MENTAL DIFFERENCE AND DISORDER. 199 



sions most marked again in the case of males. The mere 

 sight or presence of a female is frequently sufficient to 

 develop or determine dangerous mental excitement, some- 

 times so intense and so uncontrollable as to amount to 

 erotomania. It has been stated by Pierquin that while male 

 orangs admire the female sex of man, certain monkeys show 

 an inexplicable antipathy or hatred to woman, and are able 

 to detect her sex though the person is duly concealed by 

 dress. 



Again, 'the males of almost all animals have stronger 

 passions than the females,' says Darwin, a general rule 

 which, if established, must have, at least, many exceptions, 

 for there can be little doubt as to the intensity of the pas- 

 sions in females and the frequency of their and its display. 



Feminine mental characteristics in other animals, as in 

 man, are supposed to include the following : affection, 

 gentleness, timidity, docility, goodness whatever that may 

 mean implying probably, at least, good temper, with greater 

 loquacity or communicativeness. Caprice would appear to 

 be a special attribute of the female throughout the animal 

 kingdom. In the lower animals it is most familiar among 

 the phenomena of courtship, in the female's selection of a 

 mate. 



But, in the first place, it is more than doubtful whether 

 the female possesses any greater number of virtues than the 

 male, while it is very certain that, with the frequent assump- 

 tion of masculine duties, she acquires, for the time at least, 

 the vices that are unfairly regarded as more specially mascu- 

 line. The converse is equally true : that, with the occasional 

 assumption of feminine duties by the male, he acquires what 

 are usually supposed to be specially feminine virtues. 



Assumption by the female of male prerogatives is illus- 

 trated occasionally in courtship, rivalry, battle, on which 

 occasions there is an unexpected display on her part of 

 pugnacity, boldness, fierceness or fury. And the same men- 

 tal qualities are frequently displayed as the result of the 

 change of character brought about by maternity, in the 

 defence, for instance, of young. The female cassowary and 

 other birds become pugnacious while breeding (Darwin). 



