Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 20.djvu/202

190 centimetre (four tenths of an inch) more at birth than those of girls (Liharzic). The difference increases by reason of the girl's head ceasing to grow much earlier than the man's. The difference in favor of the male in the weight of the brain about triples itself in the course of the first twenty years, and amounts, according to Broca, to seven per cent, between twenty-one and thirty years, to eleven per cent, between thirty-one and forty, then falls to ten per cent, between forty-one and fifty, and to eight per cent, between fifty-one and sixty years. After sixty years the weight diminishes, and the man's brain loses eighty-four grammes (three ounces), and the woman's fifty-nine grammes (about two and a half ounces) from the mean weight it attained at maturity. These anatomical differences bring on intellectual and moral differences that explain why in higher societies the two sexes, after sharing each other's sports in infancy, become separated during the age of maturity, and become again more alike in old age. The same facts are established in regard to the general aspect. Till the time of puberty, says M. Topinard, the skeletons hardly differ appreciably, the features are rather feminine. The man begins to be traceable only at puberty. At about forty-five years the distinctions begin to attenuate, and the sexes end by resembling each other in advanced age, when, however, the characteristics are rather masculine.

The same is the case in respect to the nutritive phenomena, to the amount of carbonic acid produced, to the volume of the lungs, to the quantity of salt in the blood, and to the pulse.

We gather from this review that the female sex surpasses the male in certain points during the first twelve years; then the male gains upon the female and acquires a pre-eminence that increases till the age of maturity, after which it falls off during old age. This pre-eminence is parallel with the progress of evolution, for its maximum corresponds with the apogee of evolution, which, we know, occurs at between forty and fifty years.

The pre-eminence of man over woman is more considerable in the case of large than of small persons. M. Verneau says that the differences in the size of the pelvis of the two sexes vary according to the general stature. The pre-eminence is greater among the inhabitants of the cities than with countrymen, among Parisians than among provincials. Broca assigns a difference of one hundred and fifty cubic centimetres in cranial capacity between French men and women in general, and of two hundred and twenty-one cubic centimetres between Parisians. M. Primer Bey having remarked that among non-civilized races the women have masculine forms approaching that of a man, adds that the same phenomenon exists, although in a smaller degree, among the "inferior classes" of civilized races. It is easy to observe in our cities how much more the men differ from the women among the richer than among the poorer classes. And it is often the case in the latter classes that the woman is more intelligent than the man who