HEALTH AND SEX IN HIGHER EDUCATION. 613 



ation would point in the line of the generalization already suggested ; 

 as with the cessation of college-life would cease the abnormal cloister- 

 ing of the young women, while bad sanitary conditions would show 

 comparatively permanent results. That proportionately one third 

 more in the female colleges report emotional strain as cause of dis- 

 orders, other causes showing much the same average, point in the 

 same direction. At any rate, it is worth inquiry whether it is not 

 possible to unite the presumed advantage of the female colleges in wise 

 advice and proper attention to health with the freer and more natural 

 social relations of the co-educational institutions. 



It is hoped that enough has been said to show the importance of 

 the investigations already made, and to justify the supposition that 

 further more detailed and extended inquiries would increase their 

 value. No educator at all acquainted with the present status of affairs 

 will carp at the results already reached, nor will he find much but cause 

 for thankfulness upon a survey of the field ; but his outlook must be 

 dii-ected toward the future, not the past. Nothing could well be more 

 fatal to the cause of woman's education than to suppose that the ques- 

 tion is already settled. The commencement has indeed been made, 

 but only the commencement. Mere multiplication of institutions and 

 influences of the existing type, however valuable, as affording oppor- 

 tunities to individual young women, will do little toward determining 

 the larger aspects of the case. Were the number of purely women's 

 colleges largely increased, and were all the important boys' colleges to 

 open their doors to girls, only the necessary basis for the solution of 

 the problem would be obtained. 



Such inquiries as we have briefly summarized can do more than 

 aught else to furnish necessary data for a wise and comparatively 

 permanent solution. Discussion on partisan lines is absolutely value- 

 less, and a priori discussion will effect nothing. Tbe unbiased study 

 by educational experts of the fruits actually borne by experience is 

 invaluable, and the generalizations based upon such data will show the 

 lines upon which reform must work itself out. This is not the place 

 to formulate the exact nature of such inquiries, but they should cover 

 at least three heads : 



I. Health. — The present report offers a valuable model to follow. 

 More attention should be given to the social and moral environment 

 of college-life, however, even in this point ; and the discussion should 

 more definitely concern the specifically female functions. 



II. Life since Geaduatiox, — The brief notes respecting mar- 

 riages and occupations in the report discussed are all we have on this 

 head. It should be treated with a view to determining as accurately 

 as may be the position which the college-educated woman holds and 

 desires to hold in the body social and politic. "NVhen we recollect the 

 difliculty in adjusting young men's collegiate education to their life 

 after graduation, in spite of the accumulation of infinite experience, the 



