St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1878-05-10
An Anatomical Problem.

There is no fact better established
than that girl cannot throw a stone
with any effect. When boy throws
stone his arm moves in plane parallel
with the plane of his waistband. When
a girl undertakes like feat, her arm is
first held upright in a line with her ma
jor axis and then moved rapidly in
downward direction. The stone thrown
by the boy has an enormous range and
strikes the window, the cat, the old
gentleman, or other object at which it
is aimed, at surprisingly long dis
tance. The stone which the girl at
tempts to throw describes a brief arc
and descends to the ground few yards
in front of her. What is the cause of
this difference in the sexes is a mystery.
Its solution has been sought in vain by
the ablest philosophers, and every hy
pothesis that has yet been made in or
der to account for the phenomena at
tending the attempted throwing of
stOues by girls has proved utterly un-
satisfactory.
Sir Isaac Newton long ago prSpound-
ed theory which, in spite of its falla-
cy, has had many adherents. He in
sisted that the anatomy of the female
arm is such that it is impossible for a
girl to move her arms in the plane of
her waistband. Without dwelling on
the fact that he unwarantably assumed
the existence of female wristbands, it is
sufficient to say that facts conclusively
contradict his assertion. Several scien-
tifc persons have since demonstrated
by simple and pleasing experiment
that a girl can move her arms in almost
any plane. Prof. Farada took girl of
the usual pattern, and young man Sc
lected almost at random from his class
on the "Theory and Practice of Stone
throwing" He placed the young man
on the floor of his lecture room with the
girl Immediately in front of him. The
lights were then turned down for a few
moments in order to favor chemical ac-
ton, and on suddenly turning them up
again the girls arms were found to be
tightly clasped around the young man
in the plane of his waistband, although
at somewhat greater altitude. 1t is
impossible to break the force of this ex-
pertinent. 1t cOnclusively shows that
the female arm can move in the very
direction in which Sir Isaac Newton as
Sol ICu IhhC IL COuiu uOU move. lDo
same experiment has been often repeat
ed, and always the same result. ANY
young man who can command the CO.
operation of girl can repeat it for his
own satisfaction, and it might be added
that 1t is universally agreed that it is
one of the most thoroughly satisfactory
experiments known to science. We
need, then, pay no further attention to
Newton's hypothesis, since it has been
completely disproved and is now held
by no one who has even a moderate
acquaintance with science.
DR.. Isaac Watts, who was celebrated
in Byron's thrilling lines
.The British Isles the British Isles
Where burning Isaac loved and sang"
had his private hypothesis as to female
stone-thIowing, and although he was
not precisely scientific person, his
opinion on almost any subject is enti-
tied to respect. He took the ground
that nature had withheld from GIRLS the
power to throw stones, in order that the
human race might have some little
chance of perpetuity. He argued tina
if girls could throw stones, they would
constantly hit the wrong objects, and
that SO great would be the fatality from
accidents of this kind that in a compar
atively short time the world would be