Woman physiologically considered as to mind, morals, marriage, matrimonial slavery, infidelity and divorce / by Alexander Walker.

  • Walker, Alexander, 1779-1852.
Date:
1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Woman physiologically considered as to mind, morals, marriage, matrimonial slavery, infidelity and divorce / by Alexander Walker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    the strength of woman, she cannot, in this respect, be approximated to man. It is evidently incom- patible with her organization as woman. Women are so conscious of this, that far from feeling ashamed of their weakness, as Rousseau observes, they glory in it; their tender muscles are powerless; they pretend they cannot raise the lightest burdens ; they would blush to be thought strong. So universal a characteristic of woman is her extreme flexibility and mobility, naturally con- nected with her weakness, that not merely the vo- luntary muscles of her limbs and her features, but the involuntary fibres of her heart, arteries and all the moving parts of her vital system, are strongly marked by it; and hence the convulsive disposi- tion of woman under many circumstances. Even the female writer I have quoted, accord- ingly, says, A degree of physical superiority cannot, therefore, be denied to man—and it is a noble prerogative! . . It must render women, in some degree, dependent on men in the various re- lations of life. At an early age, girls try also the art of conver- sation, dependent on the same muscular system, which they soon after practise incessantly. They speak earlier, says Rousseau, more easily, and more agreeably than men. They are accused