shocks to the body is apt to be dangerous to women, since in the
womb they possess a delicately poised organ which varies in
weight at different times, and it would, for instance, be
impossible to commend football as a game for girls. "I do not
believe," wrote Miss H. Ballantine, Director of Vassar College
Gymnasium, to Prof. W. Thomas (_Sex and Society_, p. 22) "women
can ever, no matter what the training, approach men in their
physical achievements; and," she wisely adds, "I see no reason
why they should." There seem, indeed, as has already been
indicated, to be reasons why they should not, especially if they
look forward to becoming mothers. I have noticed that women who
have lived a very robust and athletic outdoor life, so far from
always having the easy confinements which we might anticipate,
sometimes have very seriously difficult times, imperilling the
life of the child. On making this observation to a distinguished
obstetrician, the late Dr. Engelmann, who was an ardent advocate
of physical exercise for women (in e.g. his presidential address,
"The Health of the American Girl," _Transactions Southern
Surgical and Gynaecological Association_, 1890), he replied that
he had himself made the same observation, and that instructors in
physical training, both in America and England, had also told him
of such cases among their pupils. "I hold," he wrote, "precisely
the opinion you express [as to the unfavorable influence of
muscular development in women]. _Athletics_, i.e., overdone
physical training, causes the girl's system to approximate to the
masculine; this is so whether due to sport or necessity. The
woman who indulges in it approximates to the male in her
attributes; this is marked in diminished sexual intensity, and in
increased difficulty of childbirth, with, in time, lessened
fecundity. Healthy habits improve, but masculine muscular
development diminishes, womanly qualities, although it is true
that the peasant and the laboring woman have easy labor. I have
never advocated muscular development for girls, only physical
training, but have perhaps said too much for it and praised it
too unguardedly. In schools and colleges, so far, however, it is
insufficient rather than too much; only the wealthy have too much
golf and athletic sports. I am collecting new material, b