FUTURE OF WOMEN IN SCIENCE 405 



woman on a higher intellectual plane than she has yet 

 occupied. In physical strength and in the rougher con- 

 flicts with the world she will doubtless always remain ' * the 

 lesser man," but, once she feels in full possession of 

 liberty 



"To burgeon out of all 

 Within her," 



she will duly justify her advocates who throughout the 

 centuries have been 



"Maintaining that with equal husbandry 

 The woman were an equal to the man." 



Not the least of the contributing factors to woman's in- 

 tellectual growth, and especially to her future achieve- 

 ments in science, are the recent adjustments for women in 

 social and economical conditions brought about chiefly by 

 far-reaching changes in the industrial world. Even so late 

 as the last half of the nineteenth century the energies of 

 women, when they were not engaged in the kitchen or the 

 nursery, were spent on the domestic loom, spinning wheel 

 and the knitting needle. All the various processes from 

 carding the wool to making it into clothing for all the 

 members of the family were in the hands of the house- 

 wife. Eeady-made clothing was far from being as common 

 and inexpensive as it is now. Canned foods and cereals, 

 which do away with so much of the drudgery of the 

 kitchen, were unknown. Electricity, which has proved to 

 be such a remarkable aid in every modern home, was 

 little more than a mysterious force that was utilized in 

 the electric telegraph. Most of the domestic labor-saving 

 machines were still in their infancy and possessed by but 

 few people. Large fortunes were confined to only a fa- 

 vored few in our great metropolises. The mass of the 

 people was preoccupied with the struggle for existence. 



But science, the spirit of invention and the advent of the 



