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New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4126, 11 June 1874, Page 2

Uxdf.ii the skeleton heading o£ “Sex in Mind and in Education ” there appears in the latest number of the Fortnightly Review to hand, an article from the pen of Dr. Maudsley, that, in those days of Women’s Rights, Women’s Crusades, and pretty girl graduates, will attract considerable attention, and provoke inquiry. Dr. Maudsley, although comparatively speaking a young man, has long been known as a physician of eminence in the treatment of affections arising from a disordered state of the brain. When the Empress Maximilian was bereft of reason in consequence of the execution of her husband in Mexico, three London physicians, of whom Dr. Maudsley was one, wore sent for by the Emperor of Austria, to consult on her case. Therefore, when ho speaks of the consideration that should be shown in the education of girls to their sex, ho does so with dual authority. Pathologically, ho is entitled to pronounce upon the effect mental exertion may have upon their physical structure ; psychologically, he can predict what may bo the consequence upon their intellectual fabrics. During the present age the tendency undoubtedly is to give to girls an education of a far more advanced and technical description than was considered necessary for their mammas and grandmammas—one similar to that afforded to young men at colleges and universities ; and if it can bo shown that tills course is both unnatural and unadvisablo, what might ultimately prove to be an evil rather than a blessing may bo avoided. Dr. Maudsley’s proposition is that “ each sex must developo after its kind ; and if education in its fundamental moaning bo the external cause to which evolution is the internal answer, if it bo the drawing out of the internal qualities of the individual into their highest perfection by the influence of the most fitting external conditions, there must be a difibrenco in the method of education of the two sexes answering to differences in their physical and mental nature. Whether it bo only the statement of a partial truth that “ for valor ho” is formed, and for “beauty slip and sweet attractive grace,” or not, it cannot bo denied that they are formed for different functions, and that the influence of those functions pervades and affects essentially their entire beings. There is sox in mind, and there should bo sox in education.” It is a very old theory by which to the heart is ascribed valor, to the liver jealousy, and to the bowels compassion, and Dr. Maudsley extends this by urging the subtle relation between the physical organs and the mental qualities of men and women. Starting with the broad proposition that young men and maidens differ, tiro argument is elucidated by dividing the lifetime into three periods. As children, boys and girls are very much alike in appearance, emotions, and characters. The change, at first gradual, is precipitated on their arriving at more mature years, and again, as old men and women, the similarity returns in what sometimes becomes a second childhood. It is at the time of, and immediately subsequent to the great change, that the girl graduates are expected to most severely tax their mental energies. The question is whether tho physical exhaustion to which they are subjected is not too severe to render mental toil detrimental to a proper state of bodily health. There is no doubt raised that women can compote successfully with men in tho class-rooms of colleges, but tho human race is interested in knowing at what cost this may bo done. If severe intellectual training bo calculated to injure the health of tho generality of lady students between the ages of fourteen and twonty-ono year's, thereby causing thorn to bo unfitted to undertake tho duties of wives and mothers, a very strong case is made out against such a course being pursued. It is useless to quote isolated instances in which women, endowed with masculine strength of mind, have held honorable places in tho ranks of literature, and have been pattern wives and mothers. Experience has shown that some women will do this with the more scanty education that they received in olden times. It is with them as with men in this respect. Some of our most illustrious authors have not distinguished themselves in their school days, and others have had merely tho groundwork of their education laid for them. Whoa considering tho advisability, on tho contrary, of the practice of sending young ladies to college, wo have to reckon what the effect would bo on tbo majority, not on tbo minority. Should their general health bo impaired, and should tho evil take tho form, as it probably would

of rendering them less fitted to be the I mothers of the next generation, the human race will be paying too high a price for the severe intellectual training of women. That women arc more lifted than men to train up children, and educate them before they arc sent to school, in a thousand little nameless ways, is an accepted fact. If they surrender this specialty, which is not an acquired one, but a natural gift, for the prosecution of scientitic studies, and the result bo “ a puny, enfeebled, and sickly race,” a stage would bo reached towards the degradadation of the Anglo-Saxon race from the proud position which it holds amongst the families of men. It is positively stated by physicians of the highest standing in America, that the course of study which young ladies are subjected to in that country, is tending to gradually unsex them. They either do not marry, or if they become mothers they arc incapable of nursing their children. One medical authority affirms that if this course bo pursued, the mothers of future generations in America will have to bo imported from the old world. The young ladies of the present day are leaving college good scholars, hut delicate, ailing, women, who can scarcely bo expected to be the mothers of healthy' children. The strain, physical and mental combined, has been too severe for their systems. The conclusion to bo drawn is, that as young men and maidens are differently constituted, and have dilferent duties obviously defined for them, the desire to subject them to the same education is, if not positively wrong, highly' inexpedient. As man is man, so woman should bo woman. Her intellect is as much the complement of his as is her physique. It is for man to work tor her sustenance, to protect her, and to light for hex*. Give her what is called her xlght to vote that man should fight on her behalf, and sooner or later ho would rebel. If ho had to undertake her duty' of training and educating her young children, he would take steps to prevent the evil accumulating too rapidly. Women are superlatively fitted to superintend households and form the chief attractions of homes. Let them remain so. The highest class of women is formed of “ creatures not too bright or good, for human nature’s daily food.” Dr. Maudslcy concludes by remarking that “as far as our present lights teach, it would seem that a system of education adapted to women should have regard to the peculiarities of their constitution, to the special functions in life for which they' are destined, and to the usage and kind of practical activity, mental and bodily', to which they would seem to be foro-orclained by' their sexual organisation of body and mind.”