In other words, which sex is the more subject to sickness, and what diseases show a partiality to the male rather than the female sex?

The most natural reply to this question, and the one in accordance with popular notions on the subject, is that woman, with her feebler frame, more delicate nervous organization, and her host of affections peculiar to herself, is more frequently and dangerously sick than man; that she suffers more, and dies earlier. This, however, is not the case. As we have pointed out in speaking of " the physical traits of the male," the average duration of life is greater with the gentler sex, who more frequently attain extreme old age than their sterner partners in the struggle for existence. Yet it seems very like a paradox, that the race should not be to the strong. Several explanations have been offered. It has been asserted that man succumbs sooner because he is the more exposed to danger and disease by his avocations and the customs of society. "War, which costs him his blood, costs woman only her tears. For him, almost alone, are the perils of the intoxicating cup, the exhaustions of the debauch, the fearful anxiety of the stock-room, and the excitement of the political arena. The risks of maternity do not equal these peculiar perils of manhood. Another explanation has been sought in the finer nervous organization of woman, which enables her to endure more and react better. Man, therefore, suffers less, but his powers of resistance are less, and the tendency to death greater.

Both these explanations are doubtless just, and account to a great extent for the singular disparity in the vitality of the two sexes. The character of the diseases which are met with in men more frequently than in women explain still further the seeming anomaly.

We will pass in review some of the principal diseases which our flesh is heir to, and note the sex they prefer.