140 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. V 



to add that such prejudice as I labour under lies in the 

 opposite direction. Without seeing any reason to believe 

 that women are, on the average, so strong physically, 

 intellectually, or morally, as men, I cannot shut my eyes 

 to the fact that many women are much better endowed 

 in all these respects than many men, and I am at a loss 

 to understand on what grounds of justice or public policy 

 a career which is open to the weakest and most foolish of 

 the male sex should be forcibly closed to women of vigour 

 and capacity. 



We have heard a great deal lately about the physical 

 disabilities of women. Some of these alleged impedi- 

 ments, no doubt, are really inherent in their organisation, 

 but nine-tenths of them are artificial the products of 

 their modes of life. I believe that nothing would tend 

 so effectually to get rid of these creations of idleness, 

 weariness, and that " over-stimulation of the emotions " 

 which, in plainer-spoken days, used to be called wanton- 

 ness, than a fair share of healthy work, directed towards 

 a definite object, combined with an equally fair share of 

 healthy play, during the years of adolescence ; and those 

 who are best acquainted with the acquirements of an 

 average medical practitioner will find it hardest to believe 

 that the attempt to reach that standard is like to prove 

 exhausting to an ordinarily intelligent and well-educated 

 young woman. 



The Marine Biological Station at Naples was still 

 struggling for existence, and to my father's interest 

 in it is due the following letter, one of several to Dr. 

 Dohrn, whose marriage took place this summer : 



4 MARLBOKOUGH PLACE, 

 June 24, 1874. 



MY DEAR DOHRN Are you married yet or are you 

 not? It is very awkward to congratulate a man upon 



