The Sexual Life of Our Time in Its Relations to Modern Civilization: Translated from the Sixth German EditionBloch, Iwan
Philosophy
The Sexual Life of Our Time in Its Relations to Modern Civilization: Translated from the Sixth German Edition
Bloch, Iwan
Sex; Sexual ethics
“The question immediately arises, whether we are justified in speaking
of the mental ‘inferiority’ of woman, because her brain weighs less
than that of man.
“Now, in the first place, it is obvious that the greater body-weight
of man demands a greater weight of brain. And there is nothing
remarkable about the fact that the greater size exhibited by many
organs of the male should be exhibited also by the brain. It seems
very natural that the unquestionably greater functional activity which
has distinguished the masculine brain for many thousand years should
be manifested by the notably greater size of that organ, just as a
larger muscle generally performs more work than a small one.
“As a matter of fact, among the numerous investigators occupied with
this question, many have assumed that differences in the psychical
power of human brains are dependent upon differences in their size.
But this is an =assumption= merely, and with Bischoff, who as long as
forty years ago conducted an exhaustive investigation into the problem
of the relations between brain-weight and intellectual capacity, we
must say also to-day that ‘the proof of any such connexion has =not=
yet been offered us.’”
Whether the study of the finer structure of the brain in man and woman
will enable us to form more trustworthy conclusions regarding their
respective intellectual valuation, is a question whose answer must for
the present be postponed. According to Rüdinger and Passet, in new-born
boys and girls there exist very remarkable differences in the formation
and development of the brain. In the male fœtal brain the frontal lobes
are larger, wider, and higher; the convolutions, especially those of
the parietal lobe, are better formed than in the female fœtal brain.
Waldeyer was able to confirm this observation, and he considers it of
great importance, especially in view of the large share which the
frontal lobes have in the performance of purely intellectual functions.
Broca, however, was unable to detect a lesser development of the frontal
lobes in woman. Eberstaller and Cunningham even believed that they could
establish that this portion of the brain was more powerfully developed
in woman! Finally, the great Swedish cerebral anatomist, G. Retzius,
made an exact investigation of the sexual differences between the brains
of man and woman in the adult state. According to O. Schultze, his
results can be regarded as authoritative. Retzius stated that =hitherto
no specific invariably recurrent peculiarity had been found by which the
female brain could always with certainty be distinguished from the male;
still, he was inclined to attribute to woman’s brain a greater
simplicity of structure; it showed less divergence from the fundamental
type=.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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