New-York tribune., 1872-05-11
BIRTHRIGHTS.

A certain Mr.. Laurenny, in England, has
been recently setting forth with just the pos
sibity that women can not only appear as
" professional cutters-Off of babies legs" but
" professional shooters and stabbers of in
"vaders Of their homes;" or, in plain English.
soldiers and sailors. WhereupOn The Pal
Mall Gazette gives an absolutely new turn to
this wOrn-Out topic by bringing the rights OF
unborn babies on the stage. The reason, it
affrms, why genius in man is always in
herited from the mother, and that the children
of clever men are usually fools, is that men,
by the incessant use of their intellectual and
nervous power in their business and proles-
sOns, exhaust that vitality which, lying
dormant in the woman, is transmitted to her
offspring. eff women, then,' it argues, are
" to be thrown into the exhausting struggle.
(which is existence to men of the higher
" faculty, there will remain no abundant, un-
distributed source of mental force
" from which the next generation can
draw" How much scientific basis there
is for this argument, the condition OF
American inherited neural diseases may
show; the gradual deterioration from genera
tiOn to generation, not in intellectual but
nervous power, as our women take wider part
in the universal struggle. Whether mind or
body diminishes first in this inheritance given
to us by our parents matters little; the man
owes little gratitude to father and mother for
the masters brain if they have failed to be-
queath the Berserker marrow of their sires,
but give instead "the ebbing veins, incOn-
" stant heat, and nerveless veins which among
the gladators leaves him halt and numb"
There is, too, the further consideration that
after the mother, overwOrked at desk or office.
has given birth to child tired before it be-
gins life, she has neither time nor mind TO
spare to him for the purpose of repairing
damages. The mother of every animal gives
her strength, her habits, her very nature, TO
her young by brooding over them. But now
much time for brooding do many OF the
mothers of to-day havef
AfterA all, there is the other side of tho
question yet to hear on behalf of the babies.
Facts are facts and woman of the laboring
and middle classes, by the time she drudges
over her housewOrk, or drudges over those
who profess to do it, sews, stints, maneuyers,
day In and out, TO make one dollar take the
place of ten, has no more time for broOding"
over her children than if she made the lack
ing nine dollars behind desk or counter
The majority of children are shunted of TO
schools for mental and religious training,
while the mother finds their stOmachs and
backs as much as she can attend To. She may
plausibly suggest, too. that her wearing
routine of petty work is quite as exhaustJng
on nervous or intellectual vitality as the
nobler employments of her husband.
and as apt to defraud the next generation.
The sum OF the whole matter seems TO be that
the prospects for this next importation of hu-
manity are depressing. Trailing clouds of
glory they may come. but it is to be feared
in very debilitated human garments. The Pail
Mall Gasette, philosophically Oracular, declares
that to insure the renewal of our race, in brain
and body, requires that part at least of man
kind shall remain fallow ground, and enjoy a
universal rest for one long generation. If this
truth were clearly understood, would the con
test between men and women become, not
which should vote or work, but which take
holiday" loaf and invite THEN sOuls,n solely
for the benefit Of posteritYf