ngers of these young women adapted especially
to microscopic work, to the manipulation of small slides,
to cutting thin sections, to making the most delicate
preparations; the truth is quite the contrary. You can tell
the table of a woman at a glance: from the fragments of
glass, broken instruments, the broken scalpels, the spoiled
preparations. There are doubtless exceptions, but they are
exceptions.[279]

Zuerich was among the first of the European universities opening their
doors to women, and it is particularly interesting to see their
first efforts in connection with the higher learning. Without a wide
experience of life, and without practice in constructive thinking,
they naturally fell back on the memory to retain a hold on results in
a field with which they were not sufficiently trained to operate in it
independently. It is frequently alleged, and is implied in Professor
Vogt's report, that women are distinguished by good memories and
poor powers of generalization. But this is to mistake the facts. A
tenacious memory is characteristic of women and children, and of
all persons unskilled in the manipulation of varied experiences in
thought. But when the mind is able at any moment to construct a result
from the raw materials of experience, the memory loses something of
its tenacity and absoluteness. In this sense it may even be said that
a good memory for details is a sign of an untrained or imitative mind.
As the mind becomes more inventive, the memory is less concerned with
the details of knowledge and more with the knowledge of places to find
the details when they are needed in any special problem.

The awkwardness in manual manipulation shown by these girls was also
surely due to lack of practice. The fastest typewriter in the world
is today a woman; the record for roping steers (a feat depending on
manual dexterity rather than physical force) is held by a woman; and
anyone who will watch girls making change before the pneumatic tubes
in the great department stores about Christmas time will experience
the same wonder one feels on first seeing a professional gambler
shuffling cards.

In short, Professor Vogt's report on women students is just what was
to be expected in Germany forty years ago. The American woman, with
the enjoyment of greater liberty, has made an approach toward the
standards of professional scholarship, and some individuals stand at
the very top in their universi