THE EUROPEAN WAY.
"And let it appear that he doth not change his country manners
for those of foreign parts, but only prick in some flowers of
that he hath learned abroad into the customs of his own
country."--LORD BACON.
One branch of the stream of travel that flows with steadily-increasing
volume across the Atlantic, from the western to the eastern continent,
passes from the United States, through Nova Scotia, to England. The
traveller who follows this route is struck, almost as soon as he
leaves the boundaries of the republic, with the difference between the
physique of the inhabitants he encounters and that of those he has
left behind him. The difference is most marked between the females of
the two sections. The firmer step, fuller chest, and ruddier cheek of
the Nova-Scotian girl foretell still greater differences of color,
form, and strength that England and the Continent present. These
differences impressed one who passed through Nova Scotia not long ago
very strongly. Her observations upon them are an excellent
illustration of our subject, and they deserve to be read in this
connection. Her remarks, moreover, are indirect but valuable testimony
to the evils of our sort of identical education of the sexes. "Nova
Scotia," she says, "is a country of gracious surprises."
"But most beautiful among her beauties, most wonderful among her
wonders, are her children. During two weeks' travel in the Provinces,
I have been constantly more and more impressed by their superiority in
appearance, size, and health, to the children of the New-England and
Middle States. In the outset of our journey, I was struck by it; along
all the roadsides they looked up, boys _and girls_, fair,
broad-cheeked, sturdy-legged, such as with us are seen only now and
then. I did not, however, realize at first that this was the
universal law of the land, and that it pointed to something more than
climate as a cause. But the first school that I saw, _en masse_, gave
a startling impetus to the train of observation and influence into
which I was unconsciously falling. It was a Sunday school in the
little town of Wolfville, which lies between the Gaspereau and
Cornwallis Rivers, just beyond the meadows of the Grand Pré, where
lived Gabriel Lajeunesse, and Benedict Bellefontaine, and the rest of
the 'simple Acadian farmers.' I arrived too early at one of the
village churches; and, while I was waiting for a sexton, a door
opened, and out poured the Sunday school, whose services had just
ended. On they came, dividing in the centre, and falling to the right
and left about me, thirty or forty boys and girls, between the ages of
seven and fifteen. They all had fair skins, red cheeks, and clear
eyes; they were all broad-shouldered, straight, and sturdy; the
younger ones were more than sturdy,--they were fat, from the ankles
up. But perhaps the most noticeable thing of all was the quiet,
sturdy, unharassed expression which their faces wore; a look which is
the greatest charm of a child's face, but which we rarely see in
children over two or three years old. Boys of eleven or twelve were
there, with shoulders broader than the average of our boys at sixteen,
and yet with the pure childlike look on their faces. Girls of ten or
eleven were there, who looked almost like women,--that is, like ideal
women,--simply because they looked so calm and undisturbed.... Out of
them all there was but one child who looked sickly. He had evidently
met with some accident, and was lame. Afterward, as the congregation
assembled, I watched the fathers and _mothers_ of these children.
They, too, were broad-shouldered, tall, and straight, _especially the
women_. Even old women were straight, like the negroes one sees at the
South walking with burdens on their heads.
"Five days later I saw, in Halifax, the celebration of the anniversary
of the settlement of the Province. The children of the city and of
some of the neighboring towns marched in 'Bands of Hope,' and
processions such as we see in the cities of the States on the Fourth
of July. This was just the opportunity I wanted. It was the same here
as in the country. I counted, on that day, just eleven sickly-looking
children; no more! Such brilliant cheeks, such merry eyes, such
evident strength,--it was a scene to kindle the dullest soul! There
were scores of little ones there, whose droll, fat legs would have
drawn a crowd in Central Park; and they all had that same quiet,
composed, well-balanced expression of countenance of which I spoke
before, and of which it would be hard to find an instance in all
Central Park.
"Climate, undoubtedly, has something to do with this. The air is
moist; and the mercury rarely rises above 80°, or falls below 10°.
Also the comparative quiet of their lives helps to make them so
beautiful and strong. But the most significant fact to my mind is,
that, until the past year, there have been in Nova Scotia no public
schools, comparatively few private ones; and in these there is no
severe pressure brought to bear on the pupils.... I must not be
understood to argue from the health of the children of Nova Scotia, as
contrasted with the lack of health among our children, that it is best
to have no public schools; only that it is better to have no public
schools than to have such public schools as are now killing off our
children.... In Massachusetts, the mortality from diseases of the
brain and nervous system is eleven per cent. In Nova Scotia it is only
eight per cent."[36]
It would be interesting and instructive to ascertain, if we could, the
regimen of female education in Europe. The acknowledged and
unmistakable differences between American and European girls and
women--the delicate bloom, unnatural weakness, and premature decay of
the former, contrasted with the bronzed complexion, developed form,
and enduring force of the latter--are not adequately explained by
climate. Given sufficient time, difference of climate will produce
immense differences of form, color, and force in the same species of
animals and men. But a century does not afford a period long enough
for the production of great changes. That length of time could not
transform the sturdy German fraulein and robust English damsel into
the fragile American miss. Everybody recognizes and laments the change
that has been and is going on. "The race of strong, hardy, cheerful
girls, that used to grow up in country places, and made the bright,
neat, New-England kitchens of olden times,--the girls that could wash,
iron, brew, bake, harness a horse and drive him, no less than braid
straw, embroider, draw, paint, and read innumerable books,--this race
of women, pride of olden time, is daily lessening; and, in their
stead, come the fragile, easy-fatigued, languid girls of a modern age,
drilled in book-learning, ignorant of common things."[37] No similar
change has been wrought, during the past century, upon the mass of
females in Europe. There--
"Nature keeps the reverent frame
With which her years began."
If we could ascertain the regimen of European female education, so as
to compare it fairly with the American plan of the identical education
of the sexes, it is not impossible that the comparison might teach us
how it is, that conservation of female force makes a part of
trans-Atlantic, and deterioration of the same force a part of
cis-Atlantic civilization. It is probable such an inquiry would show
that the disregard of the female organization, which is a palpable and
pervading principle of American education, either does not exist at
all in Europe, or exists only in a limited degree.
With the hope of obtaining information upon this point, the writer
addressed inquiries to various individuals, who would be likely to
have the desired knowledge. Only a few answers to his inquiries have
been received up to the present writing; more are promised by and by.
The subject is a delicate and difficult one to investigate. The
reports of committees and examining boards, of ministers of
instruction, and other officials, throw little or no light upon it.
The matter belongs so much to the domestic economy of the household
and school, that it is not easy to learn much that is definite about
it except by personal inspection and inquiry. The little information
that has been received, however, is important. It indicates, if it
does not demonstrate, an essential difference between the regimen or
organization, using these terms in their broadest sense, of female
education in America and in Europe.
Dr. H. Hagen, an eminent physician and naturalist of Königsburg,
Prussia, now connected with the Museum of Comparative Zoology at
Cambridge, writes from Germany, where he has been lately, in reply to
these inquiries, as follows:--
NUREMBERG, July 23, 1873.
DEAR SIR,--The information, given by two prominent physicians
in Berlin, in answer to the questions in your letter, is
mostly of a negative character. I believe them to prove that
generally girls here are doing very well as to the catamenial
function.
First, most of the girls in North Germany begin this function
in the fifteenth year, or even later; of course some few
sooner, even in the twelfth year or before; but the rule is
after the fifteenth year. Now, nearly all leave the school in
the fifteenth year, and then follow some lectures given at
home at leisure. The school-girls are of course rarely
troubled by the periodical function.
There is an established kind of tradition giving the rule for
the regimen during the catamenial period: this regimen goes
from mother to daughter, and the advice of physicians is
seldom asked for with regard to it. As a rule, the greatest
care is taken to avoid any cold or exposure at this time. If
the girls are still school-girls, they go to school, study and
write as at other times, _provided the function is normally
performed_.
School-girls never ride in Germany, nor are they invited to
parties or to dancing-parties. All this comes after the
school. And even then care is taken to _stay at home when the
periodical function is present_.
Concerning the health of the German girls, as compared with
American girls, the German physicians have not sufficient
information to warrant any statement. But the health of the
German girls is commonly good except in the higher classes in
the great capitals, where the same obnoxious agencies are to
be found in Germany as in the whole world. But here also there
is a very strong exception, or, better, a difference between
America and Germany, as German girls are never accustomed to
the free manners and modes of life of American girls. As a
rule, in Germany, the mother directs the manner of living of
the daughter entirely.
I shall have more and better information some time later.
Yours,
H. HAGEN.
A German lady, who was educated in the schools of Dantzic, Prussia,
afforded information, which, as far as it went, confirmed the above.
Three customs, or habits, which exert a great influence upon the
health and development of girls, appear from Dr. Hagen's letter to
make a part of the German female educational regimen. The first is,
that girls leave school at about the age of fifteen or sixteen, that
is, as soon as the epoch of rapid sexual development arrives. It
appears, moreover, that during this epoch, or the greater part of it,
a German girl's education is carried on at home, by means of lectures
or private arrangements. These, of course, are not as inflexible as
the rigid rules of a technical school, and admit of easy adjustment to
the periodical demands of the female constitution. The second is the
traditional motherly supervision and careful regimen of the catamenial
week. Evidently the notion that a boy's education and a girl's
education should be the same, and that the same means the boy's, has
not yet penetrated the German mind. This has not yet evolved the idea
of the identical education of the sexes. It appears that in Germany,
schools, studies, parties, walks, rides, dances, and the like, are not
allowed to displace or derange the demands of Nature. The female
organization is respected. The third custom is, that German
school-girls are not invited to parties at all. "All this comes after
the school," says Dr. Hagen. The brain is not worked by day in the
labor of study, and tried by night with the excitement of the ball.
Pleasant recreation for children of both sexes, and abundance of it,
is provided for them, all over Germany,--is regarded as necessity for
them,--is made a part of their daily life; but then it is open-air,
oxygen-surrounding, blood-making, health-giving, innocent recreation;
not gas, furnaces, low necks, spinal trails, the civilized
representatives of caudal appendages, and late hours.
Desirous of obtaining, if possible, a more exact notion than even a
physician could give of the German, traditional method of managing
the catamenial function for the first few years after its appearance,
I made inquiries of a German lady, now a mother, whose family name
holds an honored place, both in German diplomacy and science, and who
has enjoyed corresponding opportunities for an experimental
acquaintance with the German regimen of female education. The
following is her reply. For obvious reasons, the name of the writer is
not given. She has been much in this country as well as in Germany; a
fact that explains the knowledge of American customs that her letter
exhibits.
MY DEAR DOCTOR,--I have great pleasure in answering your
inquiries in regard to the course, which, to my knowledge,
German mothers adopt with their daughters at the catamenial
period. As soon as a girl attains maturity in this respect,
which is seldom before the age of sixteen, she is ordered to
observe complete rest; not only rest of the body, but rest of
the mind. Many mothers oblige their daughters to remain in
bed for three days, if they are at all delicate in health; but
even those who are physically very strong are obliged to
abstain from study, to remain in their rooms for three days,
and keep perfectly quiet. During the whole of each period,
they are not allowed to run, walk much, ride, skate, or dance.
In fact, entire repose is strictly enforced in every
well-regulated household and school. A German girl would
consider the idea of going to a party at such times as simply
preposterous; and the difference that exists in this respect
in America is wholly unintelligible to them.
As a general rule, a married woman in Germany, even after she
has had many children, is as strong and healthy, if not more
so, than when she was a girl. In America, with a few
exceptions, it appears to be the reverse; and, I have no
doubt, it is owing to the want of care on the part of girls at
this particular time, and to the neglect of their mothers to
enforce proper rules in this most important matter.
It has seemed to me, often, that the difference in the
education of girls in America and in Germany, as regards their
physical training, is, that in America it is marked by a great
degree of recklessness; while in Germany, the erring, if it
can be called erring, is on the side of anxious, extreme
caution. Therefore beautiful American girls fade rapidly;
while the German girls, who do not possess the same natural
advantages, do possess, as a rule, good, permanent health,
which goes hand-in-hand with happiness and enjoyment of life.
Believe me,
Very truly yours,
---- ----.
JUNE 21, 1873.
This letter confirms the statement of Dr. Hagen, and shows that the
educational and social regimen of a German school-girl is widely
different from that of her American sister. Perhaps, as is intimated
above, the German way, which is probably the European way also, may
err on the side of too great confinement and caution; and that a
medium between that and the recklessness of the American way would
yield a better result than either one of them.
German peasant girls and women work in the field and shop with and
like men. None who have seen their stout and brawny arms can doubt the
force with which they wield the hoe and axe. I once saw, in the
streets of Coblentz, a woman and a donkey yoked to the same cart,
while a man, with a whip in his hand, drove the team. The bystanders
did not seem to look upon the moving group as if it were an unusual
spectacle. The donkey appeared to be the most intelligent and refined
of the three. The sight symbolized the physical force and infamous
degradation of the lower classes of women in Europe. The urgent
problem of modern civilization is how to retain this force, and get
rid of the degradation. Physiology declares that the solution of it
will only be possible when the education of girls is made appropriate
to their organization. A German girl, yoked with a donkey and dragging
a cart, is an exhibition of monstrous muscular and aborted brain
development. An American girl, yoked with a dictionary, and laboring
with the catamenia, is an exhibition of monstrous brain and aborted
ovarian development.
The investigations incident to the preparation of this monograph have
suggested a number of subjects kindred to the one of which it treats,
that ought to be discussed from the physiological standpoint in the
interest of sound education. Some, and perhaps the most important, of
them are the relation of the male organization, so far as it is
different from the female, to the labor of education and of life; the
comparative influence of crowding studies, that is of excessive brain
activity, upon the cerebral metamorphosis of the two sexes; the
influence of study, or brain activity, upon sleep, and through sleep,
or the want of it, upon nutrition and development; and, most important
of all, the true relation of education to the just and harmonious
development of every part, both of the male and female organization,
in which the rightful control of the cerebral ganglia over the whole
system and all its functions shall be assured in each sex, and thus
each be enabled to obtain the largest possible amount of intellectual
and spiritual power. The discussion of these subjects at the present
time would largely exceed the natural limits of this essay. They can
only be suggested now, with the hope that other and abler observers
may be induced to examine and discuss them.
In conclusion, let us remember that physiology confirms the hope of
the race by asserting that the loftiest heights of intellectual and
spiritual vision and force are free to each sex, and accessible by
each; but adds that each must climb in its own way, and accept its own
limitations, and, when this is done, promises that each will find the
doing of it, not to weaken or diminish, but to develop power.
Physiology condemns the identical, and pleads for the appropriate
education of the sexes, so that boys may become men, and girls women,
and both have a fair chance to do and become their best.
FOOTNOTES:
[36] Bits of Talk. By H.H. Pp. 71-75.
[37] House and Home Papers. By Harriet Beecher Stowe. P. 205.
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