The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1894-04-26
BURTONIAN PARADOX.
Strange Views Regarding the Ma
ture of Womankind.
A Philosopher Who Entertained the Be-
lief That Women Were Fascinated
by Blood, Cruelty and Anguish
--Experiments ON the Senses.

--Experiments ON the Senses.
Woman is a paradox and the mother
of paradoxes, says the Boston Journal.
A careful study of the history of the
world will convince any man of judi
cial mind that Bayle did not go too far
perhaps did not go far enough
when he, observed, apropos of the
treatment of Arideus and Eurydice by
Olympias, S'that if on one side women
are generally more tender than men
it is certain on the other that those
who are fired with spirit of cruelty
and ambition go greater lengths than
men in those two vices" Bayle did
not go far enough. For if in a savage
state the female warrior is most to be
dreaded by d foe, and if the female has
been and is first in scenes of bloody
worship and torture, SO in popular up
risings, as in the French revolution
and in our day the commune, or in the
history of nihilism, or in police courts
where the question of maltreatment
of children is brought before the pub
lie, it is woman that plays the most
horrid part.
Philosophers of old argued concern
ing this paradox. They admitted the
Diley hllCW Ol IuS ulA-
airy and ferocious possibilities bound
up with this tenderness. Some ascribed
the cause to hysteria, as did Demo
critus, the physician. Others, as de la
Mothe lc Vayer. argued on each side
and could not frame a final answer.
It was reserved for an Englishman,
who of all men had probably studied
most thoroughly the manners and GUS
toms of humanity. barbarous and civ
iliZed-it was reserved for Sir Richard
Burton to advance the theory that
even the love of woman for nursing
the sick at home and in hospital arose
from the 5ascina lion eXerted over her
by blood and cruelty and the sight of
bodily or mental anguish. According
TO this theory, Florence Nightingale.
the amazon of Dahou1ey, the petro-
leuse, and Goncourt's Faustin studying
the agony of Lord Annandale, stood
on the same platform. A monstrous
theory! But history unfortunately
furnishes in support of it illustrations
from the earliest records to the chap
ter as yet unfinished.
1t is not at all improbable that a
key to this paradox is supplied by the
experiments of Profs. Nichols and
Browne, who try to demonstrate that
Inc ScnSeS arc less Keen III WOU1dH
than in man. They began with the
sense of smell. They took odoriferous
substances, such as garlic and prussic
acid. These were diluted in growing
proportion, until in the last set there
was one. part of the test substance to
1000, 600 parts of water Then forty
four men and thirty-eight women,
young and healthy, We're told to re-
arrange these bottles. which had been
put in disorder. and by the sense of
smell to arrange each set by itself
garlic with garlic. essence of cloves
with cloves. The women failed. They
could not distinguish the lemon be-
| yond 100, 900 parts. while the men told
! it at 250, 600. The women could not
trace, ,prussic acid beyond the dilution
of 10000 parts of one; the men, or near
| ly all of them, distinguished it up to
100, 900 parts.
It is argued that similar results rlust
| follow from the experiments on the
| perception of every other sense; that
! woman does not require, as the male.
such keenness. And the conclusion
is drawn that ''Niccty of the senses on
woman's part would be grave disad-
| vantage to the race. 1t is her lot tc
| perform without repugnance. and even
! WITH pleasure a LnOuSdnQ 1uncClOnS
against which man would revolt. .
Here is a humane answer to the para
dox of Burton.
But will women, if they first of all
agree to the paradox, be content with
the answer? Will they be willing to
remember that there is here no talk
considering intellectually or morality?
Will they admit that THE senses be-
long to the animal structure of hu-
manity, and reasoning beings do not
dispute that the male. is the superior
animal?: If they protest against this
position, pray What other answer can
they make to the Burtonian paradox?
Our better halves say they could not
keep house without Chamberlain
Cough Remedy. 1t is used in more
than half the homes in Leeds. SIMS
Bros, Leeds, Iowa. This shows the
esteem in which that remedy is held