The Washington critic., 1888-04-27
wAsHINGTON CRIrIC
a sYMPosIUM OF SCIENCE.
Experts i'm Flowers and Fossils, Bones
and Burs Discuss woman.

Experts i'm Flowers and Fossils, Bones
and Bugs Discuss Woman.
When the Womans Council was In ses-
sion, the Six O'Clock Club, around ITS
dinner table at Willard's, had discus.
sion Of the Suffrage question, in which
the champions of "woman's enfranchise-
ment' mostly had the floor. Last night
the club reconsidered the question in what
1sight be called return game. Commits
sioner Webb presided over the seventy
who sat around the tables, and the debate
was mostly carried on by scientific spe-
cialists each Of whom viewed the ques-
ton from the vantage ground of his own
"ology.n
Among scientists present, not to mem
ton ladies, were Professor Lester Il.
Ward, Professor Frank Baker, Professor
c. X. Gilbert, Professor w. III. Dale, Pro.
fessor s. s. Packard, Professor III. w.
Wiley, Professor Davidson, Mr.. Michael
and Professor g. V. Riley; and to these
may be added Senator and Mrs Mander-
son, Governor n. j. Colman, DR.. Feather
stonbaugh, Commissioner Benton ]. Hall,
General Van Vliet Mrs. Elizabeth
Cady Stanton, Miss Phebe Couzins, ex-
United States Marshal for Missouri; Mrs.
Belva Lockwood, Mrs. Hester i. Dwn-
ellie, Professor and Mrs. Spencer and
Mrs. ~ p. Willis, the widow of the fa-
nous poet.
Mrs. Stanton, Miss Couzins and Mrs.
Spencer spoke from the councils familiar
point of view, and Commissioner Hall
eloqucntly opposed that claim, depre-
eating the dangerous tendency of the
sexes TO seplrate on questions of indus
trial and political competition. This was
the speech of the evening on that side
and its array of facts remained unan-
swered.
Senator Mandorson gave a rapid review
of the agitation, and declared himself OPP
posed to any extension of the suffrage to
wome unless IL were accompanied by n
great restriction of the franchise now al
lotted to men. He would coniine IL TO in
telligent men and women who speak aud
write the English language.
The most interesting part of the even
ing was the time spent by the specialists
in science, especially the naturalists,
Ward, Riley Wiley, Baker Dali, David
son and others. They were expected to
oppose the idea Of sexual equality, but
the tendency of the debate was the ,ac-
oordance of the utmost right of women TO
develop for sustenance and self,protec-
tion.
Professors Ward and Riley showed how
the male, at first Insignificant and ap-
parently a later creation, had developed
and grown to position of equality by the
SIDE Of his female partner; how this had
resulted from natural and especially from
sexual selection--the female always choos-
ing for her companion the handsomest
and strongest; how the female of some
species is 10000 times larger than the
male, and how, in other cases, he is O
mere minute parasite whom she carries
about as q part of her baggage; how some
female spiders are hundreds of times
larger than the males, and how my lady
Arachna kills her mynads of successive
husbands, eats them, and filings their car
casses out into the back yard; how, under
the influence of preference, the males OF
mammals and OF birds have arisen To
physical superiority TO their mates till
the lion is finer and stronger than the
lioness, the bull larger than the COW, the
peacock adorned with gorgeous tail
with which to excite the admiration oi
the peahcn, and the turkey cock gifted
with seli.important strut and arrogant
gobble. o.
Their inference was that whatever man
is he hns been made, through millions OF
years Of sexual preference by the female
Of his own species and the anthropoid
and other species from which he has
sprung, and that it would be unfair fol
him to kick down the ladder by which
he has climbed.
The Six O'Clock Club enjoys dinner:
and debates at Willard's every other
Thursday evening, and now numbers 10C
members.