production of many commodities which were formerly supplied by the actual labour, or under the supervision of the women of the family. It is, therefore, no longer in the same degree an advantage for a man to secure the assistance of a helpmate; hence, at all events in the towns, a very great decrease in the number of marriages. Even of those who have husbands, many must rely upon their own exertions for their personal support, and often for that of their families. To impose artificial restrictions upon their choice of a profession is, in many cases, equivalent to condemning them to want and misery; and to exclude women from any profession for which they prove themselves qualified by the ordinary tests, is to inflict a serious injury upon society. In every competition for employment, the only question that should be considered is that of the fitness of the candidates for the duties they may be called upon to perform, and their sex should not constitute an element in the calculation. By a strict adherence to this principle the area of choice is at least doubled for all intellectual pursuits, or, in other words, the State has twice as many chances of being efficiently served. The number of female students in the Berne University during the winter term 1874-75 is 32, of whom 28 are in the medical, 3 in the philosophical, and I in the legal faculty. According to nationalities, there are 24 Russians, I Pole, I Austrian, I native of Bogota (whose father was a Swiss) and 1 Swiss studying medicine; 3 Russians studying "philosophy.' and I law. Four Russians have already taken medical degrees at Berne with considerable credit. Hitherto, whether at Zurich or at Berne, very few Swiss women (some five or six in all)

* According to Prof. Marquardsen (Supplement to Allgemeine Zeitung, September 12, 1873), the number of unmarried women in Prussia between the ages of twenty and forty was, in 1867, 1,483,494. Prof. Schönberg (“ Die Frauenfrage" Basel Benno Schwabe, 1872) arrives at similar results with regard to the Duchy of Baden, and Prof. Böhmert speaking generally, affirms that thirty per cent. of all women must earn their own bread. In England, according to the Census of 1871, out of 3,504,351 women between the ages of twenty and forty, 1,319,903 are unmarried: or about two out of every five.

+ Professor von Scheel's Rectorial Speech is published at Jena, under title "Frauenfrage und Frauenstudium."

have entered themselves as students; but of these, two have passed the concordat examinations with honour, and are actually doctors at Zurich, where one of them is in the enjoyment of a lucrative practice. If the number of Swiss women who study in the universities is so small, it is undoubtedly due in some measure to the feeling, even stronger in this country than elsewhere, that home is the proper sphere for women. But the strongest reason is to be found in the deficiency of higher female schools, which is one of the weakest points in the Swiss system of public instruction. The time that has elapsed since female students were first admitted to the Bernese Universities is too short to enable the professors to come to any decided conclusion as to the capacity of women in general for the study of science. I am, however, informed on the best authority, that there is nothing in the demeanour, or in the mode of life, of the young ladies who attend the lectures, to give rise to the slightest unfavourable reflection; that they are chiefly remarkable for the regularity of their attendance and for their assiduity and application; that so far as their mental capacity, their readiness of expression, and their manual dexterity, are concerned, there is nothing that specially distinguishes them from the average of male students; that, at first, the smallness of their knowledge of Latin stands somewhat in their way, but that they speedily repair their deficiencies in that respect. It may be said that the majority of the women now studying at Berne had probably got over the preliminary difficulties at Zurich, but the above remarks are equally applicable to those who have recently joined the University. In order duly to appreciate the value of the conclusions arrived at by the Bernese professors, as a general test of female capacity, it must be borne in mind that, at least in so far as the Russian students are concerned (and they constitute seven-eighths of the whole number), we have neither to do with picked scholars of the gymnasiums, nor with daughters of wealthy parents who have spared no expense in perfecting their education, but with average young ladies of small means, who are striving to qualify themselves for earning their livelihood in an honourable manner. On the whole, the experiment may be said to

have succeeded at Berne; and in the opinion both of Professor von Scheel, the ex-rector of the University, and of Professor Dor, the present rector, who is a distinguished oculist, there are good grounds for believing that women will continue to frequent the University. Their admission on equal terms with men places them in a remarkably favourable position for establishing the capacity of their sex for the study of science. According to the statutes, any person who has taken a degree may claim to be admitted as a "Privat-docent," and as such is entitled to deliver public lectures within the precincts of the University. The friends of the movement would view with favour any attempt of this nature on the part of a female graduate; and, if she succeeded in attracting and instructing a class, it would do much to silence those who assert that women may indeed acquire a smattering of science, but that they can never make it so thoroughly their own as to be able to impart it to others. So far as I can learn, no opposition to such an experiment is to be apprehended on the part of the academical or cantonal authorities. Although the series of experiments carried on during the last ten years in Switzerland is of the most exhaustive character, and has been conducted in the most impartial manner, it may be said that the space of time is too short to afford convincing evidence of the fallacy of views which have the sanction of a far longer growth. I would venture to ask those who hold this opinion, whether the experience of Switzerland, combined with that of other countries which have taken steps in the same direction, does not at all events furnish sufficient grounds for giving women a fair chance of testing their faculties on equal terms with men. If they be allowed free access to the professions which have hitherto been closed to them, they will soon learn by experience that distinction in any walk of life is only the lot of a few; that even average success can only be achieved at the expense of much preparatory study, and by dint of constant application; and that many must submit to be classed in the long list of failures. But even the hard lessons of disappointment will not have been learnt in vain; habits of application and regularity will have been acquired, and a certain amount of learning assimilated

which, however insufficient for an independent career, cannot fail to exercise an elevating influence upon the unsuccessful student, and to fit her in a higher degree for contributing her share to the intellectual advancement of a future generation. We all know the importance of lessons learnt in early life, the impressions from which are perhaps the only ones that are never effaced. Even those few who are disposed to undervalue the influence of early training, or who hold that women who have acquired personal experience of the hardships of real life, as well as scientific knowledge, are none the better fitted for home duties, will allow that it may be wiser to afford them opportunities of testing their powers, if no other effect should be produced than that of dispelling illusions. It may fairly be said that most women who have thought of comparing their position with that of their male relatives, are apt to entertain the belief that, were all artificial restrictions removed, their chances of success in any walk of life would be at least equally good. This belief is constantly being strengthened by the weak arguments and inconsistent actions of the men who surround them. A woman is told that she is too delicately constituted to hold her own amidst the wear and tear of every-day life; and yet she finds, when the time of trial comes, that those who expressed that opinion are only too ready to shift the heaviest burdens from their shoulders to her own. Hence the feeling that is daily gaining ground amongst women of high intellectual culture, that it is rather latent jealousy than delicate consideration for the feelings of women, that induces men to connive at their exclusion from many pursuits for which they believe themselves to be qualified. I may be excused if, in concluding this essay, I express a hope that measures of such a character will shortly be taken in England as to restore us to the proud position we have held in the van of every great modern reform. If the senate of the London University could be induced to accede to the desire expressed by a majority of convocation, that women should be admitted to all the degrees conferred by that institution, an important step would have been taken. And finally, if the Act of 1858 were to be so far amended as to render it impossible for the Medical Boards to refuse

the title and prerogatives of Doctor in Medicine to duly-qualified women, it would then be nearly as easy for them to become physicians in England as it is now in Switzerland and the United States.Fortnightly Review.

TUFT-HUNTING.-Tuft-hunting appears to be a national characteristic of Englishmen, hereditary and ineradicable, like those diatheses or habits of body which physiologists affirm will reassert themselves in families from generation to generation. It pervades all classes of the community, and, to quote the words of an American philosopher in a lecture delivered to the young men of Boston thirty years ago, in England "there is no end to the wheels within wheels of this spiral heaven." We think we can detect in the signs of the times, however, that the virus of the disease is wearing itself out, and we purpose to examine in this article whether "blue blood" still holds the prestige it once held. Tuft-hunting has no parallel in other countries. In Germany, in Russia, and in Italy there are distinct lines of demarcation separating class from class, whilst in France talent or notoriety of some kind is the best key to the best houses. In Paris especially the secret of "receiving" or having a popular salon lies not in the Faubourg St. Germain element, but in the assembling of pretty women and clever men. We order things differently on this side of the water. The élite of our conventional London society, that section which assumes to be la crême de la crême, is exceptionally exclusive. The guests are invariably invited in "sets" of the same narrow clique or coterie. Should any one eminent in art, literature, or science find himself in such a false position, he will be instantly made to feel that he is an interloper, and though in their world, he is not of it. If any one doubt the truth of the assertion, they have only to run their eye down the lists of fashionable dinner-parties during the season to see that Lady A. is always asked to meet the B's and the C's, &c., and that the only addition to these noble personages will be the names thrown in at the end of the list of one or two hackneyed raconteurs or toadies,