ences correspond to radical organic differences.
This general character of woman's organic develop- 390 MAN AND WOMAN.
mcnt has long been recognised 1 Its significance has by no means been so clearly recognised. T o assume, Irf as Herbert Spencer and many others have assumed, that on this account woman is " undeveloped man," is to state the matter in an altogether misleading manner. That the adult man diverges to a greater extent from the child-type than the adult woman is on the whole cer- tainly true — though even this is not entirely true of the more primary sexual organs and functions — and, so far as it is true, it is a fact not merely of human life, but of animal life generally. To add, however, that woman is undeveloped man is only true in the same sense as it is to state that man is undeveloped woman; in each sex there are undeveloped organs and functions which in the other sex are developed. In order to appraise rightly the significance of the fact that women remain somewhat nearer to children than do men, we must have a clear idea of the position occupied by the child in the human and allied species. In Chapter IL I alluded to the curious fact that among the anthro- poids the infant ape is very much nearer to Man than the adult ape. This means that the infant ape is higher in the line of evolution than the adult, and the female ape, by approximating to the infant type, is somewhat higher than the male. Man, in carrying on the line of evolution, started not from some adult male simian, but from the infant ape, and in a less degree from the female ape. The human infant bears precisely the same relation to his species as the simian infant bears to his, and we are bound to conclude that his relation to the future evolution of the race is similar. 2 The human infant presents in an exag- gerated form the chief distinctive characters of 1 Thus Topinard points out that, structurally, woman is intermediate between the child and the adult man. Dr. H. Campbell {Nervous Organisation of Man and Woman, chaps, viii., ix.) has an interesting discussion of this question.
8 It may be argued, in explanation of the phenomena, that the ape has descended from a more human ancestor, but there is no ground for such an assumption.
CONCLUSION. 391 humanity — the large head and brain, the small face, the hairlessness, the delicate bony system. By some strange confusion of thoug ht we usually ignore this fact, and assume that the adult form, is more highly dev eloped t han the infantile - form. 1 From the point of view of adaptation to the environment it is un- doubtedly true that the coarse, hairy, large-boned, and small-brained gorilla is better fitted to make his way in the world than his delicate offspring, but from a zoological point of view we witness anything but pro- gress. In Man, from about the third year onwards, further growth — though an absolutely necessary adap- tation to the environment — is to some extent growth in degeneration and senility. It is not carried to so low a degree as in the apes, although by it Man is to some extent brought nearer to the apes, and among the higher human races the progress towards senility is less marked than among the lower human races. The child of many African races is scarcely if at all less intelligent than the European child, but while the African as he grows up becomes stupid and obtuse, and his whole social life falls into a state of hide-bound routine, the European retains much of his childlike vivacity. And if we turn to what we are accustomed to regard as the highest human types, as represented in men of genius, we shall find a striking approximation to the child-type. The average man of geniu s is short and l arge-brained — the two chief characteristics of the cmjd— ancTliis general facial expression, as well as his temperament, recall the child. 2 "You Greeks are always children;" such was the impression given by the ancient people whom we are taught to regard as the highest type 1 The confusion has, however, often been pointed out. "It is a gross error," remarked Burdach, whose intuitions were rarely wrong, "to suppose that increase in age is increase in the scale of perfection. " 2 I do not here insist further on the infantile characters of genius, as I hope to deal elsewhere with the man of genius, so far as it is at present possible to study him from the anthropological standpoint.
Google 392 MAN AND WOMAN.
the world has reached. According to the formula of an old mystic, the reign of the Father gave place to the reign of the Son, which must be succeeded by the reign of the Holy Ghost It might be said that this formula corresponds to a zoological verity. The pro- gress of our race has been a progress in youthful ness. 1 When we have realised the position of the child in relation to evolution we can take a clearer view as to the natural position of woman. She bears the special characteristics of humanity in a higher degree than man (as Burdach pointed out), and led evolution in the matter of hairiness (as Darwin, following Burdach, pointed out), simply because she is nearer to the child. Her conservatism is thus compensated and justified by the fact that she represents more nearly than man the human type to which man is approximating. This is true of physical characters: the large-headed, delicate- faced, small-boned man of urban civilisation is much nearer to the typical woman than is the savage. Not only by his large brain, but by his large pelvis, the modern man is following a path first marked out by woman: the skull of the modern woman is more markedly feminine than that of the savage woman, while that of the modern man has approximated to it; the pelvis of the modern woman is much more feminine in character than that of the primitive woman, and the modern man's pelvis is also slowly becoming more feminine.
We may note also that, as many investigators have found, the student (to whose type the modern man has approximated) occupies, both physically and mentally, a position intermediate between that of women and ordinary men. Throughout the whole course of human civilisation we see men following women and taking up their avocations, with more energy, more thoroughness, often more eccentricity. Savagery and barbarism have more usually than not 1 The facts encountered in our consideration of the cephalic index in Chapter V., for example, are interesting from this point of view.
Google conclusion. 393 been predominantly militant, that is to say masculine, in character, while modern civilisation is becoming industrial, that is to Say feminine, in character, for the industries belonged primitively to women, and they tend to make men like women. Even in quite recent times, and in reference to many of the details of life, it is possible to see the workings of this feminisation; although, it is scarcely necessary to caution the reader, this is but one tendency in our complex modern civilisation. I have pointed out (p. 336) how, even during very recent years, there appears to have been a movement amongst men in favour of adopting feminine methods of committing suicide. We have, again, but to compare the various conveniences of our streets, and of locomotion to-day, with the condition of the streets of a large city a century ago, or even in many respects ten years ago, to realise the progress that has been made in affording equal facilities for women with men, and in so doing to make life easier for men as well as for women. St Clement of Alexandria was of opinion that women should be allowed to wear shoes; it was not, he said, suitable for their feet to be shown naked; "besides woman is a tpnder thing, easily hurt But for a man bare feet are quite in keeping." 1 To-day a man also is a "tender thing," and there is less and less inclination to recognise any distinctions of this kind. It would not be difficult, had it been part of my task, to multiply examples of the ways in which women are leading evolution. In the saying with which Goethe closed his Faust lies a biological verity not usually suspected by those who quote it Any reader who has turned to this book for facts or "arguments bearing on the everlasting discussion regarding the "alleged inferiority of women," and who has followed me so far, will already have gathered the natural conclusion we reach on this point We may regard all such discussion as absolutely futile and 1 Padagogus % Bk. II., Chap. xiL Google 394 MAN AND WOMAN.
foolish. If it is a question of determining the existence and significance of some particular physical or psychic sexual difference a conclusion may not be impossible. To make any broad statement of the phenomena is to recognise that no general conclusion is possible. Now and again we come across facts which group themselves with a certain degree of uniformity, but as we continue we find other equally important facts which group themselves with equal uniformity in another sense. The result produces compensation. Thus we find that the special liability of women to be affected by minor vital oscillations is balanced by a special resistance to more serious oscillations; that against the affectability of women we must place their disvulnerability. Again, the greater variability of men, while it produces many brilliant and startling phenomena, also produces a greater proportion of worthless or even harmful deviations, and the balance is thus restored with the more equable level of women. In the intellectual region men possess greater apti- tude for dealing with the more remote and abstract interests of life; women have, at the least, as great an aptitude in dealing with the immediate practical interests of life. Women, it is true, remain nearer than men to the infantile state; but, on the other hand, men approach more nearly than women to the ape-like and senile state. The more clearly and broadly we investigate the phenomena the more emphatically these compensations stand out It could scarcely be otherwise. A species in which the maternal half exhibited a general inferiority of vital functions could scarcely survive; still less could it attain the somewhat special and peculiar position which — however impartially we may look at the matter — can scarcely be denied to the human species. r From many groups of facts, it is true, one may /conclude that the world, as it is naturally made, is a ( better world for women than for men. Nature, as \Humboldt put it, has taken women under her special Google CONCLUSION. 395 p rotection. But so far as this is a fact it is a zoological and not a merely human fact The female animal everywhere is more closely and for a longer period occupied with that process of reproduction which is Nature's main concern. This is, indeed, more than a zoological fact; it is a biological fact; among plants we find that the stamens soon fall away while the pistil remains. The female retains her youthfulness for the sake of possible offspring; we all exist for the sake of our possible offspring, but this final end of the individual is more obviously woven into the structure of women. The interests of women may therefore be said to be more closely identified with Nature's interests. Nature has made women more like children in order that they may better understand and care for children, and in the gift of children Nature has given to women a massive and sustained physiological joy to which there is nothing in men's lives to correspond. Nalmp has done her best to make w ome n h ealthy and glad, and has on the whole been content to let men run some- w hat wild.
Men have had their revenge on Nature and on her proUgie. While women have been largely absorbed in that sphere of sexuality which is Nature's, men have roamed the earth, sharpening their aptitudes and energies in perpetual conflict with Nature. It has thus come about that the subjugation of Nature by Man has often practically involved the subjugation, physical and mental, of women by men. The periods of society most favourable for women appear, judging from the experiences of the past, to be somewhat primitive periods in which the militant tendency is not strongly marked. Very militant periods, and those so-called advanced periods in which the com- plicated and artificial products of the variational tendency of men are held in chief honour, are not favourable to the freedom and expansion of women. Greece and Rome, the favourite types of civilisation Google 396 MAN AND WOMAN.
bring before us emphatically masculine states of culture. The lust of power and knowledge, the re- search for artistic perfection, are usually masculine characters; and so most certainly are the suppression of natural emotion and the degradation of sexuality and maternity. Morgan has remarked that the fall of c lassic civilisation was due to the failure to develop women. But women never could have been brought into line with classic civilisation without transforming it entirely. As a matter of fact, when the feminine element at last came to the front with Christianity and the barbarians, classic civilisation went, and for a long time the masculine element in life also largely went — to reappear in monasteries, there to develop its most characteristic aberrations. The hope of our future civilisation lies in the development in equal freedom of both the masculine and feminine elements in life. The broader and more varied character of modern civilisation seems to render this more possible than did the narrow basis of classic civilisation, and there is much evidence around us that a twin move- ment of this kind is in progress. Still there is con- siderable advance yet to be made. So long as maternity under certain conditions is practically counted as a criminal act, it cannot be said that the feminine element in life has yet been restored to due honour.
It will be seen that a broad and general survey of the secondary sexual phenomena in humanity brings us at last into a very humble and conservative attitude before the facts of the natural world. It could scarcely be otherwise; the sexual adjustment has been proceeding for so vast a period of time, even if we can only take Man and his immediate ancestors into consideration, that the sexual balance has become as nearly perfect as possible, and every inaptitude is accompanied by some compensatory aptitude, even if it has not, as sometimes occurs, itself developed into an advantageous character. An Google CONCLUSION. 397 open-eyed, child-like, yet patient study of the natural facts of life can only lead us to be reverent in the face of those facts.
This conclusion must not, however, be misunder- stood. A cosmic conservatism does not necessarily involve a social conservatism. The wisdom of Man, working through a few centuries or in one corner of the earth, by no means necessarily corresponds to the wisdom of Nature, and may be in flat opposition to it. This is especially the case when the wisdom of Man merely means, as sometimes happens, the experience of our ancestors gained under other conditions, or merely the opinions of one class or one sex. Taking a broad view of the matter, it seems difficult to avoid the conclusion that it is safer to trust to the conserva- tism of Nature than to the conservatism of Man. We are not at liberty to introduce any artificial sexual barrier into social concerns. The respective fitness of men and of women for any kind of work or any kind of privilege can only be ascertained by actual open experiment; and as the conditions for such experi- ment are never twice the same, it can never be positively affirmed that anything has been settled once and for all. When such experiment is success- ful, so much the better for the race; when it is unsuccessful, the minority who have broken natural law alone suffer. An exaggerated anxiety lest natural law be overthrown is misplaced. The world is not so insecurely poised. We may preserve an attitude of entire equanimity in the face of social readjustment Such readjustment is either the out- come of wholesome natural instinct, in which case our social structure will be strengthened and broad- ened, or it is not; and if not, it is unlikely to become organically ingrained in the species.
Our investigation, therefore, shows us in what state of mind we ought to approach the whole problem; it can scarcely be said that it gives us the definite solution of definite problems. It is not on that Google 398 MAN AND WOMAN.
account fruitless. There is distinct advantage in clearing away, so far as we can, the thick under- growth of prepossession and superstition which flourishes in the region we have traversed to a greater extent than in any other region. It is something to have asked the right question, and to be set on the right road. It is something, also, to realise that we may disregard the assertions, or even the facts, of those who have not faced all the difficulties that must be encountered. At the very least it seems impossible to follow the paths we have here traversed without gaining a more vivid and tolerant insight into what for us must always be the two most interesting beings in the world.
Google INDEX OF AUTHORS.
ACKERM ANN, 29 Alderson, Sir J., 219 Allbutt, Prof. Clifford, 222 Allison, Mrs., 2 Anderson, Prof. W., 61, 388 Andral, 203 Anstie, Dr., 295 Aristotle, 245 Arndt, Prof., 279 Backhouse, 2 B'alz, 224 Balfour, H., 318 Ball, Prof. B., 230 Ballantyne, Dr., 204 Bancroft, H. H„ 1 Barbour, Dr., 242 Barnes, Prof. Earl, 140, 178 Barnes, Dr. F., 250 Benllon, Dr. E., 260 Berlioz, 214 Bernard, P., 382 Bertillon, 375 Bertin, 301 Besant, Mrs., 186 Biancbi, Prof., 74 Bibra, 155 Bichat, 71 Billroth, Prof., 124 Birmingham, Prof., 64 Brierre de Boismont, 253, 255, 257 Briquet, 284 Broad bent, 222 Google INDEX OF AUTHORS.
Browne, Dr. C, 227 Browne, Lennox, 206, 253 Brace, Mitchell, 361 Bryant, Mrs. S., 211 Bryant, T., 360 Bryce, 325 Buccola, 172 Buckle, 176 Buckley, 9 Bucknill, Dr., 277 Campbell, Dr. Harry, 30, 124, Clement of Alexandria, 128, 392 Codrington, 1 1 Coles, O., 86 Collet, Clara, 160 Collignon, 225 Cornevin, 221 Coutagne, Dr., 382 Culleo, 250 Curr, E., 9 Cuvier, in D' Albert is, 224 Danielli, 79 Daniels, A. H., 295 Deschamps, 224 Diderot, 174, 262 Down, Langdon, 364 Duchastelet, 242 Duchenne, 62 Durand de Gros, 78 Dureau, 72 Duval, M., 54 D wight, Prof., 44 Eberstallkr, 106 Ehrmann, 197 Eiselsberg, Prof., 124 Esquirol, 255, 339 Fawcett, Mrs, 247 Fechner, 147 Fehling, 56, 177 Felkin, Dr., 119 Filippe, De, 117, 120 Finkelstein, 251 Fisher, Dr., 254 Fison, 1, 9 Google INDEX OF AUTHORS.
Galiani, 246 Galippe, 88 - Gall, 71, in Gelte, 133 Genouville, 242 Gibb, Sir D., 236 " * Gilles de la Tourette, 281, 283 ;' Giraldus Cambrensis, 61 l " Gorham, 86 Gosse, Edmund, 322 ■ 3 Gowers, Dr., 305 Gradenigo, 363 Green, 138 - Greenfield, Prof., 234 ; GrUber, 146 Guest, Haden, 229 Gunn, 272 Gurrieri, 116 Hagemann, 215 Hale, Horatio, 10 Hall, Prof. Stanley, 170, 185, 186 Halliburton, Prof., 157, 202 Hammond, Dr., 306 Hamy, 76 Hardy, Dr., 202 Harless, E., 41 Harrison, Rev. C, 9 Harrison, F., 247 Hart, Dr. B., 242 Hearne, 4 Heerwagen, 265 Heidenreich, 233 Hein, 6 Heitzmann, 242 Hermann, 222 Herodotus, 61 Herzen, 172 Hesiod, 61 Hickson, S. J., 318 Hippocrates, 210 Hitzig, 107 Holder, Dr., 245 Holmgren, 140 Howitt, 1, 9 Huchard, 282 Hultkrantz, 209 Humphreys, Noel, 341 ICARD, 255 jACOBiEUS, 71 Jefferies, Dr. Joy, 141 Jennings, Vaughan, 158 Johnstone, H. H., 4 Judson, Dr. A. B., 122 jUrgens, 56 Jung, Prof., 267 26 Google INDEX OF AUTHORS.
Laache, 197 Lacassagne, 382 Lafitte, P., 188 Lagneau, 367 Lancereaux, 222 Landois, 151, 214 Lange, Prof. C, 300 Lannois, 363 Lapouge, 39 Laschi, 192 Laulanie\ 216 Laycock, 297, 363 Le Bon, G, 89 Leclere, 178 Lee, Edgar, 369 Leffingwell, 277 Legouest, 123 Legouve\ 325 Legrand du Saulle, 255 Lei n en berg, 374 Letourneau. C., 9 Lichtenstein, 197 Liebault, 260 Litzmann, 56 Lotze, 30 Lubbock, 9 Lunier, 364 Marri, E., 55 Marshall, J., ioo, 367 Martial, 210 Martin, Dr. S., no Martins, 212 Masini, Prof., 237 Mason, Prof. Otis, 5, 6, 10, Mosler, 214 Mura, Dr., 116 Google INDEX OF AUTHORS.
Oliver, Prof. T., 219 Oppolzer, 387 Orchanski, 85 Ott, Prof, van, 248, 250 Ottolenghi, Dr., 51, 127, 130 Pirogoff, 122 Plicque, 254 Pollard, Myra, 207, 210 Pollock, Sir F., 329 Popow, 80 Potter, Dr., 66 Preyer, 197 Pruner Bey, 78 QUATREFAGES, De, 76, 229 Quint ilian, 261 Reclus, Elisee, 368. Reid, 112 Keinl, 248 Kenan, 67 Retzius, 76, 89 Rey, Dr. P., ill Reyburn, Dr., 122, 223 Richet, Ch. f 203 Rios, Conrado, 143 Roberts, C, 33, 48 Robin, Ch., 197 Rodier, 214 Rolleston, 89 Rollet, 39 Romanes, 172 Romiti, G., 56 Rosenberg, 64 Rosenthal, 204 Ross, Dr. A., 230 Rossi, De, 192 Roussel, P., 324 Roussel, T., 179 Rubenstein, 320 Salter, Dr., 387 Sanne\ 388 Sansom, 219 Skoff, 79 Smith, Priestley, 83, 301 Smith, R. Percy, 345 Smith, Wilberforce, 205 Soemmering, 71 INDEX OF AUTHORS.
Sskorski, 177 Stein, Dr. von den, 259 Stephenson, Dr., 248 Stewart, ProC C, 20 Stirling, 151, 214 Strauss, D. F., 67 Sullies, 244 Sydenham, 281, 284 Tait, Lawson, 233 Tanquerel des Planches, 219 Tarnier, 233 Tarnowsky, Dr. Pauline, 119 Taylor, Dr. Seymour, 200 Tiedemann, 97 Tonnini, 284 Verneau, R., 55 Wagner, 95 Wahl, 278 Waldeyer, 223 Warner, Dr. F., 302 Weil, 133 Westergaard, 329, 331, 375 Whitehead, Dr., 244 Whitelegge, Dr., 379 Widal, 306 Wiedersheim, 64 Wiesener, 240 Wilks, Dr. S., 93 Wille, 381 Yatsuty, 221 Yeo, Dr. Burney, 234 Yvon, 214 Zaufal, 133 Zuccarelli, 218 Google INDEX OF SUBJECTS.
Abdomen, 43, 63 Abstract thought, 185-190 Acrobats, women, 155-156 Acting, 324-325 Affectability, 49, 297 et seq, Afghans, 4 Agriculturists, women the first, 5 Americans and English, differ- ences between, 34 Anabolism of women, 99, 156 Anaemia, 199, 312 Anaesthetics, 269 et seq, Andamanese, 59 Andombies, 4 Antipyrine, 218 Anus, 60 Ape, morphological position of, Apellaeans, 285 Appetite, 240, Arabs, 54 Architects, women the first, 5, 7 Arcus senilis, 381 Arsenic, 217 Art, 7, 316 et seq.
Asceticism, 14, 15 Asthma, 387 Astigmatism, 135 Astrology, 369 Baldness, 381 Birth-rate, 373 et seq. Blushing, 301 Bourignon, Mme., 190 Brachycephalism, 76 Breasts, 44 Brewing, 3, 6 Bromide, 218 Buchan, Mrs., 190 Business capacity, 180-185, 257 Cambodgians, 178 Camisards, 287 Castration and voice, 237 Catalepsy, 261 Centenarians, 378 Cephalic index, 76-81 Cerebellum, 111-112 Chest, 44-45 Child, morphological position of, face, 81; brain, 103; disvul- nerability, 122-123; psychology, 170; precocity among savages, 177; respiration, 204; som- nambulism, 259; hypnotism, 260; anaesthetics, 270; dis- eases, 387 Chimpanzee, 62 Chin, 85 Chloroform, 219 Cholera, 380 Chorea, 305 Clavicle, 44 Cleft-palate, 360 Club-toot, 361 Google INDEX OF SUBJECTS.
Cretinism, sporadic, 234; ende- Dancing mania, 287 Deaf-mutes, 364 Death-rate, 373 et seq. Defecation, 273 Dental index, 88 Destructiveness, 308 Diabetes, 387 Digestion, 240 Diphtheria, 379 Diplomacy, 9 Disvulnerability, 122 Dolichocephalism, 76 Dreams, 263-267 Dwarf, 42 Ecstasy, 261, 295 Emotion, 243, 298 et seq.
English and Americans, differ- ences between, 34 Epistolary style, 188 Erect and quadrupedal posture, Erotic phenomena, 272-273 Excretion, 213-216 Exercise, 46, 209 Facial angle, 83-85 Fantis, 178 Fasting, 295 Fatness, 41, 98 Fiction, 323 Finger, 47 Fishing, 2 General paralysis, 346-349 Gigantism, 42 Glabella, 74 Glaucoma, 301 Gluttony, 240 Goitre, 234 Gorilla, 23 Growth, 32-40 Guiana Indians, 2, 6 Idiots, 364 Ikota, 292 Industrial capacity, 180-185 Infency, 31, 102 Infanticide, 353 Infantile and childlike characters of women, skull, 74, 75, 82;