The Dallas weekly herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1885, 1875-02-06
AMERICAN WOMEN.
Their Physical Dcgeneracy- "here
Shall We Get Our Wives:


Their Physical Dcgeneracy-- Where
shall We Get Our Wives?
From the Westminster Review for October
In October, 1873, DR.. E. Il.
Clarke, of Boston, Massachusetts, a
physician of the foremost rank, we
believe, in that city, and formerly q
professor of matcria medica in Har-
ward college, published a little book,
the "Sex in Education; or, A Fair
Chance for the Girls" In his in
troductory chapter he says:
1.-THE delicate bloom, early but
rapidly fading beauty and singular
pallor of American girls and wom-
en-, have almost passed into ~ pro-
verb. The first observation OF q
European that lands upon our
shores is that our women are a
feeble race; and If he is physi-
oIogical observer, he is sure to add {:
sThey will give birth to feeble
race, not of women only, but
of men as we'll. Il never saw be-
fore so many pretty girls together,
said Lady Amberly to the writer,
after q visit to the public schools of
Boston, and then added, They all
looked sick Circumstances have
repeatedly carried me to Europe,
where | am always surprised by
the red blood which fills and colors
the faces of the ladies and peasant
girls, reminding one of the canvas
Of Rubens and Murillo; and l am
always equally surprised on my
return by crowds of pale, bloodless
female faces, that suggest consumP-
ton. scrofula, anemia and neural
gia." (p. 22) And in part 3,
"Chiefy Clinical" he says; Girls
of bloodless skins and intelligent
faces may be seen any day by those
who desire the spectacle among the
higher scholars of our higher and
normal schools faces that crown,
and skins that cover curving spines,
which should be straight, and neur-
algic nerves that should know no
pain. Later on, when marriage
and maternity overtake these girls,
and they live 'laborious days in q
sense not intended by Millions line,
they bend and break beneath the
labor, like loaded grain before q
storm, and bear little fruit again"
(p. 113)
Dr.. Clarke adduces the testimony
of several other observers in con-
firmatlon of his own statement
Mrs. Beecher Stowe says: 1.-The
race of strong, hardy, cheerful girls
that used to grow up in country
places, and made the bright, neat
New England kitchen OF olden
times-the girls that could wash,
iron, brew, bake, harness horse
and drive him, no less than braid
straw. embroider, paint, and read
innumerable books-this race OF
women, pride of olden time, is daily
lessening, and in their stead comes
the fragile, easy-iatigued, languid
girls of a modern age, drilled IN
book learning, ignorant OF common
things"
Dr.. Wier Mitchell, whom DIR
Clarke Justly designates as one o
the most eminent American physl
ologists, writes in q similar strain
} 80 day the American women is, tt
speak plainly, physically unfit to-
her duties az woman, and is, per
haps. OF all civilized females thu
least qualified to undertake those
weightier tasks which tax so beav
ily the nervous system of man. Sh'
is not fairly up to what nature ask
of her as wife and mother. How
, will she sustain herself under tn
pressure of those yet more exactlns
duties which nowadays she is s.
eager TO share with the man?
Another American physician
after remarking that sin the mol
; NAL state nature has made ampl
provision in tho structure of the fe
.. malc for the nursing of her of
! spring." says: "Formerly such a.
organization was very general,
possessed by American women, an
. they found but little difficulty i
nursing their infants. 1t was onl
,, occasionally, in case of some defec
in the organization, or where sick
| ness of some kind had overtake
; the mother, that it became nccessar
Ito resort to the wet nurse, or I
: feeding by hand. And the Englist
. The Scotch, the German, the Cans
, dian French, and tine Irish wome
now living in this country general
: nurse their children the exception
are rare. But how is it with on
American women who becom
!, mothers TO those who hav
never considered this subject, an
even to medical men who hav
y never carefully looked into it, tn
facts, when correctly and fully pr'
! sented, will be surprising. II ha
: been supposed by some that all, c
, nearly all, our American wome
y could nurse their offspring just
: well as not; that the dispositio
only was wanting. and that the
did not care about the trouble {