[To THE EDITOR OF THZ"SPECTATOR."]
Sin,—There are two statements in Dr. Macphail's letter (Spectator, October 10th) which I think should not be allowed to pass unchallenged. "Deprived of this excuse for existence [i.e., her part in the propagation of the species], the female of the human race becomes entirely a parasite." This can only mean that woman's work in the world has no value at all apart from motherhood. Valueless and "futile," then, accord- ing to Dr. Macphail, was the work of Queen Elizabeth, of George Eliot and Florence Nightingale, not to speak of the women who are at work in their thousands to-day as doctors, teachers, inspectors, nurses, missionaries, Poor Law Guardians, to mention only a few of the occupations in which women are engaged. Again, "the law is that the physically weak are subject to the physically strong." Is the man, then, subject to the elephant, was David to Goliath, or Jael to Sisera History and experience teach us that in a hundred ways mere physical strength is outmatched by skill, or knowledge, or intelligence, or wealth, or force of character.—I am, Sir, &e.,
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