_Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, in introducing the speaker said: "The
first speaker of the evening is Helen Gardener, who is to give us an
address on the Brain. You know the last stronghold of the enemy is
scientific. Men have decided that we must not enter the colleges and
study very hard; must not have the responsibility of government laid on
our heads, because our brains weigh much less than the brains of men.
Dr. Hammond, of New York, has published several very elaborate articles
in the Popular Science Monthly to prove this fact. But Helen Gardener
has spent about fourteen months in investigation, and has conferred with
twenty able specialists upon the subject, and will give us to-night the
result of her investigation. She will show to us that it is impossible
to prove any of the positions that Dr. Hammond has maintained._"
Read before the International Council of Women in Washington, 1888.
Ladies and Gentlemen:--The political conditions of woman are very
greatly influenced to-day by what is taught to her and about her
by those two conservative moulders of public opinion--clergymen and
physicians. Our law-makers have long since ceased to merely sneer at
the simple claim of human rights by one-half of humanity, and for refuge
they have flown to priest and practitioner, who do not fail them in this
their hour of great tribulation. It is true that men, most of whom never
enter a church, have grown somewhat ashamed to press the theological
arguments against the equality of the sexes, and to these the medical
argument has become an ever-present help in their time of trouble.
In the early days woman was under the absolute sway of club and fist.
Then came censer and gown, swinging hell in the perfumed depths of the
one and hiding in the folds of the other, thumb-screw and fagot for the
woman who dared to think. At last the theory of the primal curse upon
her head has grown weaker. Mankind struggles to be less brutal and
more just. Manly men are beginning to blush when they hear repeated
the well-worn fable of the fall of man through woman's crime and
her inferiority of position and opportunity, justified by priest
and pleader, because of legends inherited from barbarians--mental
deformities worthy of their parentage.
When religious influence and dogma began to lose their terrors, legal
enactments were slowly modified in woman's favor and hell went out
of fashion. Then Conservatism, Ignorance, and Egotism, in dismay and
terror, took counsel together and called in medical science, still in
its infancy, to aid in staying the march of progress which is inevitable
to civilization and so necessary to anything like a real Republic.
Equality of opportunity began to be denied to woman, for the first
time, upon natural and so-called scientific grounds. She was pronounced
physically and mentally incapable, because of certain anatomical
conditions, and she must be prevented--for her own good and that of the
race _here_--from competition with her mental and physical superiors.
It was no longer her soul, but her body, that needed saving from
herself. Her thirst for knowledge the clergy declared had already damned
the souls of a very large majority of mankind--in a hereafter known only
to them. The same vicious tendency, the doctors echoed, will be the ruin
of the physical bodies of the race in this world, as we are prepared
to prove. The case began to look hopeless again. Opportunity must
be denied, these doctors say, because capacity does not exist. Where
capacity seems to exist, it is, it must be, at the expense of individual
health and future maternal capabilities.
As a person, she has no status with these consistent believers in "equal
rights to all mankind." As a potential mother only, can she hope for
consideration either by religious or medical theorist. This has been a
difficult combination to meet. Few who cared to contest their verdict,
possessed the bravery to fearlessly face the religious dictators, and
fewer still had the anatomical and anthropological information to risk
a fight on a field which assumed to be held by those who based all
of their arguments upon scientific facts, collected by microscope and
scales and reduced to unanswerable statistics.
The priest, reinforced by the doctor, promised a long and bitter
struggle, on new grounds, to those who fought for simple justice to
the individual, aside from her sex relations; who wished for neither
malediction nor mercy; those who claim only the right of a unit to
enjoy the common heritage untrammeled by superstition and artificial
difficulties. They do not ask to be helped--only not to be hindered.
They had hailed science as their friend and ally; and behold,
pseudo-science adopted theories, invented statistics, and published
personal prejudices as demonstrated fact. All this has done a vast deal
of harm to the cause of woman.
Educators, theorists, and politicians readily accept the data and
statistics of prominent physicians, and, in good faith, make them a
basis of action, while the victims of their misinformation have been
helpless. It is, therefore, very important to learn, if possible,
just how far medical science and anthropology have really discovered
demonstrable natural sex differences in the brains of men and women, and
how far the usual theories advanced are gratuitous assumptions, founded
upon legend and fed by mental habit and personal egotism.
I began an investigation into this matter a little while ago by
questioning the arguments and logic of the medical pseudo-scientists
from their own basis of facts. I ended by questioning the facts
themselves, upon the evidence furnished me by leading members of the
profession, some of whom are known in this country and abroad as leaders
in original investigation as brain students and anatomists. None of
these gentlemen knew the aim or motive of my inquiries, and they gave
me all the information to be had on this subject without bias and quite
freely. The specialists and brain students to whom my questions were
submitted, were of widely different religious beliefs, which beliefs,
of course, colored their theories as well as their motives, either
consciously or unconsciously.
But the profession has reason to be proud of the ability of the most of
these men, no less than of their sincerity and willingness to confess to
ignorance of facts where proof was lacking. The abler the man the more
willing was he to do this. One or two tried to explain, and, as it
seemed to me, to force an agreement between scientific facts which they
did possess, and their inherited belief in "revelation." Others, who did
not themselves recognize it, performed the same mental gymnastics from
mere force of habit, and gave a black eye to their facts in preserving
a blind eye to their faith. But in the following results are to be found
the opinions of eminent medical men, some of whom are Roman Catholic,
some Protestant, and some of the negative systems of religion. So far as
I know, not one is a believer in "Woman Suffrage," nor even in the more
radical but less comprehensive measures for her development. Not one,
who touched directly upon the subject, believed in sex equality in its
entirety or had not personal prejudice and long-cherished sentiments
opposed to it, if his reason approved. By some of them this was frankly
stated, even while giving facts in her favor. Not more than one, so far
as I know, is "agnostic" in religion or a believer in evolution in its
entirety.
I have mentioned these latter points, because I found in this line
of investigation, as in all others, that a man's religious leanings
inevitably color and modify all of his opinions, and govern his entire
mental outlook. They even add bitterness to his "jalop" and fizz in his
"seltzer". If he absolutely believe in the "Garden of Eden" story
he deals with "Adam" as a creature after "God's own heart and in his
image," and therefore capable and deserving of all opportunity
and development for and because of himself, and to promote his own
happiness. "Eve," of course, receives due attention as a physical,
anatomical specimen, "with intuitions"--a mere bone or rib of
contention, as it were, between man and man. The more orthodox the man
the bonier the rib. The more literal and consistent his faith the less
likely is he to deal with woman as an intellectual being, capable of
and entitled to the same or as liberal, mental, social, and financial
opportunities or rights as are universally conceded in this country to
be the birthright of man, and quite beyond farther controversy in
his case. Evidence in her favor which cannot be evaded, must be
overwhelming, indeed, then, if an investigator starts out handicapped
with the theory of "revelation" as a part of his mental equipment, and
with the "sphere of woman" formulated for him by the ancient Hebrews.
I went to the men whom the doctors themselves told me were the best
authority to be found on the subject of brain anatomy and microscopy.
One of these men, Dr. E. C. Spitzka, of New York, was referred to by
physicians of all schools of practice as undoubtedly the best informed
man in America, and second to none in the world, in this branch of the
profession. They, one and all, told me that what he could not tell me
himself on this subject, or could not tell me where to find, could not
be of the slightest importance.
I have been asked to tell you just what I started out to learn, and how
far I succeeded. But before I do this it may not be out of place to tell
you an anecdote of my experience in this undertaking: I went personally
with my questions to about twenty of the leading physicians of New
York. [I had them submitted in other ways to many more in this and other
cities. I got written communications from the Old World as well as the
New.] Nearly every one of these twenty, after very kindly telling me
what he himself knew and what he believed on the subject, referred me
to the same man as the final appeal; but not one of them was willing to
introduce me to him. They would introduce me to anybody and everybody
else, but they did not like to risk sending me to him. He was, they
said, utterly impatient of ignorance, and might treat me with scant
courtesy. He would very likely tell me flatly that he could not waste
time on so trivial a matter--that I and everybody else ought to know all
about "sex in brain."
Now, this is a secret--I would not have it get out for a good deal. It
took me a long while to get my courage up to go to that man without an
introduction--a thing I did not do with any of the others. I finally,
with fear and trembling, made up my mind to learn what he knew on this
subject or perish in the attempt. So I took my life in my hands, put on
my best gown--I had previously discovered that even brain anatomists are
subject to the spell of good clothes--and went. I fully expected to be
reduced to mere pulp before I left; but he listened quite patiently,
asked me a few questions as to why I had come to him; told me to read
him my questions; asked me sharply, "Who wrote those questions?" I said
meekly, "I did." He looked at me critically, wrote something on a card,
and dismissed me. I was uncertain whether, he had been so kind in his
manner, because he considered me a harmless lunatic or not. Once in the
street I read the card. I was to call again when he could give me more
time.
I went not once, but many times. I devoted some months to brain anatomy
and anthropology. In his laboratory he had brains from those of a mouse
to those of the largest whale on record. He showed me the peculiarities
of brains as shown by microscope and scales. He looked up points in
foreign journals to which I had not access. In short, he did all he
could to aid me; and he said that no such investigation as I was trying
to learn about had ever yet been made, although no fair record of the
difference of sex in brain, of which we hear so much, could possibly
be made without it. He was delightfully frank, earnest, and thoroughly
honest. He knew--and, what is better, he was willing to tell--where
knowledge stopped and guessing began; a point sadly confused, I found,
by even prominent members of the profession. "I do not know," was a hard
sentence to get from a doctor so long as he was under the impression
that others of his profession would know. "I do not know; nobody knows,"
came freely enough from the man who was sure of the boundaries of
investigation, who recognized the vast difference between theories
and proof. From him, and through him, I collected material that is of
intense interest and importance to woman in this stage of the movement
for her elevation.
It is only right that I say here that I am of opinion that he does not
himself believe in the equality of the sexes, but he is too thoroughly
scientific to allow his hereditary bias to color his statements of facts
on this or any subject. In the hands of a man who has arrived at that
point of mental poise and dignity, our case is safe, no matter what his
sentiments may be. Such men do not go to their emotions for premises
when it comes to a statement of scientific facts. There are writers on
this subject who do.
As you all know, any statement calmly and persistently made is
reasonably sure to be accepted as true, even by its victims. Frequency
of iteration passes as proof. Even thoughtful men, after spending years
of time in trying to explain why a thing is true, often end with the
discovery that it is not true, after all. We are all familiar with the
story of the wrangle of the philosophers as to why a vessel containing
water weighed no more with a fish weighing a pound in it than it did
after the fish was removed. After long and acrimonious debate over the
principle of philosophy involved, some one bethought him to weigh it,
and, of course, discovered that no unfamiliar principle was involved,
since it was a simple misstatement as to facts.
The assumptions of "divine rights" by kings and priests stood as
unquestioned facts for centuries by those who were the victims of both.
The "divine right" of men rests still on the same bare-faced fraud, and
is simply the last of this interesting trinity to die, and it naturally
dies hard, as its fellows did. If a charlatan loudly asserts that he can
do a certain thing, no matter how unlikely that thing is, if he insists
that he has done it often, he will find many believers who will spend
much time in an attempt to explain how he does it, while only the few
will think to question first if he does it.
Upon this basis of calm assumption on the one side, and credulous
acceptance on the other, has grown up a very general belief that there
are great and well-defined natural anatomical differences between the
brains of the sexes of the human race; that these differences are well
known to the medical practitioner or anatomist, and that they plainly
indicate inferiority of capacity in the female brain, which is
structural, while, strangely enough, no one argues that this is the case
in the lower animals. It therefore occurred to me to question--admitting
that the microscope and scales really do show the differences to exist
in adults--whether it would not be fair to assume, at least, that they
are not natural and necessary sex differences, but that they are due to
difference of opportunity and environment, and, under like conditions,
would be produced between members of the same sex; that since this
superiority of brain in the male sex is said to appear in the human
race only, where alone, in all nature, superior opportunities and
environments are held as a sex right and condition by the males, that
the so-called "superiority of structure" is simply better development of
the equally capable but restricted brain of the other sex.
I proposed to test this by an appeal to the brains of infants. And my
assumption although not new, appeared to be borne out by the accepted,
though unproven theory, that the brains of the men and women are nearer
alike the lower we go into the human scale. This assumption is clearly
based upon the idea that where the mental opportunities of the men and
women are nearer equal the physical results are also similar. Indeed,
Topinard plainly states this fact in his Anthropology. He says: "The
reason that the brain of woman is lighter than that of man is that she
has less cerebral activity to exercise in her sphere of duty. In former
times it was relatively larger in the department of Lozère, because then
the woman and man mutually shared the burdens of the daily labor. The
truth is that the weight of the brain increases with the use we make
of it." Since women are not given diversified and stimulating mental
employment, they can not be expected to show the results of such
training on the brain itself.
"Of the physiology of the brain comparatively little is known," says Dr.
McDonald, author of "Criminology."
I was started on my work in this matter by several articles written by
the boldest of the medical men in this country, who is the leader of
the medical party which claims to be opposed to the educational and
political advancement of women because of the inevitable injury to
her physical constitution. The writings of such a man, aided by the
circulation and prestige of the leading journals of the country,
which publish them as authoritative, must inevitably influence school
directors, voters, and legislators, and go far to crystalize the belief
that facts are well known to the medical profession, with which it would
be dangerous to trifle, when the truth is that the positive knowledge on
the subject is not sufficient at this moment to form even an intelligent
guess upon. In spite of this fact the well-known physician of whom I
speak, Dr. Wm. A. Hammond, reiterates in these articles all of the old,
and adds one or two new arguments to prove that woman should not be
allowed to develop what brain she has, because she possesses very little
and even that little is of inferior quality.
Professor Romanes, who is said by many to stand second only to Herbert
Spencer in his branch of science, has also recently published a very
extensive paper on mental differences of the sexes and the proper
education of woman, which is, unfortunately, but most likely honestly,
based upon this same assumption, under the belief that it was a
demonstrated fact. His paper has been very widely copied in spite of its
extreme length, and the fact that the same journals "absolutely can
not find space" for even a moderately long one on the other side. The
editors say, "The public is not interested in it"--that is, in its
correction. I mention these two men not because they are peculiar
in, but because they are honored representatives of, the so-called
scientific school of objectors to human equality, and claim to base the
right of male supremacy upon important scientific facts.
Of course all this is an old assumption and as such has been dealt with
before. But Dr. Hammond now boldly asserts that these differences are
easily discoverable by microscope and scale, and that they are natural,
necessary sex differences. He claims: (1.) That woman's brain is
inferior to man's in size and quality, and, therefore, in possibility.
(2.) That these marks of inferiority are natural and potential, and not
produced by environment. (3.) That they are easily recognizable in the
brain mass itself. (4.) That in consequence of these natural organic
and fundamental differences the female brain is incapable of, first,
accuracy; second, sustained or abstract thought; third, unbiased
judgment (judicial fairness); fourth, the accomplishment of any really
first-class or original work in the fields of science, art, politics,
invention, or even literature. He points out the great danger to woman
herself, and to the race, as her children, if she is allowed to attempt
those things for which the structure of her brain shows her to be
incapacitated.
From this outlook it is easy to see that the nonprofessional voter, the
school director, and the legislator might really feel it to be his duty
to protect woman against her own ambition. It is in this way that the
assertions of such men can, and do, cause the greatest injury to women.
There are a number of other indictments; but for the present let us
examine these. First, in the matter of size, the doctor concedes that
the relative size and weight of the brain in the sexes is about the
same, slightly in woman's favor, which he says does not count; although,
when he finds this same difference between men, as between higher and
lower races, he argues that it does count for a great deal. But in the
dilemma to which this seemed to reduce him in proving his case, he says:
"Numerous observations show beyond doubt that the intellectual power
does not depend upon the weight of the brain relative to that of the
body so much as it depends upon absolute brain weight." Now, if this
were the case, an elephant would out-think any of us, and the whale,
whose intellectual achievements have never been looked upon as
absolutely incendiary (if we except Jonah's friend), would rank the
greatest man on record, and have brain enough left to furnish material
for a fair-sized female seminary.
The average human male brain is said to weigh from 1,300 to 1,400
grammes, and even a very young whale furnishes 2,312 grammes of
"intellect-producing substance," as the doctor felicitously terms it,
while the brain of a large whale weighed in 1883 tipped the beam at
6,700 grammes. Truly, then, if absolute brain weight and not relative
weight is the test, here was a "mute inglorious Milton," indeed. Almost
any elephant is several Cuviers in disguise, or perhaps an entire
medical faculty.
The doctor says: "The female brain, however, is not only smaller than
that of man, but it is different in structure, and this fact involves
much more as regards the character of the mental faculties than does the
element of size." Again he says: "Thus accurate measurements show that
the anterior portion of the brain, comprising the frontal lobes, in
which the highest intellectual faculties re side, is much more developed
in man than in woman, and this not only as regards its size, but its
convolutions also. Now, the part of the brain which is especially
concerned in the evolution of mind is the gray matter, and this is
increased or diminished in accordance with the number and complexity
of the convolutions. The frontal lobes contain a greater amount of gray
cortical matter than any other part of the brain, and they are, as we
have seen, larger in man than in woman."
Accepting these sweeping statements for the moment--although many of
them are questioned by the highest authority--would it not be fair to
test the case as to whether this difference in adults is fundamental and
pre-natal, or whether it is the result of outside artificial influences,
by an appeal to the brain of infants. If the brains of one hundred
infants (each child weighing ten pounds) were examined, would the brains
of the fifty males be distinguishable from those of the fifty females?
In other words, when the weight of the body, the age, and other
conditions are the same as to health, parentage, etc., and before the
artificial means of development, educational stimulus and opportunity
are applied to the one and withheld from the other, could the sex be
determined by the difference in brain, weight, shape, size, quality, or
convolutions? That would be the test, although it would not allow for
the ages of hereditary dwarfage of the one, and healthy exercise of the
brains of the other sex; but, as an opening, I was willing to stand on
that test. It was in pursuance of this idea that I caused the following
questions to be submitted to a large number of the leading brain
students of America, went myself somewhat into the study of
anthropology, and collected from several countries certain bits of
information as to just how much basis there is for all this cry about
the difference in men's and women's brains.
Being a matter of heads, I wanted to know how much was "cry" and how
much was "wool."
These are the questions submitted to the doctors, brain anatomists and
microscopists at the outset of my task: (1.) Is it known to the medical
profession whether in infants (of the same age, size, health, and
inheritance at birth) the quantity, quality, and specific gravity of
the gray matter differs in the sexes? Does the relative amount of gray
matter differ? (2.) Do the convolutions? Form? Actual amount of gray
matter, differ? (3.) Given the brain, only, of a number of infants
of the same age, weight, etc., could the sex be determined by the
difference in shape, quantity, quality, and convolutions? (4.) If so,
are the differences more or less marked in infants than in adults? Is
the frontal region of the brain larger and more developed in male than
in female infants? Is the difference as marked as in adults? (5.) Does
use, training, etc., develop gray matter, change texture, size, shape,
etc., of the brain mass, or are these determined and fixed at birth? The
same as to convolutions? (6.) Does use have to do with the location of
the fissure of Rolando, or is that fixed at birth? In an uneducated man
would there be as much of the brain in front of this fissure as in a
man of trained and developed mind? (7.) Does use or development of the
mental powers change the specific gravity of the brain mass? Would it be
the same in a great scholar as in a common laborer of the same general
size and health? (8.) Is there unanimity of opinion on these questions?
Are the facts known or only conjectured? (9.) If ten boys of the same
weight, health, and general inheritance were taken in infancy and five
of them subjected for fifty years to the conditions of a street or farm
laborer, while the other five received all the advantages of the life of
a scholar, would the ten brains present the same relative likenesses at
death as at birth? Would opportunity and mental exercise make a change
in the brains of the five students that would be discoverable by
microscope and scales?
In reply to the last question, the universal opinion was that it would
be fair to assume that such difference would be perceptible. But one
of the replies was that these points must necessarily remain only
conjectural, since we can not do as the Scotch villager who shows to
a wondering public the remains of a famous criminal, with this bit of
history: "This is the skull and brain of a man who was hanged, at the
age of forty, for murdering his entire family. This is the skull and
brain of the same man at the age of seven. You can readily trace in the
boy the man that was to be." Since it might be looked upon with disfavor
if we were to attempt to brain people from time to time in an effort
to discover the effects of culture upon the fissure of Rolando, we
must base all such arguments upon reason and analogy. Is it not a fair
presumption, since reason and analogy lead to this universally accepted
theory as between man and man, that the same causes would produce the
same results when applied between man and woman? Strangely enough, this
is not held to be the case by these acute reasoners against sex equality
in brain.
But to illustrate once more the necessity of questioning facts first and
the reasons for them afterward, I am assured by the most profound and
capable students of these branches of science, that if such differences
exist in the brains of infants as are indicated by my questions, it is
not known to those who make a specialty of brain study; but, upon
the contrary, the differences between individuals of the same sex--in
adults, at least--are known to be much more marked than any that are
known to exist between the sexes. Take the brains of the two poets,
Byron and Dante. Byron's weighed 1,807 grms., while Dante's weighed only
1,320 grms., a difference of 487 grms.; or take two statesmen, Cromwell
and Gambetta. Cromwell's brain weighed 2,210 grms., which, by the way,
is the greatest healthy brain on record--although Cuvier's is usually
quoted as the largest, a part of the weight of his was due to disease,
and if a diseased or abnormal brain is to be taken as the standard,
then the greatest on record is that of a negro, criminal idiot--while
Gambetta's was only 1,241 grms., a difference of 969 grms. Surely it
would not be held because of this, that Gambetta and Dante should have
been denied the educational and other advantages which were the natural
right of Byron and Cromwell. Yet it is upon this very ground, by this
very system of reasoning, that it is proposed to deny women equal
advantages and opportunities, although the difference in brain weight
between man and woman is claimed to be only 100 grms., and even this
does not allow for difference in body weight, and is based upon a system
of averages, which is neither complete nor accurate. There is, then, not
only no proof that the sex of infants could be distinguished by their
brains, but all of the evidence which does exist on this subject is
wholly against the assumption.
Up to this point in my investigation I learned only what I had fully
expected to learn. At the next step, and in connection with it, I
met with information which seems to me to offer an opportunity for
reflection upon the matter of mental--not to say verbal--accuracy in the
sex which does not wear "bangs." In the papers referred to, Dr. Hammond
asserted, and no male voice or pen has seen fit to publicly correct him,
that "it is only necessary to compare an average male with an average
female brain to perceive at once how numerous and striking are the
differences existing between them." He then submits a formidable list of
striking differences which include these: "The male brain is larger, its
vertical and transverse diameters are greater proportionately, the
shape is quite different, the convolutions are more intricate, the sulci
deeper, the secondary fissures more numerous, and the gray matter of the
corresponding parts of the brain decidedly thicker."
But as if all these were not enough to enable the merest novice to
distinguish the one from the other, even if he were near-sighted, he
offers these reinforcements: "It is quite certain, as the observations
of the writer show, that the specific gravity of both the white and gray
matter of the brain is greater in man than in woman." This would seem
to leave woman without a reef to hang to; for if by any chance her brain
did not fall short in gray matter, the specific gravity of the rest of
it would enable the doctor to ticket her as accurately as though she
were to appear with ear-rings and train in a ballroom. Of this point
this is what the leading brain anatomist in America wrote me: "The only
article recognized by the profession as important and of recent date
which takes this theory as a working basis is by Morselli, and he is
compelled to make the sinister admission, while asserting that the
specific gravity is less in the female, that with old age and with
insanity the specific gravity increases." If this is the case, I
don't know that women need sigh over their short-coming in the item of
specific gravity. There appear to be two very simple methods open to
them by which they may emulate their brothers in the matter of specific
gravity if they so desire. One of these is certain, if they live long
enough, and the other--well, there is no protective tariff on insanity.
But to finally clinch his argument, Dr. Hammond continues: "The question
is, therefore, not so much that of quantity" (which appears to collide
with his statement that it was the "absolute brain weight" which was
the sublime test, and drops my whale into the water again), "as it is of
quality. The brain of woman is different from that of man in structure."
Again I applied my test. Does all this difference of structure and
quality appear in the infant or only in the adult brains? Since it is
held that these very differences are the ones produced by education and
properly diversified mental stimulus--as between man and man--is it not
fair to assume that like causes produce like results as between man
and woman? Since woman has never had the advantages of these
brain-developing processes, is it not fair to assume, if all these
differences do exist, that it is less a matter of natural and
characteristic inferiority than of environment and opportunity, unless
it exists in the same ratio in infants? That would be the test as to
whether these are natural, necessary, pre-natal sex characteristics, or
whether they are developed by external circumstances and environment.
The physical sex characteristics, which are natural, are as readily
distinguished at birth as at maturity.
But after a woman's waist and brain are put into tight laces and shaped
to fit the fashion, it is rather a poor time to judge of her natural
figure, either physical or mental. There was but one reply to my
questions. It was this:
"No such test has ever been made with the brains of infants, and the
wildest imagination could only stand appalled at the effort. It would
be impossible to distinguish the male from the female child by these
'radical, natural, easily-discovered sex differences' in brain." I held,
then, that the inference was perfectly legitimate that the great and
numerous differences in the brains of adults, in so far as that was not,
also, a mere flight of fancy, was not natural, pre-natal, and necessary,
but that it was certainly fair to assume it to be produceable, by
outside measures or environment, and that it could be no more natural
nor desirable, for the digestive organs and the brain of one sex to be
decreased and deformed by pressure, than it is for those of the other.
But I confess I was wholly unprepared for the final result of my last
question and argument. I discovered that these differences are not only
not known to exist in infants, but that in spite of all the talk, the
pathetic warnings, and the absolute statements to the contrary, that in
a like number of adult brains such differences are not only not to be
"perceived at once," but that if Dr. Hammond or anybody else will agree
to allow me to furnish him with twenty well-preserved adult brains to
be marked in cipher, so that he will not have his information before he
makes his test, he will find that his "numerous, striking, and easily
perceived" differences will not appear with any relation to sex, so far
as is known at the present time. I made this offer to him through the
_Popular Science Monthly_ some six months ago. Up to date the twenty
brains I offered him to try on have not been called for.
Upon the contrary there will be found greater difference between
individuals of the same sex than any known to exist between the sexes
in any and all of these test characteristics; that, in the main, since
women weigh less than men, it would be pretty safe to guess that most of
the lighter brains belonged to the women, but that this test would prove
wrong in many cases, and that the others would fail utterly.
I asked them why they did not correct the general impression which men
of their profession had given out in this matter. They said they did not
see the use of it; what difference did it make, anyhow? And then it was
a good enough working theory. I said, "But suppose it worked the other
way, do you think that you would say that it made no difference, and
that a working theory that worked all one way was a safe or an honest
one to put forth as an established fact?"
"Well, we are willing to tell you the truth about it," they said; "the
fact is, it is all theory as yet; there has not been a sufficient number
of tests made to warrant the least dogmatism in the matter; what more
can you ask of us than that?"
What indeed?
I made another discovery; it was this: The brain of no remarkable woman
has ever been examined! Woman is ticketed to fit the hospital subjects
and tramps, the unfortunates whose brains fall into the hands of the
profession, as it were, by mere accident; while man is represented by
the brains of the Cromwells, Cuviers, Byrons and Spurzheims. By this
method the average of men's brains is carried to its highest level in
the matter of weight and texture; while that of women is kept at its
lowest, and even then there is only claimed 100 grammes difference! It
is with such statistics as these, it is with such dissimilar material,
that they and we are judged.
Finally, I discovered that there is absolutely no definite information
on the subject now in the hands of the medical profession which can
justify the least show of dogmatism in the matter; or that, if it were
on the other side, would not be explained entirely away in five minutes,
and there would not be the least question as to the desirability of the
explanation, either. They told me not only that they did not know,
but that no one could possibly know upon the statistics and with the
instruments in the hands of the profession to-day.
This being the case, perhaps it will be just as well for women
themselves to take a hand in the future investigations and statements,
and I sincerely hope that the brains of some of our able women may
be preserved and examined by honest brain students, so that we may
hereafter have our Cuviers and Web sters and Cromwells. And I think I
know where some of them can be found without a search-warrant--when Miss
Anthony, Mrs. Stanton, and some others I have the honor to know, are
done with theirs. Until that is done, no honest or fair comparison is
possible. At present there is too great a desire on the part of these
large-brained gentlemen, like Dr. Hammond, to look upon themselves and
their brains as "infant industries," entitled to and in need of a
very high protective tariff, to prevent anything like a fair and equal
competition with the feminine product.
But the fact is that we have heard so much on the one side about woman's
physical and mental short-comings, and on the other side, from our
prohibition friends and others, so much of the moral delinquencies of
men, that it seems to me that we are in danger of believing both. And
I, for one, am beginning to feel a good deal like Mark Twain's Irishman,
whenever I hear either one discussed. He had been having a controversy
with another man, and, as a final "clincher" to his side of the
argument, said, with emphasis: "Now, I don't want to hear anything more
from you on that subject but silence--and mighty little of that."
Allow me to read the closing paragraph of a letter to me from Dr. E. C.
Spitzka, the celebrated New York brain specialist, to whom I am greatly
indebted for much valuable information:
"You may hold me responsible for the following declaration: That any
statement to the effect that an observer can tell by looking at a brain,
or examining it microscopically, whether it belonged to a female or a
male subject, is not founded on carefully-observed facts. The balance
and the compasses show slight differences; the weight of the male brain
being greater, and the angle formed by the sulcus of Rolando, forming
a larger expansion of the frontal lobes; but both these points of
differences have been determined by the method of averages. They do not
necessarily apply to the individual brain and hence can not be utilized
to determine the sex of a single brain, except by those who are willing
to take the chances of guessing. The assertion that the microscope
reveals definite characteristic points of difference between the male
and female brain is utterly incorrect. No such difference has ever been
demonstrated, nor do I think it will be by more elaborate methods than
those we now possess. Numerous female brains exceed numerous male brains
in absolute weight, in complexity of convolutions, and in what brain
anatomists would call the nobler proportions. So that he who takes
these as his criteria of the male brain may be grievously mistaken
in attempting to assert the sex of a brain dogmatically. If I had one
hundred female brains and one hundred male brains together, I should
select the one hundred containing the largest and best developed brains
as probably containing fewer female brains than the remaining one
hundred. More than this no cautious, experienced brain anatomist would
venture to declare."