Sept. 23, 1880] 



NATURE 



48; 



When first seen it was half May between Capella and o Persei ; 

 it passed in a sUghtly cui-ved direction, which was concave 

 towards Auriga, downwards to a line joining ,8 and a Tauri, 

 disappearing at a point one-third of the distance from /3 towards 

 a. It was very much brighter than Jupiter, and quite half the 

 diameter c.f the moon ; I made these comparisons immediately 

 after it had psssed. 



It:; passage occupied about eleven and a half seconds, and it left 

 a bright continuous yellow streak in its wake, which did not fade 

 until about two or three seconds after the meteor had disappeared ; 

 this enabled me the more readily to fix its position. The whole 

 of its path was not seen, as it emerged from behind a tree with 

 thick foliage, though its light attracted my attention before the 

 meteor appeared. 



It was pear-shaped, and its brightness appeared to slightly 

 increase ; its colour was a very bright, reddish yellow changing 

 to deep 1 urple at its disappearance ; it was not followed by any 

 noise. The latitude of place of observation is N. 51° 28' 20", 

 the longitude W. 0° 20' 17". C. THW.^lTts 



Isleworth, September 21 



EVOLUTION AND FEMALE EDUCATION 



ONE of the most remarkable features of the advance 

 of science is perhaps the increasing facility afforded 

 for bringing under the grasp of physical treatment ques- 

 tions formerly thought to be within the range of abstract 

 reasoning alone. These two methods, if correct, will of 

 course run parallel to each other, and at the same time 

 tend reciprocally to confirm their truth : — the physical 

 method being often the more easily followed, and there- 

 fore perhaps considered on that account the more certain 

 of the two. Many instances may no doubt readily present 

 themselves of conclusions formerly reasoned out on 

 abstract grounds (more especially by the ancient philo- 

 sophers), and subsequently confirmed by physical reason- 

 ing. As a modern example of this double treatment of 

 the same subject we might mention the very important 

 question of the higher mental training of women, dealt 

 with by the late John Stuart Mill on substantially abstract 

 grounds, and touched on by the theory of evolution on 

 physical grounds. As we propose solely to notice the 

 physical side of the question here, perhaps this brief 

 essay may not be thought unsuited to the columns of 

 Nature. We do not expect to bring forward anything 

 especially new, but we may perhaps exhibit the case in 

 some novel aspects ; at the same time we may avoid 

 elements of uncertainty by carefully separating the facts 

 supported by scientific evidence from the question of the 

 desirability or undesirability of the measures to be taken 

 upon these facts as a basis, and thus the paper may hope 

 to attain that degree of reliability or solidity which is 

 usually looked for in a journal of natural science. 



Perhaps the most valuable characteristic of the doctrine 

 of evolution (or the history of the past rise of man) is the 

 lesson it gives for future progress. It will be apparent 

 that an inquiry into the conditions affecting the progress 

 of mankind would w-ant one of its primary elements if 

 the conditions bearing on the advancement of woman (as 

 one half the race) were excluded therefrom ; and the fact 

 of this point being popularly underrated may be con- 

 sidered as rather in favour of its value and significance 

 than not, inasmuch as all great reforms consist in the 

 conquest of popular prejudice. That the value attached 

 to this reform by Mill, which occupied a great part of his 

 life, was not overestimated by him will, we think, become 

 all the more evident when the subject is brought under 

 the test of the theory of evolution. 



Mr. Darwin in his work, "The Descent of j\Ian" 

 (second edition), remarks : — " It is indeed fortunate that 

 the law of the equal transmission of characters to both 

 sexes prevails with mammals, otherwise it is probable 

 that man would have become as superior in mental en- 

 dowment to woman as the peacock is in ornamental 

 plumage to the peahen " (p. 565). 



This therefore puts the question of the education of 

 woman in a somewhat new light : though in a light probably 

 suspected by some (including, it may be said, the writer) 

 beforehand, on abstract grounds. For this would show, 

 on a reliable physical basis, that one of the chief argu- 

 ments for the intellectual training of woman must be for 

 the direct benefit of viaii. For the above deduction, 

 grounded on the evidence of natural science, would indi- 

 cate clearly that man, by opposing the intellectual advance 

 of woman for countless generations, has enormously in- 

 jured his own advance — by inheritance. In other words, 

 while man has been arbitrarily placing restrictions in the 

 way of the mental progress of woman, nature has stepped 

 in, and by the laws of inheritance has (to a large extent) 

 corrected, at his expense, the injury which would other- 

 wise have been inflicted, and which, without this inter- 

 position of natural law, would have made itself trans- 

 parently obvious, centuries ago. Man, by hindering 

 woman from performing her natural share in the work 

 of brain development, has been compelled by nature to 

 do the work for her, and valuable brain tissue (accumu- 

 lated by mental discipline), which would have been man's 

 own property as the fair reward of intellectual labour, 

 has gone over by the rigorous laws -of inheritance ' to 

 the female side, to fill up the gap artificially created by 

 man through his persistent hindrance of woman from 

 doing her part in the progressive development of the 

 brain. The probable extent of the gap by accumulation 

 (from all causes, including the very important factor of 

 man's obstruction) is apparently roughly indicated by the 

 comparison employed in the above quotation. It would 

 seem, therefore, that it could scarcely be said to be alto- 

 gether fortunate (in one sense at least) that " the law o 

 equal transmission of characters to both sexes prevails 

 with mammals ; " for this fact has served to conceal an 

 evil which in reality exists in all its magnitude, and which 

 otherwise it would not have required the intellect of a 

 Mill to detect, but which must have become glaringly 

 apparent long ago. Physical science would therefore 

 appear to show a remarkable confirmation of Mill's 

 magnificent theoretic analysis, and of the reality of those 

 evils, the clear exposure of which by him looked to some 

 hke exaggeration. In fact it would result from the 

 scientific evidence that however monstrously women 

 might have been treated, however much idleness might 

 have been enforced, or healthy brain exercise prevented, 

 nature would have infallibly corrected the irregularity at 

 the expense of man, entailing of course the partial extinc- 

 tion of the progress of the race (as a whole). Possibly 

 the not uncommon popular ridicule which (at first, at 

 least) accompanied Mill's protests, the conceited inde- 

 pendence of some men in ignoring the fact that they are 

 descended from women, and their failure even now _ to 

 realise so obvious a truth as the desirability of clearing 

 away all obstacles to the intellectual advance of w-oman 

 (by facilitating education, by removing the bars to healthy 

 exercise of the brain in suitable professions, cSic, in place 

 of idleness) may itself be in part a consequence of the 

 deficiency of brain tissue caused by the drain through 

 inheritance which goes to counteract their efforts of ob- 

 struction. Some of the reasons urged against the higher 

 mental training of woman are of so superficial a character 

 as themselves to show the extensive magnitude of the 

 evil. One notoriously not uncommon ground adduced 



> Possibly (and we believe this may have been suggested by others) the 

 less stability, or sometimes almost hysterical character of the female intel- 

 lect may be naturally due to the brain qualities being gained mainly by 

 inheritance instead of by hard practice, as in the case of man's brain attri- 

 butes. While the faculties of man have acquired the steadiness produced 

 by centuries of healthy intellectual discipline and exercise, the field for this 

 has been closed to woman to a large extent. In fact the scientific evidence 

 would appear to show that the common brain (i.e. the brain common to the 

 race) has been built up mainly by man's eflbrts, while woman has to a great 

 extent inherited her share at his expense, though no doubt if left entirely 

 unfettered she would have largely contributed to the common good ; and it 

 may be inferred with tolerable safety that the race would then have been 

 elevated far above its present status. 



