II.
Bachofen, Morgan and a crowd of anthropologists have revised the opinion of the historians and philosophers upon the role played by woman in the past. They have shown that everywhere the paternal family, which subordinated woman to man, had been preceded by the maternal family, which gave the first place to woman. The Greek language contains the record of her two conditions: while the Spartans, among whom matriarchal customs persisted, still continued to call her despoina, the mistress of the house, the sovereign, the other Greeks gave to the wife the name damar, the subdued, the vanquished. The Odyssey, in characterizing Nausicaa, says that she is parthenos admes, the girl not subdued, that is to say, without a husband, without a master. The modern expression "yoke of marriage" preserves the ancient idea.
Hesiod, in opposition to Homer, who tells only of patriarchal customs, preserves precious recollections of the matriarchal family; he tells us that when it existed man, even if he were a hundred years old, lived with his prudent mother,—he was fed in her house like a great child. (Works and Days, V. 129-130.) It was not the woman who then had the "child's brain", but the man; everything seems in fact to prove that her intelligence was the first to develop. This intellectual superiority caused her to be deified before man in the primitive religions of Egypt, the Indies, Asia and Greece, and caused the first inventions of the arts and trades, with the exception of metal working, to be attributed to goddesses and not to gods. The Muses, originally three in number, were in Greece, even in preference to Apollo, the goddesses of poetry, music and the dance. Isis, "mother of corn ears and lady of bread," and Demeter, lawgiver, had taught the Egyptians and Greeks the tillage of barley and wheat and made them renounce their anthropophagic repasts. The woman appeared to the pre-patriarchal man, like the Germans whom Tacitus knew, as having within herself something holy and providential, aliquid sanctum et providum (Germania VIII). Her prudence and foresight gave her this divine character. Must we conclude that this intellectual superiority, which manifested itself when the economic environment is rudimentary, is a natural phenomenon?
But, in any case, it may be asserted that the vitality of woman is superior to that of man. The life insurance companies of the United States, England and Holland, which do not base their calculation upon scientific fairy tales of the intellectuals but upon mortality tables, pay woman an annuity below that which they give man, because her probabilities of death are less. Here for example is the annuity paid for a capital of $1,000 by American and Dutch companies: [36]
| New York. | Holland. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age. | Men. | Women. | Men. | Women. |
| 50 years | $ 76.47 | $ 69.57 | $ 76.80 | $ 73.60 |
| 60 years | 97.24 | 88.03 | 98.50 | 93.50 |
| 70 years | 134.31 | 122.48 | 142.00 | 136.70 |
| 80 years | 183.95 | 168.00 | 222.70 | 211.70 |
It may be objected that man, leading a more active life, is more subject to accidents, diseases, and other causes of death, and that consequently the prolonged life of woman does not prove the higher vitality of her organism, but the advantages of a life less subject to accident.
The answer to this objection is found in the statistics of the various nations. There is in no country a perfect equilibrium between the number of women and that of men; for 1,000 men there are in Belgium 1,005 women, in France 1,014, in England 1,062, in Scotland 1,071 and in Norway 1,091. Nevertheless in these countries with the feminine preponderance there is an excess of masculine births: of the whole of Western Europe for every 1000 girls there are born from 1,040 to 1,060 boys. If, in spite of this excess of masculine births, more girls survive, it is because the greater mortality of the boys shows the balance in favor of the girls; and this higher mortality cannot be explained by the life of man being more subject to accident, since it is observed at an early age, notably during the first two years. All the diseases of childhood, with the exception of diphtheria and whooping cough, are to a perceptible extent more fatal among boys than among girls; from zero to five years the male sex is particularly frail; at all ages, except between ten and fifteen years, the male mortality is in excess of the female.
The superior vitality of the female sex is also noticeable in the greater ease with which it builds up its organism. M. Iribe, superintendent of the sanitarium of Hendaye, to which are sent Parisian children from three to fourteen years of age, who are afflicted with anaemia, incipient tuberculosis, scrofula and rickets, reports that at the time of their dismissal, at the end of six months, the progress in weight, girth and chest development is incomparably higher in the girls than in the boys, the increase in weight is double and often more.
The same statement has been made by other superintendents of sanitariums. (Bulletin Medical, No. 81, 1903.)
Woman undeniably possesses a greater vitality than man. M. Gustav Loisel has made inquiry "as to whether this difference existed in embryonic life, and what may be its cause?" He has communicated the results of his inquiries to the Biological Society of Paris, which published them in its Bulletin of November 6, 1903.
M. Loisel availed himself of 792 weights and measurements made upon 72 foetuses at the Maternity Hospital of Paris by C. E. Legou; [37] from the following weights of the foetuses at three, four, five and six months he obtains the following figures:
| Males. Females. Differences. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grammes. | Grammes. | |||
| Total weight | 1908.18 | 1708.11 | 200.07 | in favor of males |
| Kidneys | 16.87 | 17.19 | 2.67 | in favor of males |
| Superrenal glands | 5.15 | 6.43 | 0.32 | in favor of females |
| Liver | 88.35 | 96.31 | 1.28 | in favor of females |
| Spleen | 2.59 | 2.38 | 7.90 | in favor of females |
| Thymus | 3.89 | 3.97 | 0.21 | in favor of males |
| Heart | 10.97 | 12.60 | 0.08 | in favor of females |
| Lungs | 47.29 | 44.62 | 1.63 | in favor of females |
| Brain | 236.94 | 235.17 | 1.17 | in favor of males |
"These figures thus show us," says M. Loisel, "a preponderance already existing in favor of the females as regards the kidneys, the superrenal glands, the liver, the thymus and the heart; this predominance is the more noticeable since the total weight of the body is larger in the male than in the female."
If now we take the relation between the total weight and the weight of the organs which are heaviest in the male, we find that the proportion is still in favor of the female:
PROPORTION OF TOTAL WEIGHT.
| Males. | Females. | |
|---|---|---|
| Spleen | 1 to 736 | 1 to 718 |
| Lungs | 1 to 40 | 1 to 38 |
| Brain | 1 to 8 | 1 to 7 |
The organs here examined, brain included, are thus absolutely or relatively heavier in the female foetus than in the male foetus.
M. Loisel has also examined into the proportion of the weights of the different organs to the total weight according to the age of the foetus. He has prepared a table, from which I take only the figures concerning the brain:
| AGE | TOTAL WEIGHT | PROPORTION OF WEIGHT OF BRAIN TO TOTAL WEIGHT. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Males Grammes | Females Grammes | Males | Females | |
| 3 Months | 58.33 | 65.96 | 1/6.5 | 1/7 |
| 4 Months | 167.25 | 182.58 | 1/7.3 | 1/6.6 |
| 5 Months | 336.33 | 295.00 | 1/7.6 | 1/7.5 |
| 6 Months | 732.58 | 636.00 | 1/8.3 | 1/7.3 |
The weight of the male foetus, which is below that of the female foetus, at three months, when the sex has just been determined, grows more rapidly and the proportion between the weight is always to the advantage of the females from the fourth month on.
"To sum up," says M. Loisel, "all the organs are heavier in the female foetus than in the male foetus up to about the fourth month. The predominance then passes over to the male, but only for the lungs and the organs for sex-union, thus the cardiac muscle always remains heavier in the female. The organs which are of real service to the individual during the embryonic life always remain more developed in the female sex.
If now we consider that the differences in favor of the females are especially in the liver, the heart, the superrenal glands and the kidneys, we shall come to the conclusion that the greater vitality of the female organisms corresponds to their being better nourished and better purified." [38]