INTRODUCTORY.

15

of the function, and consequent steril­ity.” *

While pointing out the commonality of effect of “constrained positions, muscular effort, brain-work, and all forms of mental or physical excitement,” upon students and operatives in the direction indicated, the same author urges two reasons why female opera­tives of all sorts are likely to suffer less from persistent work than female students. The first is, that “ the female operative of what­ever sort has, as a rule, passed through the first critical epoch of woman’s life: she has got fairly by it.” The second is, “because the operative works her brain less.” Though I believe statistics f will warrant the expres­sion that this first conclusion is too inclusive,

* Sex in Education, p. 47.

t The United-States census of 1870 gives the total num­ber of females employed in industry between the ages of ten and fifteen as 191,100 ; total number (of these ages) in manufacturing and mechanical industries, 25,0C4, or about 13.4 per cent of the whole ; total number females (all ages) employed in all industries, 1,830,288 : showing that 10.4 per cent — i.e. 191,000 — of the whole number is under the age of fifteen.

I