TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9433, 3 June 1896, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

This question was lately Should Girls raised in the columns of a Learn London contemporary by Physiology 3 Mies Frances Power Gobbe, the well-known advocate of women's rights and education, who answered it with a vigorous negative. The matter arose from a question put to Sir John Qorst in the House of Commons as to whether he had heard that a class of youug girls in a Birmingham Board School were made to dissect the bodies of rabbifce, whether these operations were sanctioned by the Education Department as a necessary part of the eduoatioa of girls, and whether he would not order the nse of diagrams as illustrations in place of such experiments ? The Minister replied that the dissection in question was performed by some girls not in an elementary school but in the advanced course of the organised science school. Physiology was a compulsory subject in this course, and the regulations required the practical acquaintance, by the use of a microscope, with the minute structure of the several tissues and organs. Nearly all the girls were over fifteen. The aotna) diaeeofcion was nothing more than any girl would necessarily perform in preparing a rabbit for stewing. Miss Cobbe expressed her alarm at this official sanction of a system which ought to be described as the lower education of women, as being best suited to deprive them of womanliness. Admitting, very reluctantly, tbat science of some sort must nowadays be taught to boys and girls she felt constrained to ask why physiology was the oftenest chosen. It had not the power of lifting up and enlarging the mind which was possessed by the aieter sciences of astronomy, geology, botany, zoology, or physics; on the contrary physiology had a dietinot tendency to materialise the minds which pursued it. It was, of course, possible to teach and learn it in a pure and religions spirit, bub it was more liable than any other science to be studied ia an opposite one. "The example of the medical students who alone have undergone hitherto the coarsening influences of such studies ought surely," remarked Mies Cobbs, " to be a warning not>to he lightly disregarded." Poor medical students, how they still suffer for the faults of Bob Sawyer ! There was also the danger of the teaching of physiology awakening" illomened inquiaitiveness ia immature minds," and Miss Cobbe further implied, rather than actually stated, that the illustrations of a lesson in the science, of the dissection of a rabbit might, in the case of some children, excite inherent tendencies to crimes of violence und murder. Miss Cobbe, however, rather spoiled her case by assarting her sorrowful conviction that " the introduction of theea dissections and the new teaching, generally, of physiology in schools, is part of the large aim of a certaia powerful party tofamilarise the public mind with the idea of vivisection, to inspire interest in the results of such ' research,' and to transform natural horror of cruelty into the morbid fascination which the sight of blood and mutilation manifestly possesses for their unhappy selves." - This is extraordinarily feeble arguing for & woman of Miss Cobbe'a power. No one but the most extreme anti-vivisec-tioniet would have dreamed of charging t>ie JSihtaation Ilepartment. with wurkiug ia the supposed interests </i the

vivisectionista. As to Miss Oobbe's views oa teaching physiology to girls, they are eummod up by a correspondent, who saya that they seem to be the same as those of the lady who wrote to her girl's schoolmaster—''Don't teach my Mamr Ann no think about her inside. It isa'o of no use —and, boaides it's rude."

Wβ all know nowadays How Ladies ihat women and girls are Eira each year increasing the Money. number of occupations by which they make their iiviug. Time was when a single woman without money and friends had little more than the choice of teaching or sewing ; and if she could not earn enough to keep her by one or other of these methods she was iv danger of starving. This state ot affairs has long since passed away, and there are very lew trades or professions in which women are not taking their part. Bab outside these there are, at Home* a large number of ways by which ladies may make or add to limited incomes, and preserve the independence which is becoming increasingly popular among young women, fcsomo of tboso methods are recouuted in a recent article which bears internal evidence of having been written by one of the army of lady journalists in London. A wide field, we are told, is opened by the number of newly rich women who3e wealth, or whose husbands' wealth, has brought them into eociety to which they have been unused. Their need of advice ia patent to themselves, and they are glad to secure the paid services of a " coach." Such a "coach," who must necessarily be a person of considerable social experience, has to teach her pupil the delicacies of matters of precedence, the art of judicious cardleaving, the intervals between calls, the choosing of her dinnei-guesls, the length of the invitation, the nice conduct of the signal for departure from the dining-room, aud even the choice of the dishes. This is said to be a very paying branch of work, and the names of those who make comfortable incomes at it would be surprising reading to their friends. Another way by which a lady may earn money without very serious hard work is by bringing the neglected education of women who have married above their station in life up to a level which will enable them to pass all the muster they are likely to undergo. Difficulties with the Jetter " h," the necessity of leaviug the "a" from such words aa how, and of pronouncing "made" as it is spelled and not as " mide," these are the matters which most frequently occupy such private teacherj. The work is often slow, but it is well paid, and there are always plenty of pupils. Accomplishments, as they once were understood, are now out of date, which saves the teachers a lot of trouble. "Other women of fairly good standing make money by supplying articles ot their own manufacture to shops, Belta of a particular kind afforded an income to a worker of this kind for some years. When they went out of fashion, she invented and patented a floral sunshade. Another worker made paper lampshades, and secured a fair remuneration. A lady who had lived in India for many years, and whose husband lost his money, made and sold a particularly delicious chutney and curry powder. Another dealt iv a variety of jim which was nob obtainable at the shops, and a third has a particular recipe,, for salting almonds and devilliug biscuits, dainties that are in much demand among her friends." Young girls in want of pocket money manage to secure some by taking pet dogs I for daily walks, teaching them tricks, and doing everything to make them companionable, save and except diverting their affection from their lawful owners. Others look after the wants of pet canaries, and others again have a round of houses at which they trim all the lamps. Writing invitations to balls, dinners, &c,, arranging flowers, sortiug and labslliug wedding presents are all methods of making money which have been adopted of late years by women, young and old, and as eociety becomes more exacting their number increases with each succeeding season.