Evening star., 1927-10-07

The announcement as a scientific
discovery that ''the brain of woman
need not be inferior to that of a man
Of equal rank" finds most editorial
observers skeptical of the method used
in reaching such a conclusion, and,
moreover, inclined to ask why in these
times ANYBODY should think woman
equality needs proving. An eXamina-
ton of the brain of Mrs. Helen III.
Gardener, left by will to Cornell Uni
versity, furnished the basis for the
announcement.
The scientists conclusion Is viewed
by the New York Herald-Tribune as
mot without it's flavor of the famous
Won Twillerian procedure of weighing
the evidence on pair of scales. our
quarrel is not with the conclusion,
continues the Herald-Tribune. Most
ordinary observers of humanity nave
decided, we imagine, that it is entirely
possible for women to be lnteillsent.
Good brains are scattered among the
race with little obvious regard for sex.
wealth, appearance or propriety. While
she was alive no one doubted that Mrs.
Gardener had ability. 1t was not
necessary to weigh her brain to prove
it. The quarrel with the doctor is
that he pretends to support common
sense Judgment by scientific logic dis
torted out of all relation to true sclen-
tific method. If there is any
rule connecting genius with the struc-
ture of the brain, that rule remains
undiscovered.
"If the professor means that men
and women of equal mental develop
ment have brains of equal quality,
according to the San Francisco Bulle-
tin. sit would seem to be an amazing
platitude as coming from an eminent
nhvsiologist. If he means that he was
aston:shed to find that a woman or
superior mentality was not burdened
with a brain of comparatively INFERIOR
quality. then women at least Will re-
gard his statement as amusing
The objection is not to the
research, but to the phrasing of the
alleged discovery. Why drag in the
matter of inferiority or superiority
when, in the language alike of science
and of common sense, there is neither
inferiority nor superiority, but only
difference?
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle con-
tributes it's view that las between the
sexes and as between the barbarian
and the civilized man, the test Is in the
complex convolutiOns of the gray mat
ter, and comparison is difficult. How
ever" adds the Eagle, science has
pretty conclusively proved that Alfred
Tennyson was wholly wrong when he
wrote:
weakness to be wroth with weak
ness; woman's pleasure, woman's
pain;
Nature made them binder motions,
bounded in a shallower brain;
Woman is the lesser man, and all thy
passions. matched with mine,
Are as moonlight unto sunlight, and
as water unto wine.
"It was Lord Chesterfield's sincere
and confidential opinion" recalls the
Louisville Times, that women are
only children of larger growth; they
have an entertaining tattle and some
times wit: but for solid, reasoning
good sense 1 never in my life knew
one that had it. or who reasoned or
acted consequentially for four and
twenty hours together Perhaps, in
justice to MILFORD" continues the
Times, 'it might be said the women
of his day hadn't the opportunities for
developing their brains that Mrs.
Gardener enjoyed. Still, one wonders.
1t would be interesting to know what
the girls had to say. just between
themselves. about Lord Chesterfield.
and whether or not their remarks at