This  deficiency  seems  to  be  more  marked  in  the
more  special  and  skilled  departments  of  work.  Thus,
as  Mr.  Webb  remarks,  "  women  weavers  can  seldom
'  tune '  or  set  their  own  looms.  Women  heraldic
engravers  have,  curiously  enough,  never  been  able  to
point  their  own  gravers,  and  have,  in  consequence,
nearly  abandoned  that  occupation."  In  such  cases
as  this  we  have,  no  doubt,  to  deal  not  so  much  with
defective  manual  dexterity  as  with  a  certain  lack  of
resourcefulness  and  initiative.
Sense-judgments. — Under  this  heading  we  may
include  various  phenomena  which,  although  closely
related  to  pure  sensory  impressions,  are  more
highly  complicated  by  muscular,  reflex,  and  intel-
lectual factors.  The  power  of  forming  rapid  and
accurate  sense-judgments  is  of  very  great  importance
in  practical  life.  Unfortunately,  it  is  not  easy  to  find
or  even  to  devise  reliable  investigations  regarding  the
relative  skill  of  men  and  women  in  forming  sense-
judgments;  it  is  rare  to  find  men  and  women
working  under  absolutely  the  same  conditions  at
absolutely  the  same  work.
In  the  business  affairs  of  life,  where  we  may  reason-
ably expect  to  find  natural  selection  operating  to
effect  a  true  sexual  distribution,  the  evidence  is
conflicting.  In  salt-making,  women  often  perform
work  elsewhere  done  by  men,  and  are  said  to  be
more  "neat-handed"  in  "tapping  the  squares";  at
the  same  time  they  do  less  work  than  men,  two  men
taking  the  place  of  three  women.i  In  America  an
experienced  peach-grower  has  asserted  that  women
have  quicker  and  defter  fingers  than  men  (as  well  as
more  natural  honesty),  and  that  they  make  better
graders  and  packers  than  men.^     As  money-counters,

1  S.  Webb,  "Alleged  Diflerences,  etc.,"  Economic  Journal,  1891.
^  World's  Work,  July  1902.
184  MAN    AND   WOMAN.
