WOMAN’S WORK IN CREATION.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 770, 3 December 1886, Page 4

WOMAN’S WORK IN CREATION.

Dr.. Richardson in ‘ Longman’s Magazine.’ In the days -when I was a student of medicine, it was professed that women were entirely different from men in regard to capacity for physical and for mental exercise. One of my professors, an anatomist of considerable and well-deserved reputation, systematically taught that the anatomical disposition of the muscles in woman was such that certain acts which boys and men could ; easily perform could never be carried out by girls or women. He gave, as an illustration, the muscular mechanism that is employed in the act and art of throwing a ball. Girls and women could never learn to play at cricket because they never could throw a cricket ball with any force or precision. The muscles required for the work were not developed for such a purpose. The deltoi

was too attenuated and too fan-shaped ; the biceps and triceps were too long for their breadth ; the pectorals were altogether inadequate, and the subscapularis and other muscles which act against them were equally deficient. The leverage and mechanism of the skeleton was also imperfect ; the bones were too light and feeble, and the shoulderjoint was so shallow in its receiving part that dislocation would be constantly imminent even if the muscular capacity were sufficient. As these various deficiencies were made matters of direct demonstration during dissections of the parts involved, the evidence seemed to be full and satisfactory in support of the theory that was advanced upon the evidence, and we were content to believe what we had seen and heard. For my own part, when I in turn became a teacher on the same subjects, I taught the same doctrine and illustrated it in precisely the same way, in which proceedings I was entirely supported by my colleague, the late Am6d6e Deville, certainly one of the cleverest anatomists that France ever lent to England; and, to the best of my recollection, the most perfect anatomical demonstrator I have ever kuown. In like strain, when the position of the representatives of the two sexes was studied in respect to mental as distinct from physical exercises, we were taught to look upon women as again differing in degree of capacity from men. I had the privilege of hearing George Combe deliver an introductory discourse to a course of lectures on the Henderson trust, at Anderson’s University, in 1845-46. In that discourse Combe expressed decisive views as to the sexual differences of mental power. He compared the cast of the head of the so-called ‘lnfant Sappho ’ with the head of the Calculating Boy, and he argued that each head was so organically different ii) construction, as the result of sex, that one could never approach the other in detail of work. The Infant Sappho could never have learned to calculate, although she had the best head of the two, and although she came nearer to a calculator than any other on the female side of humanity But in this particular she merely resembled a'l other women, who from time immemorial could never calculate or become great arithmeticians. Once more.l, for one, followed my master as a teacher and repeated what I fully believed to be true, in dealing with the topic of female capacity for mental labor. 1 recall another similar argument. I recall a discussion in which several able and learned men were engaged, and in which it was debated whether women possess any trace of inventive power or skill. 4 See,’ said one of the debaters, ‘ one astounding fact. Women in all times have acquired the arts of knitting, spinning, weaving, and sewing. In these arts they have been far more employed than men. They were always proficients in these arts, and, as one would suppose, knew all that was wanted to secure rapidity, neatness, and durability. Yet, where is there to be found in history a woman who made the faintest improvementin these art 3? The stocking frame, who invented that ? The spinning-jenny, who invented that ? The stocking-loom, who in vented that? The sewing-machine, of all machines a woman’s,' who invented that ? Did a woman ever invent anything?’ I ventured to suggest that Hypatia was credited with the invention of the hydrometer, and of being one of the most distinguished professors of mathematical science. If that be true, was the answer—and what proof is there of its truth ?-it were an exception, and the exception proves the rule. A change of thought on this subject has, nevertheless, occurred of late years—a change so extreme as to be quite phenomenal. The practical has come first—a circumstance not uncommon in the development of great social revolutions. It commenced, if my observation be correct, entirely by and through the study of medicine. A few women of unusual character and strength of mind determined to win their way into the field of medical industry. What they went through to attain that object; how they fought; by what straight and narrow ways and byways they conflicted, until they reached the goal they had in view, would call for another and longer essay than the present; would call up. indeed, a page of the social history of tne latter part of this century that would form a picture of itself, without any other interrupting matter. One woman has shown such mathematical learning as to put male wranglers themselves on their best mettle ; another, in a mixed examination of the most excruciating kind, has come out against her male competitors with what are called 4 honors of the first class ;’ a third, competing in feats of strength, skill, and endurance, such as tricycling, has carried herself over country roads a hundred and sixty miles in a single day ; and thousands of women have shown, since the introduction of games like lawn-tennis, that the idea of the deficiency of women, anatomically, was a delusion of the past. Moreover, in certain forms of inventive skill many women have proved themselves the equals of men. They have proved it in the construction and in the arrangement of subjects of works of fiction ; in the art of painting; in the laying out of furniture within the house ; in the planning of grounds and gardens, large and small. It may be, therefore, that if in purely mechani-

cal arts, such as the invention of engines and other machines, and if in some finearts, as the composition of music, women up to this time have been wanting in originality, the defect has arisen from the simple circumstance that they have not had ths training and opportunity necessary for proficiency in these kinds of inventive talent, while there may fairiy be adduced for them, as a set-off, the fact that under extreme emergencies they have been equal to men in mechanical dexterity, fortitude and endurance. In histrionic art; in almost every art that may be called imitative, such a 3 telegraph work, copying, cooking, cleaning, decorating, they have advanced with rapid strides ; and, in industries where repetition is the order of the day, have become, I believe, in the end, quite as automatically perfect as their male compeers. In the course of the present year I visited a factory where women were at work before \the lathe, the vice, the anvil, making parts of _ important and delicate machinery in steel, iron, and brass. They were whitesmiths, turners, and brass-finishers. Struck with so novel a sight, I spent an hour in the shops with them, looking at the works they carried out, and I am bound to say that better and truer workmanship I never beheld. The dexterity with which those who worked at the hammer used that instrument; their correctness of eye in measuring minute distances and irregularities ; the rapidity with which they turned out work from the lathe ; and the ease and accuracy with which they collected and put the various parts together in order to complete the instruments they were producing, was a new study; to me sufficient of itself to correct the early and incorrect impressions I had acquired, if nothing else in the way of evidence had been brought under my observation. There was no exhibit in these workers of any deficiency of muscular perception or skill. Everything done was decisively done, quickly done, accurately done, and strongly done. Summing np the whole of the argument so far submitted to the reader, it seems to me that we are driven, by the facts of practice and by the light of theory, to the unavoidable conclusion that women can, if they like; and if they are permitted to have their likings, become as men in relation to all manner of work. There is no reason whatever why, as in the old days, they should not be Spartan women once more under a new name ; there is no reason why they should not become athletes and win races and wrestling, and other matches of similar kind. There is not the slightest reason why a female eleven at Lord’s should not be ready to play and sometimes beat the All Eugland eleven, the eleveu of Players, the Australian eleven, or any other eleven that could be put in the field. The first necessary modification would have relation to dress. A petticoated generation could never do the full work of a generation whose limbs were free of petticoat encumbrance. The practice on the stage tells us that. In long petticoats women could neither climb, race, drive engines, walk, ride, work at the bench, nor work at the lecture table, the school, or the laboratory, with the facility of men as men are attired. Whatever, therefore, there is of elegance in the present form of female attire, that must be sacrificed to the necessities of competition with men, in work common to men. It may be that there is not much to be said against this change. It may be argued, even by women, that the pulling along of pounds’ weight of clothes, which lie on the ground, and require, for comfort, a page or waitingmaid to carry them, is a tax of the worst kind on human endurance; to women a plague, to men a joke. It may be that the modern woman’s absurd fashionable dress, which turns her into a semi-erect dromedary, is not all that couM be desired; but for her to Dlay her part as the rival of man in work she must change dress altogether, and be left as free of limb as men. If she is not to be so far emancipated, then she bids fair to remain as she has been all along the course of time, a woman ; a human being, by the common consent of mankind in relation to dress, restrained by dress ; a woman proud.of her grand robes, content to bear the weight of them, content to tolerate the inconvenience of them, and content to suffer herself to .be admired under all such unnecessary pains and penalties. Granting that women may be divided into two classes, we solve all difficulties. We say then that women who do not want to be mothers of children may become mothers of any profession or industry. The solution is most satisfactory if the division be not carried too far. ' If ifc become the fashion to have too many mothers of industry, serious complications will soon arise. Meo are admittedly a selfish and jealous-minded race when interfered with too severely ; and if their industries are seriously manaced, they may turn round and give ground for dangerous opposition. In one instance they have done so. The printers, I remember, in an establishment were women printers were introduced, held a * chapel,’ and even in that sacred precinct leagued themselves against the invasion into their calling. The doctors are as yet not altogether reconciled to the raid of the women on their field of labor. The lawyers obstinately refuse them all rights. The Church, willing to have them as handmaids and helpers, forbids them the pulpit with no hesitating voice. And, in one of the large manufacturing towns the men all rose to a man quite recently, when it was proposed in their workshops to let women do the work at the anvil, the vice, and the lathe, which, as I have shown, they can do so neatly, quickly, and dexterously. The reader will, , I trust, gather from this essay, as an expression of my own observation, three indications : (1) That, physiologically, there is nothing to be advanced against the rising belief that women may, under systematised training, attain to the same ‘faculty and power of work as men. (2) That in order to reach this position of vantage, if it be one, women must train after the manner of men, must be content to remain a powerful and free caste of women, without material ties or domestic responsibilities connected with families of their own blood and nurture. (3) That for such women to attain to perfect power in mental learning and attribute, they must proceed by graduation, step by step, slowly, patiently, evenly, persistently, and must ignore altogether the current temptation of appearing before a band of professional experts, in order to prove themselves

equally great on any subject which any expert may choose to employ as a test of proficiency in his particular department. While I venture to offer these indications, I do not fee! prepared to say that I think the world would be better!if they were acted upon. There is an old proverb which says that * two persons are good company, but three are no company at all,’ and ou this question it is doubtful whether the existence of what would practically be three sexes would be good company for the world at large. It would have a powerful tendency for leaving the responsibilities of maternity to the weakest mothers, about as bad an evil as could befall the human race ; and I fear it would not make the working hives of women satisfied and happy.- Far better, it seems to me, will it be for our women to proceed, as far as they like, step by step, towards the best and most useful general knowledge ; to keep together in one common bond as women ; and to let the love and care of the mother be, after all, the crowning joy and ambitioD of women’s work in creation.

LITTLE PITCHERS HAVE BIG EARS.

Well,yes, that homely proverb is very true, and the only wonder to me is that people do not remember it in time.

Here sits the child, with its mind, like a white sheet of paper, unwritten upon, and both its big eyes and ears open, and you go on as if it were not present, and talk, talk, talk until suddenly a shrill little voice utters a remark upon the subject of your discourse, and you cry out : 4 Dear me 1 I forgot Little Pitcher!’

But that i* just what you have no business to do. The story had better not be told, the slander not uttered. The hard name given to a neighbor, the rash verdict upon his actions, might well be restrained. What excuse can you give for filling your child’s mind with thoughts alien to the innocence of childhood ? None. It is a child’s nature to trust, to think people good, to believe that strangers are kind, to be sorry for people who suffer, without looking into the cause and saying, 4 They deserve it,’ as grown folks do at times. They do not criticise until they are taught to do so. They believe what is said to them, and they have ho doubt that the angels watch over them all night long. To disturb their faults by long, irreligious arguments, by exposures of sly tricks, and wicked devices, by revelations of motives of which they could not dream, and possibilities in this world aud the other that must terrify aud unsettle them, is cruel. If you must talk against your neighbors, or speak- of sin, .or draw pictures of evildoers, or utter doubts of heaven, or indulge in ridicule of worthy people, or, above all, if you must tell wicked stories under the guise of jokes, send ‘ Little Pitcher ’ out of the way first. Honest, simple, wholesome talk is all that should enter his big ears. Don’t cry out, 4 Little pitchers have big ears !’ when you find your child sitting under the table listening, but remember the fact before you delight yourself with your own opinions on dangerous subjects ; for a * Little Pitcher ’ upon whose memory the words of the catechism or the numbers of the multiplication table fall without making an impression, will never forget a dreadful story or a wicked word that is once dropped into his 4 big ears.’

A * SIMPLY MAGNIFICENT ’ WED-

DING CAKE.

At a recent wedding reception at which some of the members of the new Cabinet and ‘ our only General ’ figured as relatives and honored guests, the bride s cak6 (says the British and Foreign Confectioner) was simply a magnificent structure —eight tiers, each varying in the style of ornamentation. The cake rested on a silver plateau, with a handsome filigree work resting slantwise from the plateau to the cloth of blue velvet or plush, covered with lace. The edge of the blue material was a gold-lace filigree and deep gold grass fringe, with horse shoes ‘for good luck ’ worked at each of the four corners with gold thread and pearls. There was nothing on this table except the cake and a few boats of flowers in the new shaded grass. The cake was surrounded about three inches distant by a mo3t exquisite wreath of stephanotis, Kalosanthes jasminia, la Dame Blanche heliotropes and a white fuschsia called 4 Charming Bride.’ Three double (entwined) horseshoes were on the upright rim of the first tier, amid a grouping of fern leaves in white sugar work. On the top was an artistic grouping of the two families’ shields, crests, etc., and. the new quartering allowed by the. marriage. The shields were about eight inches long, the crests at their deepest point two inches long. The next tier represented 4 The Seven Ages of Man,’ founded on Shakespeare’s lines. The old woman nursing the baby on the top of the cake was as fine an old body as could be found anywhere ; while the fine piping of the baby’s dress was just as beautiful as if fresh from the Huntingdon lace workers’ pillow.

A REMARKABLE WOMANA woman with a remarkable career has lately died in Cochin China. She was known as Madame Dr Ribart, and was a surgeon of considerable skill, while her experience was one that no other woman has ever had. Beginning as a waitress in a little drinking shop i of the Quartier Latin of Paris, she passed, while still very young, through the usual experiences of a Parisian grisette, and became connected with a medical student who frequented the shop. Her instinct was irresistible. No sooner did she come in contact with his books and instruments than she fell upon them and literally devoured the contents. She availed herself of' his teaching too, and drew from him everything he learned, so that by the time slio had reached the age of twenty-six she presented herself for examination as a surgeon, and passed the ordeal brilliantly and triumphantly. She soon recognised the field that lay open before her in the Egyptian harems, to which male surgeons were not admitted, and where women suffered unspeakable torments for the lack of proper attendance. At Cairo she speedily established a large practice, and had every prospect of doing well, but’ her newly-formed habits of dissipation had become rooted and were unconquerable. She plunged into inconceivable debaucheries.

Her career of vice brought her to an Egyptian madhouse. After six months of this severe but sanitary regimen she recovered her mind. She made her way out to the French colony in Cochin China. Here her talents and her beauty won her instant recognition. The old Queen Mother of Annara had been blind for years, and hailed with delight the prospect of relief held out to her by the French physician. Madarap Bibart, however, died suddenly the day before the operation was to be performed. Probably no European woman ever kuew so much of the inner life of the harem in the East and its dark side as this ex-grisette.— European Mail. DREADFUL TREATMENT OF AN OHIO FARMER BY HIS NEIGHBORS. Mansfield, Ohio. Fept. 6. —Simon Dolph will file in court to-day a petition for 20,000 dols damages against twelve farmers of this county, including several women. While Dolph was going after his cows several weeks ago a sentinel on the road fired a shot, at which signal four men rushed out from a corn-field upon Dolph. He was too much for them, and four more men appealed, and he was bound.. He wife was driven away at the muzzle of guns. She tolled the farm bell and one of the neighbors .responded, but was driven away with threats of death. A rope was placed around Dolph’s neck and he was dragged through the woods. The rope was then thrown over a limb and a limb and he was pulled up. When he recovered his senses he was lying on a log. A man was blowing into his mouth. He was taken thence to a graveyard where he was stripped. Tar was rubbed over his body and he was commanded to roll in several bushels of feathers. The crowd then padded feathers on him and put a mass in his hair, sticking rooster feathers on his head to make him look like an Indian. He was then pulled with the rope around his neck over stones and brushes and marched to the village of Rome. There a bonfire was built, around which the men forced him to march to music. The inhabitants of the village turned out to see the sight, but no effort was made to rescue the tortured man, He was punched with stick, kicked and terribly treated. He appealed to a Justice of the Peace and a constable for help, bet they said they could do nothing. The ten _ men marched him around town, and, each giving him a parting kick, started him home, where he arrived several hours afterward, nearly dead. Before releasing him the captain of the gang ordered him to leave town within ten days or they would kill him and his family and burn his premises. The neighbors charged Dolph with talking scandalously about all the women in the neighborhood, which he indignantly denies. Warnings had been given him to leave the country three days before the outrage by masked men, and again the night before by two women in disguise. He refused to obey. One man was shot during the melee. Many of the accused are wealthy. Several have already left the country, and others are preparing to leave.—Boston Journal. , A STRANGE STORYNew York, Oct. 17. —The World’s Providence, R. 1., special says : As strange and startling as was the story of the disappearance of Frederick A. Gower, the telephone inventor and aeronaut, is the information of his reappearance, alive and well, in Bombay, In r lia. Gower, who was a newsboy and subsequently editor of the Press, in this city, left his newspaper desk when the first public exhibition was given here on the telephone. He contracted with Prof. Bell to deliver a lecture throughout the country, and afterward took the French capital as a field for introducing the telephone. Soon after reaching Paris ho amassed a fortune. Having satisfied his thirst for discovery and invention in one direction, Gower set to work experimenting with machinery for aerial navigation. He made extensive preparations for ascending in a monster balloon from Dieppe. The balloon went out to sea, and the only vestige cf it that was ever found was the basket. Gower was given up for lost. He had, not very long before, married Mile. Nordica, the prima donna, who, however, did not live happily with her rich American husband. Now comes the story that on Malabar Hill, in Bombay, the vanished American is living in good health, while his brother, George Lewis Gower, is in France taking care of his interests. Gower, it is said, is a great friend of a handsome Indian Princess, and is the lion of a very lively European circle.