Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 6.djvu/477

Rh, is the male skeleton so greatly different from the female as in the irregularities and asperities of the bones for the attachment of the muscles. While in man they form a marked feature of his bony structure, in well-formed females they present but a comparatively scanty development. It is true that both muscles and osseous irregularities, for their origin and insertion, may be developed by training, yet woman, as at present related to the other sex, has not only to acquire his strength, by a course of extra training, but she must equal him in skill, if she is to prove a successful competitor for his place. These comparisons between the physical strength of the sexes would be altogether unfair, were it not for the fact that they are invited by the position women have elected for themselves, and are essential in giving an opinion of woman's chances of success.

The fact that those employments are chosen by women which permit a sitting position is significant in this relation. Woman is badly constructed for the purpose of standing eight or ten hours upon her feet. I do not intend to bring into evidence the peculiar position and nature of the organs contained within the pelvis, but to call attention to the peculiar structure of the knee, and the shallowness of the pelvis, and the delicate nature of the foot as part of a sustaining column. The knee-joint of woman is a sexual characteristic. Viewed in front and extended, the joint in but a slight degree interrupts the gradual taper of the thigh into the leg. Viewed in a semi-flexed position, the joint forms a smooth, ovate spheroid. The reason of this lies in the smallness of the patella in front, and the narrowness of the articular surfaces of the tibia and femur, and which in man form the lateral prominences, and thus is much more perfect as part of a sustaining column than that of woman. The muscles which keep the body fixed upon the thighs in the erect position labor under the disadvantage of shortness of purchase, owing to the short distance—compared to that of man—between the crest of the ilium and the great trochanter of the femur, thus giving to man a much longer purchase in the leverage existing between the trunk and extremities. Comparatively, the foot is less able to sustain weight than that of man, owing to its shortness and the more delicate structure of the tarsus and metatarsus. I do not think there can be any doubt that women have instinctively avoided some of the skilled labors on anatomical peculiarities.

The question is in order, To what extent will these anatomical disadvantages act as a bar to her future progress? The present skill of man is the sum of functional and organic evolutions attendant upon countless generations. Women, during this period, have also been passing through the same series of evolutions. But the sum attained by women, although equaling that reached by men in sexual value, differs totally in kind. Under the condition of the sexes we are studying, these lines of evolution must maintain a perfect parallelism in order to secure equality in the sexes. Physically and