The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1891-07-26
ABOUT FAT WOMEN.
why They Are Noted for Marrying Lit
tie Men.

you nave Deen aSbOnlSneu III bue lucIeaslhS
number of little men and big women, and the
growing combinations OF both.
ride on the street cars at any time be-
tween and IL a. m. and between and 10 p.
IN. will discover any amount of facts in this
direction.
'I'll tell YOU what 1t is," said a prominent
physician the other day to Republic man,
s'men are decaying physically and abnormally
developing mentally. 1t would be exceed
ingly ungallant to say that the women--"God
bless 'em-are going the contrary road, and
hence l shall not say t.. It wouldn't be ex-
actly true IL did, but there are certain Incl
dental facts which ought to be noticed.
"In the first place the tacit arrangement by
which men are to. do all the work and all the
worrying about financial matters wears out the
physical system of o man, stunts his growth,
and gives him big head and small body.
The woman has her anxieties, her pains, and
her griefs, but they seldom interfere with her
physical growth. She doesn't exercise her brain
to that excitable point where the scalp is kept
hot all day and The hair comes out. That's the
reason why you don't see any baldheaded
women. Her varying and ininitesimal cares
divert her mind, and she is never overcrowded
mentally. | am speaking, of course, of
women in the abstract, not Of special cases,
for there are exceptions to all rules, and am
endeavoring to show you the existence of
certain well-defnSd rules.
"It has been my privilege to form a careful
ment of both men and women during the past
ten years, and have been astounded at the
results. particularly in face of newspaper
statements that women are becoming more
and more intellectual. independent and
distinct from the conduct and course Of men.
/ have learned that the average weight of
women is $50 pounds, and the average weight
of men is 140. You cannot get on a street
car without seeing little unit of a fellow,
probably weighing 115 pounds, accompanied
by "a stalwart wife weighing $50 or 200 pounds.
And II you will observe closely, you will see
that the man is all head, and the woman all
body. She is full of physical life and vigor,
while he is the embodiment Of mental ac-
tivity. Time was when men believed this to
be the true condition of facts for generative
purposes, the children inheriting the phys
ical qualities of the mother equally with the
mental qualities of the father. This, / think,
has proven to be fallacious. AS a rule the
child which falls heir to vigorous health and
a strong body will partake also of the mental
inactivity from whence it's body sprang; and,
per contra, the child which inherits the
mental brightness will also have the small
and unhealthy body of the parent from whom
it receives its likeness.
''ln other words, my experience has suf-
fciently demonstrated to me that there is no
amalgamation in childhood of the physical
development of one parent with the mental
development of the other. If the father is
fat and stupid, his boy or girl who succeeds
to his fatness will also inherit his stupidity.
If the father is fat and brilliant the probabili-
ties are all in favor of his heir, who resembles
hirn physically, resembling him mentally.
If the mother happens to lie stout and smart
her child who inherits her stoutness will be
smart also. 1t seems to me that the law of
generation has been persistently misquoted
and misdirected in this regard. I have seen
the son or daughter of a small-siZed average
Drained father and mother developed into
large, stout, healthy, and brilliant person.
That is really common occurrence, and is
accounted for on the old rule OF breeding
back to some ancestral blood which has ex-
ploded at the termination of long line of
good people.
LAS matter of fact this unimportant fea-
ture of procreation has got dreadfully out of
whack in recent years and has suffered agreat
deal of confusion and becloudment by reason
of absurd traditions and teachings. But peo-
pie ask me: why is it, Doctor, that thin,
little man naturally falls in love with fat
woman? Why is 1t that stout woman in
Nariably marries little man? Why is it that
a long, tall, gangling, angular, thin man mar
ries small, bobbed-of woman and viceUersa2'
My answer invariably is denial of the prem
ises Those things do not happen as rule.
They are all notable exceptions which come to
our knowledge because they are exceptions,
and we put them down as rule because they
have excited our attention. 1t happens
'oftener that men and women are of somewhat
equal proportions and age when they marry
The abnormal difference in them develops
more frequently after marriage, the woman
becoming large and stout by reason Of inher-
tied tendency to fatness and characteristic
absence of mental activity; the man remain
ing small and runted by reason of abnormal
intellectual effort or an amount of inherited
small bone.
"DO not misunderstood the course of nv
argument. The mental inactivity of women
is not entirely due to the absence of necessity
for intellectual development. 1t seems to be a
provision of nature that with every child born
TO her the good wife turns her mentality back
to childhood and begins over again. She is
the social companion of her baby, her boy and
her girl. She talks 'goo-goo' to the one,
childishness to the Others II is part of her
place in nature to live in their little world,
think as they think, feel as they feel, and talk
as they talk. Do you suppose she can do this
fully and yet keep pace with the mental de-
velopment of man, from whom no such in
tellectual sUmersaults are required? The
naturalness OF it, however, and the lack of
excitement which attends 1t permits the body
to grow, and If the usual rules of health are
observed the good mother will become stout
and healthy.
"A philosopher said to me the other day:
doctor, what do you think of the preponder-
ance OF healthy women over small, attenuated
and bad-natured menP Then he paraphrased
Pope
Ill fares the land. 70 fastening ills prey
Where women accumulate and men decay.
told him his quotation was inapt. There
is too much mentality. Healthier mothers
and less brainy fathers are the needs of the
country, and when civilization gets quieted
down, If 1t ever does, we will have more fun,
less sickness and longer lives"
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