The Pascagoula democrat-star. (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1878-1920, 1894-06-22
WOMAN LEADS EVOLUTION.
An English Scientist Shows That She is
Further Removed Than Man
From the Ape.

World. She is nearer and he is fur
ther from the ape. The charactcris-
tics of the more civilized man OF tho
future are foretold more plainly by
her mental and physical construction
than by his.
This conclusion and the facts upon
which Mr.. Ellis bases it are to be
found in his book entitled "Man and |
Woman: A Study of Human Second
ary Characters. 1t is the last pub
lished volume of the Contemporary
Science series. Woman, he points out,
is more precocious than man, physi-
cally and mentally. She grows more
quickly and stops earlier. The result
of this prccocity is that women, as a
sex, present some Of the charactCris-
tics Of short men, and to some extent
of children. The whole organism Of
the average woman, physical and
psychic, is fundamentally unlike that
of the average man on account OF this
one fact alone. The differences may
be often of slight or subtle charac-
ter, but they are none the less real,
and they extend to the smallest details |
of the organic constitution.
The nearness of women TO children
is shown by the statistics Of disease.
Diseases which are common in chill
dren are common in women, while
many diseases that attack men are
uncommon in women and children.
These statements are not particularly
nattering to woman. II she feels her
self advanced, it is hard to have it
proved to her that she is childlike.
But they lead to what is more con-
solng.
This general character of wOman's
development has been recognized by
many scientific men. Herbert Spen-
Ger has spoken of woman as "unde-
veloped man." but that appears to Mr..
Ellis as very misleading description.
In order to understand rightly the
fact that women remain nearer tC
children than men it is necessary tC
nave a clear idea of the position OF
the child and Of the young animal in
the human and allied species. 1t is
very curious fact that among the an
thropoid apes the infant is much more
like man than the adult ape. This
means that the infant ape is higher
in the line of evolution than the adult
, and the female ape, by approximatine
to the infant type, is somewhat higher
than the male. Man, in carrying on
the line ofevolution, started, not from
some adult male simian, but from the
infant ape. and, in less degree. from
the female ape. The human infant
bears precisely the same relation tt
1 his species as the simian infant bears
to his, and his relation to the future
. evolution of the race must therefore
! be similar.
, The human infant presents in ar
I exaggerated form the chief distinctive
r characteristics of humanity-tht
t large head and brain, the small face
I the hairlessness and the delicate bonl
d system. In man, from the third yea
J, onward, further growth, from an ab
a solutely necessary adaptation to th'
r environment, is, to some extent
J. growth in degeneration and senillty
C The higher the race the less marked
+ is this progress towards senility. The
d child of many African races is just az
n intelligent as the European child, bu'
o as he grows up he becomes stupid ant
y obtuse.
= Men of genius have often presented
II a striking approximation to the chllt
S and woman type. The average mar
G genius is short and large-brained, ant
e his general facial expression recall
n the child. The progress of the rae
n is a progress of youthfulness. Becaus
l. woman approaches more nearly tn
child she bears the special char
actcristics of humanity in a highe
. degree than man. Darwin has points
- out that she led evolution in the mat
" ter of hairiness. The large-headed
" delicate-faced, small-boned man 0
- urban civilization is much more lik
II the typical woman than the savage
!, BY his large brain man Is followin
" out a path first marked out by We
man. The skull of the modern woma
Is more markedly feminine than tina
= of the savage woman, while that
" " the modern man has approximated t
" it.
y :, Mr.. Ellis proves that the brain
y 7" woman is relatively larger than thu
:, :, of man, although he is not prepare
y to say that this indicates intellcctu
- ~ superiority. Children and sho
. people have relatively heavy brain
" y, Savagery and barbarism have usual
~ ~ been predominantly militant, viii
y the industries originally belonged
women. Modern civilization is |
coming industrial, that is to say, fel
ininc in character. Statistics show
tendency among men In fay
SC of adopting feminine methods OF col
~ mitting suicide. This iS.One OF I
'' indications OF the fcmininization
society which Is now going on.