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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XX. No. 500. 



the occasion of my former visit— and the 

 impression was confirmed, during my re- 

 cent visit— that the boy in America is not 

 being brought up to punch another boy's 

 head or to stand having his own punched 

 in a healthy and proper manner ; that there 

 is a strange and indefinable feminine air 

 coming over the men; a tendency towards 

 a common, if I may so call it, sexless tone 

 of thought. 



But if coeducation be bad in itself, it 

 becomes infinitely worse when the teachers 

 are mostly women; they should rather be 

 men mostly. Nowhere is the claim on be- 

 half of women to equality with men put 

 forward so strongly as it is in the United 

 States. Nowhere, I believe, would it be 

 found to be more disproved in practise, if 

 carefully inquired into. Women have 

 sought in recent times to prove that they 

 can compete successfully with men in every 

 field ; they claim to have succeeded, but the 

 claim can not be allowed, I think. They 

 have shown — what it was unnecessary to 

 show— that they are indefatigable workers; 

 and they have shown that they can pass 

 examinations with brilliant success. But 

 what has been the character of the exam- 

 inations? Almost invariably they have 

 been such as to require the reproduction of 

 learning, not original effort. History 

 records but very few cases of women with 

 any approach to originality; it proves the 

 sex to have been lacking in creative and 

 imaginative power. Those who have taught 

 women students are one ajad all in agree- 

 ment that, although close workers and most 

 faithful and accurate observers, yet, with 

 the rarest exceptions, they are incapable of 

 doing independent original work. And it 

 must be so. Throughout the entire period 

 of her existence woman has been man's 

 slave; and if the theory of evolution be in 

 any way correct there is no reason to sup- 

 pose, I imagine, that she will recover from 



the mental disabilities which this has en- 

 tailed upon her within any period which 

 we, for practical purposes, can regard as 

 reasonable. Education can do little to 

 modify her nature. The argument is one 

 which women probably will not, perhaps 

 can not, appreciate. No better proof could 

 be asked for, however, than is afforded by 

 the consistent failure of women to discover 

 special wants of their own — they have al- 

 ways merely asked to have what men have, 

 to be allowed to compete with men. Do- 

 mestic subjects have been taught in the 

 most perfunctory manner possible. 



Among the colleges we visited was that 

 of Vassar — the chief college for women in 

 the states. It accommodates some 900 stu- 

 dents. The college is located amidst sur- 

 roundings in fidl harmony with the grace 

 of the inmates ; their charm of manner over- 

 came us completely, even in the brief period 

 during which we were privileged to fra- 

 ternize with them. The teachers are most- 

 ly men. The instruction is given entirely 

 on academic lines ; lectures are delivered on 

 economics, but I could not discover that 

 woman's work in the world— 'domestics' — 

 was considered in any specific way; it 

 would come, I was told, under the head of 

 technical education, which is eschewed. 

 Apparently no use is made of the beautiful 

 grounds in which the buildings are placed 

 for nature-study or instruction in horticul- 

 ture; as one of my companions remarked, 

 nature is looked at only in the laboratory 

 down a microscope tube. 



In some of the western coeducational col- 

 leges, arrangements have been made to pro- 

 vide for woman's specific requirements, 

 which have given great satisfaction, I am 

 told ; but this has been done at the instance 

 of the men teachers. 



The M^omen teachers in America, it seems 

 to me, are less likely than ours are to take 

 a feminine point of view in instructing 



