nine having children report 205. Of these, 12 per cent have died, and, of these deaths, 25 per cent are due to causes connected with bearing. If we include all married couples, there is but 1·2 child to every five years of married life; and, even if we exclude those not having borne any, there are, among the remainder, two children to seven years of married life. We leave these figures, as the others, to speak for themselves.
That three hundred report their post-graduate occupations as teaching, and that one hundred and sixteen are following a professional life, shows a fact too easily lost sight of. Collegiate courses for woman have not solved the problem of her education, but, at most, of her technical training. It can hardly be thought desirable that 60 per cent of all the young women of our country, who ought to have collegiate training, should have it only as a preparation for one of the professions or for teaching. The question of women's education, in any worthy sense of the term education, has yet to be faced. The remarkable fact that the courses for female education, as well in purely female institutions as in co-educational, run parallel with and are modeled after the curriculum of male colleges, is to be accounted for only on the ground that upon the whole their training is designed for those who have to compete with men in the professional walks of life.
If we confine ourselves to the health of women, we shall find that the figures hardly justify us in assuming a purely optimistic attitude. The following figures speak for themselves: Of those who entered college one or two years after the commencement of the menstrual period, 20·5 per cent had poor health during college-life; of those who entered three to five years after, but 17·7 per cent; and more than five years, 15·4 per cent. If we compare the ages at entering college with the relative improvement or deterioration in health, we reach the same result. Of those who entered college at sixteen years or under, 28 per cent fell off in health, while 17 per cent gained. The figures for those of twenty and over show an almost exact reversal of these percentages, being 18 per cent loss and 28·5 per cent gain. The problem of age is thus seen to be an exceedingly important one.
The fact that, of the disorders reported, 7 per cent are brain troubles, 26 per cent of reproductive organs, and 33 per cent nervousness (also 15 per cent of neuralgia), shows that the problem of health has yet to find its adequate solution. The following percentages tell the same story: During the period of development, 53 per cent were troubled during the menstrual period (with simple irregularities, uterine or reflex pain, one or all). During college-life the per cent was 66; since graduation, 64. If we isolate simple irregularities, the result is more significant still; for these show a constant decrease, while the organic troubles show as marked an increase, the figures being, respectively, for irregularities, 16 per cent, 9 per cent, 7 per cent; for uterine and reflex pain, 24 per cent, 30 per cent, 36 per cent, for the three periods of development, college, and graduate life. Such percentages show along what line effort should be directed.
Leaving this question, we turn to the phenomena of college-life, so far as regards exercise, stud}^, and worry, in their effects upon health. The tables here cease to have reference, in their bearing, to women alone, and point a moral for all educators to heed. The importance of exercise is shown by the fact that those reporting over two hours per day return 84 per cent in good or fair health, while those below two hours can show but 75 per cent. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that, upon the whole, the tables show that worry is the most potent of all predisposing causes of disease. Those who had no worries of account report 92 per cent in fair or good health; those worrying over both personal affairs and studies state that but 68 per cent of their number were in the same condition. Worry over personal matters seems to be more harmful to health than overstudies, 75 and 80 per cent being the proportion of good health respectively. This showing goes far in substantiating the opinion of those who hold that study per se is never a cause of failure of health. However, of those who studied severely, 21 per cent report poor health, against 15 per cent of those studying moderately. Again, of the latter, 54 per cent report disorders as against 70 per cent of those who studied more; the figures for nervousness also are 15 and 26 per cent respectively. It is fair to suppose, however, that the largest per cent of those worrying over their studies was found among those studying severely.
In the tables, the distinction is made between those reporting from female colleges only and those of the co-educational. It is an easy matter, however, to separate them, which I have done, with the following results: Of the whole number (705), 458 are from female colleges; 247 co-educational. For graduate life, the figures for health are exactly the same for both: 83 per cent in good health, and 17 per cent in poor. During college-life 10 per cent of the co-educationalists report poor health, as against 18 per cent of those from female colleges; but this is more than accounted for by the fact that 22 per cent of the latter were in poor health before entering, showing a real gain during college-life of 4 per cent in average health, while the reports of co-educational colleges show a gain of but one per cent. It must be noticed, however, that the female colleges show a falling off of 4·8 percent from good, to fair health, while the co-educational show a similar loss of but 0·3 per cent. The average number of disorders reported is much the same for each class: 1'19 for graduates of female colleges; 1·24 for the other class. The figures as given show that either more care is taken of personal health in the female colleges than in the co-educational, or that more supervision is exercised; for 55 per cent of the former report abstinence from study and exercise during the menstrual period, and only 25 per cent of the latter. The figures for disorders show no corresponding gain, however, the advantage here being on the side of the co-educational institutions, as the latter report 33 per cent of disorders of brain, nerves, and reproductive organs, against 41 per cent in the female colleges. The figures for worry are about the same in each class: 33 per cent report severe study in the co-educational colleges, as against 26 per cent in the other; the advantage in exercise is, however, somewhat on the side of the co-educational college. The figures in the causation of disorders show the same percentages arising from intellectual overwork and physical accident. The female colleges, however, report proportionately over one third more breaking down from emotional strain, while the co-educational colleges balance the account with one fourth more failing in health by reason of bad sanitary conditions.
Of the life since graduation, not much can be said: 23 per cent of the graduates of the female colleges have married; 28 per cent of the co-educational, the average age of each being the same. Competition with men seems to have led a less number of graduates of co-educational colleges to enter the professions; at all events they report but 12 per cent in the professions, while the female colleges report 21 per cent. A somewhat larger number follow teaching, however, the figures here being 48 per cent and 42 per cent respectively.
It would certainly be too much to say from these figures that the personal care and advice from others given in female colleges are greater, while the social surroundings in the co-educational colleges are healthier, because perhaps more natural; but they suggest the advisability of questions directed to these points. The female colleges seem to have the advantage in purely sanitary conditions (except amount of exercise), as witnessed by the smaller percentage reporting bad sanitation as cause of disease; by the advantage of more than two to one of abstinence from study at critical periods, and in moderation of study; while the advantage of health remains on the side of the coeducational during college-life. That the balance shifts after graduation would point in the line of the generalization already suggested; as with the cessation of college-life would cease the abnormal cloistering of the young women, while bad sanitary conditions would show comparatively permanent results. That proportionately one third more in the female colleges report emotional strain as cause of disorders, other causes showing much the same average, point in the same direction. At any rate, it is worth inquiry whether it is not possible to unite the presumed advantage of the female colleges in wise advice and proper attention to health with the freer and more natural social relations of the co-educational institutions.
It is hoped that enough has been said to show the importance of the investigations already made, and to justify the supposition that further more detailed and extended inquiries would increase their value. No educator at all acquainted with the present status of affairs will carp at the results already reached, nor will he find much but cause for thankfulness upon a survey of the
