line woman and the feminine man. It is nevertheless necessary
very carefully to discriminate between innate qualities of femaleness
and maleness and those differences that have been acquired as the
direct result of peculiarities of environmental conditions. It is
certain that many differences in the physical and mental capacity of
women must be referred not to Nature but to Nurture, _i.e._ the
effects of conditions and training. Let me give one concrete case, for
one clear illustration is more eloquent than any statement. Long ago
Professor Karl Vogt pointed out that women were awkward manipulators.
Thomas, in _Sex and Society_, answers this well: "The awkwardness in
manual manipulation shown by these girls was surely due to lack of
practice. The fastest type-writer in the world is to-day a woman; the
record for roping steers (a feat depending on manual dexterity rather
than physical force) is held by a woman." I may add to this an example
of my own observation. In a recent International Fly and Bait Casting
Tournament, held at the Crystal Palace, a woman was among the
competitors, and gave an admirable exhibition of skill in salmon
fly-casting. In this competition she threw one cast 34 feet and two of
33 feet, making an aggregate of 100 yards, which gained her the prize
over the male competitors. It has also been recently stated that women
show equal skill with men in shooting at a target.

It is plain that the more we examine the question of sex-differences
the more it baffles us. The only safeguard against utter confusion and
idleness of thought is to fall back on the common-sense view that
_woman is what she is largely, because she has lived as she has_, and
further, that in the present transition no _arbitrary rules may be
laid down by men as to what she should, or should not, can, or cannot
do_. Even in fear of possible danger to be incurred, woman must no
longer be "grandfathered." The scope of this chapter is to make this
clear.

It is no part of my purpose, even if it were possible for me within
the limits at my command, to enter into an examination of all the
numerous statements and theories with regard to the real or supposed
secondary sexual characters of woman. For though the practical
utility of such detailed knowledge is obvious, while there is no
certainty of opinion even among experts to fix the distinctions
between the sexes, it is wiser in one who, like myself, can claim no
scientific knowledge to a