Edward H.
Clarke, M.D.
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Sex in Education ; or, A Fair
Chance for the Girls. By Edward H. Clarke, M. D., Member of the
Massachusetts Medical Society ; Fellow of the American Academy of Arts
and Sciences; late Professor of Materia Medica in Harvard College, etc.,
etc. Boston : James R. Osgood and Company. 1873.
In this small volume Dr. Clarke takes up the discussion of one of the
many important questions of the present day, the education of women,
bringing to its treatment the result of considerable experience and that
frankness of speech warranted by his position, which, although demanded
for the full comprehension of the subject, has often been lacking in the
writings of others upon this matter. For the proper consideration of sex
in education it is necessary that there should be unreserved mention of
certain phenomena which modesty bids should be generally ignored; but so
long as reticence tends to allow the spread of harm, we should gladly
welcome any plain words that may help to reduce the suffering that
arises from ignorance. Dr. Clarke discusses a delicate subject, but, in
general, only with what bluntness is required; in one or two places,
however, the earnestness with which he denounces what he considers
impending evils runs away with him, and the reader cannot help shrinking
somewhat at his perhaps overdrawn description of the woman of the
future.
But this is a trifling matter; of the book as a whole, the tone is
excellent; more than that, the lesson it is intended to convey is one of
the utmost importance, and the book cannot fail to do good; but we
cannot help thinking that it would do more good, if we could have had
from such an authority a full account of the prophylactic measures to be
taken with regard to the health of our daughters, in addition to the
warnings, useful as they are in many cases, winch the book contains.
In the beginning of his essay» Dr. Clarke states some physiological
facts, which we need not repeat here, giving a brief and intelligible
account of some of the peculiarities of the female constitution ; he
goes on to urge that during the years of change from girlhood to
womanhood, great caution should be exercised with regard to the amount
of study demanded of the growing girl, for whom he recommends a system
of rest at regular intervals, so that her brain need not be overworked
at a time when there are unusual claims on the constitution, and that
thereby such regularity of function be established as may secure a
comfortable and healthy womanhood. For the support of his theories he
brings forward a small number of selected cases from his note-book, such
as every physician is familiar with in his practice, of women who, by
gross disregard of hygienic laws, ruined or enfeebled their health.
That American women fade early is a matter of common observation; but
that American women are so well educated that even a rigid following of
the maxim Post hoc, ergo propter hoc, can ascribe the many cases of
impaired health to over- study is not so patent. If we examine the
variations from what would be recommended as obedience to the commands
of physiology in the conduct of young girls, we find errors in dress,
diet, and mode of life with regard to society and exercise, due to the
carelessness and ignorance of both daughters and mothers. That young
girls should be denied the use of books, and left to their own frivolity
and to greater idleness, would be, in our opinion-, a lamentable result
of Dr. Clarke's book, but one which it is to be feared will follow from
what seems to us the undue stress laid upon the dangers of the
employment of the mind on intellectual subjects. What Dr. Clarke says
about the harm that may be caused by excessive brain-work is perfectly
true, and true of men as well as of women. But it can only be said of
the most excessive work, and to forbid well-regulated, moderate study
from fear of such extreme consequences is no wiser than it would be to
denounce all care of the health for the sake of avoiding
valetudinarianism. Once in a great while we hear of a man who by long-
continued application to intellectual work has, to all intents and
purposes, emasculated himself; he is as unfit to be a father as an
equally overworked woman would be to become a mother; the harm is as bad
in one case as in the other ; but still we do not feel inclined to close
our colleges, nor to warn ambitious youths against the deleterious
influence of abstruse studies.
That there are delicate girls who often show more zeal for their lessons
than their hardier brothers is very true, and to recommend the same
course of study for both would be as unadvisable as to send them both
out of doors to take the same amount of exercise every day in the year;
such girls need to be treated with great care; their over-ambition may
be one symptom of an unhealthy nervous condition, and the physician
needs all his tact to determine the amount of brain- work they are to be
allowed. But the same care is needed if his patient be a boy who is
troubled, for example, with curvature of the spine. Ill health in any
form demands particular care that no part of the body should be
overtasked, and parents should be cautioned against allowing delicate
children of either sex to injure their health by poring over books, as
well as by sitting in draughts when over-heated, or by wearing
insufficient clothing.
The general effect of education we cannot help thinking is undoubtedly
good, and for girls quite as much as for boys. In the first place, it is
absolutely indispensable, if women are at all anxious to adapt
themselves for what is demanded of them by men who seek to make
companions of their wives, and by their own wishes to be able to
understand what is going on about them. To resist the demand that women
are making for education is a hopeless task; but the opposition is doing
good work by denning, modifying, and improving the claims that
continually present themselves with renewed force. It is, of course, to
be desired that the best methods of educating women be put in practice,
and Dr. Clarke strikes with proper severity at some objectionable sides
of education, which we shall discuss further on ; but so far as his book
has a tendency to throw a doubt on the advantages of study for women, we
think it demands correction. For, secondly, study, if properly
supervised, that excess may be avoided, gives occupation to the mind at
the time of its unfolding, when the young girl's curiosity is aroused,
when she ceases to take an interest in childish things, and when, if
worthy objects do not claim her attention, she is likely to devote it to
things unworthy. At that time she learns with extraordinary facility,
which, it is very true, is prone to tempt her to undue exertion; but so
long as a teacher has the best interests of her pupil at heart, that may
be easily controlled, — at least, that would seem the proper course to
be followed, rather than the forbidding of all study. The facility she
shows, and which is generally so much greater than that of her brother,
who very often does not begin fairly to work for some years later, often
not until he is busy with professional study, is to be found connected
with her greater interest in her studies. If at this time she be taken
away from school, it is very difficult for her to do satisfactory work
without proper instruction, — we all know the listless way in which
girls read history together, — and she is only too ready to transfer her
interest from books to fashion-plates, from reading to dancing, from
solid improvement to flimsy joys. It is at a very critical age that
custom demands that a girl be taken away from school, and when, as is
almost universally the case, she is hurried into society, where she goes
to half a dozen balls a week, where she meets young men, dances with
them in heated rooms to the sound of fascinating music, resting in
unobserved corners, talking heaven knows what nonsense to these same
youths, we have here a course of conduct which would seem to demand
severer reprobation than do a quiet home life, regular hours, plenty of
sleep, and the active mind employed on truly humanizing occupations,
which have at least the one healthy physiological effect, that of making
the student forget herself. It is impossible to shut a girl up in a dark
room with no employment for four years, and it would seem to be
self-evident that it were better to find such occupation as notoriously
distracts the mind from undue reflection on distinctions of sex, — a
subject of thought always liable to do harm, and never more than at so
susceptible an age,—than to let one's daughter run riot amid those
pleasures which make this especially prominent, with the social
ceremonies we have described above, with perpetual twittering about
so-called " beaux," and very possibly careless, indiscriminate reading.
There is no need of immuring a girl away from the society of men, but
there is a difference between freedom and license. Every physician knows
the calming influence that intellectual work exercises over those who
feel themselves too sensitive to the temptations of the world, and we
cannot help recommending some serious occupation of that sort to girls
during the critical years of their early womanhood, as best worthy of
their attention, and, properly managed, most likely to save them from
subsequent suffering. While a physician's experience tends naturally
enough to make him look at all mankind, and more especially all
womankind, as victims of disease, the fortunately large number of
healthy men and women is not to be forgotten; and while they should all
take warning, they should not all suffer for the errors of their
brothers and sisters.
