limbs are equal, stout and short. The feet have broad, naked, tuberculated soles; the forefeet with five distinct toes, each furnished with a long, strong and slightly curved nail, the first and fifth considerably shorter than the other three. The hindfeet have a very short nailless first toe; the second, third and fourth toes partially united by integument, of nearly equal length; the fifth distinct and rather shorter; these four are provided with long and curved nails. In the typical group of the genus Phascolomys we find the following characters:— Fur rough and coarse; ears short and rounded; muzzle naked; post orbital process of the frontal bone obsolete; ribs fifteen pairs. Vertebrae: C. 7, D. 15, L. 4, S. 4, Ca. 10-12. The wombat of Tasmania and the islands of Bass's Straits (P. ursinus) and the closely similar but larger P. platyrhinus of the southern portion of the mainland of Australia, belong to this group. On the other hand, in the hairy-nosed wombat (P. latifrons) of Southern Australia, the fur is smooth and silky; the ears are large and more pointed; the muzzle is hairy; the frontal region of the skull is broader than in the other section, with well-marked post orbital processes; and there are thirteen ribs. Vertebrae: C. 7, D. 13, L. 6, S. 4, Ca. 15-16.
In general form and action wombats resemble small bears, having a somewhat similar shuffling manner of walking, but they are still shorter in the legs, and have a broader and flatter back. They live entirely on the ground, or in burrows or holes among rocks, and feed on grass, roots and other vegetable substances. They sleep during the day, but wander forth at night in search of food, and are shy and gentle, though they can bite strongly when provoked. The only noise the Tasmanian wombat makes is a low hissing, but the hairy-nosed wombat is said to emit a short quick grunt when annoyed. The prevailing colour of the last-named species, as well as P. ursinus of Tasmania, is brownish grey. The large wombat of the mainland is variable in colour, some individuals being pale yellowish brown, others dark grey and some black. The length of the head and body is about 3 ft. Fossil remains of wombats, some of larger size than any now existing, have been found in caves and Pleistocene deposits in Australia. (R. L.*)
WOMBWELL, an urban district in the Bamsley parliamentary division of the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, 4 m. S.E. of Bamsley, on the Great Central and Midland railways. The inhabitants are chiefly employed in the extensive collieries. Pop. (1901) 13,252.
WOMEN. The very word “woman” (O. Eng. wifmann), etymologically meaning a wife (or the wife division of the human race, the female of the species Homo), sums up a long history of dependence and subordination, from which the women of to-day have only gradually emancipated themselves in such parts of the world as come under “Western civilization.” Though married life and its duties necessarily form a predominant element in the woman's sphere, they are not necessarily the whole of it; and the “woman's movement” is essentially a struggle for the recognition of equality of opportunity with men, and for equal rights irrespective of sex, even if special relations and conditions are willingly incurred under the form of partnership involved in marriage. The difficulties of obtaining this recognition are obviously due to historical causes combined with the habits and customs which history has produced.
The dependent position of women in early law is proved by the evidence of most ancient systems which have in whole or Early law. in part descended to us.[1] In the Mosaic law divorce was a privilege of the husband only,[2] the vow of a woman might be disallowed by her father or husband,[3] and daughters could inherit only in the absence of sons, and then they must marry in their tribe.[4] The guilt or innocence of a wife accused of adultery might be tried by the ordeal of the bitter water.[5] Besides these instances, which illustrate the subordination of women, there was much legislation dealing with, inter alia, offences against chastity, and marriage of a man with a captive heathen woman or with a purchased slave. So far from second marriages being restrained, as they were by Christian legislation, it was the duty of a childless widow to marry her deceased husband's brother. In India subjection was a cardinal principle. “Day and night must women be held by their protectors in a state of dependence,” says Manu.[6] The rule of inheritance was agnatic, that is, descent traced through males to the exclusion of females.[7] The gradual growth of stridhana, or property of a woman given by the husband before or after marriage, or by the wife's family, may have led to the suttee, for both the family of the widow and the Brahmans had an interest in getting the life estate of a woman out of the way.[8] Women in Hindu law had only limited rights of inheritance, and were disqualified as witnesses.
In Roman law a woman was even in historic times completely dependent. If married she and her property passed into the power of her husband; if unmarried she was (unless a vestal virgin) under the perpetual tutelage of her father during his life, and after his death of her agnates, that is, those of her kinsmen by blood or adoption who would have been under the power of the common ancestor had he lived. Failing agnates, the tutelage probably passed to the gens. The wife was the purchased property of her husband, and, like a slave, acquired only for his benefit. A woman could not exercise any civil or public office. In the words of Ulpian, “feminae ab omnibus officus civilibus vel publicis remotae sunt.”[9] A woman could not continue a family, for she was “caput et finis familiae suae;”[10] could not be a witness, surety, tutor, or curator; she could not adopt or be adopted, or make a will or contract. She could not succeed ab intestato as an agnate, if further removed than a sister. A daughter might be disinherited by a general clause, a son only by name. On the other hand, a woman was privileged in some matters, but rather from a feeling of pity for her bodily weakness and presumed mental incapacity[11] than for any more worthy reason. Thus she could plead ignorance of law as a ground for dissolving an obligation, which a man could not as a rule do; she could accuse only in cases of treason and witchcraft; and she was in certain cases exempt from torture. In succession ab intestato to immovable property Roman law did not, as does English, recognize any privilege of males over females.
Legal disabilities were gradually mitigated by the influence of fictions, the praetorian equity and legislation. An example of the first was the mode by which a woman freed herself from the authority of her tutor by fictitious cession into the authority of a tutor nominated by herself, or by sale of herself into the power of a nominal husband on the understanding that he was at once to emancipate her to another person, who then manumitted her. The action of equity is illustrated by the recognition by the praetor of cognatic or natural as distinguished from agnatic or artificial relationship, and of a widow's claim to succeed on the death of her husband intestate and without relations. Legislation, beginning as early as the Twelve Tables, which forbade excessive mourning for the dead by female mourners, did not progress uniformly towards enfranchisement of women. For instance, the Lex Voconia (about 169 B.C.), called by St Augustine the most unjust of all laws, provided that a woman could not be instituted heir to a man who was registered as owner of a fortune of 100,000 asses.[12] A constitution of Valentinian I. forbade bequests by women to ecclesiastics. But the tendency
- ↑ But in the earliest extant code, however, that of Khammurabi, the position of women was free and dignified. See Babylonian Law.
- ↑ Deut. xxiv. 1.
- ↑ Numb. xxx. 3.
- ↑ Numb. xxvii., xxxvi.
- ↑ Numb. v. 11.
- ↑ Ch. ix. § 2 (Sir W. Jones's translation).
- ↑ Whether this was the oldest rule of inheritance has been much debated. That birth of a child gave the mother certain legal rights in a primitive stage of society is the view of many writers. See especially Das Mutterrecht of J. J. Bachofen (Stuttgart, 1861).
- ↑ Maine, Early History of Institutions, lect. xi.
- ↑ Dig. i. 16. 195.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Imbecillitas is the term used more than once in the texts of Roman law.
- ↑ The way in which this law was evaded was by non-enrolment of the testator in the census (see Montesquieu, Ésprit des lois, bk. xxvii.) Another way was by leaving her the inheritance by fideicommissum (see Trust).
