FUTURE OF WOMEN IN SCIENCE v 401 



to do, reason from what they have not done when every- 

 thing was against them to what they may do when con- 

 ditions shall, in every way, be as favorable to them as 

 they always have been to the dominant sex. 



Still rasher would be the man who would attempt to 

 prove the negative of this question. Mere a priori argu- 

 ments, based on preconceived bias or on the vague and 

 groundless impression that woman is essentially and hope- 

 lessly the intellectual inferior of man, have no more value 

 than gratuitous opinions. The unprejudiced seeker after 

 truth will insist on a demonstration based on incontro- 

 vertible facts. He will appeal to history to learn what the 

 sex has already accomplished, and to science to inquire if 

 there be anything in the female brain to differentiate it 

 from that of the male, or to preclude woman from attain- 

 ing the highest rank in the activities of the intellect. 



The result of such an investigation will, I think, cause 

 even the most biased person to suspend judgment, if it 

 does not induce him to align himself with those who, find- 

 ing no differences in the mental endowments of the sexes, 

 have reached the conclusion that the day will come, and, 

 mayhap, in the near future, when the achievements of 

 women will be on a par with those of man. The facts 

 stated in the preceding chapters seem, not unreasonably, 

 to point to such a conclusion, if, indeed, they do not war- 

 rant it as a necessary inference. 



A few considerations germane to this discussion will 

 illustrate the danger of forming hasty judgments regard- 

 ing questions like the one under discussion. 



During the last hundred years no country in the world 

 has done more for the education of the masses than the 

 United States. Everything that money could purchase and 

 ingenuity suggest has been adopted to develop the minds 

 and stimulate the latent talents and genius of our youth. 

 From the primary schools to the highest and best equipped 

 universities, a special premium has been put on success in. 



