the fact? The Oberlin College triennial catalogue of 1872 lies
before me, and I have taken the pains to count and tabulate the
women graduated in different years, during the thirty-two years
after 1841, when they began to be graduated there. Dividing them
into decennial periods, I find the numbers to be as follows:
1841-1850, thirty-two women were graduated; 1851-1860, seventeen
women were graduated; 1861-1870, forty women were graduated. From
this it appears that during the third decennial period there was
not only no diminution, but actually a higher average than
before. During the first period the classes averaged 3.2 women;
during the second period 1.7 women, and during the third period 4
women. Or if, to complete the exhibit, we take in the two odd
classes at the end, and make the third period consist of twelve
classes, the average will still be 3.8, and will be larger than
either of the previous periods. Or if, disregarding the even
distribution of periods, we take simply the last ten years, the
average will be 3.1. Moreover, during the first period there was
one class (1842) which contained no women at all; and during the
second period there were three such classes (1852-3, 7); while
during the third period every class has had at least one woman.

It certainly would not have been at all strange if there had been
a great falling off in the number of graduates of Oberlin. At the
outset it had the field to itself. Now the census gives
fifty-five "colleges" for women, besides seventy-seven which
admit both sexes. Many of these are inferior to Oberlin, no
doubt, but some rose rapidly to a prestige far beyond this
pioneer institution. With Cornell University on the one side, and
the University of Michigan on the other--to say nothing of minor
institutions--the wonder is that Oberlin could have held its own
at all. Yet the largest class of women it ever graduated
(thirteen) was so late as 1865, and if the classes since then
"average but two or three," so did the classes for several years
before that date. Professor Tyler knows very well that classes
fluctuate in every college, and that a decennial period is the
least by which the working of any system can be tested. Tried by
this test, the alleged diminution assumes a very different
aspect. I