476 The <J Woman's Rights’ ” Question [October, 
that the exclusion of young' women from universities, in 
which modern sciences were not taught, can have hindered them 
from entering upon a scientific career. Equally do we deny 
that public opinion forbade for them study and research. 
Had Miss Herschell been a man her astronomical disco- 
veries could not have been more highly or more deservedly 
appreciated. Not a dog barked at her for preferring deter- 
mining the orbits of comets to ordinary feminine avocations. 
In like manner, if any woman had possessed the necessary 
faculties and turn of mind, there was nothing in the way of 
public prejudices or established customs to prevent her from 
having anticipated Dalton in discovering the laws of definite 
chemical combination. Nor if thus discovered would the 
“ atomic theory” have met with a less favourable reception. 
We then entirely deny the existence of any supposed con- 
spiracy to repress scientific talent in the female sex, and we 
hold that the three arguments adduced to explain its com- 
parative rarity among women to be utterly inconclusive. 
A further distinction between the sexes, common to man- 
kind and to all the mammalian class, must be sought in the 
moral faculties. Take what species we like we find the 
males bolder, more pugnacious and quarrelsome, more ad- 
venturous and restless, and less tractable and docile. The 
females, on the other hand, save in protection of their young 
from real or supposed danger, are mild, gentle, and in- 
offensive. Of this no more indisputable instance could be 
found than the case of domestic cattle, the cow — with the 
exception of certain “ strong-minded ” individuals- — being 
perfectly harmless, whilst the bull, when above four years 
old, is one of the most dangerous animals known, attacking 
and killing human beings, not for food, like the lion or the 
tiger, but out of pure “ superfluity of naughtiness.” Very 
similar is the distinction between the character of the sexes 
among the Quadrumana. No animal is more wantonly and 
gratuitously mischievous than an adult male baboon, and 
we are unable to find an instance of one having been tamed 
so far that he could be allowed his liberty. The females, on 
the other hand, are capable of domestication. Were there 
any necessity to multiply instances a fair-sized volume might 
be filled with accounts of the intractability of male Mam- 
malia of different species, as contrasted with the mildness 
and docility of their females, whilst in no animal is the case 
reversed. 
That the sexual distinction of character in our own species 
is precisely analogous in its nature will, we trust, be admitted 
without argument. 
