450 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION B. 
practically only the few who study biology become aware of it. And yet we 
never tire of preaching the value of classical learning and of history. The 
real history that counts and that training in scientific method which would 
tend to broaden and inform the mind are in no way thought of by the 
literary triflers who pretend to guide the destinies of our youth. Surely 
some effective means must be devised that will enable us to revolt without 
further delay against our unnatural and generally worthless system of school 
and university training. 
No problem can compare in importance with that of the future of our 
race. '‘l’o consider it is the one plain duty before us and the need becomes 
daily a more urgent one. Not only do we encourage deterioration at the 
lower end of the scale of intelligence in the manner pointed out in the 
passage quoted from Darwin, we are now through our system of higher 
education courting failure also at the upper end. Herbert Spencer forcibly 
drew attention many years ago to the tendency which the development of 
individuality must have to depress fertility and to the evil effects of severe 
mental labour on women especially. It has been stated that in the United 
States of America the higher education of girls has been proved to sterilise 
them. Many of us probably have experience within our own circle of 
observation which would justify such a conclusion; there are so many ways 
in which education operates to retard marriage, even if it have no direct 
effect on the organism. 
Even if man-stuff and woman-stuff be in no fundamental way different 
materials, there are essential differences between the sexes which must be 
taken ‘into consideration. During the active period of her life the woman 
is subject at intervals to influences which do not affect the man; various 
excitants (so-called hormones) come into operation and produce effects 
which are altogether remarkable; her mental condition is consequently in 
a state of continued flux. Cause and effect in these cases are undoubtedly 
chemical in their nature. The changes which attend puberty are probably 
brought about by the more or less sudden outpouring of peculiar secretions 
which direct metabolism into new and special channels. It is clear that 
mental states have an important influence on metabolism, and that if 
influences are brought to bear from which the organism has been exempt in 
the past, effects must be produced the nature of which it is impossible to 
predict ; therefore the creation of new interests may well be a source of 
most serious danger. The most disquieting feature of the times is the 
revolt of women against their womanhood and their claim to be on an 
equality with man and to compete with men in every way. There should 
be no question of equality raised; when comparison is made between com- 
plementary factors the question of equality does not and cannot come into 
consideration. It is clear that should the struggle arise—and it is to be 
feared that it is coming upon us—there can be but one issue: woman must 
» Warning is given by Darwin in simple but explicit terms in the following 
passage in his Descent of Man :— With savages, the weak in body or mind are 
soon eliminated; and those that survive commonly exhibit a vigorous state of 
health. We civilised men, on the other hand, do our utmost to check the process 
of elimination; we build asylums for the imbecile, the maimed and the sick; 
we institute poor-laws; and our medical men exert the utmost skill to save the 
life of everyone to the last moment. There is reason to believe that vaccination 
has preserved thousands who from a weak constitution would formerly have 
succumbed to small-pox. Thus the weak members of civilised societies propagate 
their kind. No one who has attended to the breeding of domestic animals will 
doubt that this must be highly injurious to the race of man. It is surprising how 
soon a want of care or care wrongly directed leads to the degeneration of a domestic 
race; but excepting in the case of man himself, hardly anyone is so ignorant ag 
to allow his worst animals to breed.’ 
