Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 20.djvu/201

Rh of the men of the higher races grows at a rate corresponding with the progress of evolution. According to Broca's investigations, the superiority of the man's cranial capacity is fifty per cent, more among the French in general, and a hundred and twenty-one per cent, more among the Parisians, than it was in the Cro-Magnon race. Very curiously, the cranial capacity of the prehistoric women was greater than that of the women of to-day. It appears demonstrated, says Broca, that the women participating more actively in the labors of the men had at the same time a more considerable cranial capacity than in our days. Zametti, of Sardinia, and Le Bon announce the same view on this point, and Le Bon says that the difference in the average cranial capacity of modern Parisian men and women is nearly double what is observed between the masculine and feminine skulls of Egypt.

Thus the superiority of women appears everywhere among ancient and modern inferior races, but is never observed among superior races, which are, on the contrary, always characterized by the pre-eminence of the man. Whether we regard species or races, we see evolution constantly advancing from the supremacy of the female to that of the male.

The same appears to take place in respect to age. Girls grow faster than boys till they are seventeen, after which the man keeps on growing and the woman remains at a stand-still. So, in the intellectual point, teachers in mixed schools observe that girls hold the first rank till they are twelve years old, and a lower rank afterward. Woman is, therefore, physically, intellectually, and morally, more precocious than man. Buff on believes that this difference bears a relation to the more solid development of the tissues of men; but precocity itself, according to the investigations I have reported to the Société de Biologie, is a character of inferiority—for it is always followed by an arrest of development observable among all females of animals and of men. As a rule, man differs from woman more at the age of maturity than during youth or old age, in such a manner that the maximum of masculine pre-eminence corresponds with the climax of his evolution.

Whether we consider the organism in general or the several organs separately, we shall find that the differences, null during fetal life and slight at birth, go on increasing till they reach their sum at adult age, then diminish during old age. This is the case in respect to stature, where, according to Quetelet and M. Topinard, the difference of one centimetre at birth grows to one of twelve centimetres at maturity, after which a tendency to return to equality manifests itself; it is so in case of the difference in weight, which increases from three hundred and fifty grammes (or about twelve and one-sixth ounces) at birth to five, eight, or eleven kilogrammes (twelve and a half to twenty-seven pounds), according to different authors, at maturity, and falls off again with advancing age. The heads of boys measure a