The identical education of the sexes has borne the fruit which we havepointed out. Their identical co-education will intensify the evils ofseparate identical education; for it will introduce the element ofemulation, and it will introduce this element in its strongest form.It is easy to frame a theoretical emulation, in which results only arecompared and tested, that would be healthy and invigorating; but suchtheoretical competition of the sexes is not at all the sort of steady,untiring, day-after-day competition that identical co-educationimplies. It is one thing to put up a goal a long way off,--five or sixmonths or three or four years distant,--and tell boys and girls, eachin their own way, to strive for it, and quite a different thing toput up the same goal, at the same distance, and oblige each sex to runtheir race for it side by side on the same road, in daily competitionwith each other, and with equal expenditure of force at all times.Identical co-education is racing in the latter way. The inevitableresults of it have been shown in some of the cases we have narrated.The trial of it on a larger scale would only yield a larger number ofsimilar degenerations, weaknesses, and sacrifices of noble lives. Puta boy and girl together upon the same course of study, with the samelofty ideal before them, and hold up to their eyes the dailyincitements of comparative progress, and there will be awakened withinthem a stimulus unknown before, and that separate study does notexcite. The unconscious fires that have their seat deep down in therecesses of the sexual organization will flame up through everytissue, permeate every vessel, burn every nerve, flash from the eye,tingle in the brain, and work the whole machine at highest pressure.There need not be, and generally will not be, any low or sensualdesire in all this elemental action. It is only making youth work overthe tasks of sober study with the wasting force of intense passion. Ofcourse such strenuous labor will yield brilliant, though temporary,results. The fire is kept alive by the waste of the system, and soonburns up its source. The first sex to suffer in this exhilarating andcostly competition must be, as experience shows it is, the one thathas the largest amount of force in readiness for immediate call; andthis is the female sex. At the age of development, Nature mobilizesthe forces of a girl's organization for the purpose of establishing afunction that shall endure for a generation, and for constructing anapparatus that shall cradle and nurse a race. These mobilized forces,which, at the technical educational period, the girl possesses andcontrols largely in excess of the boy, under the passionate stimulusof identical co-education, are turned from their divinely-appointedfield of operations, to the region of brain activity. The result is amost brilliant show of cerebral pyrotechnics, and degenerations thatwe have described.
That undue and disproportionate brain activity exerts a sterilizinginfluence upon both sexes is alike a doctrine of physiology, and aninduction from experience. And both physiology and experience alsoteach that this influence is more potent upon the female than upon themale. The explanation of the latter fact--of the greater aptitude ofthe female organization to become thus modified by excessive brainactivity--is probably to be found in the larger size, more complicatedrelations, and more important functions, of the female reproductiveapparatus. This delicate and complex mechanism is liable to be abortedor deranged by the withdrawal of force that is needed for itsconstruction and maintenance. It is, perhaps, idle to speculate uponthe prospective evil that would accrue to the human race, should suchan organic modification, introduced by abnormal education, be pushedto its ultimate limit. But inasmuch as the subject is not onlygermain to our inquiry, but has attracted the attention of a recentwriter, whose bold and philosophic speculations, clothed in forciblelanguage, have startled the best thought of the age, it may be well toquote him briefly on this point. Referring to the fact, that, in ourmodern civilization, the cultivated classes have smaller families thanthe uncultivated ones, he says, "If the superior sections andspecimens of humanity are to lose, relatively, their procreative powerin virtue of, and in proportion to, that superiority, how is cultureor progress to be propagated so as to benefit the species as a whole,and how are those gradually amended organizations from which we hopeso much to be secured? If, indeed, it were ignorance, stupidity, anddestitution, instead of mental and moral development, that were the_sterilizing_ influences, then the improvement of the race would go onswimmingly, and in an ever-accelerating ratio. But since theconditions are exactly reversed, how should not an exactly oppositedirection be pursued? How should the race _not_ deteriorate, whenthose who morally and physically are fitted to perpetuate it are(relatively), by a law of physiology, those least likely to doso?"[27] The answer to Mr. Greg's inquiry is obvious. If the cultureof the race moves on into the future in the same rut and by the samemethods that limit and direct it now; if the education of the sexesremains identical, instead of being appropriate and special; andespecially if the intense and passionate stimulus of the identicalco-education of the sexes is added to their identical education,--thenthe sterilizing influence of such a training, acting with tenfold moreforce upon the female than upon the male, will go on, and the racewill be propagated from its inferior classes.[28] The stream of lifethat is to flow into the future will be Celtic rather than American:it will come from the collieries, and not from the peerage.Fortunately, the reverse of this picture is equally possible. The raceholds its destinies in its own hands. The highest wisdom will securethe survival and propagation of the fittest. Physiology teaches thatthis result, the attainment of which our hopes prophecy, is to besecured, not by an identical education, or an identical co-educationof the sexes, but by _a special and appropriate education, that shallproduce a just and harmonious development of every part_.
Let one remark be made here. It has been asserted that the chiefreason why the higher and educated classes have smaller families thanthe lower and uneducated is, that the former criminally prevent ordestroy increase. The pulpit,[29] as well as the medical press, hascried out against this enormity. That a disposition to do this thingexists, and is often carried into effect, is not to be denied, andcannot be too strongly condemned. On the other hand, it should beproclaimed, to the credit and honor of our cultivated women, and as areproach to the identical education of the sexes, that many of thembear in silence the accusation of self-tampering, who are denied theoft-prayed-for trial, blessing, and responsibility of offspring. As amatter of personal experience, my advice has been much more frequentlyand earnestly sought by those of our best classes who desired to knowhow to obtain, than by those who wished to escape, the offices ofmaternity.
The experiment of the identical co-education of the sexes has been seton foot by some of our Western colleges. It has not yet been triedlong enough to show much more than its first fruits, viz., its resultswhile the students are in college; and of these the only obvious onesare increased emulation, and intellectual development and attainments.The defects of the reproductive mechanism, and the friction of itsaction, are not exhibited there; nor is there time or opportunity incollege for the evils which these defects entail to be exhibited.President Magoun of Iowa College tells us, that, in the institutionover which he presides, "Forty-two young men and fifty-three youngladies have pursued college courses;" and adds, "Nothing needs to besaid as to the control of the two sexes in the college. The youngladies are placed under the supervision of a lady principal andassistant as to deportment, and every thing besides recitations (inwhich they are under the supervision of the same professors and otherteachers with the young men, reciting with them); and one simple ruleas to social intercourse governs every thing. The moral and religiousinfluences attending the arrangement have been most happy."[30] Fromthis it is evident that Iowa College is trying the identicalco-education of the sexes; and the president reports the happy moraland religious results of the experiment, but leaves us ignorant of itsphysiological results. It may never have occurred to him, that a classof a hundred young ladies might graduate from Iowa College or AntiochCollege or Michigan University, whose average health during theircollege course had appeared to the president and faculty as good asthat of their male classmates who had made equal intellectual progresswith them, upon whom no scandal had dropped its venom, who might bepresented to the public on Commencement Day as specimens of as goodhealth as their uneducated sisters, with roses in their cheeks asnatural as those in their hands, the major part of whom might,notwithstanding all this, have physical defects that a physiologistcould easily discover, and that would produce, sooner or later, moreor less of the sad results we have previously described. Aphilanthropist and an intelligent observer, who has for a long timetaken an active part in promoting the best education of the sexes, andwho still holds some sort of official connection with a collegeoccupied with identical co-education, told the writer a few monthsago, that he had endeavored to trace the post-college history of thefemale graduates of the institution he was interested in. His objectwas to ascertain how their physique behaved under the stress,--thewear and tear of woman's work in life. The conclusion that resultedfrom his inquiry he formulated in the statement, that "theco-education of the sexes is intellectually a success, physically afailure." Another gentleman, more closely connected with a similarinstitution of education than the person just referred to, has arrivedat a similar conclusion. Only a few female graduates of colleges haveconsulted the writer professionally. All sought his advice two, three,or more years after graduation; and, in all, the difficulties underwhich they labored could be distinctly traced to their college orderof life and study, that is, to identical co-education. If physicianswho are living in the neighborhood of the present residences of thesegraduates have been consulted by them in the same proportion with him,the inference is inevitable, that the ratio of invalidism among femalecollege graduates is greater than even among the graduates of ourcommon, high, and normal schools. All such observations as these,however, are only of value, at present, as indications of the drift ofidentical co-education, not as proofs of its physical fruits, or oftheir influence on mental force. Two or three generations, at least,of the female college graduates of this sort of co-education must comeand go before any sufficient idea can be formed of the harvest it willyield. The physiologist dreads to see the costly experiment tried. Theurgent reformer, who cares less for human suffering and human lifethan for the trial of his theories, will regard the experiment withequanimity if not with complacency.
That undue and disproportionate brain activity exerts a sterilizinginfluence upon both sexes is alike a doctrine of physiology, and aninduction from experience. And both physiology and experience alsoteach that this influence is more potent upon the female than upon themale. The explanation of the latter fact--of the greater aptitude ofthe female organization to become thus modified by excessive brainactivity--is probably to be found in the larger size, more complicatedrelations, and more important functions, of the female reproductiveapparatus. This delicate and complex mechanism is liable to be abortedor deranged by the withdrawal of force that is needed for itsconstruction and maintenance. It is, perhaps, idle to speculate uponthe prospective evil that would accrue to the human race, should suchan organic modification, introduced by abnormal education, be pushedto its ultimate limit. But inasmuch as the subject is not onlygermain to our inquiry, but has attracted the attention of a recentwriter, whose bold and philosophic speculations, clothed in forciblelanguage, have startled the best thought of the age, it may be well toquote him briefly on this point. Referring to the fact, that, in ourmodern civilization, the cultivated classes have smaller families thanthe uncultivated ones, he says, "If the superior sections andspecimens of humanity are to lose, relatively, their procreative powerin virtue of, and in proportion to, that superiority, how is cultureor progress to be propagated so as to benefit the species as a whole,and how are those gradually amended organizations from which we hopeso much to be secured? If, indeed, it were ignorance, stupidity, anddestitution, instead of mental and moral development, that were the_sterilizing_ influences, then the improvement of the race would go onswimmingly, and in an ever-accelerating ratio. But since theconditions are exactly reversed, how should not an exactly oppositedirection be pursued? How should the race _not_ deteriorate, whenthose who morally and physically are fitted to perpetuate it are(relatively), by a law of physiology, those least likely to doso?"[27] The answer to Mr. Greg's inquiry is obvious. If the cultureof the race moves on into the future in the same rut and by the samemethods that limit and direct it now; if the education of the sexesremains identical, instead of being appropriate and special; andespecially if the intense and passionate stimulus of the identicalco-education of the sexes is added to their identical education,--thenthe sterilizing influence of such a training, acting with tenfold moreforce upon the female than upon the male, will go on, and the racewill be propagated from its inferior classes.[28] The stream of lifethat is to flow into the future will be Celtic rather than American:it will come from the collieries, and not from the peerage.Fortunately, the reverse of this picture is equally possible. The raceholds its destinies in its own hands. The highest wisdom will securethe survival and propagation of the fittest. Physiology teaches thatthis result, the attainment of which our hopes prophecy, is to besecured, not by an identical education, or an identical co-educationof the sexes, but by _a special and appropriate education, that shallproduce a just and harmonious development of every part_.
Let one remark be made here. It has been asserted that the chiefreason why the higher and educated classes have smaller families thanthe lower and uneducated is, that the former criminally prevent ordestroy increase. The pulpit,[29] as well as the medical press, hascried out against this enormity. That a disposition to do this thingexists, and is often carried into effect, is not to be denied, andcannot be too strongly condemned. On the other hand, it should beproclaimed, to the credit and honor of our cultivated women, and as areproach to the identical education of the sexes, that many of thembear in silence the accusation of self-tampering, who are denied theoft-prayed-for trial, blessing, and responsibility of offspring. As amatter of personal experience, my advice has been much more frequentlyand earnestly sought by those of our best classes who desired to knowhow to obtain, than by those who wished to escape, the offices ofmaternity.
The experiment of the identical co-education of the sexes has been seton foot by some of our Western colleges. It has not yet been triedlong enough to show much more than its first fruits, viz., its resultswhile the students are in college; and of these the only obvious onesare increased emulation, and intellectual development and attainments.The defects of the reproductive mechanism, and the friction of itsaction, are not exhibited there; nor is there time or opportunity incollege for the evils which these defects entail to be exhibited.President Magoun of Iowa College tells us, that, in the institutionover which he presides, "Forty-two young men and fifty-three youngladies have pursued college courses;" and adds, "Nothing needs to besaid as to the control of the two sexes in the college. The youngladies are placed under the supervision of a lady principal andassistant as to deportment, and every thing besides recitations (inwhich they are under the supervision of the same professors and otherteachers with the young men, reciting with them); and one simple ruleas to social intercourse governs every thing. The moral and religiousinfluences attending the arrangement have been most happy."[30] Fromthis it is evident that Iowa College is trying the identicalco-education of the sexes; and the president reports the happy moraland religious results of the experiment, but leaves us ignorant of itsphysiological results. It may never have occurred to him, that a classof a hundred young ladies might graduate from Iowa College or AntiochCollege or Michigan University, whose average health during theircollege course had appeared to the president and faculty as good asthat of their male classmates who had made equal intellectual progresswith them, upon whom no scandal had dropped its venom, who might bepresented to the public on Commencement Day as specimens of as goodhealth as their uneducated sisters, with roses in their cheeks asnatural as those in their hands, the major part of whom might,notwithstanding all this, have physical defects that a physiologistcould easily discover, and that would produce, sooner or later, moreor less of the sad results we have previously described. Aphilanthropist and an intelligent observer, who has for a long timetaken an active part in promoting the best education of the sexes, andwho still holds some sort of official connection with a collegeoccupied with identical co-education, told the writer a few monthsago, that he had endeavored to trace the post-college history of thefemale graduates of the institution he was interested in. His objectwas to ascertain how their physique behaved under the stress,--thewear and tear of woman's work in life. The conclusion that resultedfrom his inquiry he formulated in the statement, that "theco-education of the sexes is intellectually a success, physically afailure." Another gentleman, more closely connected with a similarinstitution of education than the person just referred to, has arrivedat a similar conclusion. Only a few female graduates of colleges haveconsulted the writer professionally. All sought his advice two, three,or more years after graduation; and, in all, the difficulties underwhich they labored could be distinctly traced to their college orderof life and study, that is, to identical co-education. If physicianswho are living in the neighborhood of the present residences of thesegraduates have been consulted by them in the same proportion with him,the inference is inevitable, that the ratio of invalidism among femalecollege graduates is greater than even among the graduates of ourcommon, high, and normal schools. All such observations as these,however, are only of value, at present, as indications of the drift ofidentical co-education, not as proofs of its physical fruits, or oftheir influence on mental force. Two or three generations, at least,of the female college graduates of this sort of co-education must comeand go before any sufficient idea can be formed of the harvest it willyield. The physiologist dreads to see the costly experiment tried. Theurgent reformer, who cares less for human suffering and human lifethan for the trial of his theories, will regard the experiment withequanimity if not with complacency.
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