The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1894-07-19
l;linTONlAN PARADOX.
;tranCo Views r "Qora!nG the Ma
..~ 81, luro Ct WOmaokiud.@
\ Philosopher VII" Entertained the Re-
iief That Women Were Fascinated
by Blood, Cruelty and Angular
-.ExperiInents ON the Seneca

Il INltO0Opn0f VINO EuteECOiu0U tue no
iief That Women We're Fascinated
by Blood, Cruelty and Anguish
.-ExperiInents ON the SeDssA
Woman is paradox and the mothe1
Of paradoxes, says the Boston journal
a careful study of the history Of the
world will convince any man Of Judi
c;al mind that Bayle did not go too fal
perhaps did not go far enough
when he observed, apropos OF the
treatment of Arideus and Eurydice by
Olympias. that if on one side wome,
are generally more tender than mer
it is certain on the other that those
who arc fred 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 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 maltrea tment
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
tenderness, they knew of the sanguin-
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 lie Wager, argued on each side
and could not frame a final answer.
1t 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 fascina zion exerted over her
by blood and cruelty and the sight of
bodily or mental anguish. According
to this theory, Florence Nightingale,
the amazon of Dahomey, 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.
It is not at all improba BILE that a
key to this paradox is supplied by the
of Profs. Nichols and
Browne, who try to demonstrate that
the senses are less keen in woman
than in man. They began with the
sense of smell. They took odoriferous
such as garlic and prussic
acid. These were diluted in q growing
until in the last set there
was one part of the test substance to
Z. OO0, 900 parts of water. Then forty
four men and thirty-eight women,
young and healthy, were told to re-
arrange these bottles, which had been
put in disorder, and by the sense tof
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, 600 parts, while the men told
it at 100000. The women could not
trace prussic acid beyond the dilution
of 20, 900 parts of one; the men, or near
" all of them, distinguished it up to
100, 900 parts.
1t is argued that similar results must
follow from the experiments on the
of every other sense; that
woman does not require, as the male,
such keenness. And the conclusion
is drawn that "Nicety of the senses on
part would be grave disad-
to the race. 1t is her lot to
perform without repugnance, and even
with pleasure, a thousand functions
against which man would revolt"
Here is humane answer to the para
aox 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
intellectually or morality?
Will they admit that 1.-THE senses be-
long to the animal structure of hui
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?