officers that the students improve in health and vigor during their two years of residence."
In America, the dulled automaton is not discoverable; indeed, the records are so much in favor of a healthier class than the average of women that physicians who have hastily committed themselves to an opposite opinion say, upon examination, that they "utterly distrust the statistics"![1] The necessary amount of this distrust, and the direction in which it is exercised, may be estimated by citing the authorities for the health of women students: Secretary of the Society of Associated Alumnæ of American Colleges,[2] seven hundred and five alumnæ who report personally; Committee of Education, 1883-84, Washington; Addresses of President Angell, of Michigan University; ex-President White, of Cornell; and President Horace Davis, of the University of California.
But, it may be asked, "Are doubting physicians not justified at all—are there no women students who break down[3] or die?" There are such cases of overstrain or feeble constitution which find their parallel among men, but the percentage among women is so small that it leaves the health average still above the generality of women.
But, urges Mr. Allen, there is "the self-supporting spinster"; "almost every woman should marry"; and she is "a deplorable accident." Now, it is possible that while I may deem her admirable, another may consider her "deplorable"—it is a matter of taste merely. But, that she is not an "accident," rather an eternal verity, stands confessed in Mr. Allen's "almost." Unless, indeed, the entire community should be paired off—which is not desirable for economic reasons—spinsters and bachelors will continue to exist. It does not materially affect the issues of the race whether they are dependent or independent,[4] and we may fearlessly praise in them the qualities which please us most. If the condition of "self-supporting spinsterhood" is more attractive than the condition of wifehood, there is menace for the future.
- ↑ Dr. Weir Mitchell, "Wear and Tear," p. 151.
- ↑ Report published at Boston, May, 1885.
- ↑ Rumors of this kind are sometimes too readily circulated. "Serious case, that of Miss O.," said a prominent physician in a Western city; "she has returned from Vassar thoroughly overworked." "Who, Carrie O.? "exclaimed a young lady hearer. "O doctor, that isn't possible! She was the giddiest girl in our class, went to parties three or four nights in the week, never had a lesson, and so Miss M. dropped her. When she found she couldn't graduate, she went to Vassar as a special student, because, she said, ' it was so far away no one would know whether she stood high or not, and she didn't intend to study her eyes out.'" The doctor's countenance fell. One victim of "higher education" was crossed off the score.
- ↑ It is desirable that young women should support themselves for these reasons: (1) that they may be free to marry; (2) in case they fail of marriage; and (3) because sickness or accident to the husband may render a wife's support valuable.
