Take one branch of science as an illustration—­the physiological.  In this science we hold that every woman should receive some instruction.  And why?  Because, if the laws of physiology were understood by women, children would grow up into better, healthier, happier, and probably wiser, men and women.  Children are subject to certain physiological laws, the observance of which is necessary for their health and comfort.  Is it not reasonable, therefore, to expect that women should know something of those laws, and of their operation?  If they are ignorant of them they will be liable to commit all sorts of blunders, productive of suffering, disease, and death.  To what are we to attribute the frightful mortality of children in most of our large towns—­where one-half of all that are born perish before they reach their fifth year?  If women, as well as men, knew something of the laws of healthy living, about the nature of the atmosphere, how its free action upon the blood is necessary to health—­of the laws of ventilation, cleanliness, and nutrition,—­we cannot but think that the moral, not less than the physical condition of the human beings committed to their charge, would be greatly improved and promoted.

Were anything like a proper attention given to common things, there would not be such an amount of discomfort, disease, and mortality amongst the young.  But we accustom people to act as if there were no such provisions as natural laws.  If we violate them, we do not escape the consequences because we have been ignorant of their mode of operation.  We have been provided with intelligence that we might know them; and if society keep its members blind and ignorant, the evil consequences are inevitably reaped.  Thus tens of thousands perish for lack of knowledge of even the smallest, and yet most necessary conditions of right living.

Women have also need to be taught the important art of domestic economy.  If they do not earn the family income, at least they have to spend the money earned; and their instruction ought to have a view to the spending of that money wisely.  For this purpose, a knowledge of arithmetic is absolutely necessary.  Some may say, “What use can a woman have for arithmetic?” But when men marry, they soon find this out.  If the woman who has a household to manage be innocent of addition and multiplication; and if she fail to keep a record of her income or expenditure, she will, before long, find herself in great trouble.  She will find that she cannot make the ends meet, and then run into debt.  If she spend too much on dress, she will have too little for food or education.  She will commit extravagances in one direction or another, and thus subject her household to great discomfort.  She may also bring her husband into trouble through the debts she has contracted, and make a beginning of his misfortunes and sometimes of his ruin.