St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1891-02-07
THE CIVILIZED WOMAN

CONVICTION. LOUISIANA
THE CIVILIZED WOMAN
Extract from . Lecture By J. n. KsnogE.
~. D.. Battle Crock SanitaFian.
Among eavages the woman Is Just a.
healthy Is the man. Considered ~ An
animal from . physiological stand
point woman is capable OF more hard
work, Of enduring more hardship. de-
privation and disease than . man. A
woman viii endure where . man will
succumb. and break down entirely. She
is not naturally the weaker vessel, and
certainly in some respects . woman il
constitutionally the superior. Out Of
IN equal number Of male and female
infants there will be found 1t the end
Of the first year of life . considerable
larger number Of girls alive than boys,
according to statistics. This discrep-
ancy continues up to the age OF fifteen
or sixteen. when the mortality becomes
greatest among the girls. At the age
of forty or fifty the death rate 10 about
equal in both sexes. and finally the old
est inhabi tant is always . woman, thus
showing that her constitutional fund OF
vitality Is naturally greatest
II is sometimes argued that Q woman
Is naturally weaker and inferior be-
cause the average weight Of brain is from
four to six ounces less than that of the
average man. that thus her intellectual
quality is less as we'll Is her physical
But when the size of . woman's brain
Is considered in comparison with the
weight OF her body, it is evident that .
woman has moro brain per pound than
man, and if that be . proper standard
OF comparison, then woman is the supe-
rior. There is no physical reason why q
woman sh .uld be moro feeble or dis
eased than . man. Yet the women are
the supports OF the doctors II all the
women In the country would get we'll,
ninety-nine physicians out Of every
hundred would have to sock some other
employment. woman, the chief sup
port Of the doctors" is toast very fire.
quently given 1t the close of the med
ical convention.
Stanley was furni shed with two hum
dred negro women to carry his stun into
the interior OF Africa, and he found
them the best porters he had employed.
although he telt very doubtful about ac-
cepting their services when first pro-
posed. The Mexican Indian woman IL
able to carry her household goods on
her back and two or three babes ON
top of her burden when change Of To-
catien is desirable. Meanwhile her hus-
band trudges bravely along carrying his
gun. On the continent Of Europe most
OF the heavy work is done by wom-
en-. At ono point saw .
three-woman team with man
for . driver. In Vienna, women and
dogs are frequently hitchcd together,
and sometimes a woman is yokcd with
. cow to draw load Of produce to the
city. Once in Italy saw such team
hitched to pillow. Many of these peas
ant women will carry upon their heads
. load OF vegetables that few American
men could lift These women nave tho
muscles Of the waist and trunk thor
Oughly developed. Despite their hard
ships. they do not suffer from The back
ache or displacements or other ailments
which the womeh who dress fashionably
are constantly afflicted with.
The civilizedsvsoman with muscles 80
habby that they afford no support to the
internal viscera, traces the starting
point of her i'll health to some trifling
cause. like jump from o carriage. Or
perhaps her back gave way when she
lifted pail of water or her baby. Or
perhaps stair climbing brought about
the direful calamity. am not
saying that these may not be
actual exciting causes of serious de-
rangements when shere is NO muscular
development but what I wish to en-
phasize is that women are to blame for
not cultivating their muscles. and more
to blame for deforming themselves SO
Is to render the large muscles of the
body SO nearly useless. The ordinary
woman has bones Of steel and whalebone
to brace her up. but instead Of affording
any real support they destroy the nat.
ural curve of the back, rob the fig.
ure Of much Of its beauty and also rob
its natural tense supports OF their in
tegrity. Shall these things be counted
- less than criminal and dare one say
that the punishment which outraged
nature notes out Is too heavy? When
the civilized woman cultivates her mus.
cles systematically she will cease to be
an invalid. and not till thcn.-Reported
by Helen l. Manning.