Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 3.djvu/61

 A DIFFERENCE IN THE METABOLISM OF THE SEXES 47

The average weight of the men was 63.1 kilograms, and of the women 51 kilograms, and making deduction for this, the strength of the men is still not less than twice as great as that of the women. The anthropometric committee reported to the British Association in 1883 that women are little more than half as strong as men.

The first field day of the Vassar College Athletic Associa- tion was recently held (November 9, 1895), an d a comparison of the records of some of the events with those of similar events at Yale University in the corresponding year, while by no means fair to the young women, gives us a basis of comparison :

Yale Vassar

ioo-yard dash, - i of seconds 15! seconds

Running broad jump, - 23 feet 11.5 inches

Running high jump, 5 ft. 9 in. 4 feet

22o-yard dash, - 22f seconds 36-^ seconds

In tracing the transition from lower to higher forms of life we find a great change in the nature of the blood, or what answers to the blood, and the constitution of the blood is some index of the intensity of the metabolic processes going on within the organism. The sap of plants is thin and watery, corre- sponding with the preponderant anabolism of the plant. Blood is only "a peculiar kind of sap," and there is almost as much difference between this sap in warm-blooded and cold-blooded animals as between the latter and plants. Rich, red blood characterizes the forms of life fitted for activity and bursts of energy. In his exhaustive work on the blood Hayem has given a summary of the results of the investigations of chemists and physiologists on the differences in the composition of the blood in the two sexes. Contrary to the assertion of Robin, Have m finds that the white blood corpuscles are not more numerous in women than in men, and he also states that the number of h.rmatoblasts is the same in the two sexes. All chemists are agreed, however, that the number of red corpuscles is great ( men than in women. Nasse found in man 0.05824 of iron to 100, and in woman only 0.0499. Becquerel and Rodier give 0.0565 for