t education of the sexes, and
who still holds some sort of official connection with a college
occupied with identical co-education, told the writer a few months
ago, that he had endeavored to trace the post-college history of the
female graduates of the institution he was interested in. His object
was to ascertain how their physique behaved under the stress,--the
wear and tear of woman's work in life. The conclusion that resulted
from his inquiry he formulated in the statement, that "the
co-education of the sexes is intellectually a success, physically a
failure." Another gentleman, more closely connected with a similar
institution of education than the person just referred to, has arrived
at a similar conclusion. Only a few female graduates of colleges have
consulted the writer professionally. All sought his advice two, three,
or more years after graduation; and, in all, the difficulties under
which they labored could be distinctly traced to their college order
of life and study, that is, to identical co-education. If physicians
who are living in the neighborhood of the present residences of these
graduates have been consulted by them in the same proportion with him,
the inference is inevitable, that the ratio of invalidism among female
college graduates is greater than even among the graduates of our
common, high, and normal schools. All such observations as these,
however, are only of value, at present, as indications of the drift of
identical co-education, not as proofs of its physical fruits, or of
their influence on mental force. Two or three generations, at least,
of the female college graduates of this sort of co-education must come
and go before any sufficient idea can be formed of the harvest it will
yield. The physiologist dreads to see the costly experiment tried. The
urgent reformer, who cares less for human suffering and human life
than for the trial of his theories, will regard the experiment with
equanimity if not with complacency.

If, then, the identical co-education of the sexes is condemned both by
physiology and experience, may it not be that their _special and
appropriate co-education_ would yield a better result than their
special and appropriate _separate_ education? This is a most important
question, and one difficult to resolve. The discussion of it must be
referred to those who are engaged in the practical work of
instruction, and the decision will rest with experience. Physiology
advocates,