which direct development find expression in paroxysm, it 

 constitutes disease and not health. It is almost impossible to conceive 

 of a woman who is developed from a child in one year ; and yet, this 

 sudden transformation is generally regarded as a fact in the genesis 

 of woman. In regard to the sudden increase of the pelvic diameters, 

 I cannot but consider it as an ''event viewed unequally," as the late 

 Prof. Czermak said. I am not aware of the existence of any measure- 

 ments of the pelves of children approaching puberic life which give 

 the least color of evidence to this assertion. On the contrary, it is 

 opposed to the common order of growth in plants and animals. The 

 transverse and antero-posterior diameters of the cavity of the pelvis 

 in the two sexes difier about one inch, roughly stated. If this differ- 

 ence is objected to as too great, there is still an admitted difference 

 which would render such an increase of bone formation as a sudden 

 development impossible. The opinion of Mr. Gray, that pelvic devel- 

 opment is a post-puberic phenomenon, makes it necessary to explain 

 some very absurd conclusions which legitimately follow. Such a condi- 

 tion would ascribe functions, which are the most perfect expressions for 

 high structural development, to infantile organs. If there are those 

 who still insist that Mr. Gray is right, they must admit the violation 

 of a physiological law : that the organs within the pelvis have out- 

 grown the capacity of the cavity containing them ; that there exist 

 adult organs in an infantile pelvis. Such a state of things in a healthy 

 animal is impossible, if we accept the evidence of universal experience. 

 The cavities of the cranium, the thorax, and the pelvis, have a steady 

 and relatively equal development. In the accepted description of the 

 sudden onset of ovarian life, and the equally rapid anatomical accom- 

 modation of the osseous and soft parts, mental changes are described 

 as present which are as profound and important as those attending 

 pelvic development. But it has never been thought necessary to 

 describe any increase in cranial capacity to accommodate these objec- 

 tive mental phenomena. Even a new mental attribute is believed to 

 be developed (Meigs), that of modesty, and it is therefore as reason- 

 able to expect, to a limited extent, cranial as well as pelvic increase. 

 Stated in this way — and it is a fair statement — it does not seem pos- 

 sible to accept Mr. Gray's opinion as an anatomical fact. Women do 

 not necessarily cease to develop because ot* the establishment of the 

 ovarian function. As a rule, women will increase in stature until the 

 twenty-fifth year. It is an equable growth, a cementing, a binding- 

 together, and final completion. I regard this fact as evidence of the 

 steady and gradual structural and functional evolution existent dur- 

 ing the formative years of childhood, and prolonged into the child- 



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