New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-08-24
ashes aud wagons" throngins around you. And Of
foot0f the hin will for tho present leave you until
can xplOre the queer old city.
SEX IN EDUCATIOM


HAS DR.. CLARKE CHANGED HIS VIEWS ON co-EDUcA-
TOSi-ALLEGED DISCREPANCIES BETWEEN HIS
BOOK AND MS DETROIT ADDREss-ALLEGED US-
TENABLE POSITIONS.
TO Inc Edttor OF The Tribune.
SIR: Those who have carefully examined
tho volume called Sex in iucaton" as It first ap
peaed and also the recent address Of Its author before
the National Teachers Association at Detroit. cannot
but be impressed BY the fact that the position taken in
the latter differs materially from that Of the former
In the volume question the American way OF educa
ton coeducation. involving as 1t does persistent
mental activity the part Of the pupils. Is plainly
asserted to be the one cause which more than any
other mpalrs the health OF girls and women. In
the Detroit address, the other hand the speaker be-
gins with the climate OF America which In his book he
scarcely mentioned, fatally active cause OF deterio
ration In the health OF its inhabitants He speaks OF this
continent having proved tho tomb OF two antecedent
races" and raises the question whether the Anglo
Saxon race, which has vcntured upon It, VIII
DO moro fortunate than they IN maintaining
permanent grasp upon this Western world"
1 pass the implication that the cause
OF the gradual disappearance OF tho red race
is the influence OF the climate. statement which offers
for argument from another than the physical side
aud 60 to the health OF the AnglO Saxon. IL Will
perhaps be fair to the point Of the Detroit Adj
dress thus: Since the American climate has been de-
monstrated to have fatal tendency for the human
race, take particular In the education OF
our American youth in order that We may not only re-
sst but overcome this tendency. In saying this. the
author says only what all the educators OF
youth have constantly maintained Let us say then that
it the climate which the grand cause Of the asserted
deterioration In physical vgor, and that education.
proper or improper either vigorous opponent or an
abettor OF its deeierons influences But previously we
had been told first that the health OF American women
vio IA EurODnaQ
secondly, we had also been reminded that cOeducatOn
or class education what the thing persistent
education. exclusively American. The conclusion
had then been drawn that this persistency was
the cause OF the difference IN health. And that
empirical conclusion had been proved by certain
actual OF girls who had studied and worked per-
sstenty and had been sick. Thus stood the argument
of the volume. But problem becomes more
complicated IT, as the Doctor asserts the climate Is
so very fatal to physical vigor how BIO that
the persistent education has anything whatever to
do with the sad result How be sure that 1t is
not this self-sane persistent education which has main
tanned the race fart We feel that author by his
first vigorous statement In the Detroit address Of the
fatal effects Of climate has invalldated whatever
conclusions he drew in his volume for when dif
ference prominently into view the old loses
validity al cause.
What has seemed to contain the faacy In the
original argument against identical coeducation Is the
assumed fact-we say assumed because no proof has
vet been offered for it-that the feminine organization
in adolescence has not been gifted with the strength
requisite to carry Its work at the time that the
brain is performing its regular amount OF labor
That being proved, we accept DR.. Clarkc's con-
illusions; but while that fact remains I'M
proved We hold judgment In allegiance
But the materiastic tendency OF all this discussion has,
however, not been fully appreciated by many; The
speaker goes say "The quantity and quality OF
tle determines for us the quantity and quality OF
the The development or the soul. OF mind OF the
eye resolves itself into the development Of tho brain "
aud again. Build the brain Alright and the Divine
sp,rit will nhaUt 1t and IL. Build n wrongly aud
the devil Will employ It." lf then the eye. to the
ply steal term Is so dependent ON the physical
braD what becomes Of the when 1t Is at aud
forever severed from the brain by death! T15 IL
the inevitable answer to which may lead somc
suspect that there ueeu ai III
premises.
Some may also be disposed to question the statement
of our author great good has been accomplished by
the public discussions or the past year, and to ask
have wrenched from our American civilization"
were better ia every than the unembarrassed
publicity. The fact that certain things not spoken
OF In public does not imply that we are ashamed OF
This Is the error been made Tue purest and
truest Of our women are naturally silent where the
world has been oudest the past year, and that not be-
they ashamed, but because the most sacred
things rightly vailed silence. AS she to whom
gion sacred does vaunt In the market
place bazon in the public prints so she who intel
geny rcvercnces her own w0manhOOd In its actuate5
and Implications shrnks from making the subject OF
open and the violent wrenching of Of the
vail, AS those know who have followed the discuss0
all its branches Is in danger Of doing much harm
than good. A. G. b.
Gorham, N. H., Aug. Is. 1874