CAPACITY FOR SCIENTIFIC PURSUITS 133 



When, however, they discovered women whose delight was 

 to discuss the theory of elliptic functions or curves denned 

 by differential equations ; when they found a mathematical 

 genius like Sonya Kovalevsky speculating on the fourth 

 dimension, and carrying away from the mathematicians of 

 the world the most coveted prize of the French Academy 

 of Sciences, they were forced to confess that another of 

 their illusions was dissipated, and to acknowledge that they 

 had no longer anything on which to base their long and 

 fondly cherished opinion of the mental inequality of the 

 sexes. 



As an evidence of the extraordinary change that had 

 been effected among the conservative Germans in the course 

 of a few years respecting their attitude toward the admis- 

 sion of the "Academic Woman" to the universities, and, 

 consequently, toward her intellectual capacity, it will suf- 

 fice to reproduce a sentence from the elaborately expressed 

 opinion of Dr. Julius Bernstein, professor of physiology in 

 the University of Halle. "After reflection on the subject," 

 he declares, ' ' I am convinced that neither God nor religion, 

 neither custom nor law, and still less science, warrants one 

 in maintaining any essential difference in this respect 

 between the male and the female sex. ' ' x 



The controversy of centuries regarding woman 's intel- 

 lectual capacity was now virtually settled beyond all perad- 

 venture. Woman had conquered, and her final victory 

 had been won in the heart of the enemy's country, yea, 

 even in what was thought to be the impregnable fortress 

 of her relentless foes. It was achieved where the proud 

 Teuton male had imagined that he was unapproachable 



1 ' ' Ich komme beim Nachdenken Member zu der Ueberzeigung, 

 dass kein Gott und keine Eeligion, kein Herkommen und kein Gesetz, 

 aber ebensowenig die Wissensehaft uns das Eecht erteilen, in dieser 

 Beziehung zwischen dem mannerlichen und weiblichen Geschlect einen 

 principiellen Untersehied zu statuiren." Die Akademische Frau, 

 p. 41. 



