ganised in a final
and fruitful period of civilisation.

I want to look a little further into this question of the strength of
woman as compared with the strength of man. On the whole it seems
right to say that the man is the more muscular type, and stronger in
relation to isolated feats and spasmodic efforts. But against this may
be placed the relative greater tenacity of life in women. They are
longer lived, alike in infancy and in old age; they also show a
greater power of resisting death. The difference in the incidence of
disease, again, in the two sexes is far from furnishing conclusive
evidence as to the greater feebleness of women. Their constitution
seems to have staying powers greater than the man's. The theory that
women are "natural invalids" cannot be accepted. Every care must be
taken to guard against any misdifferentiation of function in the kind
of work women are to do, but there is no evidence to prove that
healthy work is less beneficial to women than to men. Indeed, all the
evidence points in the opposite direction. Even in the matter of
muscular power it is difficult to make any absolute statement. The
muscular development of women among primitive peoples is well known.
Japanese women will coal a vessel with a rapidity unsurpassable by
men. The pit-brow women of the Lancashire collieries are said to be of
finer physical development than any other class of women workers. I
have seen the women of Northern Spain perform feats of strength that
seem extraordinary.

It is worth while to wait to consider these Spanish women, who are
well known to me. The industrial side of primitive culture has always
belonged to women, and in Galicia, the north-west province of Spain,
the old custom is still in active practice, owing to the widespread
emigration of the men. The farms are worked by women, the ox-carts are
driven by women, the seed is sown and reaped by women--indeed, all
work is done by women. What is important is that these women have
benefited by this enforced engaging in activities which in most
countries have been absorbed by men. The fine physical qualities of
these workers can scarcely be questioned. I have taken pains to gain
all possible information on this subject. Statistics are not
available, because in Galicia they have not been kept from this point
of view. I find, however, that it is the opinion of many eminent
doctors and the most thoughtful men of the province, that this labour
does not d