WHY A WOMAN CAN'T THROW A STONE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 205, 27 September 1878, Page 4

WHY A WOMAN CAN'T THROW A STONE.

The practice of a whole life will not enable a woman to throw a stone with grace and accuracy. It was one of the firat and most • knotty physiological problems which presented itself to one youihful mind— why our big sister, when she tried to throw a snowball at us, almost invariably sent it careering over the top of the house, while we, ia turn could pop her in the ear almost every time. It may be that we took a mean advantage of this discrimination of nature in our behalf against our sister, and it may be that we improved the opportunity to rake her fore and aft whenever she came within firiog distance. But this is neither here nor there. As time passed on and we increased our stock of observation, we saw that other fellows' sisters laboured under about the same disadvantages that ours did in the matter of throwing any kind of missile, As Dear as we could generalise their modus operandi of awkardaees — for eueh we are compelled to call it— we found that they swung back the arm over the head with nearly vertical motion, as though it were hung by a door hinge on the top of the shoulder, or much as we imagine the old Roman catapult operated when firing stones at the enemy. When the arm had swung as far as the hinge would allow, it was brought forward with the same vertical motion and with as much momentum ss the thrower could raise, and at some defined point in the arc thus described the hand let go the missile. While executing this quick movement some girls jump up a little way off their feet; others do not. Some girls give a little feminine whoop, or may be half whoop and half squeal ; others do not. Our sister jumped aud whooped both; but then Bhe was a bad thrower. 4s we stated, at some defined poiut in tbe arc described by the forward motion of the arm the missile flew off. Sometimes it went up, sometimes it went down, and Bometimes it went sidewise, bat it never by any manner of means hit the thing it was intended to bit, jump or no jump, whoop or no whoop. Now, the point of difference between a girl's throwiug and a boy's we foapd |p bo eiißtfloli&lly tbis ;— Tbe boy

■choked hig elbow and reached back with the upper part of his arm about at right angles with his body, and the forearm at ?u obgie of forty-five degrees* the direct act of throwing wos accomplished by bringing the orm b<ack with a soft of snap, like the tail of a snake or a whip lash, working every joint from shoulder to wrist, and sometimes ranking your elbow sing us though you hhd got a whack on the crasy^bone. The girl threw with her whole Krm rigid, the hds with hia arm relaxed. Why this matked nnd unmistakable difference existed wo never learned, until at a somewhat advanced period we dived into a book of phyeiology, and learned that the clavicle, or collar-bone, in the anatomy of a female is some inches longer, and set some degrees lower down, than in the masculine frame. This long, crooked, awkward bone interferes with the full and free actiou of the shoulder, and that's the reason why a girl cannot throw a &tjue. The deeigu of this sort of thing is still unexplained to our entire satisfaction. We hove developed a theory of our own, however, tint an all-wise and beueh'csnt Providence, foreseeing that there would be rolling-pins, and stove-hooks, and pot-lids, and hot watet in the world, set (he woman's clavicle down a hitch or two for the safety of men. It's lucky for all of us il'ai women cannot thfow stones. Philosophic Exchange.