Plain Facts for Old and Young

by John Harvey Kellogg

[Other Sexual Differences.]—In this country there is between five and six inches difference in height and about twenty pounds difference in weight between the average man and the average woman, the average man being about five feet, eight inches in height, and weighing one hundred and forty-five pounds; while the average woman is five feet, two or two and one-half inches in height, and weighs one hundred and twenty-five pounds. The relation of the sexes in height and weight varies in degree in different countries, but is never changed. The average height and weight of American men and women is considerably above that of the average human being.

[Men and Women Differ in Form.]—The differences in form are so marked that it is possible for the skilled anatomist to determine the sex of a human being who has been dead for ages, by an examination of the skeleton alone. In man, the shoulders are broad, the hips narrow, and the limbs nearly straight with the body. In woman, the shoulders are narrow and usually rounded, and set farther back, the collar-bone being longer and less curved, giving the chest greater prominence; while the hips are broad.

The consequence of these differences is that woman is generally less graceful and naturally less skillful in the use of the extremities than man, and hence less fitted for athletic sports and feats requiring great dexterity. A girl throws a stone awkwardly, less from want of practice than from a natural peculiarity of physical structure. A woman walks less gracefully than a man, owing to the greater relative breadth of her hips, requiring a motion of the body together with that of the limbs. In consequence of this peculiarity, a woman is less fitted for walking long distances.

[Modern Mania for Female Pedestrianism.]—Nothing could be much more inhuman than the exhibitions made in satisfying the mania for female pedestrianism which has recently arisen. Not long since, in walking down one of the principal streets of Boston, we passed, in going a distance of thirty rods, three illuminated placards announcing to the public that in as many different public halls four female pedestrians were exhibiting their walking talents for the gratification of the crowds of bawdy loafers and jockeys who congregated to criticize their several "points," and bet on their walking capacity, as though they were horses on a race-course or hounds on a fox hunt.

[3,000 Quarter Miles in 3,000 Quarter Hours.]—We visited the halls and ascertained that two of these misguided women were attempting the feat of walking respectively 2,700 and 3,000 quarter miles in an equal number of successive quarter hours. This would require almost incessant exertion for nearly twenty-eight days in one case, and for more than thirty-one days in the other, without at any time a period of unbroken rest longer than ten minutes. Such a procedure, in the light of physiology, is a greater inhumanity than the most merciless Boston teamster would inflict upon his dumb brutes. Why does not Mr. Bergh exercise his function in such cases? We did not wonder that the poor women looked pale and suffering, and trudged along with a limping gait.

[A Female Walking Match.]—At another hall we found two women engaged in a "walking match." The hall was so crowded with spectators—with very few exceptions of the male sex—that it was with difficulty the narrow track could be kept clear.

The sixty hours for which the walk was to be continued had nearly expired, and the excitement grew more intense each moment. One of the walkers, who was a few miles in advance, strode on at a pace almost marvelous, constantly stimulated to greater efforts by the coarse shouts of the masculine audience, who evidently took the same sort of interest in the proceeding that they would in a dog race or a cock fight. The other was pale and spiritless, and it seemed with difficulty that she dragged herself along to keep upon the track until the last. At times she seemed to be almost fainting, as the result of the long-continued excitement and fatigue; but she managed to keep going until nine minutes before the slow moving clock had measured off the sixty hours, when she became too ill to be longer able to stand, and was carried off the track.

The cheers for the winner were as vigorous as though a rebel fort had been captured, a million people emancipated from slavery, or some great and noble deed of honor or daring had been done; but no one thought of the injury which had been done the contestant. We turned away in disgust.

The ancient Greeks and Romans amused themselves with witnessing the gladiatorial contests of their male slaves; but it was left for civilized America to introduce woman into the "ring" and make her show her paces on the race-course. An ungraceful figure she cuts, and a repulsive spectacle she presents; and worst of all is the havoc which she makes with her health. At the very time that these four female pedestrians were making their disgraceful exhibit in Boston, in another part of the same city lay a helpless invalid who was once as noted a "female walkist" as any of them, made hopelessly ill by the same disregard of the plainest laws of nature.

[The Male and the Female Brain.]—But there are other important physical differences to which we must call attention. Man possesses a larger brain than woman, but she makes up the deficiency in size by superior fineness in quality. The female brain differs from the masculine organ of mentality in other particulars so marked that one who has given the subject attention can determine with perfect ease the probable sex of the owner of almost any skull which might be presented to him. This difference in the conformation of the skull is undoubtedly due to a difference in mental character, which, in turn, depends upon a difference in cerebral development. Faculties which are generally largely developed in one are usually smaller in the other, and the reverse.