.1878. J Considered from a Biological Point of View. 479 
their species. Still, even here, the female is more exclusively 
constructed for and more totally absorbed in the task of 
reproduction than the male. The share of the latter in this 
function is, strictly speaking, momentary, whilst during the 
stage of maturity the energies of the normal female are more 
or less completely devoted to the nurture, intra- and extra- 
uterine, of her offspring. Even when she never becomes a 
mother the generative system exercises a modifying influence 
upon her whole career. This consideration throws a strong 
light upon the ground taken by certain of the more 
“ advanced ” female advocates of the movement. The 
femme libre of the new social order may, indeed, escape the 
charge of neglecting her family and her household by con- 
tending that it is “ not her vocation to become a wife and a 
mother.” Why then, we ask, is she constituted a woman 
at all ? Merely that she should become a sort of second- 
rate man ? We have already declared, and we repeat, that 
we wish a free career for every talent. If an abnormal 
woman possesses a man’s muscular strength and adaptation 
for toil, we would not, either by law or by social influences, 
seek to debar her from working at the oar, or the forge, or 
even from wielding the policeman’s truncheon or the soldier’s 
rifle. But we would not calculate on such anomalies ; we 
would not legislate for their special protection, or seek to 
increase their number. In a manner perfectly analogous, if 
a woman possesses the taste and the power for scientific 
research usually confined to men, — and far from common 
even among them, — we would not wish to restrain her from 
the cultivation of her peculiar faculties ; but we would not 
foster the growth of such a class of females. We would not 
seek to entice women into the observatory, the laboratory, or, 
above all, into the disseCting-room, nor ereCt colleges for the 
training of savantes, any more than we would organise female 
regiments and open institutions where muscular young ladies 
might perfect themselves in the management of heavy 
artillery. 
It is generally — too generally — assumed that every no- 
velty, every change from what has hitherto been customary 
and recognised, commends itself, on the mere ground of its 
novelty, to men of science, as indeed to all unfettered 
inquirers, and will be resisted merely by those whose guiding 
principle is an unreasoning attachment to what is established. 
Never, perhaps, was it shown more clearly than with refer- 
ence to the present question that innovation may be retro- 
grade, — that a proposed change, if carried out, may involve 
a return to a lower stage of development. What is the very 
