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ALFRED T. SCHOFIELD, ESQ.. M.D., OX 



strictures not wholly undeserved have been made on her dress 

 these last few years, but we must not confuse the causes. In all 

 times of war, and general upheaval, a similar caprice in woman's 

 dress has been observed, but I do not consider what so many 

 rightly deplore, as in any way the outcome of the emancipation 

 of our womanhood. 



The remarkable lack of women's interest in their own minds 

 is a very curious point. No doubt this is a survival of the past 

 bad years. After careful search in the largest libraries, I can 

 find no works on psychology written by women, save perhaps 

 tentatively by that remarkable Swede — Ellen Key. 



What I take as another survival is a decided shrinking from 

 bhe general and the abstract, and a distinct preference for the 

 particular and the concrete. 



I do not emphasize these traits, for I am of opinion that in 

 the new picture when complete they will disappear. Meanwhile, 

 we still wait for a true concept of the female mind written by 

 a woman. The subject is of the first importance ; for it is not 

 too much to say that the future of England largely depends on 

 the quality of woman's mind to-day. 



With regard to her body, indications are not wanting in Nature 

 to show that women physically are her most precious asset, 

 contrary to the usual estimate. Since the invention of tools, 

 man's body has greatly shrunk in value ; indeed, but for wars 

 it would be still lower. 



In the siege of Paris, when boys were almost exclusively born, 

 Nature clearly showed she would not make a girl save out of 

 good materials, whereas she made boys almost out of anything.* 

 In this short monograph I include in the word mind" both 

 intellect and spirit. While, therefore, I emphasize the import- 

 ance of a good physique to the next generation of women, few will 

 deny that with regard to her national mission the quality of her 

 mind is of still greater importance than her body. No doubt 

 that for the army and field labour and industrial pursuits the 

 body of man may come first ; but socially, nationally, and 

 imperially it is the spirit of man and not his body that controls 

 the future. I know that Eugenics and much of the trend of 

 modern thought tends to deny this. In some proposed legislation 

 now being considered with regard to the prevention of a certain 



* See Traill, Sexual Physiology, p. 166 ; and Gamble, Evolution of Woman, 

 p. 33. 



