SOCIOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS 97 



of 1895. For in 1904 the results at Vassar were 

 as follows : — 



100 yards . . . . 13 sec. 



Running broad jump . . 14ft. 6 Jin. 

 ,, high ,, . . 4ft. 2 Jin. 



But though these results are an improvement on 

 the earlier attempt they still fall very far short of 

 the men's attainments. 



On the other hand, Miss Cullis tells me that in 

 Miss Helen B. Thompson's book on " The Mental 

 Traits of Sex," a series of measurements show that 

 women are better able than men to form new co- 

 ordinate movements and to co-ordinate more rapidly 

 to unforeseen stimuli. I called Mr. Robertson's 

 attention to these results, and he says that, so far 

 as the latter fact is concerned, it is much the same 

 with mares when contrasted to horses. " If anyone 

 passing into a mare's stall should happen to unex- 

 pectedly touch her, she will have kicked the intruder 

 before he has had time to get away. But a horse is 

 slower and there is time to get out of harm's way." 

 Of course, so far as woman is concerned, this quicker 

 response to unforeseen stimuli has been generally 

 recognised for centuries, and has found expression in 

 the popular saying " that woman's nervous mechanism 

 is finer and more delicate than man's." It is one of 

 the attributes indeed which give to her a large 

 measure of her charm in the ordinary intercourse 

 of life. 



Another fact of extreme interest in Mr. Robertson's 

 paper, and which is also applicable to human society, 



