ame men would exclude her from pursuits in which these obstacles
and dangers are much slighter, and which are much better suited to her
delicate frame.

Among the learned men, who in Germany want to hear nothing of the
admission of women to the higher studies, or who will yield only a
qualified assent, and express themselves publicly on the subject are
Prof. L. Bischoff, Dr. Ludwig Hirt, Prof. H. Sybel, L. von Buerenbach,
Dr. E. Reich, and many others. Notedly has the livelier agitation,
recently set on foot, for the admission of women to the Universities,
incited a strong opposition against the plan in Germany. The opposition
is mainly directed against woman's qualifications for the study of
medicine. Among the opponents are found Pochhammer, Fehling, S. Binder,
Waldeyer, Hegar, etc. Von Buerenbach is of the opinion that both the
admission to and the fitness of woman for science can be disposed of
with the argument that, until now, no genius has arisen among woman, and
hence woman is manifestly unfit for philosophic studies. It seems the
world has had quite enough of its male philosophers: it can, without
injury to itself, well afford to dispense with female. Neither does the
objection that the female sex has never yet produced a genius seem to us
either to hold water, or to have the weight of a demonstration. Geniuses
do not drop down from the skies; they must have opportunity to form and
mature. This opportunity woman has lacked until now, as amply shown by
our short historic sketch. For thousands of years she has been
oppressed, and she has been deprived or stunted in the opportunity and
possibility to unfold her mental faculties. It is as false to reason
that the female sex is bereft of genius, by denying all spark of genius
to the tolerably large number of great women, as it would be to maintain
that there were no geniuses among the male sex other than the few who
are considered such. Every village schoolmaster knows what a mass of
aptitudes among his pupils never reach full growth, because the
possibilities for their development are absent. Aye, there is not one,
who, in his walk through life, has not become acquainted, some with
more, others with fewer persons of whom it had to be said that, had they
been able to mature under more favorable circumstances, they would have
been ornaments to society, and men of genius. Unquestionably the number
of men of talent and of genius is by far larger among the male sex than