546 PECULIAEITIES OF THE FEMALE. 



Comparison of body have not the same relative size. The capacity of the 

 *f Vemale and s ^ u ^ * n * ne f ema ^ e is ^ ess tne body is longer ; the lower ex- 

 female, tremities shorter ; the pelvis of greater size, especially in its 

 transverse diameter; the heads of the thigh bones, therefore, farther apart, 

 and the bones themselves including a larger angle than in the case of the 

 male ; the chest and the abdomen are respectively more convex ; the trans- 

 verse diameter at the shoulders smaller, and the upper extremities, like 

 the lower, shorter ; the hands and feet, fingers and toes, of less size. The 

 surface presents a more elegantly rounded form, without angularities ; 

 the skin thinner and more translucent ; the hair of the head is longer 

 and finer, but other portions of the skin less covered with hair ; the nails 

 smaller and thinner. 



The strength of the female is to that of the male as 16 to 26. Her 

 Functional e musc ^ es contract with less energy, and are more easily wea- 

 cuiiarities of ried. The peculiarities of the construction of the bones of 



female. j^ p e } v i s an( j cnes t respectively give rise to peculiarities in 

 the movements of the lower and upper extremities ; hence the character- 

 istic manner of walking and movement of the arm in attempting to throw 

 a stone. In the chapter on the voice we have already pointed out the 

 female peculiarities in speaking and singing, and its more acute quality. 



With respect to her moral and intellectual peculiarities, these are man- 

 Her moral and ^ este ^ ^ rom * ne earliest infancy in the sports and games 

 intellectual pe- which she instinctively follows. Coming to maturity more 

 rapidly than the male, she abandons these, though they may 

 still be enjoyed by boys of her own age, whom, for the course of a year 

 or two, she regards with neglect or even disrespect, a feeling soon after 

 to be followed by timidity. Education and the position in which she 

 may have been placed may, to a certain extent, control or disguise her 

 habits, but they can never wholly obliterate the striking predominance 

 of her moral over her intellectual qualities, as compared with man. Es- 

 sentially religious, her faith is applied to almost all the ordinary affairs 

 of life, though when she finds that she has been deceived she is ever dis- 

 trustful. From the earliest times it has been remarked that her revenge, 

 more particularly when it concerns wounded pride, is implacable. Much 

 more than the male she is delighted with the adornments of dress. Her 

 reasoning powers are less vigorous, though her sensations are more acute, 

 yet she bears pain with more resignation than man. Her judgment is 

 not so evenly balanced, and is often perverted by the preponderance of 

 her feelings. It has been asserted that these moral and intellectual pe- 

 culiarities which she presents when compared with man are distinctly 

 traceable to the phrenological predominance of the moral over the intel- 

 lectual regions of the brain. 



The physiologist who is thus obliged to speak of the constitutional 



