THE CAUSATION OF DISEASE. 65 



gruity-7-one man inflicting an injury upon another, and demand- 

 ing a reward in return ! But is the blame of this iniquity to 

 be laid solely at the door of the practitioner, and are those 

 who regulate our system of medical education wholly to escape 

 censure ? 



Before I wind up this digression, I cannot resist briefly 

 alluding to an opinion occasionally expressed — probably by 

 men chiefly — that woman is a vastly inferior animal to man. I 

 have heard this conviction stated by a number of men, and 

 these by no means woman-haters. The whole question turns upon 

 the meaning of superior and inferior. Inferior as regards what ? 

 There can be no doubt that man for man, and woman for 

 woman, men are stronger in muscle and intellect. But muscle 

 and intellect do not exhaust the capacities of mankind, and it 

 is incorrect to suppose -that the inferiority of the woman is a 

 necessary outcome of a uterus, as some seem to think, many hold- 

 ing that this organ necessarily implies inferiority. No doubt 

 the uterus indirectly leads to the inferiorities of woman, both 

 in muscular and intellectual strength, but such differences as 

 obtain between the two sexes in these respects can veiy largely 

 be accounted for on the principles of (a) use and disuse, (b) sexual 

 heredity. Women are intellectually and muscularly weaker 

 because they use mind and muscles less. So far as the muscular 

 system is concerned, it is well known that in those countries 

 where women do manual labour, they can equal or even surpass 

 the men in strength of muscle. Quite lately a medical journal 

 recorded the case of a pitbrow woman who wagered that she 

 would lift as heavy a shovelful of coals as any man in the mine ; 

 and among many animals the female is the muscular equal of 

 the male. Indeed, in some cases, the female is infinitely the 

 stronger, as in a certain kind of spider, which is so much 

 more powerful than the male, that it is common for many 

 males to perish in the attempt to effect sexual connection ; 

 the successful animal owing his success rather to his wariness 

 in taking the female off her guard than to greater strength of 

 body. The like is true of intellectual capacity. So far as I 

 know, there is no proof that this is greater in the male sex 

 among the lower animals, and there appears to be no reason 

 why the generative organs in the woman should make a 



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