Household Administration, Its Place in the Higher Education of Women. Various

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СКАЧАТЬ “History of European Morals,” vol. ii. p. 358.

[5]

      Hallam, “History of the Middle Ages.”

[6]

      Eckstenstein, “Woman under Monasticism,” p. 106.

[7]

      “The Mediæval Education of Women in England,” Journal of Education, June 1909.

[8]

      It is interesting, however, to note the following Electoral Disabilities for women in England and Wales, which, however, do not exist in Scotland or Ireland:—

      No married woman can vote in any Town Council election or in any County Council election outside London.

      No woman owner has any right, in virtue of her ownership, to vote in any local election. Until 1894 women owners, as such, were entitled to vote in Poor Law Guardian elections, but the Local Government Act of that year disfranchised them, while enlarging the voting rights of men owners.

      No woman lodger can vote in any local election, although men lodgers can vote in District and Parish Council and Guardian elections, and in the election of the London County and London Borough Councils.

      For women there is no service franchise—such as entitles men to vote in District and Parish Council and Guardian elections, and in the election of London Borough Councils—i.e. no occupation of a dwelling as an official or servant (for example, as matron or caretaker) entitles a woman to be placed on the Register.

      For neither men nor women is there any ownership franchise, lodger franchise, or service franchise for Town Council elections or for County Council elections outside London.

[9]

      Parsons, “The Family,” p. 346.

[10]

      Lester Ward, “Dynamic Sociology,” vol. ii, p. 120. D. Appleton and Co., New York.

[11]

      Sanitary Record and Journal, Nov. 24, 1904.

      35

THE PLACE OF BIOLOGY IN THE EQUIPMENT OF WOMEN

       By WENONA HOSKYNS-ABRAHALL, M.A. (Dublin)

       Table of Contents

      37

      In considering what is the best mental equipment for women in civilised countries it is as well not to contemplate only the great general facts of life, such as wifehood, motherhood, and the woman’s position in the household. It is necessary to take into account also the special characteristics and circumstances of our own times and civilisation; for, unless a woman is prepared to meet these successfully, she cannot be deemed adequately equipped, even if from other points of view her education be ideal. In the beautiful old-fashioned education of Japanese women we have an instance of such ideal excellence, which is yet proving unable to cope with the requirements of actual life in modern Japan.

      The most striking, and also the most radical and pervasive, characteristic of our time is, of course, the progress made in scientific knowledge. Month by month enormous numbers of facts are, in every department, added to the knowledge already acquired. To let one’s imagination range, even in a cursory way, over the work that is being done in 38 chemistry and physics merely as they concern biology—to enumerate the subdivisions of these sciences, or to look down a list of recent publications relating to research carried on in them, is enough to make one’s brain reel.

      This ceaseless widening of the borders of knowledge is, we must gladly allow, most inspiriting; and yet, seen from another side, it may well give rise to fears. For it is fairly obvious that the progress of human happiness goes by no means pari passu with this progress of knowledge; and, on looking more closely, we may even observe miseries and degradations which can be traced up directly to the practical application of some of those scientific discoveries.

      To what must we ascribe this? It would seem to be the outcome of two lines of tendency just now predominant.

      The first of these is that very strong bent towards mere accumulation of fresh facts which may be noted in the most able and active workers all over the world. Just as, in other times, the best minds have flung themselves with enthusiasm upon art or literature or philosophy or statesmanship or war, so now they fling themselves eagerly upon the discovery of more and more recondite truths in science—leaving the ordinary government of affairs, on the whole, to minds of the second order.

      The next is the reckless way in which isolated scientific discoveries—more especially in physics and chemistry—are brought to a practical application 39 and introduced into the scheme of everyday human life. This is done without consideration of anything beyond ensuring some obvious superficial convenience, and—what is a principal determinant—the opening up of new financial enterprises. Advantages of a sort no doubt are won—but often only at a fearfully disproportionate cost. The game—if we would but look at it unconventionally, from the standpoint of true biological science—is not worth the candle; for it involves a sacrifice of life itself to what can hardly be considered even as the means of life.

      Thus the chemicals used to preserve food impair its nutritive qualities; while other chemicals, as well as a number of ingenious mechanical processes, serve to facilitate adulteration. We all know how difficult it is to obtain pure milk and butter, or pure bread from pure flour, or jams made with sugar from fresh and good fruit. Bread may be made from flour which has passed through no less than seven processes,—a sad contrast this to the old home-made bread, the product of home-ground meal, whole and sweet as nature made it. What is sold in enormous quantities to the people as sugar, whether alone or as part of preserves, turns out often to be glucose. Butter, so-called, is often only skilfully-treated fats, the weight helped out by water. These three articles of diet alone, when adulterated as they thus often are, mean serious deterioration in the food—and therefore in the physique—of the nation; and to them we have 40 yet to add the effect of the chemicals used for keeping fish and meat in place of the genuine, old-fashioned pickling, salting, and smoking.

      Machinery, again, growing ever more and more complicated, has destroyed an incalculable wealth of traditional activity: and therewith, generation by generation, it tends to destroy the finest capacities of individual men and women, whether producers or consumers of the finished product. The consumers suffer through the lack of opportunity to acquire and exercise manual dexterity and resourcefulness—as well as through a great lack of experimental knowledge. The producers suffer through the monotony and narrowness of their labour.

      We may take as other instances of recklessness our common use of unprotected illuminants—electric light and incandescent СКАЧАТЬ