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



the scope of this paper ; and in the present small extent of our 

 knowledge I doubt if its discussion would serve any useful purpose. 

 It is enough if we point out the fallacy of the Greek concept. 



Of course, when the change was established economics went 

 with it, man being the breadwinner ; and from that day woman 

 has been essentially in a false financial position, which has 

 profoundly affected her psychology. 



One of the subtle results of the social ascendency of man is in 

 dress. In previous ages, as in all the animal world, it was the 

 male who dressed to attract the female, the choice resting with 

 her. Hence the gorgeous plumage of the male bird, and the 

 extraordinary decorations of the early savage wooer. 



All this is now changed, and striking and attractive raiment 

 no longer adorns the male, but is the recognized prerogative 

 of the female. The result is curious, and somewhat grotesque, 

 for the magnificent plumage used by male birds to attract the 

 females is stripped from them after death, and then purchased 

 by women to attract men. I am obliged to put the matter in 

 this offensive way (which I trust will be forgiven) to show my 

 point, but am happy to admit that women account for their 

 attractive dress in other ways. Man is therefore mainly, in 

 virtue of his economic position, and not as is said, on account 

 of the numerical superiority of women, the principal selector 

 in matrimony, which to my mind is detrimental to the status of 

 w^omen and to her offspring. 



So long as women are mostly dependent on their fathers, 

 until they exchange this for dependence on their husbands, 

 will they continue to retain many of the characteristics peculiar 

 to the servile state. Of course, the endowment of motherhood 

 is one solution of this financial difficulty, though to my mind 

 by no means the best, for all State interference in private life 

 is more or less of an evil ; to prove which one has but to read 

 Plato's Republic. Once a woman's independent economic 

 position was assured, she would probably select her mate, in a 

 way that would now, with our false standards of conduct, be 

 considered positively indecent ; but seeing she is the mother of 

 the resulting race, it seems only right she should do so. 



One thing is certain, that a large number of degrading 

 unions that now take place would at once cease, and the whole 

 psychology of marriage would be raised to a higher level. 



It is all very well for Mantegazza to say to women, " Never 

 allow yourself to be able to say, ' You bought me,' or ' I sold 



