PHYSICAL STRENGTH IN MEN AND WOMEN.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), 20 July 1883, Page 3

PHYSICAL STRENGTH IN MEN AND WOMEN.

A sories of very interesting observations havo recently been made in Paris on tho relativo muscular strength possessed by men and women of tho middle classes, those whoso ordinary occupations have not tended to any marked development of muscular pOAver. As tho result of careful observations on sixty-four men and fifty-two women, taken from similar groups, it was fouud that the strength of women avus only three-fifths that of men. The instrument employed to furnish these results consisted of a balance Avhich measured and recorded tho force Avitli which a downward pressure of tho hand could be exerted. The strongest man pressed clown his right hand Avith a force equal to 1901b, tho Aveakest Avith half that amount, the average being 1201b. It Avas interesting , to note that tho shorter men wero nearly as strong as the taller, and that there Avas an average difference of 221b between tho force exerted by the right and left hands ; the latter, it is almost needless to say, being tho weaker. Ihe fifty-two Avomen examined and tested were taken from the same class of society, and it was found that the strength of the strongest was only equal to a pressure of 091b, whilst that of the weakest fell as low as 3Glb ; the average of tho whole number being 741b, as against tho avcrago of 1261b shown by tho men. Tho difference in the power of the lef b and right hands in women averaged 121b. Ono singular result was obtained: that tho shorter Avomen proved slightly stronger than thoso beyond the average height. The muscular superiority of men over women is so Aveil known and so generally acknowledged that tho strongest advocate of the equality of the sexes cannot gainsay its existence;'moreover, the rule is found to prevail in all races and conditions of mankind. In thoso tribes in Avhich Avomen are compellod to do the greatest amount of labor, and in Avhich their muscular system is developed by constant exercise, it never reaches the strength of that possessed by men. The rule, in fact, prevails throughput the whole class of mammalia that in physical strength the female is the Aveaker. In birds, on the contrary, in some families at least, the reverse holds good. Thus in the birds of prey, the eagles and falcons, tho females uro larger, stronger, and more vigorous than tho males, which, being one-third smaller, were termed by the falconers of old tiercels.