The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-06-06
ARE WOMEN ONLY BABIES q?

With his sleeves rolled up and his pen
in hand Professor G.. T. W. Patrick Of
the University Of Iowa, has tackled the
New Woman question. He concludes
that woman is more hardy than man;
possesses a larger reserve of vitality;
and that if there is any essential diff
ference in male and female brains it is
in favor of the woman; that the COM
mon belief that woman's sensibility is
finer than mans does not seem to have
been verified by experiment. 1t Is
woman's greater affectability, or ner-
vous irritability, that has given rise to
the popular notion.
Two extremely significant facts con-
corning woman are emphasized, how
ever, by the professor. He character
ICES a large proportion of her physical
peculiarities as infantile traits. These
are her rounded form, her larger pro-
portion Of fat, the percentage of water
in the muscles, the greater length of
the body as compared with the arms
| and legs, the forward inclination of
the head and Of the upper part of the
body, the deficiency Of red corpuscles
in the blood, the rapid pulse-beat, the
character of the voice and the position
of the larynX, the large size of the
thyroid gland, the contraction of the
! base as compared with the crown of
the skull, the perpendicular forehead,
the less prominent glabella and eye
brows, the smaller maStoid processes
and the large parietal protuberances,
the small rounded lower jaw, the small
er, lower and more prognathous face,
and the preponderance of the lower
| brain centres and the greater relative
weight of the whole brain Of the latter
be admitted. He also points out that
women are more alike than men.
In respect to her whole physical struc-
ture woman is less modified than man.
and shows less tendency TO variation.
A mass of evidence from anthropologi-
cal study in Italy and England shows
| that degeneration marks. monstrosities
and almost all kinds Of variations from
| the normal type are much less common
| in woman than in man. She varies
| less mentally from the average than
man. In a word, womankind is prac-
/ tically normal. The geniuses," de-
! clareS Professor Patrick, "haye been
men for the most part. and so have the
cranks. Woman's thoughts pursue
! the old rather than new lines" He
.hastenS TO add. little later, that 1.-The
! doctrine of woman's inferiOrity re
| ceives no approximation. no doubt. in
| philosophy, science and invention. and
| in her conception Of abstract truth and
/ Justice. but superior in intuition. in
| charity. in temperance, in fidelity, in
! balance"
As a result OF his Investigations this
inquirer after the truth of the sexes
| exclaims: The male is kataboiic: rep
reSenting the expenditure OF energy, in
dividualism, variation and progress
| The female Is anabolic; repreneStinc
economy and the building mp. conserv-
ing and reproductive functions. She
is nearer 10 and more representative
of the race.
Woman, like the child. represents
the race type, while man represents
| those variable qualities by which man
kind adaptS itself 10 its surroundings.
These facts should be set down under
the head important If True II is
the strongest argument thar has been
made against the male sex vet. The
women are placed on the level Will
babies and the men are put below the
women mentally, physically and NOR
| ally. This i indeed tough.