6o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



HEALTH AND SEX IN HIGHER EDUCATION. 



By JOHN DEWEY, Ph. D., 



INSTRUCTOR IN PUILOSOPHY, MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY. 



IT may not generally be known that the alumna? of the more impor- 

 tant centers of female higher education in this country have an or- 

 ganized intercollegiate association for the promotion of woman's edu- 

 cation and the study of questions regarding her training. This asso- 

 ciation has justified its existence, if justification were necessary, by the 

 inquiries which it has made regarding the health of those women who 

 have pursued college courses. The importance of the results thus 

 obtained has led to their incorporation in the " Current Report of the 

 Massachusetts Labor Bureau." For the first time the discussion is 

 taken from the a 23riori realm of theory on the one hand, and the 

 hap-hazard estimate of physician and college instructor on the other. 

 The returns have the value of all good statistics : they not only enable 

 us to come to some conclusion upon the main point discussed, but they 

 are so full and varied that they suggest and mark the way toward the 

 discussion of a large number of other hardly less important ques- 

 tions. The figures, in short, call up as many problems as they settle, 

 thus fulfilling the first requisite of fruitful research. 



Pursuing this line, we shall first state the general character of the 

 investigation followed and conclusions reached ; and, secondly, isolate 

 a few special problems for more detailed though brief treatment. The 

 result may be summed up in the words of the report, as follows : " The 

 female graduates of our colleges and universities do not seem to show, 

 as the result of their college studies and duties, any marked difference 

 in general health from the average health likely to be reported by an 

 equal number of women engaged in other kinds of work. It is true 

 that there has been, and it was to be expected that there would be, a 

 certain deterioration in health on the part of some of the graduates. 

 On the other hand, an almost identical improvement in health for a 

 like number was reported, showing very plainly that we must look 

 elsewhere for the causes of the greater part of this decline in health 

 during college-life. If we attempt to trace the cause, we find that this 

 deterioration is largely due, not to the requirements of college-life 

 particularly, but to predisposing causes natural to the gi-aduates them- 

 selves, born in them, as it were, and for which college-life or study 

 should not be made responsible." 



Through some oversight the statement is made that the returns in- 

 clude statistics from every higher institution in the United States open 

 to women ; while, as a matter of fact, it includes a not comparatively 

 large number. The institutions represented, however, are typical. 

 The data are contained in the following table : 



