Edward Hammond Clarke

He courted controversy in 1875 following the publication of his book Sex in Education, arguing that women were inherently less physically and intellectually capable than men.

During his junior year, he suffered a haemorrhage in the lungs and became so ill that he could not attend Commencement and was unable to obtain honours for his studies, despite being first in his class.

[2] Despite the deterioration in his health, he continued to write about subjects that interested him, especially of a sociological nature, correlated with his views as a physician.

[3] Clarke claimed that letting women follow the same education as men would cause harm to their reproductive organs.

Many physicians, such as the gynaecologist Thomas A. Emmet and the neurologist S. Weir Mitchell, also disapproved of letting women pursue the same strenuous education as men.

[2] Clarke had several publications, including Sex in Education; or, A Fair Chance for the Girls, The Building of a Brain, and Visions: A Study of False Sight.

Clarke argued that girls would not be able to cope with the “intellectual demands traditionally placed on boys” and that imposing such demands on them during puberty would lead to “physiological disasters,” such as “nervous collapse and sterility.”[4] To support his claims he cited the cases of seven women whose health condition deteriorated apparently as a result of "arduous" studies in college.

For example, one of the women who had gone to Vassar College and was referred to Dr. Clarke, was depicted by him as “neuralgic and hysterical.”[4] Mary Putnam Jacobi wrote an essay, eventually published as a book, called The Question of Rest for Women during Menstruation;[5] it was a response to Clarke’s publication, Sex in Education; or, A Fair Chance for the Girls.

[6] Jacobi collected extensive physiological data on women throughout their menstrual cycle, including muscle strength tests before and after menstruation.