Of  course,  said  her  creator;  for  that  you  would  in  fairness  select
a  figure  on  the  eighty  or  ninety  per  cent,  line,  not  this,  which
meets  exactly  fifty  per  cent,  of  them  all,  and  is  half-way  from  the
best  to  the  worst;  or,  to  put  it  more  precisely,  is  only  the
greatest  good  of  the  greatest  number.  He  then  naively  explained
her  inferiority  to  the  boy  on  a  ground  one  hardly  dare  whisper
— namely,  that  women  students  in  colleges  came  from  a  class
not  equal,  socially  or  intellectually,  to  that  which  universally
sends  its  boys.  [Whether  this  is  the  case  or  not  it  could
scarcely  account  for  the  facts  in  question;  the  woman  of  low
social  class,  at  all  events  in  the  country,  is  favourably  situated
so  far  as  the  attainment  of  a  well-developed  and  beautiful  body
is  concerned.]  The  figure  has  more  fragility  without  a  corre-
sponding gain  in  grace;  the  lower  half  is  better  than  the  upper;
it  is  not  that  tight-lacing  has  left  evident  traces  (the  waist  is
over  twenty-four),  but  the  inward  curve  of  the  back,  the  thinness
of  the  body,  lack  strength  and  erectness  of  pose.  The  height
is  five  feet  three,  the  weight  one  hundred  and  fourteen,  the  chest
measurement  but  thirty,  and  the  feet  ten  inches  long."

Differences  in  weight,  although  instructive  as  regards  the
individual's  condition,  are  not  of  any  great  significance  in  the
adult  from  our  present  point  of  view,  and  are  in  some  respects
fallacious.  This  is  due  to  the  tendency  of  women  to  develop
exuberant  fatty  connective  tissue.  This  tendency,  while  it  is
chiefly  responsible  for  the  charm  and  softness  of  the  smoothly
rounded  feminine  form,  results  in  women  possessing  a  larger
amount  than  men  of  comparatively  non-vital  tissue  and  makes
them  appear  larger  than  they  really  are.  Bischoff  once  took
the  trouble  to  investigate  the  proportions  of  the  various  tissues
in  a  man  of  thirty-three,  a  woman  of  twenty-two,  and  a  boy  of
sixteen,  who  all  died  accidentally  in  good  physical  condition.
