The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1874-08-07
SEX IN EDUCATION" 4"

now oeihS freely discussed, anu many
arguments pro and con are submitted to
the consideration of the seeker after
truth. The immediate cause of the
present controversy may be traced 10
the appearance last spring of Dr. Clark's
work, "Sex in Education" n book
which treats Of many things heretofore
confined to medical works or discussed
only by learned societies. This author
argues against the higher education of
women upon physical grounds; and his
doctrines are assailed and his arguments
logically answered by numerous women,
whose reasonings clearly prove the inn
mense value of intellectual culture,
while their unimpaired physical eondi
tions disprove the theory, that this cul
ture was obtained at the expense Of their
vital forces, or to the detriment Of their
physical economy. Statistics of col
leges are brought forward to show that
hard study, even during the period Of
early womanhood, does not impair the
health OF graduates, but that on the
contrary, their health is, as a rule, bet
ter than that of those women who have
never attempted to cope intellectually
with men. The deranged physical con-
dltion of so many women to-day is the
direct result Of premature marriages,
than which nothing could be more
detrimental to woman's physical eeono-
my. And the prime cause of these
premature marriages, and the conse-
quent physical wreck of the girls who
enter into them Is, that they were not
provided with a systematized plan for
education, but were embued with the
idea that they were born to marry, aud
that 10 be wife, mother and house
keeper, a woman did not need mental
culture.
The conditions Of woman's physical
nature which are brought into discus
sion by DIR. Clark, which he treats as a
draw upon the strength, is normal and
healthy one, not n condition of disease,
and as shown in DIR. Mary Putnam
SsANoDi % SS0eaS III itPig " biiab beHAlS-
man, is not necessarily exhausting, and
that whether such conditions interfere
at all with brain-work depends upon the
general health.
A writer who sustains Dr. Clark's
views upon the subject, says in his de-
fense that "he does not argue against
giving women as high an education as
they can take, but simply points out the
dangers of pursuing their studies with
out regard to their physical organiza-
ton" This is surely a generous and
/ liberal Interpretation Of the learned doc
tors views, and embraces all that the
most ardent worker for co-education
could desire. The young women of ouI
country only want the opportunity to
take all the education that young
men can, and as for the rest, it were
folly indeed for the young OF either sex
to pursue any course of study, work ol
exercise In total disregard OF their phys
ieal conditions. 1t is not at all neces
} sary TO sacrifice bodily health to intel
lectual culture. Sanitary rules shoul,
and may always be observed, whethe
the individual be pursuing a course o
: study at q university, working at ;
trade, or pursuing the ordinary routiD,
r Of everyday life, as chore boy, o
kitchen maid. 1t is fact too well es
tablished to admit of successful contra
: diction, that young women display Al
much energy and ability in the pursui
of the sciences as do young men. AnC
if given a sufficient time, as young mel
are, TO pursue their studies without un
due haste, graduating at % or p, in,
J stead Of Is or 20, as is now the case, therC
is no reason TO suppose that their health
: will suffer as their minds expand
Again, it is folly amounting almost tC
criminality, to suppose that the great
and bsneiicent Creator would create be,
ings capable of the highest mental cul
ture, yet give them bodies totally un,
fitted TO receive it. There can be nc
doubt that the aim of DIR. Clark wa:
solely and purely to do good, by calling
attention to what he thought to b,
fruitful causes of i'll health. But it hai
accomplished more than this, having
brought out in the Discussion which hai
followed its publication a vast array o
ideas, upon both sides, the candid con
slderation Of which cannot fail to d,
much for the advancement Of the grea
movement looking to the higher educa
tion of woman.