y
the struggle for the possession of the female; while on the other hand,
owing to her maternal functions, the female tends to a perpetuation of
her physical and psychic characters; and this prevents variation and
evolution.

The same phenomenon is encountered in the human race. After a careful
examination of the normal woman (height, weight, brain, nervous system,
hair, senses, physiognomy, and intellectual and moral manifestations),
the authors arrived at the conclusion that the physical, anatomical,
physiological, functional, and sensory characters of the female show a
lower degree of variability than those of the male.

In the same way, cases of monstrosity, degeneration, epilepsy, and
insanity are less frequent in the female of the human race; and the
percentage of genius and criminality is decidedly lower. The examination
of the senses showed that the normal human female possesses a lower
degree of tactile, olfactory, auditory, and visual sensibility than the
male, and also, contrary to the hitherto accepted opinion, a diminished
moral and dolorific sensibility. Among savage peoples, the female
appears to be less sensitive,--that is, more cruel than the male and
more inclined to vindictiveness.

But when we consider woman from the point of view of her maternal
functions, her physiological, psychological, and intellectual nature
assumes an entirely changed aspect; for maternity is the natural
function of the female, the end to which she has been created. Lofty
sentiments, complete altruism, and far-sighted intelligence develop all
of a sudden when she becomes a mother. Maternity neutralises her moral
and physical inferiority, pity extinguishes cruelty, and maternal love
counteracts sexual indifference. Maternity stimulates her intelligence
and sharpens her senses, explains and exalts those characteristics which
have hitherto constituted her inferiority until they become signs of
superiority when considered from the point of view of the reproduction
of the species.

A lessened sensibility enables woman to bear with greater ease the pains
inherent to childbirth; her refractoriness to all kinds of
variation--also that of a degenerate nature--serves to correct morbid
heredity and to bring back the race, which owes its continuation to her,
to its normal state.

Women commit fewer crimes than men; and offenders of the female sex,
generally speaking, exhibit fewer degenerate characteristics. This is
due in part to