GRANDMA S HELPER.
MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD;
OR
TEN PHASES OF WOMAN S LIFE.
HOW TO PROTECT THE HEALTH, CONTRIBUTE TO THE PHYSICAL
AND MENTAL DEVELOPMENT, AND INCREASE
THE HAPPINESS OF WOMANKIND.
BY
JOHN D. WEST, M. D.
LAW, KING & LAW PUBLISHING HOUSE,
CHICAGO;
SAN FRANCISCO. CAL.; PORTLAND, ORE. AUSTIN, TEX.;
LITTLE ROCK, ARK.: DENVER, COL.
CHICAGO, ILL.:
WESTERN PUBLISHING HOUSE,
1887.
COPYRIGHTED 1886
BY
JOHN D. WEST, M. D.
PREFACE.
THERE is no higher study for womankind than
woman. There is no way in which the women of
to-day can so well or surely help themselves and
those about them and confer lasting benefits upon
their children and their race as by learning to
understand their own delicate organizations and
how best to cherish and protect them. Mothers
mold the characters of their sons and daughters,
by their early training or by want of it, either for
good or for evil. Even the best mothers, either
through mistaken delicacy or want of information,
often neglect to instruct their daughters in those
matters about which they most need to know. The
little girl realizes that she is not a boy; she ctoes
not know why. She changes to maidenhood with
out realizing the great purpose which Nature is
working out, and often comes to womanhood
without more than suspecting the grave responsi
bility of living and giving life. Pier children die in
infancy and she is tempted to blame Providence
for afflictions which it might have been within her
power to avert. If they grow to mature years it
may be with a weak constitution or imperfect
health, which had their cause and beginning in her
own lack of information before they were born.
3
4 PREFACE.
It may be that they are afflicted with blemishes or
deformities that might have been prevented, but
which are now beyond the reach of simple and
effective cure. If it so be that they grow up to
perfect manhood and we; nanhood, she passes on
to the evening of life secure in their protection and
grateful to that Divine power which has thus
blessed her among women.
In a busy practice of more than thirty years as
a family physician, I have been frequently, almost
constantly, impressed with the fact that much of the
pain and many of the disappointments and failures
of life might be avoided if mothers were better
informed both as to themselves, their own needs,
and those of their children. So impressed, and
believing that I can render no better service to my
Creator or my fellow-creatures, I have endeavored
to set down in the following pages the results of
my own study and observation, in the hope of
securing better health and greater happiness to
women and their children, by instructing them fully
as to the nature of those peculiarly feminine func
tions ; the requirements of their organizations
during the various stages of development ; by teach
ing them in language chaste and delicate, but plain
and unmistakable, how to fulfill the duties and
avoid the dangers of maidenhood and mother
hood.
THE AUTHOR.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
THE INFANT,
What It Is and What It May Become, Its Helplessness, the Embryo
Man or Woman, the Copy of It.s Parents, Inherits Physical Qualities from
Both Parents, It May Be Improved by Training, Correction of Deformities,
Removal of Constitutional Defects, Intellectual Keenness and Moral
Rectitude Developed Hygiene of Infancy, Importance of Knowing the
Laws of Health, Necessity for Rigid Enforcement, Relation Between the
Mind and the Body, Care of Infant Should Begin at Birth, Why the New-born
Child Cries, Temperature of the Room, Cleansing the New-born Infant,
Applying " the Bandage," Dressing the Child Baths in General, Importance
of Cleanliness, Dangers of too Frequent Bathing, the Use of Soap, Tempera
ture of the Water, the Bath Tub, Proper Time for Bathing, Soothing Effects
of Evening Bath, Cold Water Bath, When Allowable, Dressing After the
Bath Clothing, Regard to Season and Climate, Should Be Soft and Warm,
Should not Compress the Internal Organs, Allow Free Exercise of the Limbs,
Comfort of the Child to Be Considered, the Long Dressing-robe, Proper
Material to Be Used, Body Should Be Equally Protected, Protecting the
Lower Limbs, Folly and Dangers of Maternal Vanity Sleeping, Necessity
for Great Amount of, a Separate Cot, Location of the Cot, Regularity of,
Importance and Necessity of, How Secured, Proper Time For, the Sleeping-
room, Exclusion of Light and Noise, Sleeping Potions, Baneful Effect of
Drugs, Causes of Wakefulness, Care of Sleeping-robes and Cot Rocking or
Exercise, Exercise Essential to Health, Why Infants are Soothed By, the
Effect of Habit, Danger of too Violent, Open-air Exercise, Effect of Sudden
Changes of Temperature Feeding or Nursing Infants, When to Begin,
the First Mother s Milk, Pernicious Effects of Artificial Purgatives, the
Natural Laxative, Proper Cases for Artificial Purging Food of Infants,
the Natural Provision, the Mother s Milk the Best, When This Should Not
Be Given, the Best Substitutes, Quantity and Mode of Giving, Frequency of
Nursing, Dangers of Over-feeding, Effects of Excessive Nursing, Regularity of,
Nursing During the Night, Care of the Child During the Night, Necessity of
5
6 TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Rest and Sleep for the Mother The Nursery, Importance of, Arrangement,
Situation and Management of, Importance of Light and Pure Air, Bright and
Cheerful Outlook Desirable, Southern Exposure Preferable, Beneficial Effects
of Sunlight, Deleterious Effect of Imperfect Sanitary Conditions, Dangers of
a Vitiated Atmosphere, Equable Temperature Desirable, Best Manner and
Means of Heating, Overheating Should Be Avoided Weaning, Proper
Time to Begin, Health of the Mother, Robustness and Development of the
Child, Indications of Teething, Dangers of Premature and of Delayed Wean
ing, Gradual Process of, Nature, Quality and Quantity of First Artificial
Food, Dangers of too Frequent Feeding, Growth of Appetite to Be Regarded,
Rich and Highly-seasoned Diet to be Avoided Artificial Nursing, the
Wet-nurse, Care in Selection of, Should Be Strong and Healthy, Physical
Qualities Desirable in, Temper and Disposition Are Important, Dangers of
Feeding Children, Natural Method Should Be Imitated in Feeding by Hand,
Care of the Nursing-bottle, Regularity in Using the Bottle, Good Milk Should
Be Procured, Gradual Use of Other Food Teething, Symptoms of Approach
of, Indications of, First Stage, the Second Stage, the Natural Process, Why
Accompanied by Dangers, Care of Child During, Open-air Exercise, Frequent
Bathing, Dieting, the First Teeth, First Period of Teething, Second Dentition,
Importance of the Teeth, Use of in Mastication, Contribute Beauty and
Symmetry, Aid in Articulation, the Care of the Teeth, Regular Cleansing,
Dangers in Using Patent Nostrums, a Good Dentifrice Diseases of Infancy,
Causes of, Convulsions and Treatment of, Sore Mouth, Causes and Cure of
Costiveness, Worms and Treatment For, Diphtheria, Sore Eyes, Earache,
Chafing, Nose-bleed, Urinary Troubles, Colds, Croup, Whooping-cough and
Its Complications and Treatment, Vaccination Learning to Walk, Time to
Begin, Care and Patience in 17 to 1 18
THE CHILD.
General Causes of Disease Resulting from Errors in Diet, the Two
Great Offices of Food, Amount Required Variable, no Infallible Rule,
Different Kinds Required, the Digestive Operation, the Essential Elements
of Food, Preparation for Use, Proper Purpose of Food, Meat for Children,
When to Commence Using Meat, Solid and Liquid Food, Methods of
Cooking Meat, Bread, Different Kinds of Flour, the Process of Baking Wheat
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 7
Bread, Corn Bread, Puddings, Potatoes, Beneficial Quantities of Vegetables,
of Fruits, Functions of the Stomach as Affected by Food, Influence of the
Mind on the Digestive Process, Proper Food Regimen for School-girls,
General Causes of Disease from Diet, Normal Condition of the System, Study
of Physical Laws, Deleterious Effect of Luxurious Diet and Social Dissipation,
Comparative Health of Rich and Poor Children, Errors in Dress as Causes of
Disease, Effects of Improper Clothing Amusements, Important to Physical
Development, to Proper Intellectual Training, Mistakes of Parents with
Regard to, Various Kinds of, In-door and Out-door Recreations, Mental and
Physical Exercise Should be Considered Equally, Sound Mind Requires a
Sound Body, Exhilaration of Out-door Games Moral Training, Importance
of Good Moral Character, Inheritance of Moral Qualities, Dawn of Moral
Intelligence, Evidences of the Existence of Moral Perception, How the Moral
Emotions are Reached, Development of the Internal Emotions, Duty of
Parents to Cultivate, When to Commence Moral Education, Evil Effects of
Indulging Whims and Caprices, Dual Process of Moral Training, the Key
to Successful Government and Training, Commanding Influence of Parents,
Imitative Disposition of Children, Supreme Faith of Children in Parents,
Intuitive Perception of Truth and Falsehood, Necessity of Setting Good
Example Before Children, Pernicious Effects of Bad Example, Immoral
Practices Learned from Playmates and Nurses, Means of Correcting Evil
Influences, Conduct of Parents Should be Exemplary, Various Causes Which
Influence the Child-mind, Necessity of Constant Watchfulness of Parents
Dress, its Effect Upon the Mind and Disposition of the Child, Mistakes
of Parents with Regard to Dress of Their Children, Primary Object of
Clothing, Adapted to the Functional Operations of the Body, Injurious
Effects of Improperly Constructed Clothing, Sensitiveness of Children with
Regard to, the Influence of Fashion on, Its Effect Upon the Life and
Character of the Child Government of Childhood, Parenthood Involves
Obligations, Parents are Natural Teachers and Rulers, Necessity of Discipline,
Evil Results of Lack of Discipline, Abortive Discipline, When to Commence
Effects of Delay, How Long to Continue, Undue Severity and Unlimited
Indulgence, Authority Tempered with Kindness, Training Should Include
Physical, Mental and Moral Nature, the Religious Nature of the Child, When
to Commence Religious Training, Proper Methods of Conducting. .119 to 174.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PUBERTY.
Definition of Puberty, What It Is, Changes Wrought By, The Sign of
The Menses, Evidence of Approach, Duration of, Symptoms of First
Menstruation, Precautions to Be Taken, Age at Which Menstruation Begins,
Effect of Race and Climate on, Menstruation in Tropical Climates, Influence
of Temperament on, Habits of Life on, Effects of the Excitation of Certain
Emotions, Dangers to the General Health, Influence of Constitutional Tenden
cies, Care of the Health During, Attention to Dieting, Effect of Stimulants,
Beneficial Influences of Exercise, Length of Interval Between Periods, Varia
tions from the Rule, Length of Menses, Exceptional Cases, Office of the
Menses in Procreation, the Ovaries, Normal Condition of Menstruation
Disorders in Menstruation, Two General Causes of Functional Disorder,
Temperament and Menstruation, Quantity and Quality of Food Used, How
Rich Living Effects Menstruation, Effects of Breathing Vitiated Air, of Insuffi
cient Exercise, of Loss of Sleep Amenorrhea, What It Is, the Two Principal
Causes of, Symptoms of from Constitutional and Accidental Causes, Local
Symptoms, External Evidences of the Gravity of the Complaint When Neg
lected or Improperly Treated, the Hygienic Treatment of, Medical Treatment
of Menorrhagia, What It Is, the Three Phases of, Variations in Menstrual
Discharge and Causes of, Different Kinds of Women Liable to, the General
Causes of, Hygienic Treatment of, Medical Treatment of Dysmenorrhea,
What It Is, Nature and Importance of the Complaint, the Symptoms of, the
Five Varieties of, Hygienic Treatment of, Class of Women Most Subject to
Diseases from Derangement of Menses, Chlorosis, Nature and Causes
of, Symptoms, Treatment of, Chorea, When First Known, Character and Symp
toms of, Persons Most Subject to, the Common Evidences of, Treatment of,
Hysteria, General Ignorance of, Annoyance of, the General Causes of, Some
Immediate Causes of, Persons Most Liable to Attack, Cases Specified, Other
Diseases Aggravated by, Some Effects Produced by, Remarkable Peculiarities
of, Other Complaints Mistaken for, General Symptoms of, Liability of Decep
tion in Symptoms, Peculiar Cases Enumerated, Treatment of, Dangers of
Neglecting, Reasons Why It Is Neglected, the Hygienic Treatment, General
Exhaustion, Symptoms of, Effects of Protracted, Treatment of, Hygienic-
Care 175 to 240
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
THE MAIDEN.
General Remarks, the Untrammeled Freedom of Childhood, the Mysteri
ous Changes Wrought in Puberty, the Fading Away of Childhood, the Dawn
of Womanhood, the Birth of New Desires, Hopes and Experiences, the
Mystery of Sex Accomplishments, Mistaken Notion of, Naturalness of,
True and False, Importance and Necessity of, Utility Not the Sole End of
Education, Nature and Extent of True and Desirable, Errors in Obtaining,
the Eminent Desirableness of Engagements, When to Make, the Impor
tance of in Courtship, Reasons Which Determine the Length of, Effect of on
Courtship, When to Be Broken, Physiological Reasons Against Long Love
at First Sight, the Rule of Love, Exceptions to the Rule, Importance of
Discriminating Between Love and Passion Love, What It Is, Its Origin and
Inspiration, as Defined by the Greeks, Passionate Impulse and True Love,
Physical and Moral, Involuntariness of Courtship, Definition of, Blissfulness
of, Essential Purpose of, A Study of Suitableness, Determines the Happiness
or Unhappiness of Marriage, False Views of, Unhappy Results of False, When
Proper to Begin, How Long to Continue How to Select a Husband,
Importance of the Question, Points to Be Considered, Consanguinity, Con
stitution, Health, Race, Temperament, Education, Habits Qualifications
of a Husband, Filial Love, Kindness, Purity, Temperance, Industry and
Frugality, Business, Not Jealous, Moral and Religious Marriage, Proper
Time of the Year, the Time of the Month for The Wedding, What Is
Included in the Term, the Bride s Relations to, Proper Place for, Labor
Entailed on the Bride, Invitation of Guests, Trials of the Ceremony, the Wed
ding Feast, the Bridal Tour, the Best Way to Spend the Honeymoon The
Marriage Contract, Importance of, the Divine Institution of Marriage,
Effect of Marriage on Longevity Divorce, When and Why Allowed, the
Growing Frequency of, When Proper Subsequent Marriage, the Sad Lot of
Widowhood, Reasons for a Second Marriage, the Affection of Second Mar
riages Sacredness of Marriage, Viewed as a Divine Institution, Considered
as a Social Compact, Mutual Absorption in Marriage, Claims Which Each
Holds Upon the Other, Mutual Necessity of Faith and Faithfulness The
New Home, the Wedding Festivities Ended, Setting Up the New Home,
the Characteristics of a Happy Home, the Home Instinct, the Part of the
Wife in the Home, the Pleasures of Home-making, the Happy
Queen 241 to 330
IO TABLE OF CONTENTS.
THE WIFE.
The New Epoch, Eager Anticipations, the Seriousness of the Step, Giv
ing up the Old Life, the Unrevealed Future, New Associations and Experiences,
New Friends and Strange Scenes, Relations of Birth Superseded by Those of
Choice, the Blessedness of a Happy Choice The Marriage Chamber, Loca
tion of In the Home, Furniture and Arrangements of, Ventilation and Sanitary
Appointments, First Occupation of The Marriage Bed, Nature s Sweet
Restorer, Constituents of a Good, Proper Care of, Sanitary Objection to Cer
tain Kinds of Marital Relations and Privileges, Nature of the Relation
of Husband aud Wife, Naturalness and Necessity of Such Relation, Changes
Wrought in Maiden by, Embarrassment of New Wife, Unwarranted Test of
Purity, Congeniality and Exclusiveness, Connubial Faithfulness Proper and
Improper Sexual Indulgence, Rights and Duties of the Marital State, the
Order of Life-Production, Baneful Effects of Improper Indulgence, the Rule
Among the Lower Animals, Physiological Necessity of Indulgence, Various
Theories Concerning the Regulation of, Continence Beneficial, Creative Power
of Woman, Her Rights in the Conjugal Relation Physical and Moral
Effects of Excess, the Common Experience, the Ignorance of the New Wife,
Modesty and Prudery, False Notions of True Love, the True Conception, Vic
tims of Legalized Lust Painful Congress, an Abnormal Condition, Causes
Which Produce, Remedies for Offspring, the Prime Purpose of Marriage,
Essential to a Happy Home, the Expectation of, the Blessings of, Depth of
Affection for Should Offspring Be Limited ? Importance of the Question,
Inferences from Nature, Subsidiary Questions, Facts to Be Considered Regard
ing, the Proper Conclusion, Objections to, Difficulties Surrounding the Subject,
Misconceptions of Divine Teachings, Evil Results from Immoderate Child-
Bearing Extent to Which Offspring Should Be Limited, No General
Rule, Physiological Considerations Involved, Law of Limitation in Certain
Cases, Constitutional Tendencies Considered In, Over-fecundity, Good and
Bad Results of Child-bearing Proper Methods of Limiting Offspring,
Delicacy of the Question, False Notions Regarding, Justification in Using,
Injustice and Injury in Neglecting, the Duty of Self-Restraint, Natural Pro
visions for Improper Methods, Moral and Physiological Aspects of, Menace
to Conjugal Peace and Happiness, Foeticide, Abortion, Alarming Prevalence
of, Infamous Criminality of, Cases from Real Life Related, Common Methods
TABLE OF CONTENTS. II
of Abortion Used, Dangers of Barrenness, Deplorable Condition, Causes
Which Tend to Produce, Temporary and Permanent, Means for Removal
of 331 to 408
MATERNITY.
Pregnancy, Process of Conception Explained, Necessary Conditions to,
Changes of the Uterus Which Follow, First Symptoms of, General Indications
Enumerated and Explained, the Indigestion of, Constipation and Diarrhea,
Changes in the Breasts During, Appearance of the Abdomen, Quick
ening, Beating of the Fcetal Heart, General Appearance Discom
forts of Pregnancy, Heartburn, the Cause and Cure, Toothache,
Affections of the Mind, Nervous Affections Duration of Pregnancy, the
Common Period, Some Remarkable Exceptions Noted, Earlier and Later
Pregnancies The Unborn Child, What May Be Known of It, Determination
of Its Sex, Singular Cases Related, the Production of Sex at Will Twins, An
Unnatural Production, Persons Most Liable to Bear, Causes Which* Lead to
the Bearing of Second Pregnancies, Explanation of Meaning, Difficulties
in Determining, Some Remarkable Cases Recited, the Moral Aspects of the
Question, Sex and Twins Before Birth Hygiene of Pregnancy, No Special
Change in Diet Required, Evil Effects of Unwise Gossips on the Mother and
Child, Imprudence of Anxiety, the Best Friends and Counselors, Pleasant
Surroundings, Proper and Improper Food, Quantity and Manner of Wearing
Clothing, Amount and Nature of Exercise, Ventilation of the Dwelling-rooms,
Care of the Nipples, the Sleeping-room, Company Desirable and Undesirable,
the Gratification of Fancies Inheritance, Different Kinds of Misfortunes
to the Child During Pregnancy, Influence of the Mother on the Unborn
Child, Necessity for Care and Economy of Vital Forces, Effect of Mental
Impressions, Unnatural Developments, Curious Cases Related, Birthmarks
Explained Miscarriage, When Most Likely to Occur, How Early a Foetus
May Live, Causes of Miscarriage, General Symptoms of, Preventive Treat
ment Relation of Husband and Wife During Pregnancy, Various Opin
ions Held Concerning, the Best and Safest Plan, Difficulties in Adhering
to 409 to 476
12 TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CONFINEMENT.
Preparation For Confinement, Symptoms of Approach, The Bed-
Chamber, Location of, The Bed, Arrangement of, Temporary Dressing of the
Bed, Attendants -. Actual Labor, Symptoms of the Approach of, First Pains
of, " A Sick Labor," Pains of First Stage, Nature of, Character of Labor in
Second Stage, "A Dry Birth," the Third Stage of Labor, Expulsion of the
Placenta, Methods of Removing the Placenta Attention to Be Given
Mother and Child, Food and Stimulants During First Stage, Aids in
Delivery, Danger from Hemorrhages and Convulsions, Tying and Cutting the
Navel Cord, Wrappings for the New-born Infant, Application of the Binder
Hemorrhages, Accidental, In Placenta Prmia, Before Delivery. Premonitions
of Hemorrhage After Delivery, Treatment of, Treatment of Placenta Pra-via
Version, Conditions Making it Necessary, Difficult in Absence of Liquor
Amnii, Method of Performing 477 to 500
THE MOTHER.
Her Responsibility, Feelings of the New-made Mother, Care of the
Mother After Child-birth, Darkening the Room, Attendance, Flooding and
Convulsions Consequences of Child-birth Putting the Child to Breast,
First Effects of on the Child, Advantages of to the Mother, Device for Devel
oping the Nipples, Care of the Breasts During Pregnancy Child-birth, How
to Care for the Mother After, Cleanliness Essential, Avoid Erect Position,
Changing the Clothing of the Mother, Preparation to Leave the Bed, Proper
Time for, Laxative for Moving the Bowels, Abundant Supply of Fresh Air for
the Lying-in Chamber, the Evil Effects of Imperfect Ventilation, an Illustra
tion of, Covering of theBed, Should Combine Lightness, Warmth and Porosity,
How to Change the Linen, Dressing the Mother s Hair, How and When it
Should Be Done, Food Directions for Nursing, Benefits of Mother Nur
sing Her Own Child, Circumstances Rendering It Impossible or Unadvisable,
Regularity in Nursing, How to Prevent or Overcome Deformities, Influence
of Diet on the Mother s Milk, Influence of Menstruation, Influence of the
Mind The Wet-nurse, Qualifications of a Good Nurse, Wet-nursing, the
Necessity of, Selection of the Wet-nurse Excessive Lactation, Howto Pre-
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 13
vent, ) Erections for Arresting the Secretion of Milk, Pain of the Breasts from
Ovei-distention, Remedy for Deficient Lactation, Causes of, How to Over
come Suppression of Milk, by Suction, by Topical Applications, by Electricity
The Relation of Husband and Nursing Wife, Should Continence Be
Observed During Period of Lactation ? 501 to 534
MATURE WOMANHOOD.
The " Climacteric Period," Change of Life Defined, Cessation of a
Physical Function, Reproductive Period of Woman s Life, Length of, Early
Cessation of Menses, Incidents Attending Change of Life, Tendency to Certain
Changes and Diseases, Much Physical and Mental Disturbance, Preparation
for the Approaching Change, the Food, What It Should Consist of, Importance
of Rest, Close Observation of the Laws of Hygiene Necessary, Placidity of
Mind, Cessation of Menses" Physiologically Considered, Result of Well-
Defined Natural Laws, Suffering Caused by Disobeying Laws of Health
Death of the Husband, Influence of upon the Wife, Desolation of the
Widow, Health of Widows as Compared to Others, Beneficial Effects of
Marriage on Many Women 535 to 546
CELIBACY.
Advantages and Disadvantages, " It Is Not Good for Man to Be
Alone," Paul the First Celibate, Regarded by Him from Religious Standpoint,
the Law of Nature on the Subject, Marriage as a Factor in Human Life,
Health of Married Women Compared to Unmarried, Testimony of Physicians
and Social Statisticians, Certain Class of Ailments Cured by Marriage, Child-
Bearing the End of Woman s Being, Exception to these General Rules
Advantages of Single Life, Free from Domestic Cares, Time for Cultiva
tion of the Mind, Free from Pains and Dangers Peculiar to Maternity, Many
Occupations Now Open to Women, Social Advantages of the Unmarried
Disadvantages of Single Life, Effects of upon the Disposition, Misses
the Completeness of Life, the Domestic Happiness of the Wife, the Delight
of Having a Home, Marriage and Maternity the Better Way 547 to 552
14 TABLE OF CONTENTS.
DISEASES OF WOMEN.
General Remarks on, Object of This Chapter, Aid in Determining
Complaints Peculiar to Women, Diseases of Pregnancy Period Unnatural and
Unnecessary Definition of Disease, Health Denned, Disease a Deviation
from the Condition of Health, Number of Diseases Principal Causes of
Disease, Predisposing Cause " Denned, Disease Can Be Avoided if Predis
posing Cause Be Known, Causes of Disease are Various, Atmospherical Causes.
li.J Quality of Food, Excess in Eating, Intemperance in Drinking, Influence
c. ! Certain Vocations, Excessive Indulgence in Sleep, Intellectual Toil-
Various Kinds of Pulse, Dicrotic, Filiform, Gaseous, Hard, Inter
mittent, Jerking, Quick, Small, Tense, Wiry Morning Sickness and
Vomiting, Causes of, Symptoms of, Treatment of Pains in the
Bowels, Result from Two Causes, Remedies to Be Administered Constipa
tion, Cause of Other Disorders, Causes of Constipation, Treatment of,
Active Purgatives Injurious, the Dietetical Method, the Medicinal Means,
an Important Rule, Mechanical Means, Treatment of Constipation by the
Swedish Movement Cure, Description of Diarrhea, One Form of Caused by
Mental Emotions, Treatment of, Other Causes, Food to Use and Food to
Avoid During -Hemorrhoids or Piles, Description of Symptoms, Cause of
Piles, The Prophylactic Treatment of, Proper Course of Diet, Medicinal Treat
ment of Varicose or Enlarged Veins, Cause of, Different Methods for
Treatment of Wakefulness or Insomnia, A Nervous Affection, Two
Classes of Treatment for, First Soothe Nervous System, Second Diminish the
Amount of Blood in the Brain, Attention to Diet, Physical Exercise, Warm
Baths, Medical Treatment After-pains in Child-birth, Three Varieties of,
Symptoms of, Treatment of Lochia or Vaginal Discharges, The Nature
of, Importance of Cleanliness During, Treatment of Phlegmasia Dolens
or Milk-Leg, Nature of the Disease, Treatment of Puerperal Mania or
Insanity, Three Special Divisions: (i) Insanity of Pregnancy, Symptoms
of, Kleptomania a Characteristic, Incurable Until After Delivery, (2) Puerperal
Insanity (proper), Symptoms and Causes of, Duration of the Disease, Requires
the Most Skillful Treatment, (3) Insanity of Lactation, Nature of the Disease,
Treatment for Puerperal Mania Puerperal Convulsions, Serious Nature of,
Premonitory Symptoms of, Symptoms of the Attack, Treatment of, Bleeding,
Medicinal Means, Inward Fevers (Puerperal Peritonitis, etc.), Four Principal
THE INFANT.
What It is, and What It May Become.
THE helpless little being, ushered into the world in a
burst of pain, is a bundle of possibilities. At present it
has life and the instinct of perpetual life. Beyond this it
is entirely helpless. Not infrequently the machinery of
life must be started by others. For days and weeks and
months, the working of the delicate mechanism by which
life is maintained and developed must be watched unceas
ingly. Obstructions must be removed, developing activi
ties must be aided, and functional operations must be
stimulated. At maturity the most beautiful and the most
perfect of all the animal creation, at birth the most help
less, its helplessness is its strong defense.
This little wailing creature is the romping girl, the
amiable maiden, the affectionate mother, the noble
woman, in embryo. There is in the little babe all that is
to be found in the mature woman. Growth and develop
ment add no original organs. Nothing is created by
growth. Nothing is added to what was possessed at
birth. The little limbs grow stronger, larger, and more
shapely. The delicate organs will perform their various
functions with greater certainty and with better results,
17
1 8 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD
the different parts of the physical organism will develop
into a more perfect harmony of operation and adaptation to
designed ends, but they are all present in the new-born
babe. Because the babe is possessed of the organs of the
mature man or woman, and because the future harmonious
activity of the organs depends upon the care and culture
bestowed upon them because of these things the infant
is an object of importance and solicitude. Even where
physical humanity is developed to its full, robust, hardy
completeness, many of the parts of the machinery are still
delicate and sensitive. They are easily obstructed, easily
destroyed. This is true of the organs of sight, of hearing,
of circulation, and true of many others. Much more deli
cate are these organs in the immaturity of infancy. Con
sequently, much more vigilance and care are necessary.
The infant is, then, the embryo man or woman. It is
more ; it is its own parents child. To a certain extent
the child is what the parents, and especially the mother,
have made. It is a reproduction of themselves. It will
possess their physical and intellectual traits and their
moral bent. It has often been true, perhaps will often be
again, that the health and destiny of a man or woman was
determined in the mother s womb. It came into inde
pendent existence handicapped with a physical or mental
deformity for which the mother was responsible during
gestation.
Suffice it to say now, that when the child is born a
complete human being, it will possess largely the same
physical characteristics which marked one or both parents.
WHAT IT IS, AND WHAT IT MAY BECOME. 19
This latter fact is a guide to parents in the care of their
offspring in infancy and before they are able to know from
experience the peculiar traits of their children. Knowing
themselves, their weaknesses and deficiencies, they can
assume that they will reappear in their children. It is a
safe assumption on which to proceed at first. Children
do inherit diseases, and they generally inherit a predispo
sition to the complaints with which their immediate pro
genitors are afflicted. This -is one source from which
children draw the evils which inhere in their organisms at
birth. They also run the gauntlet of another class of
evils, which are the result of forces brought to bear by the
parents either at the time of conception or during the
period of gestation.
The infant may become a child altogether different
from what the promise of its birth indicated. Deformities
can be corrected, evils can be eradicated, diseases can be
healed. Intelligent application of the laws of hygiene,
thorough application of the skill of medical science, and
assiduous, unwearying vigilance, can almost work miracles.
The crooked can be made straight, the lame can be made
to walk, and the blind can be made to see. Hereditary
predispositions can be overcome. Imperfectly developed
organs can be drawn out into symmetry and health.
Some evils cannot be removed, but many faults of the
physical constitution can be corrected.
The intellect and moral nature of the infant depend to
some extent upon the perfect action of its physical organs.
Health is a great moral agent ; a diseased body and
2O MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
brain are ill adapted to the proper apprehension and
segregation of the principles of truth. As the child first
sees and apprehends, so will be the bent of after-informa
tion. Intellects have been warped, the moral nature
dwarfed, and the whole emotional nature disordered by
bad digestion and impaired secretions. The possibilities
bound up in the litt,le infant are great and far-reaching.
They determine in their development what the life here
and hereafter shall be. From the time of its independent
existence, there opens up before it a life of happiness or
misery, of blessing or cursing, of good or evil. On,
over and beyond, there is an eternity of bliss or wretch
edness. The infant has a body to live and a soul to be
saved.
The Hygiene of Infancy.
At no period in the entire course of life is there so
great a demand for an intelligent and rigid application of
the principles of hygiene as in infancy. A number of
factors conspire to bring about this necessity : The
physical economy is exceedingly delicate ; the infant
being is utterly helpless, both to aid and protect itself
and to make known its feelings and needs to others ; the
sensitiveness of its organism renders it very susceptible
to the influences which invest it, and which are potent
for its well-being or its injury, both at the time and in
all subsequent life. Upon the knowledge of the laws of
health and life possessed by .the mother or nurse will
depend the future of the object of their care.
THE HYGIENE OF INFANCY. 21
The proposition laid down cannot be too strenuously
pressed. Attention or neglect of the child in its earlier
years has a far-reaching effect. So intimate, intricate and
mysterious is the connection between the material and
spiritual that the care of the material, at this period of
existence, conditions largely the intellectual and moral
bent and expansion of the adult. A sound mind pre
sumes a sound body ; moral perception, delicacy and
completeness co-exist with intellectual breadth, depth and
clearness. The three elements which enter into the com
position of a human being body, mind and soul are
so intricately interwoven that they mutually influence
each other. Matter influences mind, and mind acts on
matter, each according to its own laws. To have, then,
an adult well-equipped for fulfilling the ends of being,
possessing a fully-developed and sound body, an intelli
gence keen and bright, a moral nature sensitive and
undwarfed, it is imperative that the infant receive the
fullest benefit which hygienic treatment can confer.
Following the order laid down in this work, and
which is also both the natural and the logical order, it is
proper to commence with the birth of the child. It is
then that it begins its dependent existence. The sudden
transition of the new-born babe from the uniformly high
temperature of its mother s womb to the external air, is a
great change. The differences in this external tempera
ture are great, even in the warmest months, and in a
room heated to the highest point of comfort and endur
ance. The effect upon the infant is so great that instinct
ively it cries aloud.
22 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
Manifestly, then, the first duty of the nurse should
look toward restoring the babe, as quickly as possible, to
a temperature similar to that to which it was accustomed.
This may be done readily by enveloping it in a wrapping
of soft flannel, previously warmed, or by placing it in
water heated to the temperature of the human body
that is, about 96 or 98 . If the infant be vigorous
and its breathing free, and regular, the process of thor
oughly cleansing the surface of its body may be com
menced at once. The object of this ablution is to remove
from the skin everything that would iu any way impede
or interfere with its proper and healthy action. Not
infrequently the new-born child is found covered with
an unctuous mucous, or white tenacious coating. This
served a natural and necessary purpose in protecting the
sensitive surface of the body while it remained in its
mother s womb ; now such covering is not only unneces
sary, but positively injurious. It acts as a decided
irritant, and interferes with the proper capillary cation.
This mucous covering must be removed entirely. To
accomplish this without injury to the babe will often tax
the skill as well as the patience of the attendant. The
easiest and safest plan is to first thoroughly but tenderly
lubricate the body with fresh lard, unsalted butter, or
olive oil. A piece of soft flannel or sponge can be used
in this operation. This will so loosen the covering that
its removal becomes comparatively easy.
Care must be taken that this cleansing extend to the
entire body, especially to those parts of the skin which
THE HYGIENE OF INFANCY. 23
cover the joints, groins, ears, neck, and the irregular parts
of the body generally. The water used in the final act of
cleansing should be pure and milk-warm. Especial care
is needed in washing the eye-lids. It has often happened
that troublesome and serious inflammation of the eyes
have resulted from allowing impure water to enter the eye
during this cleansing. The eyes should also be protected
from the direct rays of any strong light, natural or arti
ficial. The eyes attended to, the entire body can then be
cleansed with the same water, using with it a little castile
soap. With a soft napkin, the body should be dried
thoroughly, and the rubbing process be continued until a
gentle glow is excited over the whole surface. This done,
let everything that is wet or damp be removed from about
the child ; place it upon a soft, warm blanket, and see that
the temperature of the room is comfortable and free from
air-draughts. The child should not be placed too near a
hot fire.
The infant, being now washed and dried, the next step
is the application of "the bandage." This bandage
should consist of fine flannel, merino or some similar
material. It should be five or six inches wide, and long
enough to go, at least, one and one-fourth times around
the body. Before the bandage or roller is applied, let a
piece of old muslin be prepared. It should be three or
four inches wide and eight or ten inches long. Fold it
midway, and two or three inches from the folded end cut
a small hole, large enough to receive the navel-cord. Pass
the cord through the opening made, wrap around it a
24 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
small piece of old muslin, and lay it down in the direction
of the long end of the compress. Fold the muslin back
over the cord, holding all in proper position with the palm
of the hand until the bandage is adjusted. This bandage
may be fastened with pins ; but it is more desirable that it
be stitched with a needle and thread. If the latter fasten
ing be employed, commence to sew from the lower edge,
drawing the bandage fairly close to the body, so that it
will fit neatly ; it should not be drawn so closely over the
stomach. If pins be used, care should be taken that the
points be not left in a position where they may prick the
child. The diaper should next be applied, in the inside
of which a couple of folds of old, soft muslin may be
placed. The latter will thus receive the meconium, or
contents of the bowels, and can be removed and burned,
thus saving the trouble of washing.
Having proceeded thus far in the care of the child, it
becomes a matter of judgment regarding the next step.
If it continues vigorous, the process of dressing may be
continued. If, on the other hand, it shows symptoms of
weariness or exhaustion, it should be wrapped loosely in
flannels and allowed to sleep. This sleep will restore its
strength. If it be consigned to sleep, great care should be
given to the temperature, draughts and the coverings.
There must be sufficient of the last to insure a proper
degree of heat, but not enough to impede breathing and
the free action of the organs.
BATHS IN GENERAL. 2$
X
Baths in General.
What has hitherto been said regarding the bathing of
the child has been with reference to the first cleansing
subsequent to birth. The subject is an all-important one
to the mother in caring for her offspring throughout their
entire infancy and childhood periods. Cleanliness is a
prime factor of good health. The skin is extremely
delicate, sensitive, and easily injured. Moreover, from it
there is a constant exudation of waste matter in the form
of perspiration. This perspired fluid holds in solution
atoms of worn-out animal matter and saline substances.
There is, also, a discharge, through the pores of the
cuticle, of an oily substance, the purpose of which is to
keep the skin-surface soft and pliable, as well as to protect
it from injury. This oily secretion is more abundant on
some parts of the body than on others ; as, under the
arm-pits, etc. It may be readily detected in the form of
globules on the surface of the water after bathing. With
out the presence of this oily matter these parts of the
body which are contiguous to each other would, by friction,
become chafed.
In infancy this oily secretion rarely exceeds in quantity
what is absolutely necessary to keep the skin in proper
condition. It is Nature s plan of supplying a demand of
the animal nature of the child. In health it should not
give rise to any unpleasant odor, unless allowed to
accumulate to an abnormal extent. It must not be for
gotten, however, that these accretions are impurities, and,
26 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
if they be allowed to remain too long in contact with the
skin, they cause irritation ; and this, in turn, obstructs the
pores of the skin, and thus prevents further exhalation.
When this condition arises, it works more than a local
injury to the child. The exudation is necessary to health,
and Nature s established way is through the pores of the
skin. If this course be closed, the effort to cast off the
effete particles will still be made in other directions.
Tribute will be laid upon the bowels, the kidneys, the
lungs and other organs, to do the work which Nature
intended should be performed by the cuticle. The extra
labor thus imposed upon these organs will inure to their
injury. On the surface of the body, denied its natural
and necessary supply of recuperative agencies, an irrita
tion will be created, which, in turn, will give rise to
troublesome eruptions.
If the character of the matter exhaled from the skin
be considered, the manner of its ready removal is no
difficult task. The dress of the child should receive a first
consideration, as it has an important bearing in the case.
It should be as light in weight as is consistent with proper
warmth. The fabric should be of sufficiently open tex
ture to allow a free and unimpeded passage of the
invisible vapor which forms so large a part of the excre
tion. The saline residue can easily be removed by
frequent ablutions of tepid water. There is a diversity
of opinion regarding the extent to which soap may be
employed beneficially in bathing children. Some author
ities recommend its use at all times, while others take the
BATHS IN GENERAL. 2J
opposite extreme and deny its use at all on any parts of
the body except the hands and face. A middle course is
still better. The saline particles are readily soluble in
water alone ; so far as their removal is concerned, soap is
unnecessary. When, however, the accumulation of the
oily substance is such that its removal is desired, soap is
necessary. This form of secretion is insoluble in water,
but readily so in soap.
With many, and perhaps most infants, it is undesirable
that this oily substance be removed very frequently. It
is necessary to keep the skin in proper condition. Its
too frequent removal which always follows where soap
is used in bathing leaves the skin dry, with a tendency
to chafe and even to break out in fissures, from which
troublesome affections of the skin arise. This is true in
adults as well as in children. There are many persons
who are forced to use soap even on the face and hands
with great moderation, if the skin be preserved from
injury. A common evil result of a too-free use of soap
in bathing is seen in the tendency on the part of many
persons to take cold thereafter. The reason of this ten
dency is that the skin has been too thoroughly cleansed ;
it has been denuded of its oily protection and defense
against external agents. It seems, on the whole, that on
ordinary occasions the child s bath should be water alone.
Let soap be used only when necessary.
As to the mode of washing : Let the water be tepid,
as has been said. A tub of sufficient dimensions to allow
the immersion of the entire body of the infant is by far
28 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
the safest and most convenient method. The advantage
of this immersion is that the whole body of the child is
subjected to the same temperature, both during the time
of bathing and in the subsequent drying and redressing.
On the other hand, if the bathing be done by the applica
tion of water to the body by the hand or sponge, the
alternate exposure of the tender and delicate skin to
warm water and cold air will often be followed by serious
consequences. The immersion is, therefore, to be pre
ferred, both for its convenience and for the good of the
child. While the child remains in the water, every part
of its body should be carefully washed, so as to remove
all impurities. A sponge or soft napkin may be used.
When the cleansing is completed, the body should be
wiped dry with a soft cloth, gently, but as quickly as
possible, and the clothing replaced without delay. The
child should not be allowed to dally with the water, as is
too often done, nor to remain undressed a moment longer
than is necessary.
The best time to wash an infant is in the morning, as
soon as it is taken out of bed and before it has been put
to the breast. If, however, the child be delicate, or if
judgment or experience have shown that it should first
be nourished, the bath should be deferred at least for an
hour! This will give time for the digestion of the nourish
ment given. The bath should not come when the stomach
is employed in the process of digestion. Before putting
the child to sleep in the evening, and after it has been
nursed for the last time, a gentle bath should be given.
BATHS IN GENERAL. 29
Tepid water should be used, and the bath should not be
prolonged beyond a few minutes. Two important ends
will be gained by this evening ablution. The circulation
of the blood will be provoked toward the surface of the
body, which conduces to health and comfort, while a
soothing effect to the nervous system will be imparted
thus insuring, or at least tending to insure, a quiet and
refreshing sleep. To restless and irritable children, this
evening bath is of the utmost consequence, and for the
reasons named. It will be of benefit to the mother also
in permitting her to take needed rest and sleep, unbroken
and undisturbed by a wakeful or restless child. To secure
the full benefit of sleep, the mother should be able to dis
encumber her mind of any thoughts of her child. She
should be able to go to sleep with confidence that she will
not be awakened, and that no necessity will arise in which
she must soothe her child. Not many mothers are able
to do this. During the first year of their child s life, it
is never out of their mother s thoughts, sleeping or
waking. The result is, that she does not sleep soundly
nor refreshingly.
If the suggestion here made be heeded, and the rules
laid down be observed, the results will be beneficial in
almost every instance. Especially will it be so in the case
of scrofulous children, or those constitutionally delicate.
If, however, these rules be not observed, anything but
good may result. If, in the evening bath, the water used
be too warm, or if it be prolonged beyond the time indi
cated a few minutes only excessive sweating will be
3O MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
induced. This will be followed, in all probability, by a
cold. The opposition to baths on the part of some per
sons is based largely upon this tendency of the child to
take cold subsequently. It is the testimony of all careful
observers, that in the very large majority of such cases,
the cause is found, not in the bth itself, but in its injudi
cious application, and in the non-observance of the rules
which have been here suggested.
There are to be found physicians who recommend the
cold-water bath for children. This will not do, as a gen
eral rule. In the large majority of cases, the warm bath
is preferable. In the case of a child who has attained the
age of three or four months, and is fairly strong and
vigorous, the temperature of the morning bath may be
safely and sometimes profitably lowered. This must not
be done in any case unless it be found that the bath is
followed speedily by a reaction in the temperature of the
body. The cold water drives the blood from the surface.
A natural reaction will follow if the child be strong enough
in its vital organs to excite it. Such action and reaction
are beneficial. When the reaction does not immediately
follow, the cold bath must be abandoned at once.
In all cases of bathing it is important to remember
that, before redressing, a gentle glow should be excited
by friction. A soft, dry napkin or piece of flannel may
be used, and the rubbing process be continued until the
desired result is secured. This is both agreeable to the
i
feelings of the child, and beneficial to its health. When
the child is a few months old, and the weather is warm
CLOTHING OF INFANTS. 31
and dry, it will be no injury, but rather a benefit to the
child, if the dressing be deferred a little time. Allow it
to gambol freely about. If the child show signs of enjoy
ment, it may be set down that it is being benefited ; if,
however, the child take no pleasure in its romp, or show
an indisposition to avail itself of the privilege of unre
stricted ambling, it is evident that no benefit is accruing,
and the redressing should proceed as soon as possible.
On the general subject of cleanliness, it is necessary to
insist that care be given to the coverings of the child.
Every damp or soiled part of this covering should be
immediately removed, and the skin carefully washed of
every vestige of impurity arising from natural evacuations.
In early infancy these evacuations are frequent and invol
untary. If the nurse be attentive, she may very soon be
able to forestall them.
What has here been said of baths and bathing in the
case of the infant, will apply in a general way to every
period of childhood. It will generally be found advisable
to reduce the temperature of the bath with the increase of
the age of the child. When it reaches its second year,
this temperature may be so reduced that a feeling of
coldness is imparted to the skin when the bath is first
entered.
Clothing of Infants.
In adverting to the subject of dress, the purpose is not
to discuss it from the standpoint of fashion or elegance.
With these phases of the question, this work has nothing
32 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
to do. But, so far as the clothing of the child may affect
its health and comfort and no farther, does this subject
become one for thought.
In the dress of infants, three important particulars are
to be considered lightness, softness and warmth. Each
of these qualities must vary with season and climate. All
infantile garments should be constructed with due regard
to ease and facility in putting on and taking off. There
should be the aim, too, to give ample protection to all
parts of the body without in any way interfering with full
and free action. If the child s dress meet all these ends,
ihe mother s sense and wisdom cannot be questioned, even
though there may be errors in taste and style. She has
provided well for her little one, and its comfort and healthy
development will abundantly repay her.
Whatever may tend to compress the body or to restrain
the free use of arms and legs should be avoided. All such
restraint is deleterious to the present comfort of the child
and to the proper growth of these members. If the child
be born in the winter when the weather is severe, or if it
be born prematurely at any time of the year, soft flannel
is the best material for all parts of the dress which come
in contact with the skin. This fabric not only affords the
best protection, but acts as a gentle stimulus to the skin,
and thus tends to prevent congestion, inflammation and
troubli s of the bowels, to which all delicate children are
subjec;. It sometimes is the case, however, that flannel
garm^^its irritate the skin, or produce excessive perspira
tion. \n such cases cotton or linen material should be
CLOTHING OF INFANTS. 33
used, and the precaution should be taken to warm tfte
garments before dressing the child.
With regard to the outer clothes, no rules can be laid
down which would meet every case, or even be of much
value. The good sense and judgment of the mother will
be the best guide with regard to these. It is important to
remember that nothing must be allowed upon the child
which may interfere with the free exercise of its limbs.
Nor must there be any compression of the lungs or bowels,
if these organs are to develop properly and perform their
designed ends in contributing to the general health of the
child.
Comfort is to be an important consideration in con
structing the child s clothing. It must not be forgotten
that children may be uncomfortable in an atmosphere, hot
or cold, which the adult does not consider at all hot or
cold. This is caused partly by the fact that the generation
of animal heat is not so active in the infant as in the adult ;
consequently, its natural lack must be compensated by
covering. On the other hand, wrapping too closely or
confining to an over-heated or ill-ventilated room, is both
a discomfort and an injury to the child, and should be
avoided.
The common custom of dressing infants in long robes
is not objectionable, inasmuch as these have a tendency to
protect the body and the lower extremities from draughts
of cold air. If the weather be very cold, an additional
protection for the feet becomes necessary. Stockings and
shoes of soft wool are the best. Heavy covering for the
3
34 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
head is not required. The custom of providing infants
with warm caps has been, happily, almost entirely aban
doned. Unless the weather be very severe and the room
difficult to keep at even temperature, nothing at all is
required in-doors. If the child be taken out-doors, its head
should not be bundled up extravagantly. It will be better
for it if only sufficient covering be put on the head to insure
reasonable comfort.
Dr. Verdi, in his work, " Maternity," very aptly says :
" We all like to see children looking pretty, cunning and
attractive. The vanity of mothers does a great deal
toward the attainment of this end. Let us commence
from the period when a girl baby leaves off her long robes
for short skirts. The mother will take care that the baby s
chest is well covered ; the pretty limbs, however, will be
exposed, the little stockings short, and the drawers made
of cotton or linen, but thin. If the child goes out,
Nurse, put a sacque on the baby and do not let her go
out without her hat ; it is cool to-day, will be said.
Unless it is decided winter, no additional clothing is sug
gested for her limbs or abdomen." Such inequalities in
the dress of the different parts of the body lay the founda
tion for disease ; it should upbraid every mother who has
allowed her pride to blind her judgment to the proper
dress for her child. More than that, the child being help
less, the mother is morally guilty of a crime against her
offspring. Motherhood lays upon her a responsibility
which she cannot set aside. No considerations of a pres
ent tasteful or beautiful sight can excuse the responsible
SLEEPING. 35
cause of that child s after-pain and discomfort perhaps
untimely death.
Sleeping.
During the first months of the infant s life, the powers
of its system are wholly occupied in carrying on digestion
and growth ; consequently, its time is divided between
sleeping and feeding. It is seldom, if ever, awake. It may
and does occasionally open its eyes, but its consciousness
is not sufficiently active and distinct to warrant a use of
the term wakefulness, in any proper application of that
term. The point of concern during this period is not
when or how long it sleeps ; it is how it sleeps. The
physician is often asked by mothers : " Shall the baby
sleep in a cot of its own, or shall it sleep in its mother s
arms ? " There is but one reply to make : " By all means
in its own cot." Care must be taken to have this cot sup
plied with sufficient light covering to preserve a proper
degree of warmth, and it should always be artificially
heated before the babe is laid upon it. For the first
month, at least, the cot should be protected from any
strong light. This can be done either by darkening the
windows, or, if this be not desirable, by surrounding the
bed with curtains. If the latter method be used, the
curtains must be laid aside as soon as it is safe for the
child ; their presence interferes with the free circulation of
the air, and abundant and pure air is of paramount
importance to the child. Care must also be taken to
have the cot so placed that it shall not be in a direct cur-
36 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
rent of air. The system is more susceptible to cold while
sleeping than while awake.
Nutrition and sleep thus occupy the first months of the
infant ^ life. It awakes only to feed, and, having received
the desired nourishment, it falls asleep again. As the
organism develops, the desire for activity increases, and
that for sleep diminishes. The prudent nurse or mother
will act most wisely when she studies to follow the teach
ings and promptings of Nature. This will induce her to
endeavor to remove any chance impediments that may
come in the way of this natural order. Regularity in the
hours for sleeping and waking should be observed as far
as possible. In the animal economy there is a periodicity
which is adapted to that of physical phenomena, and which
tends to bring about a recurring state of the system at
regular intervals. This law should be observed with
regard to the nursing and sleeping of the growing child.
Unless such regularity be established and adhered to,
neither mother nor child will be permitted to enjoy the
undisturbed repose which is so essential to health. The
mother who encourages her child to start up at any time
of the day or night and demand the breast or who is
continually offering it whether the child be hungry or not,
simply to soothe its cries need not be surprised if con
tinual restlessness and discontent follow. This condition
once established as a fixed habit, the mother s peace and
comfort, as well as the child s health and general well-
being, will be sacrificed. She may be able for the
moment to quiet the child by this means, but it will be at
the expense of ultimate trouble and disappointment.
SLEEPING. 37
In every effort to train the child to regular hours for
eating, sleeping and other natural operations, it is
advisable that the natural time for these be considered.
The night is the time appointed of Nature for sleep. There
is a natural tendency to sleep at that time. Nothing
should be allowed to come in the way of the child in
yielding to this inclination. But to children under two
and three years of age, more sleep is demanded than that
afforded in the night. All children, with rare exceptions,
incline to sleep from one to three hours during the day.
Keeping in view the general principle already laid down,
the care of the mother should be to train the child to
regularity in this day sleeping. The middle of the day is
the better time for this sleep, and this should be the time
chosen for it. The mother will find some opposition on
the part of the child, owing to its natural restlessness and
activity; but, by judicious and systematic management,
she will soon find it ready to adapt itself to her wishes. If
the time for this sleeping be deferred until later in the
day, it is likely to produce wakefulness at some time
during the night. This midday rest, even if it be con
tinued with children until they are four or five years old,
will prove of great advantage. This is especially true of
nervous children.
Two things should always be excluded from the
nursery namely, light and noise. The presence of these
may not prevent the children from sleeping, and may
apparently work no injury. But they are injurious. They
tend to render the sleep troubled and unrefreshing by
38 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
rasping on the nervous sensibilities of the sleeper, and
may lead into that condition in which the child is suscep
tible to spasmodic and convulsive attacks from any
accidental irritation. Sleeplessness, more than anything
else short of actual sickness, is greatly distressing to the
anxious mother and annoying to the impatient nurse. A
healthy child, if properly treated and not unduly excittd,
will always be ready for sleep at the regularly appointed
time. When such a child is not, but is restless and excit
able, there is a cause. This cause should be inquired into
carefully, and, when found, it should be removed. In
many cases, the cause may be outward and manifest, in
which cases there are no difficulties in dealing with it.
When no cause can possibly be found which would lead
to the wakefulness, it is safe to infer that the child is not
well. Professional counsel should be taken and such
remedies employed as will restore the normal condition,
when in all probability the sleeplessness will disappear.
The practice of many mothers in administering lauda
num, paregoric, or c ome of the many patent " soothing
syrups," is most pernicious, and cannot be too severely
condemned. Several years ago a physician was visiting
at the home of an old friend. He there met a daughter
of his friend who was also the mother of an infant a few
months old. He observed that the child appeared deli
cate, fretful and nervous, crying the most of the time it
was awake. The mother, too, was careworn and haggard
from watching and anxiety. He said to her : " Your child
appears to be very troubleus, nervous, restless and ill-
SLEEPING. 39
disposed to sleep." The mother replied that" It was so
almost from its birth, and I believe it would never sleep if
I did not give it soothing syrup." " Have you been
giving it this syrup all this time ? " was asked. " Oh,
yes," replied the young mother, " I am now on the seventh
dozen of bottles." " Well," replied the physician, " I am
not at all surprised that that child is peevish, delicate and
sleepless. The only real thing to be surprised at is that
it is alive." He then took occasion to show the folly and
danger of the course she had been pursuing, and coun
seled her to stop giving the drug at once ; to give it better
nourishment and general care. The advice was followed,
and in less than a fortnight the child was sleeping naturally,
and the whole household relieved of the annoyance of its
restlessness as well as of constant anxiety on its account.
This mother was like many others. Instead of seeking
proper medical advice when her child first showed
symptoms of fretfulness, she yielded to the ideas of some
one more foolish than herself, and began a course of giv
ing temporary relief at the expense of Nature. There was
only one ending. The child would surely have died under
its treatment, or it would have grown up with a shattered
constitution, perhaps with health hopelessly ruined.
In infancy, as well as in adult age, health and healthful
repose are insured by having the sleeping robes and the
bed-clothing fully aired each day. As soon as the child
is taken from its bed, the bed-clothes should be exposed
to the air and allowed to remain so for several hours..
Greater importance attaches to this simple sanitary mea-
4O MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
sure than is generally thought. Clothing so aired arid
purified has a soothing effect which conduces to sounder
and more refreshing repose, and this will speedily show
itself in the improved health of the child.
Rocking on Exercise.
It has already been said that it is better for the child,
better for the mother, that the former should occupy its
own cot. It is proper to inquire a little concerning this
cot. Shall it be stationary, or shall it be supplied with
rockers, so that it can be moved to and fro ? Common
custom, followed from where memory runs not to the
contrary, decides for the rocking-bed. To what extent
the rocking should be used is a matter requiring some
judgment and discrimination.
In infancy, as well as in all other periods of life, exercise
is essential to health. An instinct prompts the child to
crave this exercise, and to give evidence of its craving at
a very early age. It requires a prudent caution on the
part of the mother that this exercise be properly regulated.
The delicate state of the child s organism must be kept
constantly in view, as well as the laws under which the
chief functions of this organism operate. If this be not
done, there is danger that the bones and muscles of the
little frame may be called upon to perform duties out of
all proportion to their strength. It is a fact, of not infre
quent observation, that the infant is subjected to such
dangling and rocking as to produce serious injury to its
organism, and to indirectlv cause much care and trouble
O *
to the mother or nurse.
ROCKING OR EXERCISE. 41
When, as is often the case, the crib is kept in continual
motion, jostling the child from side to side a motion
which to an adult is an exercise so unpleasant as to
frequently cause nausea it becomes a serious question
whether or not the cot should be without rockers alto
gether. It will be argued that the child itself decides for
the rocking, since it awakes or becomes restless and
peevish the moment the motion ceases. This may be
admitted, but the admission docs not settle the question
conclusively. In this, as in everything else pertaining to
the child-life, the swaying motion is likely the result of
education and habit. It is possible, and indeed quite
common, for the child to.be kept under a peculiar degree
of excitement until unrest and discontent may be the only
qualities developed in its nature. When in such a state,
its demands can never be satisfied. The more the con
cession that is made, the greater will be the demands.
The too-indulgent mother, in yielding to the whims and
caprices of her child, is contributing actively and passively
to the further development of the evil propensities.
Exercise is undoubtedly necessary to the well-being
of the child ; but this exercise must be judiciously admin
istered. The principal purpose always, in every period
of life and state of development, is the good of the child.
The mother is the teacher, not the pupil of her child ; its
master, not its willing slave. She should decide what is
best for it, and so train the child that it will accept what
is done for it. The first exercise of the little being should
consist in journeys about the nursery or in the open air,
42 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
if the temperature be at all moderate. In addition to
this, let there be a gentle friction with the hand over the
entire surface of the body and limbs. This, on trial, will
be found to be an operation quite agreeable to the child.
It is no less beneficent in promoting a free and equable
circulation.
Parents are sometimes fond of exciting their children
to muscular activity out of all proportion to the age and
strength of the tender frame. They sometimes do this
through a mistaken notion of the hygienic laws of natural
development ; sometimes for no reason whatever save
their own amusement. It tickles their pride to see their
children able to perform prodigies of muscular activity
impossible to other infants of similar age and size. They
consider it an evidence of the superiority of their child s
constitution. Whatever may be the reason, whether
ignorance, false knowledge or pride, it is exceedingly
foolish and culpable. Instead of laying the foundation
for a future of health and strength for the child, they are
undermining the very sources of its strength. They are
dwarfing its physical constitution and seriously, perhaps
fatally, ruining its health.
Very much active exercise is not favorable to the
proper development of the tender infant. Such passive
exercise as has been suggested is eminently favorable to
it. It is especially desirable that the child be given the
benefit of the invigoration of out-door exercise as far as
practicable. If it be born in the spring, summer or early
in the autumn, it need not be confined to the nursery
FEEDING OR NURSING INFANTS. 43
longer than a fortnight. It can be taken out, care being
used to accustom it to the out-door air gradually.
Fifteen or twenty minutes are sufficient time for the first
airing, and the time may be extended as it becomes more
inured to it. If the child be born in the winter, it should
not be allowed outside the equably-tempered nursery
until it is six weeks old, and then only in very favorable
weather. The child, like the adult, is seldom injured by
too much time spent in the open air ; the injury, when
injury is wrought, arises from improper exposure to the
air. The child is not essentially different from the adult.
On the contrary, it has the same nature and is amenable
to the same laws. Going suddenly from a warm, close
room into a raw atmosphere, is attended with serious risk
to health at any time of life. The best general direction
for the mother to observe is to remember that the child
is like herself, only very much more susceptible to atmos
pheric influences. She should care for its health as she
cares for her own, only much more minutely arid ten
derly.
Feeding or Nursing Infants.
It has already been said, that for some time after birth
the infant is occupied wholly in taking nourishment and in
sleeping. Its system is called upon to perform no other
demands than those concerned in nutrition, digestion and
excretion. As soon as those organs which are most
immediately essential to life are in active operation, the
imperative want is for a regular supply of the material by
44 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
which the nutrition and development of the body are sup
plied, and the constant waste of the system repaired. As
soon as the infant awakes from its first sleep, it gives evi
dence of the possession of an appetite and craving for
food. It instinctively appeals to the mother to satisfy this
craving. This is the case with all animals. As soon as
the machinery of life is fully started, a natural instinct
impels them to seek for that which will keep their machin
ery in motion. The new-born child conforms to the gen
eral rule.
It is, manifestly, the first duty of those in attendance
upon the child to see that this natural desire is met. As
soon as the mother has sufficiently recovered from the
exhaustion following the labors of birth, the child should
be put to the breast. The mother will, in all ordinary
cases, be able for this in an hour or two. At first the
secretion of the breast will be of a thin and watery con
sistency, limited in quantity, and bearing little apparent
resemblance to milk. In a few days, however, the quan
tity becomes more abundant and more rich and nourishing
in quality. All this is entirely natural. Nature knows
exactly what the infant demands, and has so arranged the
functional operations of the milk secretion of the mother
as to exactly meet this demand.
When the child is born, its bowels contain the dark
and slimy meconium. This has heretofore served a useful
purpose. But the retention of the meconium longer will
certainly prove hurtful. The natural operations of
external and independent existence must now begin, and
FEEDING OR NURSING INFANTS. 45
a necessary preparation for these is the expulsion of this
meconium. For this end, nothing is so good as the first
secretion of the mother s breast. No aperient can be sub
stituted for that which Nature has provided that so well or
so safely meets the case. The bowels are dormant, and
must be stimulated to action. But there is risk, if this be
done by other means than those which Nature has pro
vided for the purpose, that there may be undue irritation.
It rarely happens, when the infant is put to its mother s
breast at the first opportunity, as indicated above, that
the bowels are not thoroughly cleansed and in normal
activity in a day or two.
The custom of some nurses to commence dosing the
babe, almost as soon as it is dressed, with various kinds
of teas, is wholly unnatural and consequently pernicious.
It is unqualifiedly condemned by all reputable physicians.
It should never be followed except on the advice of the
physician. There arc cases where Nature must be aided ;
but no one should undertake to decide that such a case
exists until a competent physician shall have been con
sulted. The custom arose in ignorance of the purpose
and sufficiency of the natural means for meeting the end
desired. The necessity for the evacuation of the bowels
of the meconium was recognized, but that the mother s
milk was all-sufficient for this was not recognized.
Unquestionably there are cases where Nature must be
aided in this operation, but such aid should never be
undertaken unadvisedly.
The general rule is as stated. A constituent element
46 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
in the first milk of the mother is a laxative, gentle but
active, sufficiently mitigated to be adapted to the delicate
constitution and organism of the child. It may be said
that infants are not alike when born. True enough ; but
it is equally true that every woman is the mother of her
own child. It is a part of herself. It partakes of her
nature and characteristics. The same natural provisions
which enabled the mother to conceive and bear her child
also operate to bring about the proper harmony between
the mother s milk and the demands of the child. The
objection does not hold. If, then, Nature be unneces
sarily assisted in the first evacuation of the infant s bowels,
there is a double risk incurred. The intestines of the
child may be irritated by excessive purgation, and the
mother may suffer from the unrelieved distention of her
breasts. From the latter cause, there not infrequently
arises inflammation, painful and dangerous, and perhaps
an abscess still more painful and dangerous.
It is sometimes the case, owing to the mother s con
stitution or imperfect health, that the secretion of milk is
deferred so long that other nourishment must be given
the child. This delay is generally traceable directly to
previous inattention to the proper hygiene which the
mother s condition required. Of course this cannot be
remedied now. The child is born and must be attended
to without delay. It is advisable always to put the child
to the breast, even though the mother have nothing to
give it. Nature in the mother needs to be aided and
stimulated. It will be found, in the majority of instances,
FOOD OF INFANTS. 47
that the solicitation of the child at the breast will bring
about the desired results in a very short time. When
this fails, as it will in some cases, and the mother has
nothing whatever for her child, there is but one course to
follow : the child must be fed artificially. When this has
to be done, it is wise to remember that the best results
are secured when Nature is most closely imitated. That
is to say, the milk provided for the infant s sustenance
should resemble, as nearly as possible, that which would
have been supplied by the mother.
Food of Infants.
It is now generally agreed that, during the first six
months, at least, no kind of food is so congenial to the
infant, none so well adapted to the necessities of its
developing organism, as its mother s milk. Between
parent and child there is an intimate relationship of blood
and constitution, which, during health, adapts them to
each other with a harmony and completeness that can
scarcely exist between the infant and any other woman.
The mother, therefore, is peculiarly bound by every tie
of duty and affection to become the nurse of her child ;
nothing but ill-health and positive inability can excuse
her for imposing this duty upon another. It is common
in fashionable society to consign, for no good and suffi
cient reason, the infant to the breast of another. This is
a physical injury to mother and child alike. The best
medical authority, the strongest reasons, and the highest
instincts and feelings of humanity unite to urge upon the
48 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
mother the duty of caring for her own offspring, and
nourishing it with the sustenance which Nature supplies
through herself.
A feeble constitution or impaired health will some
times compel mothers to resign this duty to others, how
ever much they may desire to do it themselves. When,
therefore, from any cause it becomes necessary to
furnish sustenance to the child from other sources than its
mother, the best substitute possible should be secured.
The best undoubtedly is the breast of another woman
whose condition is similar to that of the mother. Such a
substitute is not always available. In rural communities
and sparsely-settled districts, it is rarely so. What
then ?
The most common resort is cow s mK ? . It is the
most readily obtainable and in many respects is excellent.
Ass s milk is still better, if it can be had. It is stronger in
saccharine constituents, and when used should be diluted
with water to about double its volume. If cow s milk be
used, a small quantity of sugar must be added to bring it
to the degree of sweetness possessed by human milk.
The ass s milk, even with the addition of fifty per cent, of
water, is much sweeter than that of the mother. A few
teaspoonfuls may be given at a time and at sufficient
intervals until the mother is able to nourish. A nursing
bottle should be used. It is the more convenient way,
and comes nearest to the natural method instinctively
adopted by the child.
Milk given in this way is decidedly preferable to any
FOOD OF INFANTS. 49
kind of gruel, tea, or any of the preparations commonly
known as " infant s food." At this tender period, the
digestive organs are not prepared for the reception of any
sort of vegetable food ; when it is given, it seldom fails
to irritate the stomach and bowels. Cow s milk, diluted
and sweetened properly, is nearly the same in composi
tion as that obtained from the breast of the mother. It
is, consequently, a very good substitute for it. An
ounce of milk thus prepared is a sufficient quantity to
give at one time, and the allowance should not be
repeated oftener than every two hours. An ounce of
milk well digested affords more real nourishment than
double that amount crowded into a stomach too feeble to
digest it.
How often should food be given? It is of first impor
tance to the mother that she guard against hurtful excess
in the matter of nourishment. There is greater likelihood
of giving too much milk and too frequently than of the
opposite extreme. The direct effect of too-lavish nursing
is that it introduces a quantity of milk into the stomach
beyono! its capacity. The stomach thus becomes distended
and the digestive powers are impaired. From this condi
tion griping and flatulence follow, very much to the
discomfort of the child. The common practice with inex
perienced mothers is to offer the breast whenever the
child may cry or show uneasiness. The breast is the
panacea for all infantile ills, no matter from what cause
they arise. It seems to be taken for granted that hunger
is the only possible sensation of the child, and nursing the
50 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
ever-present and ever-potent cure-all. Such indiscriminate
nursing is exceedingly unwise. From the earliest infancy
regular periods should be observed for nursing. To those
who have not followed such rule, it will be a surprise to
see how soon the child will accommodate itself to such
regularity. It will certainly require some little time,
trouble and patience to train the child to habit in this
regard. But the repose, both to child and mother, during
the intervals, will amply repay all outlay of time or trouble.
Such repose is eminently beneficial to both.
It is the greatest of mistakes to treat crying as an
infallible indication of hunger. On the contrary, this is
the only method known to the child of expressing discom
fort from any cause. The delicate organism of the child
receives unpleasant sensations from any positive manifes
tation of the external world. Heat, cold, pressure, hardness,
hunger, repletion, light, noise all affect it unpleasantly,
unaccustomed as it is to the world and its objects. When
so affected, it cries. It knows no other way of expressing
itself. If it be hungry, it cries ; if it be over-fed, it cries :
if it be pricked by a pin, it cries. So, also, if it lie too
long in one position, the pressure upon that part of the
body becomes annoying and it cries. If it be exposed to
heat or cold beyond what its delicate frame is accustomed
to, or if its clothes be too tight, it cries. From these and a
multitude of other causes it is inconvenienced, and for each
and all of them it expresses its discomfort by the same
token it cries. Ignorant nurses and inexperienced
mothers have but one sovereign remedy for crying. No
FOOD OF INFANTS. 51
intelligent inquiry is made as to the cause of the crying,
nor effort made to remove it. No, the child is at once put
to the breast or the bottle as the sovereign balm, the sole
remedial agent.
Most mothers labor under the conviction that when
ever a child cries, the first and most important thing is to
stop the crying. This is not the case. Crying is not
necessarily injurious to the child. On the contrary, it is
often a benefit. It is a provision made by Nature for indi
cating discomfort, and at the same time it serves as a vent
for the pent-up emotions. Adults often find relief in a
flood of tears from a burden of grief that has long oppressed
the heart. To some extent this is true of children, only
that in the case of the latter, the ills are always of a purely
physical origin. As they grow older, they are grieved
and hurt in their intellectual and emotional natures, and
still give expression and find relief in crying. In the case
of infants, it is only when crying is oft-repeated or long-
continued that it is really detrimental.
There are two kinds of crying, and the intelligent
mother will soon learn to discriminate between them
readily. It must be confessed, however, that some very
good mothers never learn to distinguish these always
confound them, or treat them as identical. The cry of
the infant, as has been said, is its signal of distress ; the
only means known to itself to ask for relief on such occa
sions, is easily distinguishable from the wail which betokens
real disease. There is a great difference in the tones of
the adult confined to his bed from some ill which affects
52 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
only one portion of the body, as a wound, a cut or a
broken limb, and in those which come from the same person
when a disease which affects his whole system confines
him there. There is the same difference in the cries of
the infant when pricked by a pin, oppressed with its cloth
ing, heat, cold or over-feeding, and when it is in the
grasp of some infantile disease which produces keen suffer
ing with attendant danger.
The infant requires to be fed during the night as well
as during the day, but not so frequently. At the first,
three times are amply sufficient for its good and that of
the mother. In a little time, twice or even once during
the entire night, will be enough. The habit of some
mothers of allowing the child to lie all night long on the
maternal arm, with mouth to the breast, is not only greatly
exhausting to the mother, , even though she have the
greatest robustness, but is detrimental to the highest good
of the child. If the mother be delicate and yet able to
nurse her child with ordinary care of her health, she
should be allowed undisturbed repose during the night.
The care of the child should be given to the nurse entirely.
By this means, the mother will be enabled to nurse during
the day, and both she and the child will be better for the
temporary separation. If, however, she attempt to nurse
when she may be physically unfitted for the drain on her
system, she will do the child no real good, and is liable to
permanently injure her own health. Nothing is more
essential to the well-being of a child than that its mother
should enjoy the most perfect health attainable. To secure
THE NURSERY. 53
and maintain this, the mother must deny herself the grati
fication, at times, of coming to the relief of her child.
This task must be relegated to another. No wise, pru
dent, thoughtful and far-seeing mother will allow herself
to become the slave of her child. It is her natural and
reasonable duty to be the teacher and master of her child.
She should set rules for its conduct, not govern her own
conduct by its whims and caprices. She should compel
it to obey her will rather than allow herself to follow its
dictation. It is not unnatural selfishness, but a wise and
prudent forethought which determines a mother to look
after her own comfort and well-being, as at least equal to
the claims of her child upon her.
The Nursery.
Investigation has been made, at some length, into the
peculiarities of the constitution of the new-born infant,
the proper management of this infant at its birth, the best
modes of caring for it in giving nourishment, and the
dangers to be avoided in this regard. It is now proper to
advert to the surroundings of the child during its earlier
years, and the influence which these surroundings have
on its healthful development. Experience has indicated
the circumstances and appliances which tend most to good
results. Some of these have a marked influence, not only
on the present comfort and health of the child, but con
dition to a large degree the status of its future.
With regard to certain of the external influences, such
as the locality in which the life is passed and the air
54 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
breathed, the action upon the infant constitution is so
decided and invariable that no difficulty is experienced in
laying down rules and regulations. Other surroundings,
such as food, clothing, exercise, vary so greatly in their
effects by reason of age, robustness, inherited constitution,
etc. , that no general and invariable rules can be formulated.
A great deal of discrimination must be exercised, and
many of the best suggestions in one case must be modified
when applied in another. Very often it will be of greatest
importance that the counsel of the medical attendant be
secured, in order to determine how such surroundings
may be regulated so as to secure the highest benefits. As
many of the conditions of infantile health are more or less
connected with the nursery, it will be convenient to treat
all of them under this topic.
A nursery, well-arranged, well-situated, and well-
managed is of far more importance to the health of the
infant than is generally conceded. The reason of this is
that the nursery combines within its range, various agents
which are constantly, though silently, affecting the con
stitution and exerting an influence for good or evil upon
the whole physical economy of the child. In the climate
of our country the infants of the middle and higher classes
of society must be kept within doors perhaps twenty of
the twenty-four hours of the day. When this is considered,
the importance of having the purest air attainable in the
room in which this time is spent, becomes evident. An
unsuitable situation or imperfect house-accommodation
often gives rise to local influences under which infantile
LIGHT AND AIR. 55
health succumbs. On the other hand, in favorable sur
roundings, delicate infants may, and often do, grow into
healthy adults. In the government of large cities, inquiry
is directed to the sanitary accommodations of the inhabi
tants, and certain rules are laid down, by the observance
of which the general health is greatly improved.
It may be objected, perhaps, that among the poorer
classes, and even among the less wealthy of the middle
ranks, necessity and not suitableness must determine the
choice of a home location and the appropriation of the
rooms of this home. Admitting this, it is still worthy of
consideration that the local conditions and domestic
arrangements most conducive to health be well under
stood. Even among the poorer classes there are few
who, once convinced of the existence of an evil, would not
be ready and able to do something toward relieving the
disadvantages under which labor their children and them
selves as well. At the worst, they may be able to choose
between a greater and a lesser evil. If they are obliged
to reside within a certain distance of their place of work
ing, they may still have it within their power to choose
between a bad and a worse locality, a better or a worse
house in which to dwell. Before such choice can be
made, the influence of surroundings upon their own and
their children s health must be understood.
Light and Air.
The first and most essential requisite in a nursery is a
constant and abundant supply of fresh air. To obtain
this, a house should be selected, if possible, in a dry and
56 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
rather elevated situation, sheltered from the violence of
the wind and sufficiently removed from all sources of con
tamination. A residence in the open, free country is
better, in this regard, than one in a city or village. The
close proximity of trees and dense shrubbery, of ponds,
undrained fields, or sluggish water-courses should be
carefully avoided. However ornamental such trees and
shrubbery may be, they are invariably prejudicial to
health. Narrow valleys and localities shut in by thick
groves, or overhung by high hills, should never be chosen
as the site of the home, nor the location of a village.
From overlooking the influence of stagnant, humid air,
families going to the country in pursuit of health often
sustain serious injury by settling in localities that a little
previous knowledge and forethought would have enabled
them to avoid.
A good exposure is an important consideration in the
location of a nursery. In a cold and uncertain climate
like that which is found in many parts of our country, a
southern aspect is very desirable. It is warmer and more
cheerful every way, and is more available for the reception
of the sunlight, which as a gentle and wholesome stimulus
to health and growth, is scarcely less important in animal
than in vegetable life.
A situation with a bright and cheery outlook is par
ticularly desirable. Such a prospect operates powerfully
on both the health and character of the child. It is one
of those intangible agencies which go on from day to day
working out a great change in the very nature of the child.
LIGHT AND AIR. 57
It is quite difficult to tell how this is done ; it is enough to
know that it is done. The budding nature of the infant
or child is very susceptible to the subtle influences of
natural objects. If these be bright and cheerful, the
nature will develop into a bright, cheerful, hopeful, opti
mistic caste which will shed its brightness and happiness
all along the course of life. A heavy, dead, dreary land
scape, constantly displayed before the plastic mind,
cannot fail to leave its impression.
There are many other things in the location of a home
which have an important bearing upon the health of the
children which may be reared in it. The salubrity is
conditioned, to a considerable degree, upon the character
of the soil and the sufficiency of the drainage. A dry and
gravelly soil is much more likely to possess these requisites
than any other sort. All these matters of minor detail
should not be overlooked, where the opportunity for
making choice exists, because they all may have an
important bearing on the future of the family. There are
many homes scattered all over this country from which
some children have been taken away in death. In many
of these cases, no doubt, the cause of the death of the little
ones existed in some sanitary imperfection in or about the
dwelling. Where a human life is the consideration,
nothing is too small or too insignificant for careful
attention.
In selecting rooms for the nursery, those having a
southern exposure are preferable, and this for the reason
already given, that sunshine is an important factor in
$8 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
giving and maintaining health. That the room should be
large, easily warmed and ventilated will be readily
admitted. Without such conditions, it will be next to
impossible to surround the infant with that pure and
invigorating air so indispensable to good, healthy life. In
one respect pure air is more essential to the formation of
good blood than proper food, and that is, that the influence
of the air upon the blood is constant ; it never ceases for
a single moment during life. By night and by day,
sleeping or waking, respiration goes on, and every breath
is fraught with benefit or injury, according as the air
inhaled may be pure or vitiated. It is no wonder that a
cause thus operating so unremittingly should, after a lapse
of time, produce a marked change in the condition of the
whole system. Of all the injurious influences by which
childhood is surrounded, none operates more profoundly
or with greater certainty than the breathing of vitiated air.
On the contrary, few things have such an immediate and
decided effect in restoring the health of a feeble child as a
change from an impure to a pure atmosphere. Bad food
and bad air are the natural parents of that greatest scourge
of the human family, scrofula. Either of them may cause
it, but when both are combined, as is often the case among
the poor, who are crowded into the narrow alleys and
cellars of our great cities, there will scrofula be found in
its worst form. Among certain of the lower animals, as
the sheep, a scrofulous condition can be produced at will
by simply confining the animal to an impoverishing diet
and in a place where it must constantly breath a contam-
9 TEMPERATURE. 59
inated air. The same is true must be true of human
beings.
Temperature.
After suitable food, pure air and abundant sunshine,
the next important provision for a good nursery is a reg
ular temperature. Its importance consists in the fact that,
like the air breathed, it is a constant agent. The atmos
phere of the room for the first few weeks should never be
allowed to fall below 65 Fahrenheit. For the first few
days it may safely and properly be raised to 70 . When
such a temperature is maintained, careful attention should
be given to the ventilatipn. Excessive heat without
proper regard to ventilation is not to be allowed at any
time. An open fire-place, where it can be had, possesses
a decided advantage over any other mode of heating, on
account of the ventilation thus secured. In some other
regards, it is not so desirable. By the constant rush of
fresh air to the fire, cold draughts from the doors and
windows are created. These air streams are many, and it
is next to impossible to prevent the infant from coming
in contact with some of them and from suffering incon
venience thereby. This danger may be averted to a con
siderable extent by so placing a large screen that it will
intercept these air-currents, and so distribute the continual
increase of fresh air that its effect will not be felt in any
one place so decidedly as to be injurious.
This fire-screen is all the more necessary when the
temperature of the external atmosphere is considerably
6O MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD*.
below that of the room, as in the winter season. At such
times every opening of the door will admit a rush of cold
air, not enough to inconvenience an adult in good health,
but quite enough to be dangerous to a delicate child. A
wire-screen should also inclose the fire-place as a protec
tion against accidents, when the child becomes old enough
to move about by itself. Its eyes should at all times be
guarded against the heat and glare of a bright fire. Seri
ous inflammation is often traceable to this cause. The
same precaution should be taken with children as with
infants in this particular.
An over-heated nursery should be avoided as much as
one that is too cold. When the temperature is habitually
too high there invariably follows a relaxation of the ner
vous system with an attendant excitability. This tends
to the development of irritative and convulsive complaints
for which children have a natural disposition, and which
so frequently lead to a fatal termination. An additional
risk incurred by keeping an abnormally high temperature
in the nursery is the effect of a sudden transition when the
child is taken out of the room. The frequency of inflamma
tory diseases among children arises mainly from causes
like those given. The natural tendency of the human
economy is to accommodate itself to its surroundings. If
a child be kept for the greater part of the time in a room
of high temperature, it logically follows that its own
powers of generating heat will be kept dormant. If it be
taken for the remainder of the time into a temperature
much lower, there will be a greater liability to suffer than
WEANING. 6 1
if it had been kept all the time in an atmosphere of much
lower temperature.
From what has been here said, it must be apparent to
all that there are few things of more importance to parents
than a thorough understanding and application of the
hygienic rules in the care of their children. The well-
being, and often the very life of their children depends
largely upon the intelligent application of these laws.
They are all founded in Nature and approved by reason and
common sense. But reason and common sense are not
adequate, in every case, to a ready interpretation of Nature
and her teachings. It is advisable always that those upon
whom the responsibility of other lives rests should care
fully study the recorded experiences of those who have
made intelligent study of the laws of health.
Weaning.
The weaning of the child, by which it is taken away
from its dependence upon its mother for sustenance, is an
important epoch. It is not, however, a matter of so much
concern nowadays as it was formerly.
The time of weaning ought to be determined chiefly
by two circumstances the condition of the mother,
especially her health, and the development of the child.
When the health of the mother continues robust and the
supply of milk is abundant, the weaning should take place
when the child is ten or twelve months old, provided it
evidences, by the development of its teeth, that such a
change is proper and safe. In delicate children, teething
62 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
is often delayed longer than this by several months.
When this is the case, the weaning time should always be
deferred until the child is better prepared for the change
in its life. There are occasional instances where the first
teeth do not appear for a year and even beyond that time,
and yet the child is not noticeably delicate. This is,
ordinarily, a family peculiarity.
The general condition and development of the child,
rather than the state of its teeth, should determine the
time for weaning. In weak, scrofulous children the teeth
are very often late in appearing. This may be taken as
an indication that the breast should still be the chief source
of nourishment, whatever the age may be. If, however,
the child do not appear to thrive as it should, its nourish
ment should be supplemented by some such diet as
chicken-broth, given once or twice a day. If it improve
under this regimen, it may be taken as an indication that
weaning may be begun ; also, that the better way will be
found in a gradual leading away from the dependence
upon the mother. The weaning process will be longer,
but it will be safer and better for the child. The reference
and suggestions here are to the exceptional cases, which,
however, are not infrequent.
If, before the expiration of the usual period of nursing,
the supply of milk be insufficient for the demands of the
child, and the health of the mother evidently suffer, it
becomes necessary, for the sake of both mother and child,
that the weaning shall be gradually begun even before
there is any indication of the teeth appearing. In a case
WEANING. 63
like this, the premature weaning is a necessity, and the
exception to the rule is insisted upon only on the ground
of necessity. Here, as everywhere, necessity knows no
law. It is a choice between two evils. To defer the
weaning is to invite greater danger than to precipitate it.
In this exceptional case, as in that noted above, the wean
ing should be a gradual process. A little nourishment
should be given, and its effects upon the child noted. If
there be no apparent deleterious results, the quantity
should be increased by degrees, and the times of such
feeding increased. It will thus be led away from its
dependence upon the mother, and, when finally separated
from her, the change will be so slight that its effects will
not be noticed. Almost equal disadvantages attend a
precipitated and a deferred weaning time. The develop
ment of the teeth and the general condition of the child*
should always determine the time, unless there be some
peculiar circumstances in the case, of which the physician
is the best judge. It is fortunate for the child if the
weaning can be done in pleasant weather. It can then be
kept much in the open air, and its nervous irritability, a
common accompaniment of weaning, will be greatly alle
viated thereby.
The one important rule in weaning is to accustom
the child, gradually, to the use of other nourishment than
that supplied by the mother. In former times the custom
was to bring this about shortly and suddenly. Injury to
both mother and child was not infrequently the sequel to
such heroic treatment. The rule now is as stated. And
64 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
experience has proved that in all ordinary cases, the end
reached by this gradual process is seldom attended with
any inconvenience worthy of consideration. As soon as
the front teeth appear, some light food should be given at
from one to three times a day. As the quantity given is
increased, there is a lessening of the desire for nursing.
As this method is continued, almost a distaste for the
mother s milk will be created in the increasing taste for
other nourishment. When this state is reached, the com
plete weaning is comparatively an easy matter, and
attended with little trouble to either child or mother.
The weaning ought never to be undertaken when the
child is ill. Not even when it is suffering from the nervous
irritation consequent on teething. The risk of convulsions
and intestinal disorders is greatly increased at such times.
If at all possible, let a time be chosen when the child is
in the best condition, and when the weather is favorable
for the out-door exercise, as stated before.
After the child has been weaned, its principal food
should still consist of liquid or semi-liquid substances.
Let it be of the same kind as has constituted its supple
mentary diet for some time. No considerable deviation
should be made in this regard until after the appearance
of the eye-teeth. As growth continues, changes in the
quality of the diet maybe gradually made. An important
matter to be guarded against is a too-plentiful or a
too-frequent supply of food immediately subsequent tcv
weaning.
SOURCES OF DANGER IN WEANING. 65
Sources of Danger in Weaning.
One of the chief sources of danger at the time of
weaning lies with the mother herself, or the nurse. It is
the tendency to consider every cry of the child as an indi
cation of hunger which it is her duty to immediately
satisfy. Good sense and prudent judgment are necessary
to restrain the mother from yielding to this impulsive
instinct. If she yield, she is likely to unwittingly increase
the natural irritability of the infantile constitution, until,
by too-frequent feeding, indigestion is established and
irritability propelled into disease. It certainly is trying
to a mother s affectionate emotions to see apparent suffer
ing in her child. It is a much more painful experience
when she discovers that she has been instrumental in con
verting a temporary evil into a serious menace to the life
of her child. It is entirely in the nature of things that
the child should be irritable, peevish and complaining for
a brief time subsequent to weaning. It is a great change
to it, and, like grown people, it rebels against change.
If it be rightly managed, this irritability will pass in a few
days, and the child be as it was before.
When there is a marked increase of the appetite
amounting to a craving soon after weaning, and when it
is attended by an appreciable fullness in the abdominal
region, attention should be immediately given. In gene
ral, this may be set down as a symptom of over-feeding, or
of too-rich food. This, of course, is improper, and should
be discontinued immediately. If persevered in the child s
66 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
health will suffer from intestinal irritation or inflamma
tion, from which there will result a glandular enlarge
ment. Following this, there will be diarrhea, or
looseness of the bowels. Large quantities of indigested
food will be seen in the excrement. The child will
become feverish, grow more and more restless until its
very life will be threatened. From this it will appear
that the utmost care must be exercised in the quantity
and quality of the diet allowed the child immediately
after weaning. Over-feeding and over-rich diet are the
two main sources of danger. It is rare indeed that evil
is found to have been wrought by the opposite course.
The child had better be kept a little hungry than that
its stomach be overloaded.
Wet Nurse.
The choice of a nurse should rarely be made without
the advice and sanction of a trustworthy physician. It is
his province and duty to inquire carefully into the con
dition of the nurse s health. There are good reasons for
believing that this most responsible duty is too frequently
performed in a very careless manner. In many instances,
the general appearance of the nurse is taken as a certain
index of her suitableness. A decision based upon such
deceitful data is not valuable. There may be constitu
tional defects in an apparently robust woman which
render her the very opposite of a good nurse.
There are certain requisites which afford strong pre
sumptive evidence of fitness ; these should always influence
WET NURSE. 67
the decision. Among these should be named sound health,
good constitution and freedom from any hereditary taint,
a moderate plumpness, clear complexion, bright, cheerful
ways, well-conditioned eye-lids, red lips, without cracks
or scurvy, sound, white teeth, well-formed and moder
ately large breasts, fair-sized nipples, free from sores or
fissures. With all these qualities, it is still necessary to
inquire into the condition of the physical functions in
order to be sure that a plentiful supply of nourishing milk
can be furnished. This may be done by examining the
condition of the nurse s own child, to see if it be plump
and healthy, or thin and delicate. The quality of the
milk can be directly tested by observing its color ; it should
be a bluish-white with a somewhat watery consistency. It
should have a sweetish taste, and there should be an
absence of unpleasant odor. If dropped into water, it
should have a light, cloudy appearance, and not sink to
the bottom in drops.
The best and most certain test, however, is that
afforded by the nurse s own child. If the child be found
healthy and cheerful, and clean and neatly kept, it is
quite a good proof of the suitableness of the nurse. If,
on the contrary, this child be found pale and sallow,
peevish and fretful, or untidy, the evidence of unfitness is
sufficient to warrant the rejection of the nurse.
Securing and installing a nurse, be she never so well
adapted for her duties, does not end the mother s respon
sibility. It will devolve upon the mother to still watch
over her child. She must see that its needs are attended
68 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
to with regularity and with a proper spirit. If she find
that the nurse is regular in giving the child its nourish
ment, that she keeps it clean, and is kind and patient at
all times, displaying no irritation and impatience when
her own comfort is disturbed by the claims of the child,
the mother can, to a large degree, dismiss her anxiety.
Dangers of Feeding Children.
Dangers of Feeding Children is so nearly allied to a
previous subject, " Food for Infants," that many of the
suggestions and admonitions contained in that chapter are
repeated in this to impress on the mind of the reader the
importance of these seemingly trivial duties.
Every child should, if at all possible, be brought up at
the breast. It is Nature s way, and it is the best way.
This cannot always be done. The mother sometimes dies,
or is physically disqualified for nursing, and no suitable
nurse can be procured. In such circumstances, there is
no resource save in artificial nursing. This means of rear
ing a child should never be resorted to except where it
cannot be avoided. It is never as good as the natural
way, while frequently it is attended with serious risks.
If the child possess a strong constitution and its general
health be good, it will, in all probability, thrive under
artificial nursing. But if it be delicate, the chances
against its survival are very great. Few children prema
turely born can be reared by artificial nursing. If, in
addition to a delicate constitution, the child suffer from
irritation of the stomach and bowels as is the case
DANGERS OF FEEDING CHILDREN. 69
almost invariably the difficulties and dangers are aug
mented. The nature of the climate and the season of
the year, too, greatly affect results in nursing children by
hand.
Under the most favorable conditions possible, the
artificial nursing of children is attended with grave risks.
The disadvantages are so great that nothing but the most
careful management, the most judicious and untiring
attention on the part of the nurse or mother, combined
with constant vigilance and the sacrifice of much time,
can overcome them. In favorable circumstances, how
ever, many children are reared in this way, and become
strong men and women. If it were possible to always
secure these favorable conditions, it would not be neces
sary to inveigh so strenuously against the artificial
method.
When a child is to be reared by artificial nursing, it
will be necessary to determine the kind of nourishment
best adapted to this end, and also the manner in which
this nourishment shall be administered. This subject has
already been treated somewhat in detail ; it will suffice
in this place to recall that the principal thing to be aimed
at is to discover a substitute for the milk of the mother
which most nearly resembles it in constituent elements.
When this is found, the best substitute is found. There is
a perfect adaptation of the mother s supply and the
infant s demand. If the milk of the mother be nearly
approximated in quality by something else, the demands
of the delicate digestive organs of the child will be most
70 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
nearly met. For these reasons the milk of the ass has
the preference of that of any other animal ; but as this
is seldom attainable, cow s milk, properly diluted, must
be taken. The amount of dilution and the addition of
sugar has already been adverted to.
This cow s milk should be given at nearly the same
temperature as that of the mother s milk ; that is, at
about a temperature of 97 or 98 Fahrenheit. In
general, little attention is paid to this particular by
nurses. It is of considerable importance, however. The
condition of the infant is such that a temperature of this
degree is best suited to it. A common thermometer,
procured at a trifling cost, will enable any one to deter
mine the temperature with sufficient precision. In pre
paring the milk, it is preferable to warm the water with
which it is to be diluted before pouring it into the milk.
This is much better than by reducing the milk to the
proper consistency, and then heating the whole com
pound. Both the water and the milk should be pure and
fresh, and on no account should any portion remaining
after feeding be set aside to be reheated for a future time.
There is no economy in such a course. On the contrary,
by it severe and troublesome cases of indigestion have
often been produced. After one or two experiments the
amount required for each nursing will be known, and
only this quantity will be prepared each time.
In giving the milk to the child, the method of Nature
should again be imitated. In nursing from the breast the
milk is extracted slowly and in small quantities. It is
DANGERS OF FEEDING CHILDREN. "Jl
important to remember this. The nursing-bottle is
admirably adapted to secure this end. It consists of a
glass bottle with a tube of prepared rubber passing
through the cork. One end connects with the milk in the
bottle, while on the other is fitted an artificial nipple. In
using this apparatus, the utmost cleanliness is indis
pensable. Neither bottle nor tube should be laid aside
after nursing without being thoroughly washed in warm
water. Each should then be laid in cold water until it is
needed again ; this precaution is necessary in order to
prevent any sour taste or disagreeable smell being created
through the fermentation of particles of milk adhering.
The points named above should be rigidly observed
namely, the most perfect cleanliness, the use of only pure
and fresh milk, and the rejection of any remaining
quantity. The importance of these suggestions is readily
admitted by any one who has observed the rapidity with
which milk becomes acidulated and gives rise to unpleasant
odor and taste
The intervals at which the child should be fed and the
quantity of food to be given at each time, are matters of
importance. Here, as always, it is best to go to Nature
for suggestion and information. In natural nursing, it has
been already observed that proper intervals should be
arranged at which the child should have access to its
mother s breast. These periods are equally necessary in
artificial nursing. The first sign given by the child of
indifference for the bottle may safely be taken as an indica
tion that it has had sufficient for that time, and the bottle
72 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD,
should be removed. As a general rule, from one to four
tablespoonfuls of milk for the first two or three weeks are
amply sufficient, increasing the quantity as the child grows
older and stronger. The intervals between the times of
feeding should follow the same rule as those laid down in
natural nursing, noticed in a previous chapter. Many
nurses, ignorantly assuming that liquid foods contain but
little substance, administer it too frequently and in quan
tities too large. The effect of this is to oppress the
stomach and excite vomiting.
If the child thrive and sleep well, the proportion of
water may be gradually diminished after the third or
fourth week. At the end of the fourth or fifth month, if
it continue well and hearty, the dilution may be discon
tinued entirely. Care should be taken to procure milk
from a sound, healthy cow, and from the same cow
continuously, if possible. Attention should also be given
to the feeding of this cow, noting that the food and water
upon which she subsists is of the best quality, clean and
pure. The quality of the milk yielded depends very
greatly upon the care and feeding she receives. More,
however, depends upon the quantity and regularity of
nursing the infant than upon the quality of the milk as it
comes from the cow s udder. Many of the stomach and
bowel troubles of the child which are laid to the quality
of the milk used have their real cause in excessive and
irregular feeding of proper food.
In infancy the natural tendency is to excitement in the
digestive organs. For this reason, milk and farinaceous
TEETHING. 73
substances are more suitable for food. Occasionally a
child is found so deficient in natural constitutional vigor as
to require some stimulus. In such a case, chicken tea. or
even beef tea may be given to advantage. Such tea
should be made very weak and given in very minute
quantities at a time. In changing the diet of the child for
whatever cause, it is always incumbent to give careful
scrutiny to effects. The first indication that the kind or
quantity is injuring the child should be sufficient to deter
mine a halt. Prevention is always better than cure. By
closely watching the effects of a change of any sort, the
mother can readily decide whether her child is being
benefited or injured by -it, and she should govern future
conduct accordingly.
Teething.
During the earlier months of infancy the child is
nourished from its mother s breast. The power of suction
is all that is required. The tongue, lips and cheeks fully
supply this requirement. In furtherance of this design, the
jaws are short, shallow and toothless ; the muscles by
which they are moved, feeble and of delicate structure.
In the course of a few months, as the child develops, and
a more consistent and nutritious food becomes necessary
for its support, a corresponding change takes place in the
organism. The bones of the face begin to expand ; the
jaws increase in length, depth and firmness ; the gums
become more elevated and harder on their surface ; the
cavity of the mouth enlarges ; the muscles that move the
74 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
jaw increase in size and power ; the child manifests an
increased tendency to carry to its mouth everything it can
lay hold on, a habit which aids the further development of
the bones and muscles that are concerned in mastication.
About the seventh month earlier or later in different
children there begins a more remarkable change, which
does not terminate until the end of the second year.
This is the teething period, the proper management of
which is essential to the welfare and safety of the child.
Teething is a process of Nature, and in a healthy child, if
correctly treated, should not be attended with especial
danger. But, if the child be delicate, or the management
injudicious, the period of teething is productive not only
of danger to the child, but also of no little care and
anxiety to the parents. Proper knowledge in regard to
this process is, therefore, important.
The adaptation of Nature to the varying requirements
of physical life in its successive stages is wonderfully
appropriate. From the infant at the breast teeth are
withheld, because these appendages would not only be
useless, but often an absolute incumbrance, interfering
with suckling. At a later period, however, when fluids
alone no longer fulfill the demands of the body, teeth are
provided for the mastication of solid food, whereby it may
be broken, mixed with the juices of the mouth, and more
easily swallowed and digested. Feebleness of constitution
or the effect of disease frequently retards the development
of the system and delays the appearance of the teeth ;
hence the period of weaning the child and changing its
TEETHING. 75
diet is not determined solely by its age. With the major
ity of children, the first symptoms of teething will appear
at the age of about seven months. From this time on
until the full set is cut the dangers and troubles of teething
exist.
The first stage of teething is indicated by heat and
irritation of the mouth and general constitutional disturb
ance. Saliva flows in unusual quantity from the mouth, and
the infant is restless, tears and smiles succeeding each
other at intervals. The face and eyes become red, appe
tite changeable, and thirst considerable. The sleep is
disturbed, and general uneasiness pervades the body.
The gums, which at first were unaltered, become swollen
and painful. The child bites at everything it can get
into its mouth, a proceeding which appears to mitigate
its suffering. The bowels at this time are generally
very loose, which, to a limited degree, is beneficial.
After a short time these symptoms subside, terminating
the first period of dentition.
The second stage soon follows. Instead of carrying
everything to its mouth the child fears to have anything
come near it, and will usually cry if it happen to bite
anything. The mouth and gums become hot ; a pale or
bright-red elevated spot appears upon the gum ; the
child changes color, is restless and desires to be laid down,
but immediately to be taken up again. Nothing pleases
it. It one moment [demands the breast, the next turns
from it ; it snatches at everything but keeps nothing in
short, it is manifestly very uneasy. When the teeth are
76 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
cut the symptoms subside. Many children, however,
especially those well constituted and judiciously managed,
pass through teething with little disturbance.
The incisors are more easily cut than the eye teeth,
the appearance of the latter being, notwithstanding their
pointed form, frequently accompanied with much more
disturbance.
Dentition, a natural process, should not be a source of
danger ; but slight causes are more apt to give rise to
disease during the period of teething than at other times.
If disease do occur, it is aggravated and rendered more
dangerous. Increased irritability is the real symptom of
the constitutional disturbance attendant on teething, and
the best method of carrying a child safely through this
perilous period is systematic management from its birth
onward.
The first and most important item necessary to free
children from many of the evils attending dentition is pure
air. It will do more to counteract and subdue that nervous
irritability characteristic of infancy than any other remedy.
If a child spend some hours daily in the open air, and then
occupy a large, well-ventilated room in-doors, and be not
overfed, it will usually suffer but little while teething. But
if it be taken out to exercise only at irregular intervals,
and be cooped up in a warm and ill-ventilated nursery, it
is placed in the situation most likely to render dentition a
process of difficulty and danger.
Although the infant, when properly protected, can
scarcely be too much in the open air in temperate or fine
TEETHING. 77
weather, yet the unusual susceptibility of the system at
this period of teething demands that it be not rashly
exposed to harsh or cold weather.
If, from an ill-directed desire to strengthen the child,
it be incautiously exposed to damp or cold, or to currents
of air, inflammatory diseases may be induced, endanger
ing life. The same result may ensue if the child be not
sufficiently clothed to keep up the natural warmth of the
body.
The tepid bath forms another important factor in the
management of the child during this period (as well as at
all others), from its power to allay nervous irritability.
Gentle and repeated friction over the surface of the body
has a decided sedative effect upon the nervous system.
A light, cooling diet should be strictly adhered to
during the acute stage of dentition ; and if teething take
place before weaning, the mother or nurse should also
adopt a mild and cooling diet, and avoid any anxiety or
fatigue, as these effect the health of the child. During the
active stage of dentition there is considerable tendency to
congestion of the brain, which becomes a source of much
danger from the frequency with which convulsions are
thereby induced. If there be manifest symptoms of this
trouble, which is so much dreaded by mothers, give the
child at once a bath and friction ; and if the gums be much
inflamed and swollen, they should be scarified to relieve
the congestion. If convulsions attack the child, it should
be placed at once in a warm bath, and ice or cold water
applied to its head. These symptoms of dentition are
78 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
really the same as chills in an adult, but attended with more
danger.
The first or milk teeth are twenty in number, including
eight front teeth or incisors, four canine or eye teeth, and
eight molars or grinding teeth. These beginning to
appear, as has been stated, about the seventh month, are
generally completed between the twentieth and thirtieth
months of life. When the child attains the age of seven or
eight years, these temporary teeth begin to fall out, and
are gradually followed by the permanent teeth. These
are thirty-two in number, the last four of which, because
they do not appear until after maturity, are called wisdom
teeth.
Each jaw contains sixteen of these thirty-two teeth.
They are divided into eight front or cutting teeth, four
eye or canine teeth, and twenty grinders.
Although the teeth be so long in making their appear
ance, their rudiments exist in the jaw long before birth.
It is not the purpose to enter upon any detailed account
of the various processes in the development of the teeth ;
suffice it to say, that at the time of birth the milk teeth
are not only well advanced, but in a few instances have
made ^their appearance beyond the gums. The teeth
appear with some degree of regularity, the middle two of
the lower jaw coming first, soon followed by those in the
upper jaw. In a period, longer or shorter, the lateral
incisors in both jaws emerge, so that the child has eight
teeth, four above and four below. After another interval,
when the child becomes fifteen or sixteen months old, the
A SPOILED PET.
PERIOD OF TEETHING. 79
front or anterior molar or canine teeth are cut. The
second or posterior molars, the last of the milk teeth, are
not usually seen until the child is between twenty and
thirty months old.
The first period of teething has two distinct stages. In
the first, the capsule swells and presses upon the adjacent
parts, while in the second stage the tooth rises, presses
upon, and passes through the gum. The second process
may or may not follow the first immediately. Active
symptoms of teething are often experienced without any
teeth making their appearance. Perhaps a few days later
the work may be resumed, or the teeth may appear with
out any noticeable disturbance of the child s health.
Period of Teething.
As the teething period is protracted over a period
ranging from twelve to twenty-four months, it necessarily
follows that the season of the year in which the acute
stages are passed should be carefully considered. It is a
proverb among house-wives that the second summer of
the child s life is the difficult point to pass. This has its
origin in the fact that a critical teething stage is likely to
come in the later summer months when the infant is sus
ceptible to certain diseases, serious enough at any time,
and increasedly so by reason of the complications of the
teething process.
Too much anxiety to amuse the child may become a
source of morbid irritation ; hence a quiet, soothing and
cheerful manner is by far the most suitable, and tends
8O MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
much to comfort the child. The unusual flow of saliva
from the mouth has a beneficial effect upon the brain, and
should not be stayed. The bowel trouble, also, unless it
become excessive, need not be interfered with. It is well
not to cut or scarify the gums, unless the teeth are so
nearly through that the gums will not close again over
them. If the gum heals up over the tooth, a scar is
formed which makes the gum more resistful than it would
otherwise have been.
Too-early feeding of solid food, or supplying the child
with hard substances to bite upon, renders dentition more
difficult, on account of the hardening effect upon the
gums, so that they are with more difficulty pierced by the
teeth.
Second Dentition.
The second dentition is seldom attended with constitu
tional disturbance, but the progress of the teeth should be
carefully watched, to see that they come in their proper
places, and in the right direction ; also that they are not
so crowded as to press injuriously on one another, thereby
endangering the permanent regularity. Not only the form
and expression of the mouth, but the beauty and preser
vation of the teeth themselves, depend greatly upon their
management at this period. The little care and expense
necessary at this time to insure regular, evenly-formed
teeth will be abundantly repaid in all the after years of
life.
IMPORTANCE OF THE TEETH. 8 1
Importance of the Teeth.
Few persons fully appreciate the importance of the teeth
in the economy of digestion ; hence, very few take proper
care of them. It is only when we grow old and find them
wanting, or when we suffer from their decay, that we are
reminded how remiss we were in their preservation. This
is more remarkable from the fact that Nature teaches us
their great importance by furnishing two distinct sets, so
that in the decay, pain and loss of the first we may be
forewarned for the preservation of the second.
The teeth in the lower jaw are brought in contact with
those in the upper by a powerful set of muscles, which
enable the operator to crush hard substances. These,
being saturated with the juices of the mouth, are thereby
more easily swallowed, and are better prepared for solu
tion in the stomach. It will be observed, then, that the
work done by the stomach will be facilitated in proportion
to the effectiveness of that previously done by the teeth.
It is doubtless true that when the stomach is healthy and
vigorous, and its juices abundant, it will for a while over
come any defects in mastication, which, therefore, entail
but little inconvenience. Hence, many persons grow more
and more reckless, and if reminded of the danger of their
folly, reply with confidence: " Nothing hurts my stomach."
" Be sure that your sins will find you out " is just as true
in reference to physical sins as to any other. The health
of the stomach is of the first importance in the construc
tion of animal economy. If good and healthy food be
82 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
taken in proper quantities and completely masticated into
a healthy stomach, and then supplied in its passage
through the stomach and duodenum with those juices
that Nature provides for digestion and assimilation, the
result must be the manufacture of good and healthy
blood, which will build up sound, healthy tissue, to
replace that which has become worn out. But if, on the
other hand, from want of teeth, food cannot be properly
ground, undue work is thrown upon the stomach, and that
grinding which should have been done by the teeth is left
to be accomplished by the more delicate " teeth " of the
stomach, thereby not only overtaxing it with work that
does not belong to it, but compelling it to perform a kind
to which its delicate constitution is not adapted. Indiges
tion is thereby induced ; food is permitted to ferment and
decay in the stomach ; the products of this fermentation
and decay are carried into the circulation to repair the
wasting body with what ? Not health, but disease. Is
it a wonder, then, that so much trouble and disease are
attributed to the stomach, when so much of health depends
upon the manner in which its work is performed ? Since
the teeth are essential in enabling the stomach to properly
perform its work, how important it is that their health and
preservation should be studied. While the teeth are
necessary in the preparation of food for the stomach,
and contribute beauty and symmetry to the mouth, they
also have much to do in articulation. Difficulty in speak
ing distinctly is experienced by every person who has
suffered their loss. There are certain sounds that can-
PRESERVING THE TEETH. 83
not be distinctly uttered without the aid of the teeth.
Artificial teeth only increase the difficulty of meeting this
requirement.
As soon as the second set of teeth is formed, the
child should be taught to care for them. It will be then
old enough to understand, to some degree, the impor
tance of this. A brush, not too stiff, should be given
each child, and its use after each meal insisted upon.
Let the habit of caring for the teeth be formed. The
child can be made to feel that it is as necessary to clean
the teeth as it is to eat, and that these two things are
inseparably associated. When the habit is once finally
established, it will not easily be broken up. A few
general directions on this point follow :
Preserving the Teeth.
To preserve the teeth, they should be regularly
cleaned after each meal. Every particle of food that has
found a lodgment in any of the interstices should be
carefully removed by some pliable substance, such as
quill or soft wood. A metallic instrument that may
damage the enamel, and thus produce disease and decay,
should not be used. When this has been carefully done,
the mouth should be thoroughly cleansed with brush
and water ; if need be, add to the water a little castile
soap. If this work be thoroughly done, much will be
accomplished, not only in preserving the teeth, but in
obviating what, above all things, is to be dreaded,
especially by the young " a bad breath." Many denti-
84 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
frices, some of which may be very good, have been
compounded and placed upon the vendors shelves,
accompanied by flattering recommendations. Doubtless
many are sold, not upon their real merit, but upon glow
ing advertisement, without any reference to the affinity
that certain constituents may have for the composition
of the teeth.
Sulphuric acid, diluted honey and charcoal make an
excellent compound for removing dark accumulations on
the teeth, rendering them clean and white ; but the acid
is very damaging to the enamel of the teeth. People
should be careful in buying nostrums for the teeth as well
as for the stomach. A very good as well as cheap denti
frice can be made by compounding charcoal and orris
root with a little gum myrrh. It will accomplish very
nicely the work of cleaning and whitening the teeth, and
keeps the gums healthy.
Diseases of Infancy.
The nervous sensibilities of the infant excite muscular
activity. It lives, moves and breathes. But continued
life is conditioned not on respiration alone, but on the
circulation of the blood. At the moment of birth, the
separation of the child from its mother, three changes
succeed instantaneously, viz. : The excitement of the
nervous system, the expansion of the lungs, and the
change in the circulation of the blood, which causes it to
return through the lungs (instead of going directly from
the right to the left side of the heart), thus making provis
ion for the diffusion of animal heat.
DISEASES OF INFANCY. 85
Food is the primary source of animal heat ; its devel
opment and diffusion being dependent upon digestion,
respiration and circulation. Therefore why feeble and
delicate children suffer and die, may be easily seen.
They are not able to digest much food or inhale much
air. This disproves the once prevalent opinion that
infants have great power of resisting cold ; many from
this false notion were permitted to perish for lack of
sufficient protection from cold, while the heat-manufact
uring functions were not fully established.
In another place was discussed the subject of food of
infants and its effect upon the animal economy, as well as
the proper kinds best adapted to its delicate nature for
the better sustenance of its system. From the evidence
there adduced, the conclusion was inevitable that the life
and health of the infant depend essentially on the kind of
management and the circumstances by which it is sur
rounded. Where both of these conditions are favorable,
the child enjoys the highest degree of health compatible
with its constitution. But if the management be bad and
the surroundings unfavorable, its life and health will be
correspondingly doubtful and feeble.
Upon this proposition depends whatever of advance
ment may have been made in diminishing infantile mor
tality. It gives renewed encouragement for further
progress, that disease and death may be more frequently
averted. Disease and premature death are the results,
not of chance or necessity, but of neglect of the condi
tions on which God has decreed that health and vigor
86 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
depend. These conditions have very appropriately been
styled the " Organic Laws." Any violation of these
laws, as excessive eating or drinking, will induce indiges
tion. Indigestion is the result of disobedience of the law
that the quality and quantity of food must be adopted to
the constitution, mode of life and power of the stomach.
In like manner, if the eye be exposed to the rays of
too-strong light for a length of time, or if it be used very
freely without a sufficient amount of light, inflammation
results. It matters little how appropriate or judicious the
treatment may be, if the cause be allowed to continue to
operate, no permanent benefit will be received. But, so
soon as the cause is removed, and we hearken to the law of
Nature, which teaches that the rays of light must be
adapted to the strength of the organ, the same treatment
will soon restore the inflamed eye. It would be equally
vain to attempt to cure indigestion by dosing with medi
cine, unless there be an adaptation of the food and mode
of life to the deranged state of the stomach and aliment
ary bowel.
Convulsions.
Convulsions are a frequent disease of infancy, and are
attended with more or less danger. The attack often
comes suddenly and without any premonitory symptoms,
except there may be slight twitchings of the muscles of
the hands and feet during sleep.
There are four principle causes of convulsions, viz. :
I. Breathing impure air for a length of time. This
TREATMENT. S/
deteriorates the blood, and thus inteneres with the healthy
and regular operations of the functions of the brain, thus
inducing interruption in the passage of nervous currents,
so as to produce irregular and involuntary muscular
contractions.
2. Overloading the stomach. This is another very
fruitful cause of this disease, and many of the cases of
convulsions of children are the result of the presence of
some offending substance either in the stomach or bowels.
This very frequently is the result of some manifest impro
priety, either in the quality or quantity of food, or of
unfavorable circumstances affecting the system during the
process of digestion, either in the stomach or bowels,
producing undue excitement of the nervous system.
3. This irritable condition of the nervous system is not
infrequently induced by the presence of worms, which act
as offending agents on the sensitive nervous organism.
4. The period of dentition is frequently attended with
convulsions from the irritability induced by the long
pressure of the teeth upon the dental nerves.
Treatment.
In the treatment of convulsions the first question to be
answered is, What is the exciting cause? If it be deteriora
tion of the blood from the effect of vitiated air, the infant
should be gradually exposed to out-door air, if the
weather be sufficiently moderate and pleasant to be at all
suited to its feeble condition. If not, the nursery should
be better supplied with a free circulation of pure air.
88 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
If the cause be the overloading of the stomach, thereby
producing reflex action upon the nerve-centers by pressure
upon the gastric nerves, an emetic of syrup of ipecacuanha
should be given.
If the child be teething, the condition of the gums
should be examined, and, if they be found much swollen
and inflamed, they should be freely divided with a sharp
instrument, so as to permit the offending tooth to escape,
thus relieving the pressure on the dental nerves. It is
surprising to find what instantaneous relief this will
frequently afford.
In all cases of convulsions, no matter what may be the
exciting cause, much relief will generally follow from
bathing of the child s extremities, and even well up on the
body, in water as hot as can be borne, at the same time
making cold applications to the head and face. Should
this treatment prove ineffectual in arresting the convul
sions, a physician had better be summoned, lest they
should be the result, not of irritation, but of organic
disease of the brain.
Indigestion of children differs from that of adults, in
that it is generally functional. It is a result of overfeeding
or feeding at improper times, and is frequently attended
with more or less nervous irritability. The infant is rest
less ; sleep is frequently interrupted ; the skin is hot and
dry; there is considerable thirst ; there is a disposition to
vomit, the stomach at times becoming very irritable. The
stomach and bowels may be considerably distended with
gas. The bowels are sometimes costive, but more gen-
SORE MOUTH. 89
erally loose. The excrements are fetid, and often contain
quantities of undigested food. Colic pains are felt in the
bowels.
To remedy this chain of symptoms the nervous irrita
bility may be soothed by a tepid bath, and by gentle
but continued friction, which will largely overcome the
heat and dryness of the skin.
The irritability of the stomach will be met by rube-
facients or wet-compresses, adding a teaspoonful of soda
to one pint of water. Teaspoonful doses of soda-water,
made by dissolving a quarter-teaspoonful of soda in a
half-teacupful of water may be given, repeating the dose
every five or ten minutes.
The nourishment should consist of fresh milk, with the
addition of one-fourth of its bulk of lime-water. Care
should be taken to administer small quantities at a time.
The child should have plenty of fresh air and frequent
baths until fully restored. The colic may be the result of
flatus in the bowels, or of irritation of the mucous mem
brane induced from the continued diarrhea, and will
disappear on the restoration of the bowels to a healthy
condition.
Sore Mouth.
Sore mouth is a frequent disease of infancy. It arises,
like most other diseases of early life, from either over
feeding or improper food. If the directions given in
" The Hygiene of Infancy" be closely adhered to, little
trouble will be exoerienced with these infantile diseases.
90 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
This disease is manifested by a number of small, irreg
ular, white specks on the lips, tongue, and inside of the
cheeks and angles of the mouth. The parts affected look
as though milk curds had been smeared upon them. The
mouth is hot and painful, and the child is afraid to nurse.
It cries as soon as the nipple is placed in its mouth.
There is usually fever and general disturbance of the
stomach and bowels, amounting sometimes to troublesome
diarrhea, from which some have supposed the inflamed
condition passes down the entire length of the alimentary
canal.
The disease is not usually serious, but passes off in the
course of a week or ten days. Fresh air, baths and atten
tion to alimentation, are important factors in both the
preventive and curative treatment of this disease. The
acid condition of the stomach will be best overcome by a
few grains of calcined magnesia mixed in a little milk.
The looseness of the bowels, will be stayed by the admin
istration of creta pr¶ta (prepared chalk) or small
doses of subnitrate of bismuth. If these prove insuffi
cient, the aromatic syrup of rhubarb, with the addition of
paregoric, will be found quite useful. Much benefit will
be derived by pulverizing together borate of soda and
granulated sugar in the proportion of one of the former to
three of the latter, and placing a small quantity on the
back part of the tongue. The sweet taste of the sugar
will conceal the borax, and it will gradually dissolve in
the child s mouth, producing very happy effects.
COSTIVENESS. 91
Costiveness.
Some children are habitually troubled with a lack of
free and full discharge regularly from the bowels. This
results either from errors in diet or proper exercise in the
open air. Nurses are forever dosing children with laxative
medicines. Instead of getting rid of the difficulty these
only increase it.
Nothing can be more deleterious, either to old or
young, than the habit of taking medicines to act upon the
bowels. Such treatment only irritates the lining mem
brane of the bowels by exciting it to discharge an excess
of liquid, to farther soften the contents. This increased
demand upon this watery material is followed by a corres
ponding lack of supply, leaving the bowels dry, causing
an aggravation of the costiveness.
The better course to pursue to remedy the evil is to
try a change in the diet and a more liberal supply of
water externally and internally. Water may be admin
istered freely in the morning, with an admixture of pure
brown sugar. Give the child more freedom in the open
air, and an additional amount of exercise.
Very satisfactory results are frequently obtained from
thorough manipulation of the abdominal muscles, pressing
the fingers gently but deeply down into the bowels, so as
to knead them perfectly. Accompanying this treatment,
small enemas of tepid water may be administered from
time to time, until the normal condition of the evacua
tions be established. If the infant be old enough, very
92 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
salutary effects will be produced by either " holding it
out" or setting it upon a stool at regular intervals. This
may be done while the babe is very young. It is surpris
ing how readily it will understand what is intended by
this procedure, and will assist the efforts of Nature, so
that a regular interval for the evacuation of the bowels
will be established and much trouble and labor for the
nurse avoided.
Worms.
There are two kinds of worms that come within the
scope of the present inquiry and demand attention. One
is the long, round worm of whitish color that generally
infests the smaller intestines. It sometimes, however,
ascends to the stomach and has occasionally been discov
ered crawling out of the mouth and nose. In general
there exist but from two to six, but occasionally large
numbers have been expelled at one time. They are
rarely met with in persons over fifteen years of age. The
pin, or thread worm, so called from its resemblance to
short bits of white thread, is never more than one inch in
length, moves very quietly, infests the lower part of the
bowels, and frequently creeps out of the fundament.
These worms produce an intense itching and irritation at
the lower part of the rectum just within the anus, and are
a fruitful cause of annoyance not only to children but
even to adults. They are frequently accompanied with
fever and much nervous irritation, sometimes ending in
convulsions or other serious disease that may destroy life.
WORMS. 93
Indigestion lies at the foundation of all the causes that are
assigned for the propagation of this as well as the other
variety of worms to which we have called attention.
Some of the more prominent constitutional symptoms
of worms are a gnawing, uneasy feeling about the stomach,
which may be removed or diminished by eating. The
appetite is deranged and variable often more than ordi
narily voracious. The belly is large and hard and more
or less painful. There is frequent picking and rubbing of
the nose, disturbed and restless sleep, with grinding of the
teeth, bowels costive or sometimes the reverse. The
countenance is at times pale and then flushed, the eyes
are sunken and dull, bordered underneath by a dark
stripe, the skin is dry and at times quite hot, the flesh
wasted and muscles soft and flabby. There is often great
irritation of the nervous system. The grinding of the
teeth, talking during sleep or waking up screaming, foul
breath, frequent pain in the bowels, variable appetite and
sickness of the stomach are strong symptoms of worms.
Treatment.
The country is flooded with worm nostrums, many of
them answering very well so far as the expulsion of the
worms is concerned. The general public being ignorant
of their composition, prudence would suggest that they
be administered with much caution, as they are liable to
contain very potent remedies.
Three or four grains of santonine (to which may be
added one g r ~ ..i of calomel) and twelve to fifteen grains
94 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
of white sugar, thoroughly triturated and divided into
three powders, administered on an empty stomach thrice
daily, and followed with a full dose of castor oil, to which
has been added a few drops of spirits turpentine, will be
found a very safe and effectual method of destroying these
troublesome creatures.
The old time-honored but poisonous spigelia inaril-
andica, better known as pinkroot, is a very proficient
remedy and may be safely used in the following com
pound: take of pinkroot, Alexandria senna, manna and
worm seed, of each half an ounce, bruise all, and add to
the powder one pint of boiling water. Let all stand to
steep for half an hour. Strain and sweeten with New
Orleans molasses, to which may be added a gill of milk.
A gill of this tea may be given to a child five or six
years old three times daily on an empty stomach.
Increase or diminish the dose according to the age of the
child. The quantity given should be sufficient to produce
a cathartic effect on the bowels.
A very satisfactory preventive treatment will be found
by dissolving one drachm of sulphate of iron (copperas)
/
in a gill of whisky, and administering a teaspoonful, more
or less according to the age of the child, in the morning,
on an empty stomach.
The pin or thread worm that infests the rectum may be
dislodged by injecting into the bowels a weak solution of
cold, soft water and salt, allowing it to be discharged
freely, thereby washing out the bowels and ejecting
the troublesome occupants. Practicing "-bis treatment for
a few consecutive days will generally remove the trouble,
DIPHTHERIA. 95
If a child that is suspected of having worms be dis
posed to gag, with repeated efforts at swallowing, suspi
cion should be aroused in that the worms are endeavoring
to ascend the throat. An emulsion of turpentine with
castor oil, or elm-bark mucilage should be administered to
cause them to return to the stomach, lest the irritation
thus induced should bring on convulsions.
Diphtheria.
Diptheria is an acute, specific, and by many regarded
contagious, disease, characterized by a spreading, asthenic
inflammation of the mucous membrane of the throat, and
the exudation of false membranes on the tonsils and adja
cent parts. It frequently occurs as an epidemic, and
generally is confined to the young. Attacks upon persons
of middle life or upward are rare. One attack of this
disease does not protect from the disease, but the same
child may have it repeatedly. Some individuals and
families have a greater predisposition to it than others.
There appears to be a period of incubation, lasting gener
ally from two to five days, when the characteristic symp
toms appear. The first thing observed is a feeling of
depression, muscular weakness, headache, furred tongue,
some nausea, painful deglutition, or swallowing, with fever
more or less marked. The tonsils become swollen and
dark colored and the glands about the angle of the lower
jaw get tender. The diphtheretic membrane first appears
on the tonsils in the form of white or gray spots. These
spots enlarge and form patches of considerable size, which
96 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
gradually extend forward to the soft palate, or into the
nostrils, or backward into the larynx and down the
windpipe.
This membrane increases in thickness as the disease
spreads, and although it is at first a white or grayish color-
it eventually becomes brown or almost black, and emits a
very offensive odor. If it be forcibly removed by an
instrument, the surface underneath is seen to be red, and
frequently bleeds, but in a short time is covered with a
similar membrane. The tonsil may slough, and when the
nostrils become involved and lined with the false mem
brane, they are swollen and the discharge is fetid and
offensive. Hemorrhages frequently occur. There is
usually, also, a low and dangerous form of fever, with
great depression of spirits and rapid failure of strength,
which is rapidly accelerated by inability to take nourish
ment. In favorable cases the disease usually lasts from
ten to fifteen days ; mild cases not so long. Termination
in death or recovery may usually be foretold in six to
eight days.
There are various forms of the disease. The one just
described is of the most malignant type and a large pro
portion of the cases end fatally. Frequently the general
local symptoms are mild, with little fever, some soreness
of the throat, and slight exudation upon the tonsils.
Such cases yield readily to mild remedies ; as a mild
purgative with a free use of a saturate solution of chlorate
of potassium. This is made by putting two or more
drachms of the chlorate into two or three ounces of ho*
SORE EYES. 97
water. Give the patient a teaspoonful every hour if it be
five to eight years old. The dose should be increased or
diminished according to age.
If the patient be feeble, some tincture of iron may be
added to the solution, the quantity depending upon the
age of the patient. Eating should be encouraged, and a
light, nutritious diet administered to keep up the strength.
Stimulants and tonics will generally be found useful.
Cleanliness will form an important factor in benefiting
such patients.
These means will meet the indications in the mild forms
of the disease. It would not be possible nor advisable in
a work of this sort to attempt giving advice in cases of
the malignant forms of this complaint. It is altogether
too serious to be trusted to unprofessional treatment.
Sore Eyes.
Sore eyes are so easily known that but little need be
said about the symptoms. The disease is an inflamma
tory one of several distinct varieties, the appropriateness
of the name depending upon the part of the eye that may
be the seat of the inflammation. The form of the com
plaint which is here introduced is an inflammation of the
eye, usually the result of a cold, and sometimes the result
of a lack of that precaution in washing the infant to which
attention was called in discussing the subject of baths,
thus permitting some irritating matter to enter the eye, or
exposing it to too strong light.
Whatever be the cause, the disease soon subsides by
98 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
protecting the eyes from the light, and carefully bathing
them in tepid water. If the case be severe, the eyes may
be poulticed with pulverized elm-bark, moistened with
warm milk and water.
A very efficient eye-water may be made out of a
decoction of jimson, to which may be added a half-
teaspoonful of salt and a half-ounce of tincture of opium to
each pint of the decoction. This will be found to be a
very valuable lotion for any sore eyes, either of children
or adults. A few drops may be let fall into the eye twice
daily. Nitrate of silver, one grain to an ounce of soft
water, will be found verv efficient in allaying the inflam
mation.
Earache.
Earache is another inflammatory affection. It is
caused mainly by exposure to strong, cold winds without
sufficient protection. It is one of the most painful dis
eases of childhood, and affects persons of all ages.
Being the result of cold, means should be adopted to
abort the cold. For this purpose the child should be
placed in a bath of high temperature, and remain until
there is free action from the skin, when it should be taken
out and thoroughly rubbed till a red glow is produced
over the surface. Warm applications should be made to
the external ear, and if this do not bring relief, warm
water as hot as can be borne should be poured into
the ear.
Should the inflammation continue, notwithstanding the
CHAFING. 99
faithful administration of these remedies, relief will most
certainly follow the application of equal parts of tinctures
of lobelia, blood-root and opium. After warming the
mixture to blood heat, fill the ear and apply some cotton
wool.
Chafing.
Children and fat persons are all very liable to suffer
from chafing or excoriation of the skin in certain parts,
especially in warm weather. In children the parts most
likely to chafe are inside the thighs, behind the ears and
around the neck.
This affection is frequently the result of want of suffi
cient and frequent baths, which have a salutary effect
upon the skin, not only in cleansing, but in keeping the
skin soft and healthy, obviating dryness and tendency to
disease.
Excessive excoriations that are persistent indicate an
enfeebled state of health and a tendency to strumous dis
ease, as well as a diseased condition of the skin. Such
cases will require general restorative treatment and a
thorough application of the principles of hygiene, accom
panied with good, nourishing food and plenty of fresh air.
The diseased parts should be washed with castile soap
and cold water, and anointed with vaseline, fresh butter
or cream. A solution composed often grains of sulphate
of zinc and a half-drachm of borax to four ounces of
water will also be found good as a wash once or twice a
day. An ointment may be used made of oxide of zinc,
IOO MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
one drachm, cosmoline one ounce ; mix thoroughly and
apply after washing with the soap and water.
Nose-Bleed.
Epistaxis, or bleeding from the nose, is most frequently
a disease of childhood or early life. It is rarely alarming
in youth unless it accompany some other disease ; then it
may be a grave symptom. It may result from mechanical
injury or congestion of the lining membrane of the nose ;
hence an unusual determination of blood to the head will
often bring on bleeding from the nose. Some children are
much more liable to this disease than others. Unless the
bleeding be profuse, it need not produce any alarm, and
usually stops in a few minutes if nothing be done. Should
it be necessary to interfere, the application of cold water to
the nape of the neck and back will often, through reflex
action, arrest the discharge. The child should be set
upright and directed to hold one hand above his head, and
with the other compress the nostril, which causes the
blood to coagulate and thus stay the bleeding.
A very simple remedy that frequently is attended with
good results is to roll up a piece of paper or muslin and
place it above the front teeth under the upper lip; by pres
sing hard upon this substance the passage of blood through
the vessels leading to the nose will be obstructed.
Youthful Urinary Troubles.
The functions of excretion being so necessary an
accompaniment of nutrition, we find the kidneys ready to
start into activity soon after birth. The discharges from
YOUTHFUL URINARY TROUBLES. IOI
these organs are at first involuntary on account of the
feeble condition of the sensitive organs ; the quantity is
small on account of the small capacity of the bladder. But
as the organs of sensation develop, the infant will be made
to realize, in his wakeful moments, the discharge of water
from the kidneys, and may soon be able to communicate
his knowledge to an observing nurse by the expression of
his countenance.
But it sometimes happens that the sphincter muscle of
the bladder will relax sufficiently to allow the escape of its
contents without exciting the nervous sensibilities of the
muscle sufficiently to make the child wake up out of a deep
sleep. Although this condition is always present with the
very young, yet there are not a few instances in which it
continues for several years, much to the annoyance of the
nurse and discomfort of the child.
A very satisfactory mode of treatment will be found in
the early education of the child to regular periodic evacua
tion of the bladder, insisting, as he grows older, that he
shall lengthen these periods by efforts to resist the admo
nition of Nature, thereby strengthening the sphincter
muscle by the increased exercise, and at the same time
enlarging the capacity of the bladder.
The child should always betaken out of bed, if possible,
to evacuate the bladder. The establishment of this habit
will do much to the accomplishment of the desired end. If
these means fail, a physician should be consulted, as the
remedies best calculated to accomplish the desired end are
too potent to risk in the hands of the inexperienced.
IO2 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
Most cases will, however, be found to yield as soon as
regular habits have been established, and will fully reward
the nurse for all the trouble necessary to do it.
Colds.
This country is noted for the inconstancy of its climate.
A variation of twenty degrees in half as many hours is
nothing at all uncommon in many sections, while a change
of fifty and even sixty degrees in the same period has been
marked. This rapid and wide variation of temperature is
most favorable to colds and catarrhal affections. These
complaints are quite common. They result from
obstructed excretions from the skin, and are too well
known to require extended description. Suffice it to say
that the general symptoms are the same everywhere a
stuffing up of the nasal and air passages, sneezing, weari
ness, chills, coughs, etc.
Few diseases demand more prompt measures of relief
than these. Few are more generally neglected. Most
mothers and nurses, noting that the child has contracted
a cold, attach little importance to the fact. They allow
the complaint to run its course, and scarce give a
moment s reflection to any. serious consequences which
may result. Yet, in the very nature of the case, there is
cause for alarm. Cold closes up the pores of the skin and
many of the natural avenues of escape for the effete and
poisonous materials of the system. If the natural powers
of the child are inadequate to expel these poisons through
the channels left unobstructed, they must be absorbed,
CROUP. IO3
and the absorption incurs great hazard. Herein lies the
necessity for prompt measures, to start the arrested
excretions and permit the ordinary functions to perform
their accustomed work.
Nothing will prove more effectual in accomplishing the
desired end than an early bath of sufficiently high tem
perature to produce a free action of the skin. This action
should be further stimulated by effective rubbing of the
surface with a dry napkin. It would be well to assist the
elimination of the poison through the skin by inducing a
free action from the bowels with some saline purgative.
See to it that copious sweating be induced and continued
for several hours, and that the child be thoroughly pro
tected by warm blankets for several hours after the sweat,
until the complete reaction of the system has been
established.
The nourishment should be light and easily digested.
No faith is to be put in the adage, " Feed a cold and
starve a colic." Excessive feeding will be found deleteri
ous in the proper management of all diseases. Pure fresh
air will be of incalculable benefit through the progress of
the treatment, as at other times.
Croup.
Croup is an acute inflammatory disease of the trachea,
or windpipe it maybe of the glottis, larynx and trachea.
It rarely occurs in a child under one year old or over
seven. Children are thought to be most liable during
their second year. It occurs most frequently in cold,
104 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
damp, changeable climates, and is one of the most dreaded
and fatal diseases with which children are afflicted.
There are two varieties of this disease, known as true
and false croup. The first comes on gradually ; hence, it
is less liable to cause alarm than false croup, which comes
on suddenly. True croup is accompanied with some fever
from the outset, resulting from the inflammation of the air
passage, and some hoarseness, which is aggravated at
night.
False croup is a spasmodic closure of the glottis, caus
ing shrill breathing. It is not accompanied with fever or
the exudation of false membrane. It is rare for true
croup to recur in the same individual, while false croup
may recur frequently. The duration of true croup is from
three to seven days ; that of false croup only a few hours.
True croup is very fatal ; at least fifty per cent, of all the
cases die. False croup rarely ends fatally, and those not
familiar with the disease are astonished to see how sud
denly it yields to appropriate remedies. True croup is
not so common an affection as is generally supposed. A
large majority of the cases of croup belong to the more
mild variety.
Hoarseness is one of the earliest symptoms of croup.
It should be borne in mind that a young child, unless he
be going to have croup, is rarely hoarse. If, therefore,
your child is languid, indisposed to take food, with symp
toms of catarrh, some cough and hoarseness, you should
be on the alert and carefully watch him so as to be ready
at any moment to subject him to the most vigorous
treatment.
CROUP. 105
This disease is so frequently fraught with serious con
sequence that it is always best that a physician be early
summoned. To meet emergencies which often occur,
the following course of treatment may be adopted :
A bath, in this disease, like all those inflammatory
diseases that are the result of a damp and changeable
atmosphere, will be found of great advantage if early
administered. Keep on hand a quantity of the syrup of
ipecac, wine of ipecac, or syrup of lobelia. Begin at the
earliest dawn of the disease to administer one of them in
full doses every five to ten minutes until free vomiting be
excited. The life of the child largely depends upon the
accomplishment of this end. Should vomiting be excited
with difficulty, increase the quantity boldly, assured that
less danger will result from an excess of the remedy than
from failure to accomplish the end sought.
After free vomiting, the stomach being well-evacuated,
smaller doses of the remedy may be given from time to
time, keeping up a free action of the skin. A large
sponge, taken out of water as hot as can be borne with
safety to the skin, should be applied to the throat and fre
quently renewed. It often times affords great relief and
ought not to be neglected. A saline purgative should be
given as soon after the vomiting as the stomach will retain
the medicine, unless the bowels are already loose. The
free use of the ipecac will have a tendency to affect the
bowels.
106 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
Whooping-Cough. (Pertussis.)
Whooping-cough is a disease partly inflammatory and
partly nervous, seated in the larynx and bronchus, or
windpipe, uniting spasms of the bronchial muscles and
inflammation of the bronchial mucous membrane. Whoop
ing-cough is an (infectious) contagious disease. It is
characterized by slight fever, bronchitis and a convulsive
cough, followed by several slight expiratory efforts ; then
a long, shrill inspiration and expectoration of glairy
mucous.
The history of the disease dates back only to the six
teenth century, soon after the appearance of the eruptive
fever. It was most probably imported from the East.
It is associated with measles, and appeared about the
same time. No combination of natural causes can pro
duce it. It is most frequent in temperate climates, and
is most fatal when cold winters follow hot summers. It
may occur at any age, but is met most frequently among
children, on account of its epidemic and contagious
character. One attack protects from another. The
mortality from this disease and its complications is very
great, and more especially among males. It is most fatal
among the poor. Infants under six months are less
liable to the disease than older children, as they are less
exposed to all contagions, but the disease may commence
before the child is born. The epidemics frequently
spread over large districts. The contagion may be car
ried in the clothing of the sick.
WHOOPING-COUGH. IO/
This disease has three stages: (i) Catarrhal ; (2)
Convulsive ; (3) Decline. Incubation lasts from two to
eight days. Invasion sometimes occurs without any
known cause or previous evidence of the disease. There
seems to be a peculiar connection between whooping-
cough and measles ; the former frequently follows the
latter. The usual course of the disease commences with
the catarrh and cold in the head. Tears or water flow
freely from the eyes, and there is slight fever, less than
that which accompanies ordinary catarrh. There is
cough, which may last a fortnight, and is indicative to
a practiced ear. This cough becomes paroxysmal, occur
ring regularly, and filially convulsively. The little
patient feels the cough coming on, and leaves its play
to run to a chair or some other object for support. Then
comes a short, dry, jerking cough, becoming louder, and
a number of short expirations, which expel the air from
the lungs, arresting the circulation of the lungs, causing
congestion of the face and eyes. The veins are promi
nent and the nostrils dilate. Then comes a long, shrill
inspiration, which may be repeated, then a sound of
gagging and a free discharge of glairy mucous. The
violence of the cough sometimes causes evacuation of
the stomach, bowels and bladder, or a hemorrhage from
the nose or stomach, or dark rings about the eyes.
The paroxysms, which usually occur during the night,
last from one-half to two minutes, returning at regular
intervals, perhaps hourly. They may be brought on by
overeating, by taking food, or by cold. All spasmodic
IO8 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
attacks, except hysterical ones, are apt to occur at night.
If the paroxysms are not too severe, the child will return
to its play, or it may become exhausted and gradually
grow weaker.
There is no sound heard in the lung during the cough
and none during the respiration following it, on account
of the bronchial obstructions preventing the air from
reaching the cells. The heart palpitates and the pulse
becomes very frequent during and immediately after the
paroxysms. During the decline the paroxysms and all
the other symptoms become gradually less severe, and
then finally end in catarrh.
In ordinary cases there are no bad effects except loss
of flesh from vomiting, and loss of sleep from coughing.
Death from suffocation or exhaustion sometimes occurs in
very young and feeble persons, or after measles. The
great danger in this disease is in what may follow as a
consequence.
Duration.
The disease usually lasts from two to four months.
Some cases, however, may last from seven to nine months.
In ordinary short cases the catarrhal stage may last two
weeks, the convulsions six or seven, and the decline from
one to three. The disease has its shortest course in mild
climates and seasons. Recoveries are most frequent in
spring and summer. If children contract it in the fall, it
will not likely entirely leave them until spring.
COMPLICATIONS. TOQ
Complications.
These are simply respiratory, circulatory and nervous.
Bronchitis, capillary bronchitis, croup and pneumonia, are
diseases of the respiratory organs resulting from whooping-
cough. Decease is apt to occur from exhaustion and
suffocation.
Capillary bronchitis may run into pneumonia. If
pneumonia be circumscribed, sudden death rarely occurs.
The disease is then more prolonged and sometimes lasts
for months. About two-thirds of those attacked with
pneumonia or capillary bronchitis die.
Nervous complications are the result of cerebral con
gestion. Nervous symptoms may appear early in young
infants, or may not come on until later in the disease.
The child becomes stupid, drowsy, and has convulsions.
Symptoms may appear very insidiously with headache,
increased difficulty of breathing, and sickness at the
stomach. When vomiting occurs at other times than
after a paroxysm of coughing, it is caused by irritation of
the brain. Diarrhea is a complication. In severe cases
it may indicate serious brain-trouble.
Treatment.
In the first stages treat the catarrh and husband the
strength warm atmosphere day and night, warm cloth
ing* good ventilation, exercise, and regularity of the
bowels. In the first stages, before the absolute character
of the disease is developed, give syrup of ipecac in half-
teaspoonful doses every half hour, until vomiting ensues.
IIO MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
Give that at night. During the day a simple soothing
sprup is to be administered, such as the following : Pare
goric, one drachm ; syrup of ipecac, half a drachm ; syrup
of squills, one drachm ; syrup of gum-arabic, four
drachms ; water, twelve drachms ; mix, and give a tea-
spoonful every three hours to a child one year old. In
mild cases the above treatment will answer quite well, but
the doses should be increased in quantity during the
second stage.
There is no means of preventing the disease. Guard
from the disease infants and those just weaned, also those
just recovering from measles, or other eruptive diseases,
and those having lung disease. If the season be good
and the child healthy, it would be proper to permit or,
even more, encourage contagion . The most useful
remedies are belladonna, bromides, quinine, and asafcetida.
The great remedy is belladonna. It may be necessary to
push it, and, on account of its potency, it should be
administered with caution. In simple cases one dose
daily will be sufficient, and may be administered in the
following formula : Fluid extract of belladonna, twelve
drops ; sulphate of morphine, one grain ; syrup of squills,
one ounce ; water sufficient to make two ounces ; mix.
Dose: From half to a teaspoonful at night to a child from
three to six years old. In the case of infants, begin by
giving four or five drops, and increase until the effect is
gained. In older children, begin with ten or fifteen drops.
When given at night, the depressing effects are not felt.
In bad cases, half a dose may be given after breakfast.
TREATMENT. Ill
One or two doses may be given through the day. Iw
very bad cases the bromides should also be administered:
Bromide of ammonia, one drachm ; bromide of soda, one-
half ounce ; water, three ounces. Make a solution, and
give half a teaspoonful to a child from three to six years
old more or less according to the age.
Dr. Meigs recommends alum in the following formula:
Pulverized alum, half a drachm ; white sugar, one drachm ;
mix thoroughly and divide into fifteen powders, and give
one dissolved in water every three to five hours. If the
expectoration become scanty, give the following : Syrup
of ipecac, one drachm ; syrup of squills, two drachms ;
syrup of wild cherry and acacia, each four drachms ; water,
five drachms; mix. Dose: a teaspoonful as t often as
necessary to restore the expectoration.
To move the bowels, mix together equal parts of castor
oil and New Orleans molasses, and give from one to two
teaspoonfuls, according to the age of the child. Quinine
is the best tonic, and arrests the reflex irritability of the
nerves. It should be given in large doses. It may be
made into a soft pill and given in jelly. If children can
not take quinine by mouth, it may be given in injections.
Asafoetida is a remedy of much importance in whooping-
cough, and children take it very readily. Give a child of
six years a teaspoonful of the asafcetida mixture two or
three times a day. Asafcetida may be administered by
the rectum in small children with very satisfactory results.
It is given at the close of the second stage, and the begin
ning of the third. The elixir of quinia, strychnia, and iron
112 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
are good, or the tincture of the chloride of iron. Any of
these may be given when a tonic is required.
Vaccination.
For many centuries past medical men had practiced
inoculation with the virus of small-pox, believing that when
the disease was so induced, it was less virulent in its
effects upon the sufferer than when acquired in the usual
way of exposure. In 1718 Lady Mary Wortley Montague,
while visiting at Constantinople, became a convert to this
modified method of propagating the disease of small-pox,
and, upon her return to England, demonstrated her belief
in its sufficiency by permitting her son to be inoculated.
By this .means inoculation was introduced into Great
Britain, and then spread over the continent of Europe and
proved to be of much benefit in modifying the severity of
this much-dreaded disease. But it remained for a distin
guished physician by the name of Jenner to discover, by
various and prolonged experiments, and to introduce
vaccination, that masterpiece of medical induction.
Vaccination is a process by which a specific disease
termed " cow-pox " is introduced into the human organ
ism, with a view to protecting it against an attack of a
disorder of much greater severity small-pox. The
method of vaccination, and its proper effects upon the
human subject, are mainly the object of the present
inquiry.
Children should only be vaccinated when in apparent
good health, except in circumstances in which they have
VACCINATION. 113
been exposed to small-pox. Children suffering from
diarrhea, skin diseases, and chafing behind the ears, in
the groins, or in the folds of the neck, should not be
vaccinated, except in extreme circumstances. Inasmuch
as more than one-fourth of the deaths resulting from
small-pox occur in children under one year of age, it is
important that vaccination should be performed when the
child is quite young, provided its health will permit.
Dr. Seaton, in his comprehensive work on this subject,
recommends that plump, health}- children, living in large
towns, should be vaccinated when a month or six weeks
old, but that in more delicate children the vaccination
should be deferred until they are two or three months
old, but all excepting those whose state of health centra-
indicate, should be vaccinated at the age of three months.
It is always best to vaccinate early enough to avoid the
period of dentition.
The lymph to be used in vaccination should always be
taken either directly from the co\v, or from a healthy
child. The initial factor in this discovery was obtained
by observing that dairy maids contracted a disorder from
the cow which rendered them unsusceptible to an attack
of small-pox. Taking hold of this idea, and following it
by various experiments, Jenner arrived at the conclusion
(i) that cow-pox, communicated to man, has the power
to render him unsusceptible of small-pox; (2) that the
specific cow-pox alone (and not other eruptions effecting
the cow, and which might be confounded with it) had this
protective power ; (3) that the cow-pox might be com-
114 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
municated at will from the cow to man by the hand of the
surgeon, whenever the requisite opportunity existed, and
(4) that the cow-pox, once engrafted on the human sub
ject, might be continued from individual to individual by
successive transmissions, conferring on each the same
immunity from small-pox as was enjoyed by the one who
was first infected direct from the cow.
The present method of obtaining the virus with which
to vaccinate is to inoculate a healthy cow with small-pox,
and induce the disorder of cow-pox. The lymph from
the vesicles of cow-pox should be inserted into the organ
ism of a healthy child, and the lymph-crusts produced by
this means may be used to ingraft the disorder in other
individuals. The vesicles may be characteristic of the
disease, and fully formed, which is six or eight days
after the vaccination ; if the crust be not taken until the
bright inflamed ring around the vesicle is complete, its
protective power against the disease is very much less
ened. Prime lymph is more or less sticky. If it be thin
and watery, it should be rejected. The best vaccine
material is taken from babies still upon the breast, with
dark complexion and smooth skin, and who are free from
all evidences of strumous affections. The most efficient
method of vaccination is that of passing the lymph directly
from the arm of one child to that of another, as it fre
quently happens that the virtue of the lymph is lost in the
attempt to preserve it. A good vesicle, freely punctured,
will exude sufficient vaccine material for the direct vacci
nation of half a dozen children.
VACCINATION. I I 5
The ability to vaccinate requires but little skill, yet
some general directions may be necessary in order to
insure success. The lymph should be inserted under the
cuticle in the true skin, so as to be brought in contact with
the absorbent vessels, and thus carried into the circulation.
Care should be taken to not induce much bleeding, lest
the lymph be washed away by the blood. Various instru
ments have been invented with which to perform the
operation, but almost any kind of sharp instrument may
be made to subserve the purpose, provided it be clean.
The position usually selected is upon the outside of the
arm, below the shoulder. The importance of the uniform
location upon the individual for the introduction of the
lymph is manifest. It renders easy subsequent examina
tion to ascertain if the individual has been vaccinated, or
if he have the characteristic mark left by the vesicle.
In performing the operation, the skin should be held
upon a stretch. With a sharp, clean lancet, well charged
with lymph, held at an angle of 45 degrees, make several
punctures from above downward. The pocket thus formed
will retain the lymph. These punctures may be half an
inch from each other. If the lymph be preserved on
" points," as is sometimes the case, the " points " should
be exposed to a current of steam until the lymph is dis
solved, and then introduced into the punctures or pockets
made by the lancet. Others make a number of parallel
scratches, and across these make a like number of parallel
scratches, and then apply the lymph with the flat side of
the lancet, rubbing thoroughly into the skin. Many
Il6 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
persons make these scratches quite successfully with a
sharp needle.
At the end of the third or fourth day, if the operation
has been successfully performed, the skin at the spot
becomes slightly elevated, hard and red. On the
fifth or sixth, a vesicle of bluish-white color arises, which
presents an elevated edge with a cup in the center. It
fills up with clear lymph, and is matured about the eighth
day. It is surrounded by an inflamed ring or areola.
On the ninth, tenth or eleventh day the vesicle becomes a
pustule, the cup disappearing, and the areola enlarges
until it becomes a circle two or three inches in diameter.
In the following two or three days the pustule dries up,
and, in the course of a few days, or a week at most, it
falls off. There remains a cicatrix, or scar, which is
usually permanent, circular, somewhat depressed, and
covered with small dots or pits. In the case of young
children these marks may disappear late in life.
Accompanying the development of a pustule there is
more or less constitutional disturbance, indicated by rest
lessness, headache, increase of temperature, and derange
ment of the stomach and bowels, and occasionally some
swelling under the armpits. These symptoms are at times
quite severe, and are seldom entirely wanting. Cases are
sometimes met in which these symptoms are more or less
modified, either by being retarded or accelerated, irregular
or spurious, and it should not be forgotten that any
vaccination deviating from the perfect character of the
vesicle and the regular development of the areola, is not
LEARNING TO WALK. I I/
to be relied upon as protecting against small-pox. As a
general rule, neither the local nor constitutional symptoms
require any tieatmen t, but will run their course and
subside.
All persons vaccinated in childhood should be vac
cinated at puberty. The second vaccination should be
performed with the same care as the first, and should not
be neglected until some epidemic of small-pox exists. In
epidemics of small-pox everybody should be vaccinated
to insure safety. Vaccination in early life is not always
immunity from small-pox in advanced life, neither does
small-pox itself always protect from a second attack.
Learning to Walk.
When the infant is a few months old, depending upon
its general vigor, it may be placed upon the floor, on a
soft mat or carpet. It will be free to toss its limbs about
and develop the muscles which are soon to be brought
into requisition. Its naturally restless disposition will be
dissatisfied with one position and one location, hence it
will soon be found upon its stomach, reaching out its
hands, like a boy learning to swim, drawing up its legs
and stretching them out again, and in a very short time
will have learned to crawl.
This will exercise every muscle of the body without
fatigue. It throws no weight upon the bones of the legs,
but only imparts vigor and strength, and is highly useful.
Having made this progress, its restless nature is still
unsatisfied, and laying hold of some object, say a chair, it
Il8 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
will endeavor by this aid to lift itself upon its feet. It is
not easily disheartened. Though it fall again and again,
it will persevere until by this means it learns to raise itself
upon its feet and stand, but not without holding to the
chair.
It will now soon be found lifting its feet alternately and
replacing them upon the floor. Next it will shove the
chair from it, keeping hold with its hands, and draw itself
up to an erect position. After a few experiments of this
kind, it may let go of the chair to examine some object
that may have been put in its way, and then will laugh at
its ability to stand. This adventure it will repeat, day
after day, with increased exultation, until, after frequent
trials, it becomes more confident of its ability to balance
itself, and lets go of its support entirely and stands
alone.
Time only is required to accomplish this natural
process, by which the bones and muscles are strengthened
and made able to bear the weight of the body as soon as
the child has gained sufficient courage to warrant it to
trust itself. It is not merely a lack of strength that
prevents a very young child from walking. The curved
slope of the legs causes the soles of the feet to face each
other, and they cannot adapt themselves to a horizontal
surface. Some time is required to change the position of
the feet, so they maybe fitted for support and locomotion.
The first efforts of a child in learning to walk should be
carefully watched, so as to protect from injury, but not to
afford any especial assistance.
THE CHILD.
General Causes of Diseases Resulting From Errors in
Diet.
HAVING, in the remarks on food of infancy and early
childhood, given such advice and warnings as may be
necessary to a proper understanding of the healthful needs
of the system in early life, a few further suggestions on the
use and abuse of food in more mature life are proper.
Food has two great offices to perform first, to main
tain the heat of the system, second to supply waste, and,
in the young, to provide for growth. Without the first
the temperature would fall below the standard of health ;
without the second, the consumption of the body would be
effected.
Much has been said by physiologists about the absolute
amount of waste that goes on in the body every twenty-
four hours, hence the large quantity of nutritious material
necessary to keep up the supply. But, since all of the
nutriment does not pass in through the mouth, it is impos
sible to make an exact calculation. The skin not only
secretes fluids, but is a powerful absorbant. This may be
demonstrated by taking the weight of the body before a
meal and one hour after. The increase in weight will be
greater than the amount received by the mouth. This is
119
I2O MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
an additional reason for having said so much on the sub
ject of baths, that the skin may be free to discharge its
proper functions.
It will be impossible to lay down any infallible rule as
to the amount of nutritious material that should be daily
taken into the system, as so much depends on exercise,
labor, atmospheric conditions, evaporation, etc. Nature
has made some provision for slight excesses by the excre
tions and the storehouse of deposits. The old adage is
" Bread is the staff of life ;" but the Bible says " Man shall
not live by bread alone. " If you give this a natural sig
nification, it implies that something else is needed for the
food of man. What is that something ? Milk, fat and
fluids, as water. In these we have all that is required.
There is starch for the body-food ; albumen for tissue-
repair in the glutine ; there are the earthy salts, and the
fat, which is partly consumed in body-fluid and partly
employed in building healthy tissue. Let us take a
mouthful of bread and butter and trace its history through
the system, thus learning to admire the wonderful opera
tion of Nature in the constructive metamorphosis of the
human economy. On being placed in the mouth for
mastication, it excites a set of glands that pour out a fluid
called saliva, which on being brought into contact with
the starch granules, and the conversion of insoluble
starch into soluble sugar is begun. When the food is
swallowed a new action is set up. The soluble parts of
the food pass through the gastric vessels into the portal
vein, leaving the undissolved portions behind. The acid
GENERAL CAUSES OF DISEASES. 12 1
gastric juice acts upon this residue, and by dissolving it
liberates the remaining starch granules that had escaped
the action of the saliva. When this pulpy mass passes out
of the stomach, through the pyloric valve, into the duo
denum, or, as it is sometimes called, the second stomach,
it meets some additional fluids called pancreatic juice and
bile, when the most active part of digestion is set up.
The liberated starch granules come in contact with the
diastase of the pancreatic secretions, and are by it con
verted into soluble grape sugar the fat into emulsion.
In this condition, by the action of numerous absorbing
vessels, it is carried through the portal vessels and mixed
with the blood and thus supplies the waste produced from
the " wear and tear" of the system. This is the disposi
tion Nature makes of bread, to supply the carbo-hydrates
(starch and sugar) albuminoids, fat and earthy salts.
No matter what art or skill may be called into ex
ercise in the preparation of food to satisfy the vitiated
appetite, these are the essential elements of the food of
man, and everything he eats necessary for his sustenance
must undergo this chemical analysis before it can be
utilized by his organism. The carbo-hydrates form the
body-fuel. The overplus is stored as fat. The albumi
noids repair the wasted tissue. The salts form the blood-
salts. The fat helps to build up the normal health- tissues.
The excess is burned as fuel. This is the legitimate object
of food.
The cook, however, goes forth into the great store
house of Nature, gathers alike from the animal and
122 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
vegetable kingdom, exercises in the preparation of food
all the skill of his art, and in it all accomplishes nothing
more than the savage. Hunger compels the individual to
take food to fill the stomach. The palate guides him in
his choice. If the food be simple, there is little or no
temptation to over-indulgence. But, through the ingen
uity and advice of the culinary art, his judgment is
dethroned and appetite yields to temptation, just as it did
at the dawn of our race, when it was declared that " the
tree was good for food. "
Man must eat to live, but not live to eat. The object
of food is simply the support of the body, and not the
gratification of the appetite. Having said this much on
the subject of food and the form it assumes in order to be
assimilated, that the continual waste going on in the
system may be repaired, some further remarks on some of
the more common kinds of food and best methods of
preparation are deemed necessary, that the end sought
may be better attained.
Following the index of Nature, meat should not enter
into the dietary of children until after the development of
the canine teeth. Especially is this true, if the meat be
not thoroughly cooked. Various methods of preparing
meats for the table have been introduced by the culinary
art. One of the most ordinary is by boiling. Two ends
must be kept in view in boiling meat. If the liquor in
which the meat is boiled be intended to be used as soup,
by adding simply some savory condiment or vegetable,
the meat should be put into cold water and all brought to
GENERAL CAUSES OF DISEASES. 123
the boil, sufficient water only being used to cover the
meat, keeping up the waste caused by evaporation by the
addition of water from time to time, as may be necessary.
This liquid may be served either with or without
vegetables, and may prove to be both palatable and
nutritious.
It will be observed that the meat has lost whatever the
soup has gained by this process. If the meat be the first
consideration, then the water must be boiling when the
meat is put in it. When it is thus introduced into boiling
water, the albumen of the flesh is immediately coagulated
on the surface to a certain depth inward, thus forming a
skin or shell, which no longer permits the juice of the
meat to flow out, nor the water to penetrate into the mass.
The flesh continues juicy and as well-flavored as it can
possibly become. Merits so prepared will be found much
more palatable than if placed in cold water.
Another very common and perhaps the most ancient
method of cooking meat is by roasting. The savage
could put a piece of meat on his stick and expose it to
the fire, turning as \vas necessary until cooked. Civiliza
tion invented " spits," and dogs were utilized as " turn
spits " to keep the meat turning before the fire, but
basting is also necessary to keep the meat from burning.
It requires more time to roast than to boil meat. Fresh
meat is better suited for roasting and salt meat for boiling.
Similar directions should be observed in roasting as in
boiling meat. It should at first be subjected to a strong
heat, that the albumen on the surface be speedily coagu-
124 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
lated and the escape of the juices speedily arrested. The
basting should be assiduously attended to. Meat should
be roasted either in front of an open fire or what is called
a " reflector " in a range. Some cooks place the meat in
a close oven, and bake rather than roast it. Meat treated
in this way loses less weight than by any other method,
but what is gained in weight is lost in flavor. Broiling is
a very savory method of treating meat, and when properly
done renders the food quite palatable. Frying flesh,
except it be bacon or ham, is an abuse of the culinary art.
It is, however, a very admirable way of treating fish. In
whatever way meat is prepared for the family it should be
cooked. The practice of eating raw meat belongs to
barbarous tribes. In cooking meat there is no change in
its life-giving principle, but the muscular fibers are loosened
by the action of heat, while the coagulation of the
albumen renders the fibers more brittle. Consequently,
cooked meat is more easily masticated than raw. Further
disintegration is facilitated, and disintegration precedes
solution, and solution precedes absorption, and absorption
precedes assimilation.
Bread, which enters more largely into the food of man,
being styled " the staff of life," was first made from
bruised grain, and contained all the elements of that
cereal. But cooks, long before chemistry was able to
point out their error, became dissatisfied with the color
and quality of the food thus made, and influenced the
manufacturers of flour to devise some means to remove
the external coat and thereby improve the color of the
GENERAL CAUSES OF DISEASES. 125
flour. By so doing they unfortunately get rid of the
salts, to please the eye at the expense of the well-being of
those who were to be fed from bread deficient in very
important elements.
An erroneous taste dies hard, hence every attempt to
turn to the use of " all-wheat flour " has met with little
success. Those only who have become invalids by the
free use of those improvements of art, and can no longer
indulge in such refinement, can be induced to return to
" the good old way. "
Flour, as at present made, is much inferior for life-
supporting purposes to that in earlier times. It is not
only deprived of its blood-food in the loss of the bran,
but also its nerve-food in the loss of the germ. In order
that flour be properly utilized, it is necessary to convert it
into bread. How is this accomplished ? Mixed with
water, a little salt and yeast, flour made into dough was
placed under the influence of moderate heat, and on
becoming spongy or light is made into loaves and baked.
This baking process converts some of the insoluble starch
into soluble dextrine. The higher the temperature, the
longer the time the bread is exposed while baking, the
greater will be the quantity of dextrine formed, and the
more easily will the mass be digested and assimilated.
For the same reason the crust of bread is the most healthy
for children and persons of weak digestion. Newly-made
bread is poisonous to most dyspeptics. From its moist
nature it readily goes into a pulp in the mouth, while
stale bread is dryer and of firmer consistency and does not
126 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
easily lose its spongy nature. This every cook has
observed in attempting to make bread dressings. Hot
rolls are toothsome, but not easily digested. When flour
has been mixed with fat, as lard or butter, as is done in
making pastry, the starch and fat are so intimately mixed
and incorporated that the saliva cannot get at the starch-
granules because they are enveloped in fat. Conse
quently, there remains the insoluble starch and fat to
produce the stomach-ache.
Corn bread is now directed to be made by mixing up
a thick batter, placed in earthen molds and baked
quickly, less than half an hour. Then it is usually eaten
quickly ; but little time is given the saliva to act upon
the starch. Is it a surprise that the outraged stomach
soon rebels ? Imposed upon by such large quantities of
unchanged starch, how long can it be expected to endure
such abuse ?
It should be remembered that the albumen of corn is
not gluten, hence will not alone make good bread,
especially when it is only exposed to the heat for such a
short time. It would be found much more digestible if
combined with wheat flour. The old method of preparing
" Johnny-cake " made much more easily-digested bread.
The meal was mixed into a thick mass with water, spread
thinly on a board, and placed before an open fire until
well browned, then turned over, exposing the other side
in the same way to the fire, until the whole cake was
thoroughly browned. This long exposure to the intense
heat set free much of the insoluble starch. Besides, the
GENERAL CAUSES OF DISEASES. I2/
bread, being quite hard and dry, required much longer
time for mastication, mixing it more thoroughly with the
juices of the mouth, and relieving the stomach of much
labor.
It is not the purpose of this inquiry to go over in
review all the cakes and puddings that have been intro
duced into the dietary of this civilization. Suffice it to
say that these are largely unfit to be placed in the stomach
of either children or adults. Doctors and vendors of
patent nostrums for the cure of the ills these toothsome
dishes daily manufacture are furnished with plenty of
business.
Starches of various "kinds are used in milk for pud
dings, and make an admirable dish for children and
dyspeptics. Starch manufactured from corn is found in
many kitchens. There is the starch of sago, rice, tapioca,
etc. The application of heat to these articles of food
before adding the milk would greatly facilitate the con
version of starch.
Dr. Fothergill gives a formula for making the most
perfectly-digestible milk pudding : Add some ground malt
to baked starch ; then pour over some warm milk ; stir the
whole together and set in a warm place before putting in
the oven.
The potato lies midway between starch and vegetable.
It is very rich in starch, so that boiled potatoes mashed
are frequently mixed with flour in preparing bread. In
none of the vegetables is there a greater necessity for
cooking than the potato. It is transformed from a hard,
128 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD,
indigestible mass to a ball of flour. Much has been said
o
about the different methods of cooking potatoes. Some
bake, some boil, some steam, some pour off the first
water, others pour off the water when the boiling is com
pleted, and leave the potatoes a little time in the pan to
evaporate the remaining water ; some mash the potatoes
and add cream and butter. There is but little difference
in these methods, and the cook is safe in adopting that one
by which is produced the greatest disintegration of the
naturally hard, indigestible mass.
Vegetables should occupy a much larger place in the
diet of families than they do. Many of them, as the roots,
abound in starch and sugar, while others, as cabbage,
cauliflower, spinach, lettuce, celery, etc., are rich in alka
line salts and alkaline earths. The old-fashioned " boiled
dinner " united in cooking the meat and vegetables ; that
which is lacking in the meat should be supplied by the
salts of the others.
Vegetables, to be palatable, should be ripe and fresh.
They are succulent and lose water rapidly ; dryness renders
them unfit for food. They should be fit to cook in boiling
water, great care being taken to cook until done and no
longer. They are very unpalatable if raw, and if left too
long over the fire they lose all their flavor.
Many vegetables are eaten uncooked in the form of
salads ; others alone. Many of the salads are quite indi
gestible. A great variety of dressings have been intro-
, duced for salads. A rule is found in the Spanish proverb,
" To make a perfect salad there should be a miser for oil,
GENERAL CAUSES OF DISEASES. 129
a spendthrift for vinegar, a wise man for salt, and a mad
cap to stir and mix all together. "
Fruits form another factor in the food of man. They
are certainly wholesome if eaten in limited quantities and
at proper times. Either unripe or over-ripe fruit is unfit
for the human stomach, and should be rejected. Fruits
should be eaten generally at meals, and but little danger
should be feared of eating too much. Many of the small
fruits that are used as desserts are very palatable, and thus
eaten are not objectionable. Persons differ widely in their
choice of fruits. Cotton s mother said : " Doubtless God
could make a better fruit than a strawberry, but doubtless
He has not." Others, however, might prefer the rasp
berry, blackberry, grape or orange. Fruit contains sugar,
acid, and alkaline salts. The influence of the alkalies is
shown in a decisive manner in the effects produced on the
salts of our organic acid in the circulation. It has long
been observed that after eating juicy fruits, cherries,
strawberries, apples, etc., the urine becomes alkaline.
The utility of such foods in persons disposed to gout and
rheumatism is apparent, and persons thus afflicted should
use fruits freely and teach their children to follow their
example, thus saving doctors potions in after-life. This
makes plain the theory of curing rheumatism by eating
lemons.
The normal functions of the stomach are not only
affected by the quality of the food eaten, but by the
quantity, the nature and the amount of exercise taken,
the length of time intervening between meals, the general
I3O MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD. ,
/
state of health, the condition of the mind, climate, etc/
By having a general knowledge of the digestibility of the
different kinds of food when the system is in health, the
observing may discriminate properly and select only that
which is most easily digested and most appropriate when
the eater may be out of health.
In the experiment of Dr. Beaumont it was discovered
that indigestible substances in the stomach interfere with
the process of assimilation of that part more easily
digested. This being true, how easily may we retard
the assimilation of a fairly-digestible meal by the addition
of an unhealthy dessert ? Experiments have farther
proven that the temperature of the stomach is lowered by
the free use of ice-water either during meals or after, or
ice-cream for dessert, as is common. The process of
digestion will, for a time at least, be stopped. It was
observed by the authority above quoted that the injection
of a gill of water, at a temperature of 5> into the
stomach of a patient at St. Martin s, sufficed to reduce
the temperature of the stomach 30, and was not restored
to its normal condition for more than half an hour. It
will be observed that the cooling of the stomach lessens
its activity, and that at a time when it most needs heat ;
frequently repeated, it cannot be otherwise than fraught
with inestimable danger.
If the food taken into the stomach be not digested, it
ferments and rots, and is in this state of decay carried
into the blood to supply the waste going on in the body.
As well might one undertake to make a substantial
CONDITIONS OF THE MIND. 131
building out of rotten material as to make healthy tissue
out of such nutriment. The normal blood corpuscle in a
healthy condition is spherical, and flows smoothly through
the ramifications of minute vessels. By this process the
most delicate tissues are supplied with its life-giving prin
ciple. But if it be damaged in its manufacture, through
any defect in the process of digestion, its globular form
is changed into variable-shaped ; it does not flow so
smoothly, becomes clogged in the minute vessels, and
thus failing to make its circuit, likewise fails to carry
the much-needed supply to that part in the body.
Conditions of the Mind.
It was said that the condition of the mind has an
influence on the digestive process. The old adage,
" Laugh and grow fat," is more truthful than poetical.
Nothing conduces more to perfect digestion and complete
assimilation of food than a happy and cheerful disposition.
The man who is always on. good terms with himself and
his business, and has no quarrels with his neighbors, will
almost certainly steer his digestive organs safely past all
the shoals and rocks that are covered up in the sea of
life.
But, in the busy struggle for existence at the present
day, when the battle of life is not so much fought by
muscle and sinew as by the brain, the demands upon the
nervous system are more excessive. " The spirit indeed is
willing but the flesh is weak." Certainly the spirit is so
willing, that even the strong must give way. No matter
132 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
what power of endurance the body may possess, its
driving and restless tenant will exhaust them. The old
adage is true: " The sword will wear out the scab
bard." This is especially true of persons with large, active
brain, and light, delicate body. Their restless and driving
disposition will be followed sooner or later with a break
down. The assimilative organs cannot supply the means
of nutrition to the nervous system in sufficient quantity.
The reserve forces of the system become exhausted, and
the brain-power fails. The work that was accomplished
with alacrity and ease, becomes a wearisome and grievous
task, and soon the attempt to discharge the duty is an
utter failure.
Such cases fall under the observation of the busy
practitioner almost daily, and are growing fearfully preva
lent. Such patients can only be restored by long rest and
a liberal supply of good brain-food.
In commercial parlance one would say: "That indi
vidual has evidently drawn a bill upon himself borrowed
so much of his intellectual capital ; the bill has matured
and must be paid. This is followed by a long, hard
process of paying back into the body-bank, till the
working capital is once more sufficient for competent
action. There has been a body-expenditure in excess of
a body-income, and the reserve body-capital has been
heavily drawn upon, until it is no longer able to meet the
draft. The only remedy in such dilemma is to cut down the
expenditures to the minimum amount and increase the
income to its maximum, until a new balance of capital
shall be obtained."
CONDITIONS OF THE MIND. 133
This is the method adopted in the business world. If
a man exceed his income and get in debt, he must become
more economical, live on less until he gets out of debt,
and then he prepares to live better. When the pabulum of
the brain is exhausted, a long process of recuperation is
necessitated. " How is this best accomplished? " is the
question that presents itself to every intelligent physician,
and meets the ready answer, " in rest and nerve tonics
medication and alimentation." The kind of food best
adapted to such patients has been demonstrated, not only
by chemistry but experience, to be fat and fish. Fish
abounds in phosphorus, and a phosphorized fat must be
supplied to the nervous system. It is no difficult task to
furnish these materials, but to build them into the animal
economy by the process of assimilation often requires
time. Much depends upon its recuperative powers. If
they be feeble, much time will be necessary for the
accumulation of a sufficient store for working purposes.
On the other hand, if they be fairly vigorous, a compara
tively rapid progress is possible.
Watch carefully the ability to digest food ; do not eat
too much at a time, but more frequently. Let fish form a
prominent part of the diet. Milk puddings answer well.
Cream with lime-water is excellent. Cod-liver oil and oil
emulsions suit some quite well. This is the line of treat
ment that experience has demonstrated as most suitable.
The old theory of meeting this wasted and exhausted
condition of the nervous system by liberal supplies of lean
meat has proved abortive.
134 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
Much of the foregoing remarks on nervous exhaustion
and nervous supply will be found applicable to men as
well as women.
Food of School-girls.
A few remarks on the regimen of school-girls before
this subject of food is past. It is the idea of many girls,
at the present day, that elegance involves fragility, and
that to be robust and rosy-cheeked is to call forth the
derision of their school-mates, with the crude satire of
" fat enough for butchering. " To a false idea of appear
ance, many sacrifice their health. In order to acquire
pallor and get rid of the hue of health, some girls take an
excess of vinegar, and attain their end by destroying their
digestion. Others eat slate-pencils, chalk, etc., imparing
their digestive powers from congestion and inactivity of
the bowels, which is aggravated by lack of out-door
exercise, and the compression of the viscera in order to
secure a grace of figure. Add to this the insufficiency of
nutritious diet, and .you have laid the foundation for
delicate maidens and worthless women.
The mistaken idea of not providing a sufficiency of
nourishing diet for the young is much more prevalent
than it ought to be, particularly in female boarding-
schools, where the diet is often insufficient for daily
sustenance and growth, and where, consequently, the
characteristic aspect of impaired health, if not of actual
disease, is marked in most of the pupils. So defective,
indeed, is the common-school management in this and
GENERAL CAUSES OF DISEASE. 135
other respects, that we have the best authority for consid
ering it a rare exception for a girl to return home in full
health after spending a few years in a boarding-school.
Much of this may be the result of confinement, want of
cheerful exercise, ill-ventilated rooms, and other depress
ing influences, but to all these you may add insufficient
dietary acting with increased force on the impaired diges
tion, which always follows where the laws of health have
been outraged.
General Causes of Disease.
A condition of health is that in which the physical
economy is in such harmonious activity that each organ
performs perfectly its peculiar functions. Health is the
normal state. Evidence of this appears in the efforts
which Nature makes in disease, local or general, to return
to the healthful state. If, for example, the flesh be lacer
ated, there will soon be increased heat in the injured part.
This is caused by increased supply of blood to that part,
blood being the material out of which Nature builds or
reconstructs the physical economy. This increase of blood
or congestion of the parts is followed by inflammation.
The lacerated parts, through which circulation is inter
rupted, die for lack of nourishment, and slough away in
the form of pus. Underneath this slough will be seen
little nodules which are called granulations, filling up the
interstices unceasingly, continuing this operation until all
the parts are fully reestablished, when the whole work
stops, without any disposition to build a single atom more
136 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
than was absolutely necessary to supply the part
destroyed.
Health, then, being the normal, or natural condition,
it follows that disease must be the abnormal or unnatural
state. Health is secured and maintained by the rigid
adherence to the laws established in Nature for that end.
Manifestly, disease must be incurred through the viola
tion of some law of natural hygiene. Disease is the
penalty attached to Nature s laws of health. No law,
natural or civil, can be effective without penalty attaching
to its infraction. Providence has put into our hands the
means of health. It is a precious boon.
This involves a great responsibility. Health is mani
festly among those talents that the Good Man left us in
charge of on taking his journey, and he will surely call us
to account on his return.
The study of the physical law of being is one of the
first duties. It will be attended with the greatest bless
ing. It is a solemn truth, and one that should be forcibly
impressed upon both young and old until they become
thoroughly familiar with it, that for the most part we bring
upon ourselves the diseases we suffer. If they be not the
effect of imprudence they are traceable to the neglect or
ignorance of the guardians of our youth, or they are
entailed as a consequence of the violation of some physi
cal law by our parents. Whatever may be the source of
disease it is manifestly a penalty for the violation of
Nature s laws.
Take, for example, a young girl, bred in high life, shut
GENERAL CAUSES OF DISEASE. 137
up iii the nursery in the city where she cannot be well
exposed to the pure stimulus of fresh air during her child
hood. She spends her youth in a fashionable boarding-
school, and is never accustomed to either air or exercise,
which the law of Nature makes essential to health. The
period of puberty approaches, the hygiene of her sur
roundings is unfavorable, the necessary nourishment
and stimulus for the establishment of instruction is
wanting.
This adds additional fuel to the fire that is consuming
her constitution. She enters the social concourse of the
young and gay at some fashionable gathering. Her shoes
are thin, her dress is light, her neck and arms are bare.
She indulges in the amusements of the evening where the
room is warm and close. No sooner is she at liberty to
retire, feeling faint and feeble, than she hurries into a cur
rent of cool air and is soon chilled. Her delicate system
has no adequate power of resistance ; perspiration is sud
denly suspended, a cold, cough, fever and death follow in
the wake. Her schoolmates and acquaintances lament-
ingly exclaim : " What a strange Providence, that a girl
so young should be thus cut down ! " Providence has no
action in the matter. She violated every known law of
health ; each violation is followed by the execution of the
fixed penalty.
Call in prominent view if you please the daily life of
some of the daughters of our men of wealth, and gaze
for a moment upon it in detail and see what it is. From
morning till night, day after day, there is the same round
138 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
of nothingness, the same comparative absence of physical
exercise and mental recreation, the same listless, sluggish,
stagnating existence. With servants to render all manual
labor, and frequently household cares unnecessary, with
no particular object in life to awaken interest, they pass
day after day without any physical exercise more invigor
ating than a stupid walk up and down the street, and with
no mental employment more inspiring than the reading of
a few indifferent novels, the making of idle morning calls,
or the spending of an evening at a ball where late hours,
thin dresses, excessive dancing and improper food and
drink do much more injury than most people know.
Now, did God ever intend the girls, even of the rich, to
live thus ? Is not wealth, when it leads to such habits, a
curse rather than a blessing ? There is no truth better
established, both by theory and observation, than the fact
that a certain amount of both physical and mental labor is
necessary to the enjoyment of continual health by either
sex.
Upon the other hand, the girls who fill a moderate
station, or, in other words, are compelled by necessity to
work without having to overtax themselves, almost
invariably enjoy good health. When they do not, their
maladies may generally be traced to some constitutional
infirmity transmitted from their parents, as consumption,
debility, scrofula, or other hereditary taint. Farmers
daughters who are accustomed to a certain amount of
invigorating exercise, which girls reared in town consider
ungenteel, are usually healthy and able to accomplish a
larcre amount of work.
GENERAL CAUSES OF DISEASE. 139
If we were able to so thoroughly impress this truth on
the minds of the youth that they would be influenced by
it, we might do much in revolutionizing society and
preventing disease.
Beauty cannot be attained independently of health,
and health cannot be enjoyed without exercise or labor,
either mental or physical.
Errors in Dress as Causes of Disease.
The follies of fashion, especially as practiced in the
higher walks of life, are exceedingly deleterious to health
in childhood. The custom of heavily and warmly cover
ing the body while the legs are almost entirely exposed
to the temperature of the atmosphere, be it high or low,
is fraught with serious consequences to the health of
fashionably-clothed children. The child thus dressed
goes and sits on the ground, the temperature of which is
low and damp, and is robbed of some of the heat of the
legs and lower part of the body. So the child goes, thus
dressed, from year to year, without much difference in
her apparel, the dress of the lower half of her body being
much less comfortable than the dress of the upper half.
The putting on of an extra skirt does not materially help
this difference. The skirts are so short that they cannot
be considered sufficient to keep a child warm any better
than an umbrella above its head. The cold air must
necessarily get under the skirt, and the warmer the body
the quicker the air will rush up on the principle of a
flue. In this way the temperature of the body of the
I4O MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
4
girl from her waist down is, from year to year, kept
several degrees lower than that of her body from her waist
upward.
This is attended with most serious consequences.
Cold contracts the skin, veins and arteries, and forces the
blood from the surfaces. Put your hand in ice-water for
a few minutes, and you will see it shrunken and color
less, for the blood has been driven out of it. This pro
cess is going on all the time during which the child is less
warm in one part of the body than in another. In the
coldest part the circulation becomes slower as the blood
is driven away, thus destroying the equilibrium of the
circulation. But where driven ? To the other parts of
the body, where it is not needed, producing in such parts
an excess, causing passive congestion.
What is the first ill effect produced ? Constipation.
The bowels, like the stomach, have their functions to
perform in the process of digestion ; they require a
quantity of animal heat and unobstructed circulation of
the blood. But exposure of the surface of the abdomen
causes great evaporation of needed heat. The cold
drives the blood to the interior, causing a clogging-up
of the internal circulation. The digestion, robbed of the
heat needed, becomes gradually slower and delayed, and
as a result we have constipation. If this be not true,
why is it that four-fifths of all the women are constipated?
Because their dress is calculated to keep an unequal
temperature in the body, impeding the circulation.
Witness the children of the poorer class. They may be
AMUSEMENTS. Hi
exposed as much, nay, more than those of the wealthier
class, but their exposure is not partial. If they be thinly
dressed, they are so from head to foot. If they have no
drawers, they have no flannel shirts. If they have no
shoes, they have no covering for the head. Hence, there
is no inequality in their dress, making one part of the
body warm at the expense of the whole system.
Amusements.
Amusements play no insignificant part in the develop
ment and training of youth, both physically and mentally.
Much of the time in early youth cannot be more usefully
employed than in those kinds of amusements which will
bring into play the muscles of the body, and at the same
time engage the mind with pleasing diversion. These
will be found, if prudently practiced, to contribute much
in laying the foundation of a healthy body, upon which
alone rests the whole superstructure of a happy and useful
life.
To deprive the young of the innocent pleasures of
childhood is by no means the most trivial mistake that
parents can make. Nevertheless we not infrequently
meet with parents who think it their duty to arrest the
naturalness, lightness and gaiety of heart in their children,
lest they should become too fond of pleasure. Great
harm is often done, in this way, to both mind and body,
and the very fault is created which it is desired to avoid.
The more reflecting parent, however, sees in the games
and plays of his children not only the necessary amuse-
142 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
merit and recreation to develop the physical nature, but
a benefit in the mental and moral development of their
being.
There are numberless devices for the amusement of
children that even at very early age develop important
elements in the human mind. There a/e blocks or cubes
made of wood, upon the faces of which are printed letters,
figures and drafts of architecture, with which a child,
though very young, will soon learn to amuse himself in
constructing words, making larger cubes out of the small
ones, and placing them together in such order as to repro
duce the piece of architecture that was cut to pieces by
dividing the blocks. Another very entertaining and
profitable device is a large sheet of paper board, on which
have been printed a number of animals with which a
child is familiar ; then the board has been divided into a
number of pieces, no two of which have the same shape.
Have the child put the pieces together, so as to recon
struct the animals. Such amusements will do much to
develop the attention and memory of the child, besides
affording employment and relieving the nurse of much
trouble.
That important personage, the doll, affords pleasing
amusement for children that are quite young. A love of
the miniature baby is always worthy of cultivation in a
child. Perhaps there is nothing to which even a very
young child clings with such ardent devotion as to a doll
baby. To encourage her in this direction may instill in
her youthful mind something of the watchful, maternal
AMUSEMENTS. 143
habits which will secure the happiness of her family in
after-life. In dressing the doll, and in cutting and fitting
its clothes, the child will often acquire a skill with the
needle that will prove invaluable in two or three years.
Then there are the more active amusements adapted
to the demands of Nature, as the child advances in years
ball, skating, croquet, blind-man, the hunt, etc. Such
games bring the muscles into proper action and thus cause
them to fully develop. They expand and strengthen the
muscles of the chest, causing a free circulation of the
blood, making it bound freely through the vessels, dif
fusing health and happiness in its course. If games were
more patronized in youth, the number of nervous, useless
persons would be greatly diminished. Let your children
have plenty of plays and they will have a corresponding
amount of health and vigor, and in due time they will be
ready and able to have their minds properly cultivated.
Unfortunately, there is a growing disposition, even in
this enlightened age, which cannot be too strongly
rebuked, to commence at the wrong end and train the
mind first, leaving the cultivation of the body to take
care of itself. The result is we reap the harvest from the
seed sown a broken-down stalk to support a full head.
Properly-timed exercise will do much to expand the chest
by compelling a full inflation of the lungs with the pure
air of the lawn or forest. This is their food, and if food
be supplied in sufficient quantities it must be distributed
to every portion of the lungs. If not, suffering and
disease will be the result. Croquet is a pleasant and
144 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
healthful amusement for girls. It develops and improves
the muscles of the arms, beautifies the complexion,
strengthens the back, throws out the chest. Croquet is
for girls what cricket is for boys a glorious exercise. It
has brought as much health and happiness as any other
game ever invented. It is always a cheerful game, and a
" merry heart makes a fair lassie." Skating, when not
indulged to extremes, is a most excellent exercise. It
improves the figure, and makes a girl balance and carry
herself upright and well, is quite becoming, and is to be
commended.
Moral Training.
No education is complete which does not include a due
regard for those moral faculties, known under the names
of Inclination, Duty, Conscience, etc. in short, what is
known as the moral character. Health and happiness
here, and bliss -hereafter, are dependent on the best of
these faculties. Of what avail is a robust physique or a
brilliant intellect if there be no ballast of moral rectitude ?
Many a parent has lived to ardently wish that his son or
daughter had died in youthful innocence ; and many a
heart has been bowed to the grave over grief and anguish
for a wayward child. Such parents realize, perhaps, when
it is too late, that they are responsible for the sad fate of
their child. Once he was theirs to develop and mold.
They neglected the soul culture. They built a noble bark
and started it out under fair prospects. But, alas ! there
was no rudder. It became a sport for winds and tides.
MORAL TRAIN INQ. 145
The storms of passion and the seductions of temptation
soon drove it from the path of rectitude. It was cast
upon a barren shore, a battered wreck, or it was swal
lowed up in the fathomless vortex of sin and shame.
What has been may be again. Nay, it must be, if the
education of the intellectual emotions be neglected or
improperly conducted. Such a nature inheres in the con
stitution of every sane child. It has susceptibilities,
capacities and fertility. Like a garden of rich deposit
if nothing useful be planted and cultivated, noxious and
hurtful weeds will spring up spontaneously. The moral
nature will not remain undeveloped through neglect of
education. It will develop spontaneously, but in unequal
directions, and with dangerous bias.
At birth the brain, the organ of the mind, is imperfect.
It is unfitted for any active manifestations. The only
indications of consciousness observable are a sensitiveness
to pain and a craving for food. The latter, and the
former too, for the matter of that, in dignity hardly rise
above mere animal instincts or appetites. No real traces
of the intelligent, sentient mind, with its stupendous
faculties, and of the soul with its fathomless pro
fundities, are discernable. The brain is extremely deli
cate and is easily injured. Injuries sustained at this
immature stage may, like those inflicted on the eye or ear,
be permanent and irremediable.
After a time, however, there are signs of awakening
intellect. Looks, smiles, frowns, will evidence the dawn
ing of consciousness long before the child can give any
1 46 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
other token. It cannot know, and, of course, cannot
evince any regard for the causes which excite its natural
activity. Still, the activity is there. Its signs can be
read in the countenance. " These," says a French writer,
are the evidences of dawning affections. Even at the
early age of six weeks, when the infant is still a stranger
to the world and perceives external objects so indistinctly
as to make no effort either to obtain or avoid them, he is,
nevertheless, susceptible to the influences of human pas
sion. Although no material object possesses any attraction
for him, sympathy or the action of a feeling in his mind,
corresponding to the expression of the same feeling in the
mind of another, is already at work. A smile, a caress
ing accent, raises a smile on his lips. Pleasing emotions
already animate this little being, and we, recognizing their
expression, are delighted in turn. Who, then, has told
this infant that a certain expression of the features
indicates tenderness for him ? How could he, to whom
his own physiognomy is unknown, imitate that of another
unless a corresponding feeling in his own mind impressed
the same characters on his feelings ? That person near
his cradle is perhaps not his nurse ; perhaps she has only
disturbed him or subjected him to some unpleasant opera
tion. No matter ; she has smiled affectionately on him ;
he feels that he is loved and he loves in return."
Here, then, is the key to the right training of the
infant mind. The internal emotions are like the external
senses. Being distinct from each other and independent
in their actions, let the appropriate object of any of them.
MORAL TRAINING. H7
the organ of which is already sufficiently developed, be
presented to it, and it will start into activity, as the eye
does when the rays of light come in contact with the
retina. Look, for example, at an infant six months old,
and observe the extent to which it responds to every
variety of stimulus addressed to its feelings. If we wish
to soothe it in a moment of fretful disappointment, do w r e
not succeed by gently fondling and singing to it in a soft,
affectionate voice ? If our aim be to arouse it to activity,
are not our movements and tones at once changed to the
lively and spirited ? When a sharp dialogue occurs
between a nurse and any other person in the presence of
the infant, is it not common for the child to become
uneasy and cry, as if the angry expressions were addressed
to itself?
The facts of common observation are explained when
it is remembered that the emotions are reached only
through the senses. An emotion of pleasure or of pain is
created by the perception through some sense as of
sight, or touch, or taste, or smell, or hearing of an
external object possessing pleasurable or painful qualities.
For example, the hand comes in contact with the heated
iron. The sense of touch conveys the sensation to the
emotional nature, and the feeling of pain is produced.
In the infant, and adult as well, the existence of the
feeling is manifested by certain external signs, as cries and
tears. Wlien the eye rests upon objects which are beauti
ful, the emotion of beauty is started in the soul. It may
be beauty of form or expression, or any modification
148 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
perceptible by sight ; it may be beauty of sound as
expressed in harmony, where the ear becomes the organ
which conveys the impression. In any case, the emotion
created is a pleasing one.
With these few primary truths of psychology premised
and with the fact assumed, as already stated, that the
emotional nature of the infant, like all its other qualities,
is susceptible of development ; and with the additional
truth granted, that the rules for the development and
training of the physical and intellectual faculties are
equally applicable to the internal emotions with these
assumptions, it is not difficult to determine what are the
possibilities in the infant s soul ; and Avhat are the duties
of parents ; and, likewise, how those duties are to be
performed.
Any faculty is developed in proportion to the frequency
with which it is exercised. This is true, whether it be
muscle or brain that is considered. It is true of the
passions. If the infant be allowed to exercise continually
the base emotions as of hate, anger, etc., the whole
nature will develop in the wrong direction. The antipodal
emotions of love, tenderness, sympathy, etc., will be
dwarfed in the process. But, if the better and higher
emotions be constantly exercised, they will grow more
largely, and their opposites be more completely
eradicated.
The simple duty of parents, then, is to cultivate t^ie
better natures of their children. Outbursts of anger
should be prevented as far as possible. Conduct should
WHEN TO COMMENCE MORAL TRAINING. 149
not be indulged which is calculated to unpleasantly affect
the mind of the child. Fretfulness and peevishness can
be cured if the parents never permit the child to see an
exhibition of these in themselves. The child learns from
the parent more largely than from any other person. It
learns unconsciously. It takes on the habits of the
parent. It observes the emotional nature of the parent to
a great extent. If the parent be always amiable to the
child and in his presence, the child largely develops amia
bility. So of any other emotion.
When to Commence Moral Training.
The time to commence the moral education is when
the first indication of an awakening moral nature is
perceived. The earliest culture will be by object lessons
alone. The parent can express approbation and disap
probation by a glance of the eye by the expression of
the countenance. The child soon learns to read its
mother s face as it afterward reads a printed page. She
can make it smile by smiling herself. She can make it
morose and hateful by exhibiting such emotions in herself
in countenance and word.
The mind is very feeble at this time, as the brain is
weak. Impressions are easily made. It requires but a
very trifling pressure to produce a deep dent. The mind
is like unhardened cement. A touch leaves a mark. The
hardening process makes the eradication of the mark
difficult, when once it is made ; impossible in a short time.
Playing upon the purer, nobler, higher emotions of the
ISO MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
soul will keep these in most vigorous exercise, and conse
quently tend to their more full and rapid development.
Proper Indulgence.
It does not follow from this that the child is to be
humored in every whim, indulged in every desire. Here
is where so many parents, particularly mothers, make a
serious error. They recognize the immaturity of the
child s mind. They assume that it does not know good
from evil, right from wrong. This is only a half-truth at
best ; such propositions are more dangerous than those
that are wholly wrong. It is true that the child is
governed by whims and caprices. It is also true that it
always will be so governed unless it be taught differently.
It is also true that the indulgence of a wrong emotion
tends to the further development, the education and
permanency of that fault.
No mother can begin too soon to lead out the moral
nature of her child. This is a dual process. Restraining
and eradicating what is not desired, stimulating and
encouraging what is desired. It is easier to destroy a
venomous insect or reptile in the egg than after it has
begun to crawl. It is easier to destroy a poisonous plant
in the germ than after it has begun to root and branch.
The same holds true in the immaterial world. It is much
better to stifle an evil propensity or passion before it has
obtained a firm lodgement in the mind than is after
ward.
Indulging infants in their desires is to invite further
waywardness. It may require a little time, a little
PROPER INDULGENCE 15!
patience, a little annoyance at the time, to cross the infant
desif%. It is easier, quicker, more comfortable, to indulge
and be done with it. This, however, is only postponing
the day of correction, and intensifying the difficulties of
the process when it shall be undertaken. It is always best
to do right at every particular time. Never purchase a
present ease at the cost of future discomfort.
The writer recalls passing a night with a friend whose
infant had been ill for a few days. The indisposition had
necessitated frequent attentions during the night, and the
light in the sleeping-room had been kept burning. At
this time, however, the child was restored to health an,d
the light was extinguished. During the night the child
awoke, and, missing the light, refused to be comforted
and return to sleep. It would have been much easier to
have arisen, kindled a light, and thus secured peace and
rest. Such, however, was not the theory of that house
hold. The child remained wakeful, fretted and cried for
perhaps two hours. It finally fell asleep through exhaus
tion. The next night the same struggle was renewed, but
it was of much shorter duration. After that there was no
further trouble. The child learned that it could not secure
what it wanted, and it gave up crying for it. It cost a
good part of two nights rest to teach this lesson ; but it
was taught. The principle in the above illustration is
susceptible of multifarious applications. It is the only
principle. The child must be made to know that the
mother s will is to dominate. A few exhibitions of firm
ness and tenacity will teach this important lesson. The
MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
child will acquire the habit of yielding to its parents.
When this point is gained the process of moral trairrmg is.
comparatively easy. Until it shall be reached, it will be
lame, impotent work. Here, too, is the key to successful
government and training.
Whatever the child sees the mother do it essays to do.
It repeats the words which the mother has said in its
presence, and endeavors to imitate the actions which it
sees in others. It does this, apparently, from an instinctive
impulse. Those with whom the child is most intimate
and most constantly associated, especially its parents, its
brothers and sisters, are followed to the greatest extent.
The child has implicit faith in its parents. Whatever they
say is true ; whatever they do is right. During the earlier
years of life the child knows no higher authority than its
parents. " Father does this," or " Mother says that," is
exclusive warrant to the child of the righteousness of the
doing or saying. It desires no higher justification for its
own sayings or doings than the fact that it is following its
parent s lead.
An additional truth must be borne in mind : All
human beings are imitative creatures. Relatively, this
faculty is more largely developed in children than in per
sons of mature years. A strong impulse, innate and
perhaps instinctive, urges the child to imitate the example
of others. The child is new to the world, and everything
in the world around it is new. It is a learner. The
desire to gain information, to increase in knowledge, to
accumulate a stock of facts which have been revealed bv
PROPER INDULGENCE. 153
the senses, is a universal faculty. Hence the well-known
propensity of children of five and six years of age to ask
questions. Hence, also, the vague rambling of such
questioning ; the mind knows nothing definitely or fully ;
it has an intense yearning for knowledge ; and it floats
about in a vast sphere, grasping at everything it sees
about it.
Take all these well-recognized facts together namely,
the large and trusted place which parents fill in the child s
life, the instinct for imitation and the innate propensity
for seeking knowledge and add to them the constant
presence or contiguity of the parents to the child, and a 4 ,
once is grasped the compass of parental influence ovc:
the child by word and example.
Some parents make the grave mistake of thinking
that the child will discriminate ; that it will recognize
that a thing may be right for its father to do, and at the
same time be wrong for it (the child) to do. This is not
the fact. Children do not discriminate. This requires
an act of the understanding of which they are incapable.
The child cannot help thinking that what its parents do is
the right thing to do, and instinctively endeavors to
imitate them. This is a part of its being, an integral
part of its nature.
Children, too, possess a keen discernment. Intuitively
they perceive truth and error. It is impossible long to
deceive them. They seem to read character accurately
and profoundly. Certain domestic animals, as the dog,
for example, possess an instinct that enables them to
154 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
reach remarkable conclusions. The undeveloped intelli
gence of the child has qualities similar in operation to
this animal instinct. The child always believes its
parents to be what it sees them to be. It also believes
its parents to be infallibly right. Imitative impulse will
incline it to do what it sees the parents do. It also will,
unconsciously, but none the less certainly, take on the
moral caste of its parents and nearest exemplars.
Parents cannot be too circumspect before their
children. Every idle word, every careless act, is noted,
and then, or at some subsequent time, repeated. Habits
are acquired, manners are learned, and opinions are
formed, almost wholly by the influence of the example
of others. If such example be worthy of imitation, well
and good ; the child will develop in right directions and
acquire those habits and convictions which best fit it for
reaching the great ends of its being in the world. If, on
the other hand, the examples before it are vicious, it will
as surely develop into a course of life and be character
ized by beliefs and opinions which tend downward.
There may be line upon line and precept upon precept of
truth and uprightness ; these avail little in moral and
ethical training, unless they be attended and supple
mented by examples in kind. Actions speak louder
than words ; they speak more effectively ; they convince
moie readily.
Parents are first in the child s life, nearest to it in
every respect, and, consequently influence it to a greater
degree in the earlier years of its life than all other persons
IMMORAL PRACTICES, ETC. I 55
combined. From its parents, it may be assumed, the
child learns nothing but what is for its good. It cannot,
if the parents are as careful and prudent as their desires
and affections should lead them to be. Parents have an
interest in their children and a care for them that cannot
be measured. No calculus can compute the length,
breadth and depth of parental love. It surpasses the
heavens in height, and in profundity reaches the fathom
less depths. The very life of the parents often centers in
the child. It is the " all in all " of earthly desires. While,
therefore, the child shall remain exclusively under parental
care, it is measurably safe from evil communications,
which corrupt good manners, and from the baneful influ
ences of evil example.
But such a condition is necessarily brief. The days
come and go, and the sphere of the child is enlarged.
The means of acquiring information go outside the t\vo
persons who have given it being. It is impossible to pre
vent this, and not desirable, even if it were possible. It
must come in contact with persons other than those of its
own home. From these other persons it will learn as
readily, and absorb knowledge as rapidly as at home. It
has nurses, perhaps, and it soon will find playmates of its
own age.
Immoral Practises Received from Playmates and Nurses.
Regarding the nurses, it may be said that, as a rule,
they are not the sort of moral guides which children ought
to have. They are generally of the lower walks of life
I5<5 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
and uneducated. As a consequence, their minds are
filled with fanciful notions and superstitions. It will be a
blessing if they do not also have gross immoralities of
speech or behavior. The playmates are necessarily a
mixed throng. Parents cannot choose the playmates of
their children. They may do much in the line of restrict
ing these, and in guiding their children to a wise selection
of mates, but they cannot entirely control the selection.
It is not best that they should. Some of the child s play
fellows will certainly have learned words and lines of con
duct which cannot be approved, and which no thoughtful
parent can desire his child to imitate.
What shall be done in such cases ? In general, it may
be said that contact with coarse and immoral persons is
not an unmixed evil. It is a source of danger to the child
always, and a menace to its purity of life. But the great
Creator designed that life on earth should be a conflict.
Good and bad influences compass every life, and, sooner
or later, must come in contact in everyone. "It must
needs be that offenses come. " It is by trial that faith is
made perfect. It is by meeting and overcoming tempta
tions that one is made strong to overcome. Ignorance of
evil is no protection against it.
Duty of Parents in Reference to Such Influence.
The parents and guardians of children should be care
ful that no temptation to evil meets the child beyond what
it is able to bear. It should be provided with the best
nurse possible, with reference to influence on the child s
DUTY OF PARENTS IN REFERENCE THERETO. 157
morals. A less efficient nurse, as such, is preferable to
a more skillful one if the moral character of the latter be
depraved. The playmates of the child should undergo judi
cious observation by the parents, who will need to exercise
great prudence in this matter. A direct command to not
play with a certain child may result in the very evil it was
desired to avoid. The influence of these playmates upon
the child from day to day should be noted. This is not a
difficult task. The child will certainly betray any new
experience which it may have, because, until told to the
contrary, it will think it right and proper.
Notwithstanding all these provisions, it will still remain
true that the child will come into associations with vicious
companions and from them learn many improprieties. Pre
vention is always better than cure ; but when prevention
shall fail cure must be resorted to. The parents must
take measures to counteract the evil influences which tend
to harm their children. This they can do. The child has
greater confidence in its parents than in strangers. It
will rely upon their counsel in preference to that of other
persons outside of the home. If an improper word
learned upon the playground be never heard in the home,
and when repeated by the child in the home circle, shall
be condemned, the child will instinctively recognize that
there is a difference between right and wrong, and will
readily yield to the stronger influence of home. The evil
habits learned outside the home should be carefully but
promptly corrected. Ordinarily, no reason will be
required for the prohibition, beyond the words of the
158 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
parents. The child will accept the dictum of the parent
as authoritative in the case.
But the greatest counteractive of all is the example
which parents set before their children. The child cannot
help contrasting what he sees and hears at home with
what he sees and hears abroad. In the tender mind will
thus grow up a knowledge of good and evil. The
stronger love for home and the implicit trust in the good
intention of its parents, will induce a predilection for the
good and the pure. This knowledge is the lesson which
all must learn. It is a condition of a strong and pure life
on earth. Until it shall have been learned, and learned in
the stern school of experience, no soul is safe. The child s
is a pulpy soul, capable of being molded in a wrong
direction as readily as in a right one.
Without the innate impulse of imitation or mimicry,
before alluded to, the child s education would be slow ;
could not begin until the mind had gained sufficient vigor
to be capable of utilizing the abstract intellectual modes of
gaining knowledge. With it the infant becomes a learner
from the earliest dawn of intelligence.
But the child does not derive all its knowledge in this
v\ay. It finds teachers everywhere. The new and plas
tic mind receives impressions through each of its senses,
daily and hourly, and each impression is a factor in deter
mining the nature and extent of the resultant. It is but
the expression of a truism to say that from each of ; t: Sve
senses the child receives continual accretions of tacts
which fix themselves in the unfilled mind. Its senses are
DUTY OF PARENTS IN REFERENCE THERETO. 159
keen and its thirst for knowledge is great. It is learning
when the maturer mind is not ; its intellect is active and
vigilant when the mind of the adult sees nothing that
makes any noticeable impression.
The parents and guardians of children cannot over
estimate the number and variety of means by which the
child-mind is increased in knowledge. Everything in the
great world about is of interest to the child. It takes the
hue of everything around. The lessons which it learns
are not all clearly defined to it, nor do they come in any
logical order. Until taught differently, good and evil are
alike to it, except in their more radical forms. It learns
as quickly from vicious as from virtuous examples. It
segregates the abstractions of vice as readily as it does
the scintillations of virtue, and herein lies the danger to
the education of the child. Herein lies the imperative
necessity of constant vigilance on the part of the parent.
It is as natural for the child to learn as it is for the tree
to grow or the earth to produce vegetation. It is the law
of intellectual life that it cannot be dormant. The mind
can no more remain unoccupied than a fertile field can be
barren under the rays of the sun and the gentle showers.
In either case there is, and of necessity must be, a prod
uct. It may be useful fruits, and it may be noxious
weeds. It may be healthful knowledge, or it may be
destructive immoralities. Nature, whether in the domain
of mind or matter, abhors a vacuum. The mind of the
child may be said to be empty when it first becomes sen
sible to the external impressions. It cannot remain so.
l6o MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
It will fill up from every source. Good and evil abound
in the world, and hedge the child through all its days.
They contend for the mastery of a soul. The good man
may so\v the seeds of useful knowledge never so assidu
ously, but if he sleeps the wily adversary will come up
and scatter the tares in the carefully-prepared field ; there
is then no recourse until the harvest. His opportunity
will be lost if he sleep and leave the field unguarded.
Parents must never leave the lives of their children
unguarded. They must watch the development of every
impression, and remove all that is evil in essence or vicious
in tendency before it becomes rooted in the mind. Every
good impression must be deepened until it is firmly fastened
in the mind. The eradication of an evil thought is not
enough. The lesson comes down from the pages of the
Sacred Word that the exorcism of an evil spirit is to leave
the sou>l in a dangerous condition. The soul may be
purged ; but if it remain empty, it may become the final
abode of sevenfold more evil spirits than those which were
cast out. The evil seeds must be pulled up and good
seed sown in the place. The bad impressions can
only, or, at least, can best be removed by the counteracting
force of stronger impressions for good. Negative educa
tion seldom avails much of lasting good. This is espe
cially the case with children. Their minds are so tender,
so plastic, that it is better to stamp truth over error, and
thus obliterate it, than to attempt to eradicate the false
and then introduce the true. It is, after all, a matter of
good and bad impressions. The work of the teacher lies
in seeing that the good impressions are made the deeper.
DRESS. l6l
Dress.
The subject of dress is of so much importance in the
education of children that it deserves special notice. It
is a factor not always recognized and seldom fully
appreciated. Some parents seem to think that it makes
little difference how they clothe their children so they
are comfortable. Anything will do, whether it be old or
new, of fashionable pattern or unfashionable, neat-fitting
or ill-fitting. They argue that the children do not know
the difference in quality, pattern or fit therefore the
cheapest is the most economical.
There are others who seem to have a morbid dread
that their children will become vain, and hence they
purposely and studiously dress them in plain and homely
attire. Such parents are honest and well-meaning. They
are disgusted with the pride and vanities of the world, and
desire above all things that their children shall grow up
free from these vices. The intention is commendable,
but the means used to attain it are not the best. There
is not infrequently as much pride and vanity in those who
dress ill as those who dress well.
There are others who seem to regard their children as
they do their other possessions that is, as things by
which the owner s taste and judgment may be gauged by
the neighbors. They dress up their children for show,
just as they do their houses or lawns. They love beauti
ful appointments about their homes, and ill-dressed,
tawdry children present an appearance which is disagree-
1 62 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
able to their refined and sensitive tastes. Such parents
act, then, without much, if any, regard for the children,
but largely, if not wholly, for the effect objectively
considered.
All of these conceptions are wrong. Children should
be clothed with their own good in view. Their dress
operates in two ways (in their education) upon their
bodies, and upon their minds. The one is no less impor
tant than the other. The whole matter of dress should be
viewed from this dual standpoint. What others may
think of the appearance of their children should be a
comparatively insignificant consideration. What effect
the child s dress may have on the parents taste is equally
so. The child is to be dressed for its own sake, not for
the sake of others. It happens, however, that when it is
best dressed for its own sake, it presents the happiest
effect on others. But this is merely incidental.
First of all, the clothing should be a protection to the
child s body. This is a primary object. The body-
should be kept comfortable warm in winter, cool in
summer, so far as clothing can do this. It should be
comfortable in another sense. It should feel easy and
pleasant to the child. To reach this end it will not do
to have the clothing unequally distributed over the body,
thicker and warmer in some places than in others. This
is often the case with little girls. They are warmly clad
about the chest and abdomen, while their limbs are
exposed to the cold. The effect of this is to drive the
blood from the extremities. Directly, this is injurious ;
DRESS. 163
remotely, it tends to an unequal development of the parts.
The circulation in the extremities is impeded until it fails
to recuperate the continual waste of tissue. This is part
of the reason why so many girls grow up with fairly-
developed busts, but scrawny and ill-shaped legs and
arms.
The clothing should be adapted to the functional
operations of the body. Circulation and respiration must
not be interfered with by bands and compresses. The
dress may be trim without being tight to obstructiveness.
The blood must be allowed unimpeded movement through
the veins and arteries. The further the part is removed
from the center of circulation, the weaker is the movement
and hence the greater care should be given that no obstacle
in the way of tight waist-bands, shoes, etc., be permitted.
The same may be said of respiration. It is very important
that the dress permit unhindered movement of the muscles
concerned in breathing. The dress should further be
constructed with a view to perfect ease and freedom of
movement of all the parts of the body. The nature of
the material used has much to do with the attainment of
this end. It is not an uncommon thing to see children so
dressed that when they remain in a certain position their
clothing hangs gracefully ; but the texture or the manner
of its construction will not permit taking certain other
positions. Children are keen-sighted and sensitive. A
boy of even eight years of age, when he discerns that he
cannot sit down without drawing his dress out of neat fit,
will not and cannot sit gracefully and comfortably in the
164 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
presence of others. The dress should allow the arms,
legs, shoulders and body generally to be moved freely
without a feeling of discomfort or a consciousness of
disorder in appearances.
Fashion.
It has already been said that children are observing
and sensitive. They are keenly alive to the impression
which their dress creates in the beholder. Their feelings
operate on their intellectual powers and habits. A child
slovenly dressed feels slovenly, and is quite likely to think
slovenly. On the other extreme, a child dressed like a
doll is likely to feel and think doll-fashion. Here, then,
are two extremes to be avoided for the subjective good of
the child slovenliness and vanity. It is a well-estab
lished psychological fact that the intellectual and emotional
natures of persons are largely conditioned by material
environments. Everything about the maturing life has
an influence on its mind and character. The subject may
not be elaborated here ; suffice it to say that dress is a
material circumstance most potent in its influence and
effects. No adult who reads these pages can deny that
his mental and moral feelings are influenced by the way
in which he is dressed. The writer remembers to have
demonstrated this frequently during his school-days, both
with himself and others. The attempt would be made to
write an essay on some topic requiring elevation of mind
and free imaginative scope. With such a task on hand, if
one should dress himself in a slatternly manner and
GOVERNMENT OF CHILDHOOD. 1 6$
repair to the stable or wood-shed, the free play of thought
was impossible. Words, phrases, topics, metaphors,
could not be recalled, for the thoughts were uniformly in
the plane of the surroundings. Change the conditions
let the dress be neat, clean and tasty, seek a beautiful
site for landscape, or repair to an orderly-arranged room,
and the best thought of which the mind was capable
would be evoked.
What is true of adults with regard to the influence of
dress upon mental action is increasingly true of children.
The mind of a child is more impressionable. It is much
more easily affected for good or evil. As the mind is
now in its formative state, it is manifestly important that
it be formed on as pure a model and on as high a plane as
is attainable. If low and base thoughts be constantly
evoked, the mind and moral nature will be formed on this
scale. Criminals are bred in filthy surroundings ; the
keen, careful man of business was the boy whose early
life was attended by care and exactness. The easy,
polite, graceful society lady was not clothed in ill-fitting
garments of obsolete patterns when she was a girl. The
highest perfection in dress is reached when it enables its
wearer to feel easy, natural, and beyond remark, either
on account of uncouthness or hyper-elegance.
Government of Childhood.
The relatio n of parent and child involves certain privi
leges. Every privilege involves an obligation. It is the
parents privilege to exercise authority over their children ;
106 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
it is their duty to execute this authority. The parents
are the tutors and governors. They cannot escape this
duty if they would. They are bound to govern
their children and it is the duty of the child to
submit to the paternal rule. If it do not submit it
should be compelled to. A large share of this govern
ment devolves upon the mother. A mother is invested
by God with a decree of authority over her child
which she cannot neglect to use without being guilty of
trampling under foot the institutions of heaven. Every
family is a community, the government of which is strictly
despotic, though it should not be tyrannical. Parents are
sovereigns, though they should not be oppressors. Legis
lators are not merely counselors, and their will should be
not advice, but law. The mother s prerogative is to
command, to restrain, and to punish, and children are
required to obey. If need be, she may threaten, rebuke,
chastise, and the child should submit with reverence.
The mother is to decide what books are to be read,
what companions invited, what engagements formed, and
how time is to be spent. If she see anything wrong she
is not to interpose with the timid, feeble, ineffectual voice
of Eli " Why do ye thus, my sons ? " but with the
firm, though mild prohibition. A parent must rule her
own house, and by her conduct make her children feel
that obedience to her command is her due. A lack
of discipline is identical with confusion and domestic
anarchy.
Where discipline is absent everything goes wrong. A
gardener may so\v the choicest seeds, but if he neglects
GOVERNMENT OF CHILDHOOD. l6/
to pull up the weeds and prune wild luxuriance, he may
not expect to see his flowers grow nor his garden flourish.
So a mother may deliver the best instructions, but if she
do not by discipline eradicate evil tempers, correct bad
habits and repress rank corruptions, nothing excellent can
be looked for. She may be a good prophet and a good
priest, but she must be as well a queen, or all is in vain.
When once a sceptre shall have been broken, or relin
quished to the child as a plaything, all hope for the
proper government of the family may as well be given
up.
In his professional life the writer has witnessed the
evils resulting from the want of discipline in innumerable
families. Frightful instances of disorder and immorality
are now present to the mind which he could well wish to
forget. The misfortune in many families is that discipline
is unsteady and irregular sometimes carried to tyranny
itself, at other times relaxed into total suspension so
that the children now tremble like slaves, and now revolt
like rebels. This is a most erroneous system, and its
effects are just what might be expected.
Another evil is that discipline is often abortive. That
is, it is administered at a proper time and manner, but is
relaxed just short of success. No correction should be
commenced that is not completed then and there. When
an order has been issued, its execution should follow.
When chastisement for a certain end is to be applied, it
should not be relinquished until that end is reached, and
one thorough correction is worth more than a hundred
abortive efforts.
168 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
Parents, particularly mothers, often delay the applica-
^ion of coercive measures too long. There is nothing
surprising about this. The growth of the child is so
gradual that the mother does not notice the progress made
from day to day. At first, and for months afterwards,
the infant is incapable of understanding the meaning of
government. It must be coaxed and wheedled. The
time glides away rapidly, and the mother scarce knows
when she should have begun to govern her child instead
of having it govern her.
Whately says : " A mother once asked a clergyman
when she should begin the education of her child, which
she told him was then four years old. Madam, was the
reply, you have lost four years already. From the very
first smile that gleams over an infant s cheek your
opportunity begins.
In some cases discipline commences too late, and in
others too early. A mother s magisterial office is nearly
coeval with her parental relation. A child, as soon as it
can reason, should be made to feel that obedience is due
to parents, for if it grow up before it have been subject to
the mild rule of parental authority it will very likely be
like an untamed bullock resist the yoke. On the other
hand, so long as children continue beneath the parental
roof they are to be subject to the rules of domestic
discipline.
Many mothers err in abdicating the throne in favor of
a daughter, because the child is becoming a woman, It
is truly pitiable to see a girl, entering her teens, just
GOVERNMENT OF CHILDHOOD. 169
returned from school who is allowed to sow the seeds of
discord or revolt in the domestic circle, and to act in
opposition to parental authority until the too-compliant
mother gives the reins of government into childish hands,
or else, by her conduct, declares the children to be in a
state of independence. There need be no contest for
power, for where a child has been accustomed to obey
from infancy, the yoke of obedience will generally be light
and easy ; if not, and a rebellious temper should show
itself early, a judicious mother will be on her guard and
allow no encroachments on her prerogative. At the same
time, the increased power of her authority, like the
increased pressure of the atmosphere, should be felt with
out being seen, and this will make it irresistible.
Undue severity is as injurious as unlimited indulgence.
If injudicious fondness have slain its tens of thousands,
unnecessary harshness has destroyed its thousands. By
an authority which cannot err we are told that the cords
of love are the bonds of a man. There is a plastic power
in love. The human mind is so constituted as to yield
readily to the influence of its kindness. Men are more
easily led to their duties than driven to them. " A child,"
says an Eastern proverb, " may lead an elephant by a
single hair. " Love seems so essential an element of the
parental character that there is something shockingly
revolting, not only in a cruel, an unkind or a severe, but
even in a cold-hearted mother.
Study the parental character as it is exhibited in that
most explicitly touching moral picture, the parable of the
170 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
prodigal son. When a mother governs entirely by sole,
bare authority, by mere commands, prohibitions, and
threats, by frowns untempered with smiles ; when the
legislator is never blended with the friend, nor authority
mingled with love ; when her conduct produces in the
hearts of her children only a servile fear, instead of an
obedient affection ; when she is served because of dread
of the effects of disobedience ; when she is rather dreaded
in the family circle as a frowning spectre than hailed as
the guardian angel of its joys ; when even accidents raise
a storm, or faults produce a hurricane of passion in her
bosom ; when offenders are driven to equivocation or
lying with a hope of averting by concealment those severe
corrections which disclosure always entails ; when unnec
essary interruptions are made to innocent enjoyments ;
when, in fact, nothing of the mother but everything of the
tyrant is seen can we expect a moral excellence to
flourish in such a soil ? Yes, as rationally as we may
expect the tenderest house-plant to thrive amidst the
rigors of eternal frost !
It is useless for such a mother to try to properly teach
her household. She chills the soul of the pupils ; she
hardens their hearts against impressions ; she prepares
them to rush with eager haste to their ruin as soon as they
have thrown off the yoke of their bondage, and to employ
their liberty to secure the means of unbridled gratification.
Like a company of slaves, they are at first tortured by
their thralldom, and by that very bondage trained to
convert their sudden emancipation into a means of
destruction.
GOVERNMENT OF CHILDHOOD. I/I
Let parents, then, in all their conduct blend the law
giver and the friend ; temper authority with kindness, and
realize, in their measure, that representation of Deity
which Dr. Watts has given us :
" Sweet majesty and awful love
Sit smiling on His brow."
In short, let them so act as to convince the children
that their law is holy, and their commandment holy, just,
and good, and that to be so governed is to be blessed.
No educational system is perfect which does not include
the development, in due proportion, of the whole nature
of the pupil. The infant at birth contains a germ of all
that is great and good. Education is simply the process
of drawing out and developing dormant energies into a
condition which makes the attainment o( desired ends
possible. In the natural course of things, some sort of
development will come ; the innate germs will be evolved
into present potencies, and the latent strength will be
energized. The body will grow ; its bones and muscles
will acquire strength and become fitted to the end for
which they were given. The mind, and soul, too, will
expand with the young physical nature, and the infant
will pass into the child, the child into the youth, and the
youth into the mature being. All this evolution will
come in the natural course of events.
But something more than mere growth is needed in
order that the essential end of being shall be conserved.
There must be the education of all the parts and faculties
*of the infant being in order to the attainment of a
172 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
symmetrical life. Undue attention to one part of the
child s nature, with the neglect of another part will disturb
the equilibrium so necessary to a proper fulfillment of the
purposes of life. If the body receive attention and the
intellectual nature be neglected, the child may become a
fine animal, but not a man or woman. On the other
hand, if the mind be educated out of proportion to the
development of the physical energies, the matured being
is not fitted for securing life, health and happiness.
Recognizing the truth of all this, the part of the
educator is made apparent. The threefold nature of the
child must be admitted, and each part receive due atten
tion. Much has already been said about the physical and
intellectual conditions essential to proper education. It
remains to note that the moral nature should not be
neglected. The moral education includes the inculcation
of religious truths and the development of the religious
nature.
Man is by nature a religious being ; it is entirely
natural for him, even at his highest development, to look
to something higher and better, and to pay homage to it.
This principle was instilled into the nature of man by his
Creator for a great purpose. The development of that
purpose rests almost wholly with the parents. It is
impossible for a child or an adult to live without a God.
It rests with the parents to determine whether that duty
shall be good or evil.
WHEN TO COMMENCE RELIGIOUS TRAINING. 173
When to Commence Religious Training.
The time for beginning religious education dates with
the dawning of reason in consciousness. This does not
mean that religious instruction according to any denomi
national doctrine should then commence. As has been
said, education is simply a leading out of what already
exists. As soon as the religious nature begins to manifest
itself it should be educated, or led out. This is necessary
to preserve symmetry of development, the need of which
has been so carefully mentioned.
The first principle of religious truth is a distinction
between right and wrong. This the child can easily be
taught. Following this comes the duty of doing right
and shunning wrong. The next step is to teach the child
to do right because it is right, and to keep from doing
wrong because it is wrong. This is an easy, natural cor
ollary of ordinary discipline. The child obeys the parent
because he believes the parent to be right. He can be
taught to obey God for the same reason.
A third step will be to teach that doing right is profit
able ; doing wrong, disastrous. Also, that doing right
insures reward and happiness ; that doing wrong will
inevitably result in punishment and misery. The child
will readily comprehend these truths. They are almost
identical with parental discipline. It is only necessary,
then, to inculcate the notion of the fatherhood of God and
the endlessness of eternity, and the foundation is securely
laid. This part of the religious education can be begun
very early in life. It is all the better so.
174 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
As the child grows older, formal religious truths and
practical observance can be taught. The former will
naturally be in the form of rules, largely. To these the
child is partially accustomed. The latter is best done by
example. No woman, be she mother -or not, can
drive a child into the Kingdom of God. She can lead
it thither, it will go with her or follow after her. If she
" walk with God" daily she can keep her child in the same
company. If she sit with Jesus Christ in Heavenly
places her child will sit with her.
PUBERTY.
Its Definition.
THE term of puberty is used to denote that period in
life when sexual development takes place. The word
itself is derived, or rather adopted from the Latin,
Pubertas, which signifies the marriageable state that is
to say, that state of development of the procreative func
tions which made the begetting of offspring possible.
While the word puberty is equally applicable to either
sex, its application is often limited to one. In the present
work this word will be employed to designate the period
and change which converts the child into the maiden.
Puberty marks the beginning of adolescence, the dawn
of mature development. It is not so much an act of Nature
as the consummation of processes that have been at work
for years, but which burst into fruition at this time.
Adolescence is a period that works great changes in the
entire nature of a girl. Her tastes, habits, disposition,
thoughts, emotions in short, her whole physical being
and whole spiritual character undergo a revolution. She
enters it a child ; she emerges a woman. She enters
it raw, unformed, perhaps unattractive ; she comes from
it full, rounded, matured.
176 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
The intellectual changes are most gigantic during this
time. Among no people are these so marked as among
the Caucasian race. The physical changes are almost
equally great. The sign of puberty is the menstrual flow,
which consists of the emission from the womb of a fluid
having the appearance and consistency of venal blood.
The beginning of this flow marks the beginning of the
period. It is a sign that the girl has now reached the
degree of development in which her generative organs are
capable of their full functions. The capabilities of
maternity exist in active operation. Childhood has passed
away forever. Maidenhood and womanhood, with al!
that these imply of happiness and hardship, are upon
her.
Evidence of the Approach of the Menses.
The functions of the generative organs of woman are
not always established without subjecting her to annoy
ances ; nay, even to suffering and affliction, which need
not only counsel but also medical aid.
A woman is subject to menstruation during the best
period of her life. During this period of thirty or more
years of her womanhood, her health is, in a great
measure, dependent upon the accomplishment of that
function ; and, according to the success or failure of that
process, she either flourishes in the enjoyment of health
or languishes in pain and weakness. Previous to this she
has given her parents no special care or anxiety, but has
been allowed to run, play and romp like a boy. Puberty,
EVIDENCE OF THE APPROACH OF THE MENSES.
although apparently sudden, is effected gradually, and
not always without accident. Its manifestation in menstrua
tion may be normal, or so abnormal as to constitute a
real malady.
A girl, apparently in a state of perfect health, may be
taken in such acute and severe symptoms as to lead a
mother to suspect indications of a severe malady. A
mother may be misled by the singular complaints into the
belief that the sickness is feigned when her daughter
should be the object of her sincere sympathy. Again, an
ignorant attendant, believing the indisposition to be an
accidental attack of colic from indigestion or otherwise, may
fill the child to drunkenness with alcoholic stimulants.
Menstrual colic may be confounded with the symptoms of
worms, and she may be medicated for that ailment, very
much to the detriment of her health.
It must not, however, be ignored that the symptoms
are not frequently very obscure and confusing. Acute
pain, accompanied with some degree of tightness and
oppression, may suggest flatulency, while irregular and
heavy pain may suggest the presence of worms. Yet the
age of the girl, the suddenness of the attack in the midst
of good health, and the periodical return of these indis
positions, the regularity of the pulse, the natural condition
of the skin, the cleanness of the tongue, the absence of
indigestion or diarrhea, the shortness of the pain, and
especially coldness of the feet, when present, should
suggest rather a preparation for the menstrual flow.
These symptoms may generally be met by baths of
178 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
hot water to the feet, hot or flaxseed-meal poultices
applied to the abdomen ; or, if need be, by warm " sitz
baths." If there should be neuralgia, pain in the chest or
otherwise, some anodyne, such as a full dose of paregoric,
might well be administered. She is a wise mother who
does not allow this period to come unwarned upon her
daughter. An indiscretion, ignorantly committed, may
jeopardize the health of the whole after-life. A few words
of instruction and wise counsel, not to alarm, but to
prepare the daughter, may save a life.
Age of Puberty.
Menstruation, in this country, generally commences
at the age of from thirteen to sixteen ; sometimes earlier,
at eleven or twelve ; at other times later, and not until a
girl is seventeen or eighteen years of age. Menstruation
is supposed to commence at an earlier period in cities
than in the country ; amid luxury than in simple life.
Upon this point an authority says : " In the human
female the age of puberty, or of commencing aptitude for
procreation, is usually between the thirteenth and six
teenth years. It is generally thought to be somewhat
earlier in warm climates than in cold, and in densely-
populated manufacturing towns than in thinly-populated
agricultural districts. The mental and bodily habits of
the individual have also considerable influence upon the
time of its occurrence. Girls brought up in the midst of
luxury or sensual indulgence undergo the change earlier
than those reared in hardihood and self-denial."
AGE OF PUBERTY. 179
To these general rules there are upon record some
apparently remarkable exceptions. The writer is familiar
with instances where the solicitude of parents has been
excited by the long delay of this constitutional change ;
others, where it took place at a very tender age, without
producing any marked influence upon the general health.
A French writer relates a case where a child of three
years underwent all the physical changes incident to
puberty and grew to be a healthy woman. But Ameri
cans will not be outdone by any other nation, and a
medical journal has recently related an instance in which
a child at birth had regular monthly changes, and the
full physical development that marks the perfect woman.
In very warm climates, such as Abyssinia and India,
girls menstruate when quite young, at even ten or eleven
years ; indeed, they are sometimes mothers at this age.
But the maturity that begins early ends early, and they are
old women at thirty. Physically we know there is a very
large latitude in the periods of human maturity, not merely
among individuals, but among nations ; differences so
great that in some southern regions of Asia we hear of
matrimony at the age of twelve years.
Dr. Montgomery in his work on this subject refers to
some very interesting cases of early maturity. He says :
" Bruce mentions that in Abyssinia he has frequently seen
mothers at the age of eleven years. " Dr. Goodeve,
professor of midwifery at Calcutta, in reply to an inquiry
upon thi3 subject said : " The earliest age at which I have
known a Hindoo woman to bear a child is ten years, but I
ISO MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
have heard of one at nine." In his own practice, in a
period of almost thirty years, the earliest age at which the
author has known a woman to become a mother was
thirteen years. The child, though fairly developed and
looking healthy, lived only a few days. The mother lived
a few years and died of consumption. This instance of
early maturity was attributed to the habits of family life.
In the cold climates, such as Russia, women begin to
menstruate late in life, frequently not until they are twenty
or thirty years old ; and, as menstruation continues from
thirty to thirty-five years, it is not an unusual occurrence
for them to bear children at the advanced age of sixty.
They are frequently not regular oftener than three or four
times a year, and the menstrual discharge, when it does
occur, is generally scanty.
Race has an influence on the time of puberty. It has
been observed that in the same latitude certain types of
women are more precocious than others ; there may be
a constitutional predisposition to early maturity. It will
be seen, however, in almost every case, that the climate
has an indirect influence. The Hebrew girl, no matter
where she may be found, almost invariably reaches her
menstrual period a year or more in advance of her Germanic
or Anglo-Saxon sisters. One reason for this undoubt
edly is that the Hebrew race is native to tropical, or semi-
tropical, climes. True, it is scattered throughout the
earth, and is found everywhere, but these people, in all
their history, have kept themselves apart ; they have
intermingled with no other race. They are to-day as
AGE OF PUBERTY. l8l
much a " peculiar people," in a physiological sense, as
they were in the days of their father, Abraham. Through
all the ages they have maintained their race characteristics,
so that, virtually, the Jewish maiden has the constitutional
peculiarities she inherits from a race that is indigenous to
a southern latitude, even though neither she nor her
immediate progenitors has ever been in such a climate.
Creoles and Negro girls menstruate in early life. In
this, too, the constitution has much to do in determining
the precocity. In the case of the Creole, there is the
warm blood of a Southern race. The same is true of the
Quadroon, Octoroon, or pure negress. Decades may
have passed since any "of the family of the girl dwelt in a
warm climate, but the inherited constitution still shows its
influence.
Temperament exercises an influence on puberty. The
fact is ascertained, though the reason be not apparent.
Brunettes reach the age of puberty sooner, as a rule, than
blondes. Girls of black eyes and hair are more precocious
than those of blue eyes and light hair. The nervo-bilious
temperament matures earlier than the phlegmatic or lym
phatic.
Habits of life, physical and emotional, tend to expedite
or retard this epoch. A regular life, with hygienic habits
of eating and drinking, healthful exercise and labor, with
no social dissipation, will allow the girl to pass to the full
natural time of puberty. On the other hand, idleness,
dissipation in diet, especially in richness of quality, drink,
stimulants and social dissipation tend to prematurity in
this epoch.
1 82 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
The excitation of certain emotions, particularly those
tending to sexual passion, influence early puberty. Late
hours, loss of sleep, sensational reading, voluptuous
music, often tend to premature development. Girls in a
city, as a rule, menstruate from six to eight months earlier
than those in the country, in the same latitude and of the
same temperament. The reason is found in the difference
in the physical life and habits of the two. The former
lead a more idle and dissipated life than the latter, who
live more out of doors and perform harder and more con
stant labor.
The period of puberty is attended with many serious
dangers to the health of the maiden. It is the time when
constitutional defects are most likely to manifest them
selves, and when inherited predisposition to certain dis
eases is most likely to blossom into activity. A child
with a tendency to consumption, for example, or scrofula,
epilepsy, or something of the sort, is most likely to give
evidence of the disease at this time. The buoyancy and
elasticity of childhood may have carried the girl through
that era without developing any trace of the hereditary
tendency. The great change that now takes place in her
life will call out the malady. The two years of puberty
are critical. They condition the after-life largely. There
is no time in life when the laws of hygiene should be
more scrupulously observed than now. Nothing can sur
pass, in point of importance, the care of the health during
this time. Four words comprise the hygiene of this
epoch food, exercise, rest and sleep.
AGE OF PUBERTY. 183
Particular attention should be given to the diet. The
quantity of food required is more than has been necessary
hitherto. Its quality should be plain ; it should be simply
prepared, nutritious, and taken with scrupulous regularity.
The system requires to be nourished, and nourished lav
ishly. Nothing more effectually invites the implantation
of the seeds of disease than a starved condition of the
system. Nothing better precludes these germs than a
well-nourished condition. The appetite is likely to be
whimsical and capricious, and is no certain index of the
real wants of the system. Reason, supported by experi
ence and scientific authority, must guide.
Stimulants, such as tea and coffee, and certainly all
wines, should be prohibited. Nothing is better than
good, fresh milk. It is nutritious and especially rich in
nitrogen. Vegetables rich in oils and fat meats are pecul
iarly beneficial during these periods. These tend greatly
to ward off that most terrible of all maladies at this most
common time of attack consumption.
Pleasant, exhilarating exercise should be taken reg
ularly. Let this be in the air and sunshine as much as
possible. Less work than usual must be done. Severe
discipline in physical and mental labor must not be
enforced. Over-exertion is potent in bringing on diseases.
Above all things, plenty of sleep should be allowed. If
the girl be disposed to be tardy in dressing in the morn
ing as she will be this should be encouraged. Loss
of sleep at night is not to be allowed, nor dissipation and
exposure to extremes of cold and heat.
1 84 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
The beginning of menstruation marks the consumma
tion of the changes which have been taking place during
puberty. With the commencement of the monthly dis
charge dates the end of childhood and the beginning of
womanhood. In this latitude, the average time for the
menses to set in is fourteen years and six months. It
varies from the average in different cases, and for reasons
some of which have been mentioned. Once established,
this flow will recur at regular intervals, from twenty-five to
thirty days apart. In common calculation, the time is put
at a month s interval, hence the name " mense," or month.
This interval will hold good with perhaps three of every
four women in health. During the first two years there
is likely to be some irregularity, both in the recurrence of
the intervals and in the continuance of the flow. After
that time, there will be greater conformity to the general
rule. With about one of every four women there is vari
ation, some exceeding the average time of four weeks
interval and others having the recurring discharges more
frequently. Cases are known where there was sickness
every sixteen or eighteen days. Others where the
" monthly" did not come for thirty-six and forty days.
Variation from the rule is no cause for alarm. Every
woman is a law unto herself in this matter. She may be
as regular with periods six weeks apart as her sister with
only four weeks intervening. As long as the general
health remains good Nature is working to the best rule.
No woman can pass beyond or anticipate the interval to
which her condition is adapted and maintain good health.
AGE OF PUBERTY. I 85
Body and mind will both suffer from such irregularity.
As long, then, as the general health does not suffer, the
times of the monthly sickness need give no concern.
The times in which the flow continues vary consider
ably. The average is a little over four days, or from two
to six days. It rarely is less than of two days continu
ance, and as rarely exceeds six. If the latter should ever
occur, the presumption is that something is wrong, and
medical counsel should be had. The amount of the dis
charge is generally from three to five ounces. Climate
influences the quantity, as do also temperament, robust
ness, and habits of life. In cold climates the discharge is
less, in tropical regions more, than the average. With
brunettes and those women of strong, sanguine tempera
ment, there is a greater quantity discharged at each
period. Habits of indolence and luxury affect the quan
tity, increasing it beyond that of those whose lives are
spent industriously and with few comforts of home or
table. Delicate and feeble women generally have more
profuse menstruation than robust and strong ones.
The office of the menses in reproduction is important.
On either side of the womb, and about four inches from it,
are two small bodies, called the ovaries. These are con
nected with the womb by a small tube. These ovaries
contain numberless vesicles of infinitesimal size, which pass
from time to time into the womb. These vesicles are
called ova or eggs. One of these ova ripens, so to speak,
once a month, and passes into the womb. Its passage
into the womb is attended by all the physical disturbances
1 86 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
of menstruation. In fact, menstruation is the manifest
evidence of the ripening of a new ovum.
This ovum remains in the womb for from ten to fifteen
days after the cessation of the menstrual flow. If, during
its stay in the womb, it should come in contact with the
spermatozoa of the male semen, it is vitalized, and the
germ of a new life is developed. If, however, no coition
be indulged, the ovum dies and is discharged. Some
women assert that they are conscious of the time when the
expulsion of the ovum from the uterus through the vagina
is made ; but this is questionable. Menstruation, then, is
simply the process of ripening an egg and depositing it in
the womb, the proper receptacle for containing it for
purposes of conception.
The normal condition of menstruation is that in which
the discharges occur at regular intervals, however long or
short these may be. It is Nature s way of perpetuating
the race, and of maintaining the equilibrium of the health
of the woman during this part of her life. The health of
the procreative organs depends upon the regularity of the
menstrual discharges. When, for any cause, the menstru
ation is interfered with, there is a local disturbance in the
reproductive organs, followed by a disturbance of the
whole system. During the child-bearing period of
woman, menstruation is the balance-wheel of her health.
As it is, so is her general condition. Not infrequently,
however, there are functional disturbances of menstruation.
A brief account of these may be given.
CAUSES OF FUNCTIONAL DISORDERS.
Causes of Functional Disorders.
The causes of functional derangement of menstruation
may be divided into two general classes remote and
immediate. The first are more likely to be overlooked
than the second. Women of lymphatic temperament are
more prone to scanty menstruation, leucorrhea (or whites)
and hysteria ; while the sanguine and nervous are more
liable to excessive and painful menstruation. Where the
nervous temperament predominates, the susceptibility to
excitement and to external impressions predisposes the
person to conditions which disturb the natural exercise of
the menstrual functions.
A want of proper nourishment impoverishes the blood,
lessens the vital force, weakens the heart s action, and
thereby interferes with the proper distribution of the
blood. The ovaries and the womb soon suffer from this
lack of proper distribution of the vital fluid, and we have
the evidence of the suffering in the scanty, pale, watery
menstrual fluid, leucorrhea, and relaxation of the muscles
and appendages surrounding the womb. While a want of
food is attended with bad effects in the manner referred
to, excessive food, on the other hand, has its evil -result.
Overtaxing the stomach weakens its digestive powers and
prevents proper nutrition. This overfeeding, and
especially of very rich and highly-seasoned dishes, over
loads and irritates the system, until the ovaries and womb
manifest their sympathy by painful menstruation, etc.
Vitiated air is another very fruitful source of general
[88 MAIL^NHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
debility in women and derangement of their menstrual
functions. A distinguished writer on the subject of pure
air remarks: " Humanity dwells in a sea of air, as fish dwell
in a sea of water ; and as the latter must be affected by
the quality of water, so must the former be affected by
the quality of the atmosphere." How important for the
healthful performance of the functions of the body that
the air, with which we fill our lungs at every inspiration,
be not freighted with such impurities as disturb these
functions, and even implant the seeds of death.
Exercise is one of the most important factors in
remedying functional derangements of the sexual organs.
Exercise is said to be the harmonizer between supply and
waste, or nourishment and decay. When properly con
ducted, it gives vigor and strength to the body, and
assists all the organs in the performance of their functions.
Deprive a woman of sunshine, air and exercise, and she
becomes enervated ; the functions of her genitive organs
languish ; she loses her bright tints and colors ; general
debility follows, and, as a consequence, general disturb
ance of the organs of generation. It may be added that
loss of sleep through social dissipation is a fruitful source
of derangement and consequent disease. Sleep, next to
food and exercise, is a natural hygiene. It is the third in
the triad of health preservatives.
Amenorrhea, OP Suppression of the Menses.
This means the absence of menstruation. It may
happen in different circumstances. Menstruation may
have never made its appearance. Menstruation may have
AMENORRHEA, OR SUPPRESSION OF TH J MENSES. 189
been established, and suppression may be suddenly
brought about, attended with acute symptoms, and hence
may very properly be termed acute suppression, or there
may be no special disturbance at the time, but it may
continue long enough to be denominated chronic sup
pression.
Some pathologists add to these two, partial suppres
sion that is, either when there is a deficiency in
quantity, or infrequency in the periodical return.
And you might add retention of the menstrual fluid
either in the uterus or vagina, or both, after having been
effused. This retention, although it fill all the require
ments of the definition of suppression of menstruation, is
distinct in many respects, giving rise to a different set of
symptoms and requiring a very different kind of treat
ment. It will be treated under the head of physical
dysmenorrhea. Whether we have the legitimate right to
regard the failure of an organ to support its functions as
a distinct malady, may be questioned, but, in view of the
quantity of fluid excreted and the importance of the
functions of menstruation, suppression may be the cause
of very grave disease.
The causes of suppression of menstruation are physical
or constitutional and accidental. When there is suppres
sion of menstruation, either on account of the absence of
the organs of generation or for the want of sufficient
development of these organs, the cause of suppression may
be called physical. Such cases, however, do not usually
show any special inconvenience as a result of suppression.
I9O MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
Professor Byford says : " The non-appearance of the
menses on account of the absence of the uterus is not
usually attended with the chronic suffering I have alluded
to. Ordinarily, and, indeed, in all the cases of this kind
to which my attention has been called, the patients
appeared to be perfectly well. One of these patients
was thirty-three years ot age, another twenty-seven, and
a third twenty-two, and all of them were in perfectly good
health."
The same author, .n speaking of amenorrhea patients,
whose uterine organs were not sufficiently developed,
says : " I have had occasion to see and examine and
watch for several years two cases of chronic amenorrhea
from deficient development of the uterus and perhaps of
the ovaries. They were both married. One of them is
twenty-eight years of age and has been married nine
years, has never menstruated, has no sexual desire, but
lives happily with her husband. The other has been
married three years, is twenty-five years of age and
resembles the first completely."
From these examples it will be seen that the absence
of the menses is not the cause of all the nervous suffering
that we usually find associated with it. But it is the
result of a condition of the uterus and organs associated
with it. The degree of sensibility of the sexual organs,
the temperament, and the organization of the uterine
organs, may be constitutional causes.
Whenever any constitutional weakness exists, any
immediate cause will act as an auxiliary in producing
AMENORRHEA, ETC. 191
suppression of the menses. Anything that lowers the
vital forces of the system may act as an immediate cause,
such as poor nourishment, sedentary life, unhealthy apart
ments, overwork, late hours ; also, moral affections, such
as sadness, grief, disappointment, etc., excessive hemorr
hages from any organ, debilitating diseases, such as fevers,
tuberculosis, etc. Occasionally the suppression of the
menses in tuberculosis may be the first symptom that
causes any alarm, and that induces the subject to consult
a physician. But any serious malady, such as we have
referred to, is usually well developed before the symptom
of suppression appears. Prominent among the accidental
causes of suppression are sudden exposure to cold when
the body is overheated, ablutions of the body in cold
water, or exposing the feet, or, with some, even the hands
in cold water, ice-cold drinks, or ice-cream, sudden loss
of a large quantity of blood from the womb or otherwise,
any great mental shock, excessive pains, etc. any of
these accidental causes occurring at the time of the return
of the menstrual period may induce suppression. Change
of the clothing during menstruation will produce suppres
sion with a great many women.
The local symptoms which attend the absence of the
menses will be varied according to the nature of the
causes which give rise to it. If the patient has commenced
to menstruate, and from some accidental cause the flow
has suddenly stopped, it may be regarded as acute
suppression, and we will have the symptoms of great
congestion or inflammation. There will be pain in the
192 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
back, abdomen and hips, accompanied by a sense of
chilliness more or less severe. This will be followed by
fever, pain in the head, pain in the limbs, general languor,
white coat upon the tongue, and a persistent pain over
the region of the uterus. These symptoms would suggest
inflammation of the uterus. After a few days these
symptoms may subside, and be followed by a re-establish
ment of the discharge, or they may gradually disappear
without any return at this period leaving more or less
discomfort in the pelvis. If there be no serious disturb
ance of the uterine organs, the menses will reappear at
the next period, but not usually with that freedom and
comfort that have been their wont, but with more or less
pain, which may be manifest at each successive period.
At other times the discharge fails entirely to appear
at the appointed time, and the case becomes chronic, and
may continue for a length of time. If this should be the
case, chronic inflammation of the uterus or womb and
ovaries may be expected as a result of the acute attack,
and from a reflex sympathy, resulting from a morbid
condition of these organs. The stomach, bowels, and all
the organs connected with the process of digestion, are
disturbed. The appetite may be capricious. The
irritable stomach rejects food, or may be troubled by
nausea ; the heart becomes irregular and often palpitates ;
the head is full and heavy, and often painful, especially in
the upper and posterior part ; there are ringing or strange
sounds in the ears ; in short " nothing well, but every
thing sick. "
AMENORRHEA, ETC. 193
Women thus affected give external evidence of their
condition by general pallor ; their faces are puffed, their
flesh flabby and their movements languid ; they easily
become the prey of moral influences, and are " blue " or
melancholy. This depressed or debilitated condition
makes patients subject to such disorders as neuralgia,
hysterics, hypochondria and dropsical effusions, either
partial or general ; the latter will be manifest in the eye
lids, feet and other places.
Farther delineation of symptoms of suppression of
menstruation is deemed unnecessary, since from what has
been said, and the natural instinct of the human mind
there will be but little trouble in understanding the nature
of the disease. If the disease continue the conse
quences are generally serious, and medical aid should
be solicited.
This character of menstrual trouble frequently puts a
physician in an uncomfortable position if the patient be
unmarried. The writer has frequently been called to
prescribe for patients of this kind where it was their hope
that he might overlook the real cause of the suppression
and administer some remedy that might successfully
relieve their real trouble. Some patients appear to be
quite ignorant of the proper treatment of suppression, and
hope that the physician may prescribe some emenagogue
sufficiently active to produce abortion. If this be a
correct suspicion they are gravely mistaken in the ability
of the profession. There is no reasonable probability
that any doctor of medicine would be so ignorant as to
make such an egregious blunder.
194 / MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
Amenorrhea is not necessarily a grave affection unless
complicated with great constitutional disturbances or
dependent upon some serious cause. It is usually only a
delay and can be easily righted with proper treatment.
The periodicals of the day abound in advertisements
of quack nostrums for the ready relief and permanent cure
of this disease. Against the use of such remedies the
public cannot be too urgently warned. They are unsafe.
No woman should knowingly allow any medicine to enter
into an organ of^such importance to her happiness as the
stomach without either understanding something about it
herself, or having it prescribed by some person she
knows, and in whose honesty and ability she has
confidence.
Hygiene of Suppressed Menses.
A properly-regulated regimen will do much not only
to prevent amenorrhea, but will contribute largely to its
cure. A liberal, good, nourishing diet consisting of
cream and all-wheat porridge, bread abundantly supplied
with good, fresh butter, roast and boiled meat, will be a
suitable diet for patients whose suppression depends upon
debility and lymphatic temperament, and who have not
been well nourished. Baths, with free frictions over the
body, warm clothing and appropriate exercise, especially
on horseback, will contribute largely to restore the lost
powers of the system that have interrupted the natural
functions of the body. A trip to the seashore or to the
mountain with pleasant social attendants, and with a
HYGIENE OF SUPPRESSED MENSES. 195
generous diet, have often proved sufficient to restore to the
sunken, pallid cheek its lost size and color.
There is, however, another class of subjects, of the
strong, sanguine temperament, whose diet should consist
of bland, light nourishment. Nothing stimulating either
of food or drink should be taken, and the patient should
have complete rest. The general tendency of the physi
cal economy of the system is toward restoration. At the
same time proper means may be employed to assist the
patient to a re-establishment of the menses, such as warm
drinks of pennyroyal or ginger tea, and warm foot-baths
or hip-baths, which will be found particularly efficient.
Such treatment is attended with very satisfactory results,
when suppression of menstruation has been induced by
exposure to cold or dampness, or arrested perspiration.
The patient should be put to bed and covered with
warm blankets, and, if general and free perspiration do
not soon follow, it should be assisted by warm irons,
bricks, or what is still better, gum (rubber) bags filled
with hot water. If there be pain, warm compresses wrung
out of hot water should be applied to the vulva and lower
part of the abdomen.
If the suppression be caused by excessive mental
impressions as anger, fright or grief means should be
instituted to allay nervous irritability and restore harmony
between the operations of the mind and the bodily organs.
This will usually be accomplished by a general warm bath,
with gentle friction and quiet.
When the suppression is accompanied with excessive
196 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
pain, a sitz-bath, warm fomentations, or hot poultices and
injections of large quantities of hot water will be very use
ful. When, however, the suppression is the result of
moral causes, a wise discrimination on the part of both
parents and physician will be essentially necessary to
overcome the accustomed manner of life. Until this be
accomplished, medication will generally fall short of effect
ing any satisfactory results ; in such cases, change of
climate, change of scenery and surroundings, and attract
ive places of amusement will be found fruitful auxiliaries
to the restoration of the patient s health.
The free use of furruginous waters that is, waters
impregnated with iron sea baths, etc., will be well
suited to the lymphatic temperament. If the suppression
be caused by mental excitement in love affairs, marriage
will be found a satisfactory means of permanent relief.
For all ordinary cases of suppressed menstruation, a
regular action of the bowels should be had once or twice
daily by the use of pills made of equal parts of myrrh and
aloes. Tincture of iron in fifteen to twenty drop doses,
three or four times daily, between the periods of menstru
ation and when its premonitory symptoms set up, warm
baths and hot teas, as has already been suggested, will, if
persisted in, be followed by satisfactory results.
Nervine root, as a domestic remedy and one that is
quite safe, is very efficient. Take a handful of the root,
cleanse well, bruise and boil a few minutes in a quart of
water, and let the patient take half a teacupful of the
tea three or four times a day, commencing a few days
MENORRHAGIA OR EXCESSIVE MENSTRUATION. 197
before the expected time for the menses to appear. Or
bitters may be made thus : A good handful of nervine
root, cleansed well, cut in small pieces and bruised, aloes
one ounce, cinnamon and allspice, of each half an ounce,
nutmeg one-quarter ounce, powdered ; whisky one quart ;
let the mixture stand a week, and take a dessert-spoonful
three times daily. If the bowels should be too loose,
lessen the quantity, or increase if not sufficiently open.
If these hygienic directions be followed and aided by these
simple remedies, and success do not crown the efforts,
medical counsel should at once be secured.
Menopphagia OP. Excessive Menstpuation.
This disease has three phases; menstruation may be
too profuse, too prolonged, or too frequent.
The quantity of the blood lost at a single menstrual
period varies largely in different women, and sometimes
in the same woman. What would be excessive for one
woman would not be more than normal for another.
Every woman has a knowledge of her average, either as
regards quantity or duration. A woman may be said to
have menorrhagia whenever she discharges more in the
same time than she is wont to do ; when her periodical
flow is prolonged beyond the usual time ; and when it
recurs oftener than once a month, the waste being in
excess of the monthly allowance.
As before stated, the normal period of menstruation is
once every four weeks. The writer has known a few
persons, in the enjoyment of fair health, who, all their
198 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
menstrual life, flowed every three weeks. The quantity
lost at each time is estimated to be about six ounces, and
the usual duration four or five days. But quite a wide
latitude must be given both to quantity and duration.
The writer knew a widowed lady, the mother of one
child, who menstruated regularly every twenty-eight
days, and never wasted at any one time more than a few
drops, barely a stain. Should this woman flow as much
as women usually do, she would have menorrhagia, and
would require attention and treatment.
In menorrhagia, then, the quantity must be an unusual
one to the person complaining, as some women discharge
half a pint regularly and enjoy good health. The normal
quantity in each individual depends upon constitution and
temperament. An inordinate discharge depends upon
temperament, and a free and strong circulation. Such
temperaments predispose a determination of blood to any
organ under excessive excitement. Hence, the womb, at
the menstrual crisis, would fulfill this condition, and be
subject to an abundant flow of menstrual fluid. An
excessive quantity, however, is usually dependent upon a
debilitated condition of the system.
There is another class of patients whose passions are
strong ; on being exposed to over-excitement, from reflex
action, their blood might determine to the generative
organs, producing a degree of congestion that Nature
would relieve by excessive menstruation. A state of
luxury, indolence and indulgence debilitates the system
so that it frequently happens that persons of a
MENORRHAGIA OR EXCESSIVE MENSTRUATION. 199
sanguine temperament are comparatively weaker than
others who possess a less degree of constitutional vitality.
In such cases the vital powers are exhausted by some
morbid stimulus, enfeebling the tissues, producing anemia,
which results in an unrestrained flow of the menstrual
fluid. Whenever, therefore, the quantity is increased
much beyond what is natural, notwithstanding a sanguine
t emperament, it should be deemed excessive and means
adopted for restoration.
Another class of women who are liable to menorrhagia
are the nervous and irritable ; also those who are corpu
lent and of indolent habits and live in warm climates or
occupy rooms of high temperature, have a predisposition
to this variety of menstrual disturbance.
In addition to the foregoing constitutional tendency to
menorrhagia, there is another class of cases that may be
called accidental such as are induced by exposure to
sudden transitions of temperature, violent exercise of any
kind, an excessive use of emenagogues to force menstrua
tion, excessive indulgence in either eating or drinking,
ifting heavy weights, falls, frights, or undue excitement
of the passions.
There is a difference of opinion, however, among-
authorities as to the direct cause of menorrhagia. Some
mention that the disease is local and not constitutional,
and is due to irritation and inflammation of the womb and
ovaries. The morbid sensitiveness, weakness and other
disturbances present are not causes, but consequences
of the diseased condition induced by reflex action. Prof.
200 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
Byford says " that it would seem probable that menor-
rhagia would be the rule with uterine inflammation, but
such is not the case. I am not sure that even a majority
of patients have it. "
Very respectable authorities assert that, in many
instances, the disease is entirely constitutional and not
local. This seems to be the more accurate theory.
Hence it is quite important for persons suffering this
affliction to consult a physician, who may, upon due
investigation, determine the cause in the case before
him.
Women frequently suffer from hemorrhage from the
uterus, which should not be confounded with menor-
rhagia, since both are accompanied with an excessive flow
of blood from the birth-place. These long-continued,
excessive flows of blood, accompanying some cases of
menorrhagia, might not improperly be called passive
hemorrhage, but active hemorrhage may take place in any
organ, as the stomach, lungs, etc., and is quite common
from the uterus, as a result of accidental causes. It may
be induced from pregnancy, abortion, a blow, or a sharp
instrument; also, by polypus, or tumor, cancer, or any
serious ulceration of the womb. Unlike menorrhagia it
has no regular period of occurrence nor of cessation, but
will continue as long as the local cause producing it
remains. Therefore there is a necessity for immediate
interference, as a human life may be in jeopardy. In
menorrhagia, the waste may be freet>r long-continued and
the patient s strength largely wasted by the excessive
HYGIENIC TREATMENT. 2OI
drain upon the vital fluid of the system, yet there is
always sufficient time for the administration of proper
remedies for relief.
Hygienic Treatment.
Hygienic treatment in this disease is of great impor
tance, and should be administered with such judgment as
to meet the indications in each particular variety of con
stitutional cause. If the patient be of sanguine tempera
ment and the cause mental excitement, the cause should
be removed and quiet and unstimulating food be enjoined.
If the cause arise from over-taxing the mind by excessive
exertion in any laudable calling, or undue ambition to
excel in any department of study, entire remission in such
pursuits will be essentially necessary. If the mind do
not rest, but be kept under such continual exhaustion, it
will lower the vital forces of every organ of the body.
Plethoric persons should be confined to a vegetable
diet with acidulated drinks; these lessen the heart s action
and relieve the pressure of blood on the uterine organs.
If the menorrhagia be dependent upon anemia, debility,
or any exhausted condition of the system, a liberal
dietary exercise adapted to the debilitated condition of
the patient and proper use of the bath-room should be
enjoined.
Menorrhagia resulting from inflammation or structural
disease of the womb is not within the scope of this work,
but need only be referred to, that the patient be entreated,
inasmuch as she values health, that she should consign
202 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
herself at once to the care of an honest and intelligent
physician, giving an unreserved account of all she knows
of the origin of her trouble, thus suitable and effective
means may be adopted for its removal.
Medical Treatment.
A few suggestions in reference to treatment by medi
cation are all that need be given. If there be anemia or
debility, tonics are indicated. Tincture of iron in doses
of from fifteen to twenty drops may be given three or
four times daily, with a pill made of equal parts of aloes
and myrrh.
Fowler s solution of arsenic in from three to eight
drop doses, will be found an invaluable remedy, taken
three times daily, if it does not materially affect the
bowels. Some persons are very susceptible to this influ
ence of the remedy. It will be found to almost always
arrest the excessive flow in any variety of the disease if
given in sufficient quantity and oft-repeated. But, for
this method of administration, it is too potent a remedy
to be entrusted in the hands of the inexperienced.
If the skin be dry and the wasting profuse, the admin
istration of eight to ten grains of Dover s powders will be
attended with beneficial results.
Injections of cold water, or alum and water, in pro
portions of one ounce of alum to one pint of water, and
used at intervals will be found useful.
Tea made of cinnamon bark or nutmeg, which can be
found in every kitchen, will always be at hand, and
frequently does much good.
DYSMENORRHEA OR PAINFUL MENSTRUATION. 2O3
Dysmenorrhea or Painful Menstruation.
Dysmenorrhea is one of the most trying afflictions to
which woman is subject. It is attended with the most
intense suffering during its continuance, and the memory
of it is carried over into the next return. The suffering
is most intense, which is in itself a sufficient cause for
sympathy. Its periodicity at such brief intervals and for
so many years of the best part of life, is agonizing to
contemplate. No one but the patient can understand the
full measure of the pain endured at such times. It is to
be deplored that with all the advancement of medical
science, the most energetic treatment has very frequently
proved abortive. However, this failure may be the result
of a misconception of the cause of the difficulty. Painful
menstruation can no more be reckoned and treated as an
independent disease than can dropsy. Both are but the
evidences of a deeper and more subtle trouble.
Congestion or inflammation of the mucous membrane
of the uterus is attended with a fibrous exudation which
tenaciously adheres to it. This exudation often thickens
on the membrane and is expelled in fragments or in the
shape of a sack, attended with bearing-down pains like
those of child-birth. When the adhesion is very firm,
the uterus will contract violently and spasmodically, and
for hours or days the suffering of the patient will be most
excruciating ; in such cases pregnancy is nearly impos
sible, but, when it does occur, it frequently ends the
trouble.
204 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
Dysmenorrhea is occasionally of neuralgic or rheumatic
origin, or due to nervous irritability of the womb, the
spasmodic stricture of its mouth interfering with a free
flow of the menstrual fluid, causing partial retention, and
giving time for the blood to coagulate, each coagulation
having to be thrust out by the contractile force of the
womb.
Displacement or fluxion of the womb, tumors, or any
mechanical obstruction may make menstruation difficult
and painful. Women of sanguine and nervous tempera
ment are predisposed to dysmenorrhea, particularly when
they indulge in indolence, rich food, ardent spirits, wines,
the pleasures of the sexes, or exposed to mental impres
sions of an exciting character. It is mostly a disease of
unmarried women, and marriage frequently cures it.
There are manifold direct and accidental causes for
this affection. Any shock of the system may induce it in
subjects predisposed to it. Moral disturbances, sudden
transitions from one extreme of temperature to another,
and any morbid affection of other organs, are causes of
this complaint.
The symptoms of dysmenorrhea are usually of a very
violent character. They frequently commence three or
four days before menstruation, and continue to increase
in severity until the flow has begun fairly. They are
aggravated by an erect position. The patient complains
of pain in the back, extending to the groins, and pains all
over the lower part of the abdomen, radiating frequently
down the thighs. These pains may at first be sharp and
DYSMENORRHEA OR PAINFUL MENSTRUATION. 2O5
cutting, but gradually assume a colicky or spasmodic
character. The bloocl, or menses, flows slowly. It may
only be a mere stain upon the napkin; sometimes, how
ever, it is discharged in clots ; at other times, in
membranous shreds or fragments.
In some persons the excitement is very great, and not
infrequently produces hysteria or even convulsions. At
such periods of excitement the breasts swell and become
painful. The abdomen is frequently distended by gasses,
accompanied by a sense of heat extending over the soft
parts and into the vagina. The bladder at times sym
pathizes with this general disturbance, and then there may
be a frequent desire to pass urine, which is accompanied
with a burning or scalding sensation.
These symptoms are sometimes only premonitory and
cease as soon as the flow is established, but, more fre
quently, especially if the discharge is not free, they
continue, and are even intensified for several hours. They
may not disappear until the end of the discharge. The
flow is usually irregular, at times quite slight. It may,
for a short period, entirely cease, at which time the pain
is intensified and is followed by excessive wasting.
Especially is this the case in women of highly-nervous
temperament. In some women a free flow arrests the
pain instantly. In very young girls, little can be done in
a curative way until the womb is more fully developed.
Its cavity is quite small and is distended by a small
quantity of blood, which distention produces the pain.
When dysmenorrhea recurs at each menstrual period
2O6 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
for a long time, disorganization may be gradually induced
and permanent disease established, unless proper and
effective means be used to restore the parts to a healthy
condition. Pathologists differ somewhat in regard to the
cause of this painful malady. That as clear a view as is
proper within the limit of a work of this kind may be had,
the complaint will be divided into classes, the leading
characteristics of each being given.
Simple Dysmenopphea.
Simple dysmenorrhea is not complicated. It is either
nervous or neuralgic, and is due to the morbid sensitive
ness of either the uterus or ovaries. It is aggravated by
mental excitement, exposure to extremes of temperature,
fatigue, rheumatism, etc. A prominent characteristic
symptom is great tenderness over the abdominal region,
so that, upon the slightest pressure of the hand or clothing,
the pain is intensified. At the approach of the menstrual
period there is a sense of weight or fullness, with bearing
down. Pain, more or less severe, is felt shooting into the
bladder or rectum. When the flow commences the pain
often increases and becomes spasmodic, amounting to
cramp.
A young woman, while suffering extremely from such
paroxysms, once told the writer : " I would rather have a
baby than suffer in this way." Usually, in the course of
a few hours, the menstrual flow being fully established,
the pains subside gradually, to the great relief of the
patient. Occasionally they continue through the whole
ACCIDENTAL DYSMENORRHEA. 2O/
period. During the intervals of her " periods," she feels
entirely well, with no sensitiveness of the parts. This
proves that there is no local inflammation. In short, the
characteristic symptoms of this class are the suddenness of
the attack, its severity and paroxysmal character, and its
recurrence month after month without affecting the general
health.
Accidental Dysmenonrhea.
The accidental form is usually of little importance,
being the result of improprieties in hygiene on the part of
the woman, either immediately before or at the time of
menstruation ; exposure to cold, or by getting the feet
wet, or, with some, even putting the hands in cold water.
Over-fatigue or excitement will induce painful menstrua
tion, but the patient will be all right the next period.
Congestive Dysmenonrhea.
The congestive form may be easily distinguished from
the others by irregular discharges, voided in clots of
blood congestion in an excessive degree only, for
limited congestion is the cause of any flow, so the menses
are the necessary result of congestion. In this variety,
the blood-vessels are excessively enlarged, causing pain
and nervous sensibility, which may be brief but neverthe
less severe. This extreme nervous irritability may induce
vomiting, convulsions, or hysteria, which subside as soon
as the flow is sufficient to relieve the distention of the
blood-vessels.
208 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
Inflammatory Dysmenorrhea.
Another variety is called inflammatory. This may be
taken to include membranous, though the latter is treated
by some authorities as a distinct class. But, as the symp
toms of both are the same pain and fever and affect
the same organs, they can appropriately be considered as
one. This variety is not constitutional, but arises from
inflammation of the ovaries and uterus. It rarely com
mences at puberty, like the constitutional, but occurs at
any time in married and unmarried women. Whenever
that morbid condition of the womb and ovaries exists, the
suffering continues during the whole period of the men
strual flow, and leaves the parts tender for a time after it
ceases.
The whole system sympathizes with this local inflam
mation and increase of temperature, accompanied with
additional febrile symptoms, languor and anemia follow,
giving a general and continued evidence of physical
deterioration. The flow is accompanied with membranous
shreds. Sometimes the membrane will be discharged in
the form of a sack, or cast from the cavity of the uterus
without losing its shape or integrity. The discharge is
accompanied with severe pain. At other times there will
be present all the inflammatory symptoms, but none of the
shreds will be seen in the discharge.
Obstructive Dysmenorrhea.
The obstructive variety is the result of physical defect
in the uterine neck, such as constrictive deformities of
OBSTRUCTIVE DYSMENORRHEA. 2O9
structure, or malposition of the womb ; thickening of the
mucous membrane, resulting from previous and repeated
inflammations, adhesions, tumors, and closure of the
vagina. The symptoms of this variety do not materially
differ from the others, the characteristic symptoms being
excruciating pain of an expulsive character. The pain is
compared to colic, the term uterine colic being very
appropriate.
If obstructive dysmenorrhea be suspected, a skillful
physician should be called, that a thorough examination
of the uterus and its surroundings may be made. Should
it be caused by a tumor, the enlargement may be detected
through the abdominal walls. Displacement of the womb
maybe suspected if there be pain in the back, sensation
of bearing down, desire to void water, and voiding with
difficulty, or constant ineffectual desire to evacuate the
bowels. Entire closure of the passage may be suspected
if all the suffering and pain of dysmenorrhea be experi
enced without any discharge of menstrual fluid.
Some other varieties of dysmenorrhea are given by
authors, but they are not of sufficient importance to intro
duce here. The above will suffice to illustrate the nature
and gravity of the disease, and to prevent serious conse
quences arising from the neglect of efforts to prevent the
mildest form. An unwarranted modesty should not
prevent the patient from calling a physician, and submit
ting to such examination as may be necessary to as fully
as possible discover the real cause, that proper remedial
means may be adopted for complete relief.
210 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
It will be evident, from what has been said, that
dysmenorrhea, in some of its forms at least, is no trifling
ailment, although it does not frequently jeopardize life.
Many patients will tell you that if they could only die it
would be a pleasure ; that the thought of living only to
endure such suffering every few weeks is unendurable.
, Hygiene.
There is no disease where the rules of hygiene should
be more strictly observed than in this, the beneficial effects
being always apparent. Every possible means should be
used that will assist in the proper and healthy establish
ment of the menstrual function in young girls. If this
process begins with pain, they should be taken from
school, or any other place of confinement, and from all
excitement and mental labor. They should be allowed
perfect freedom of the open air, with suitable and healthy
amusements. The diet should be light, nutritious, and
largely vegetable. The strictest precaution should be
taken to see that the bowels be evacuated every day.
Constipation is at no time in harmony with health, and
frequently the cause of disorder.
It is not uncommon for mothers to seek relief for their
daughters by the free use of alcoholic stimulants. This
practice is not safe. It is dangerous, if it be a case of
inflammatory dysmenorrhea. The stimulant only adds
fuel to the fire. If there be much obstruction it can do
no good, and much harm may result if an undue appetite
foe created for this kind of mdulo;ence.
HYGIENE. 211
Stimulants, no doubt, may relieve in the neuralgic
variety, but, inasmuch as they do not cure, and may do
much harm, it would be better to consult a physician, so
that an intelligent line of treatment may be adopted and
carried into execution.
Opiates are frequently resorted to for this painful
trouble. These, administered intelligently, are a great
blessing in freeing the sufferer from such intense pain. If
they be indiscriminately used, at all times, they are
fraught with serious consequences. If the habit of opium-
eating should be established by such frequent resort to it,
the result would be that the cure would be worse than
the disease. The writer has been hailed as the messenger
of peace when he had administered about half a drachm
of bromide of potassium by the mouth and from one-half
to one-third grain of morphine hypodermically.
A very efficient remedy for much of the trouble in this
affection will be found in one-drachm doses of equal parts
of the fluid extract of blackhaw and Jamaica dogwood,
repeated every three or four hours.
Expectancy, no doubt, exerts a powerful influence over
this, as well as many other diseases. Not long since the
writer was called to the bedside of a young woman raised
in easy life, who had suffered more or less pain at every
menstrual period for a year or more, and whose symptoms
increased in severity at each change, until the pain resisted
not only all the remedies that had before in some
measure soothed it, but was altogether unbearable. After
he had failed to save relief with the sitz-bath and continued
212 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
injections of hot water (both of which he has found fre
quently very beneficial), he resorted to the morphine and
potassia, as above recommended, and soon the patient
was happy. At the time of the next period she was very
anxious to take a trip in company with a friend to the
State Fair, and visit her brother, who lived in the same
city where the fair was held, but her menses, which were
to occur at that time, appeared to be an insurmountable
barrier. Hence, she called on her physician to inquire if
she could not carry one of those* potions with her, and
take it at the approach of the pain. Seeing her anxiety
to make the trip, a potion was prepared, mixing together
the ingredients for convenience. The next day after her
arrival at the fair, while she was busying herself to see all
that was possible before her expected sickness, she was
happily surprised to find herself menstruating, with no
pain, and no need to take her medicine. The exercise,
with the diversion of the mind from her expected trouble,
had much to do in giving her entire freedom from pain.
It is observed that this disease occurs much more fre
quently among women who live in comparative ease than
with those who have plenty of exercise in the open air,
and busy themselves temperately in household duties.
Young women, daughters of men of means who have
servants to attend to all the household duties, dress them
selves in close-fitting attire, perhaps two or three times
daily, with an underdress (or corset) too tightly laced, that
presses on the abdomen, impeding the circulation of the
blood so important to the organs contained therein,
DISEASES FROM DERANGEMENT OF MENSTRUATION. 213
reducing the cavity and forcing the bowels down upon
the delicate organs of generation. In this condition they
sit about on low chairs, that have a tendency to increase
the pressure. Is it a surprise to find so many of them
afflicted with some species of female trouble ?
Diseases From Derangement of Menstruation.
The establishment of the menses is frequently subject
to the derangements of which mention has been made.
This development sometimes gives rise to certain diseases
peculiar to women and to this function. Among these
diseases may be named chlorosis or green sickness, chorea
or St. Vitus dance, hysteria, etc. A brief consideration
of these may be given here.
Chlorosis is not properly a disease of the generative
organs of women, and would not be entitled to a place in
this volume were it not that amenorrhea, or suppressed
menses, is connected with it. Its principal characteristics
are intense paleness of the skin, lips and lining membrane
of the eyelids. It is a paleness having a greenish hue
(from which the disease takes its name). At times the
color is yellow, when it is mistaken for jaundice. The
manifest and peculiar paleness of the lips and of the mem
brane over the eyeball, is a most infallible evidence of
this condition.
The disease is characterized by a lack of the red glob
ules in the blood, and transfusion of the watery portion
through the veins into the skin, causing dropsy of the
face, feet, and body. It is the dropsical condition that
214 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
gives the puffy appearance. This disease, when long
continued, gradually weakens the patient, whose system,
under the general anemia becomes deranged. The
appetite is lost or perverted to a desire for strange things,
such as slate-pencils, chalk, clay, salt, vinegar or pickles.
Then a sensation of weight oppresses the stomach ; diges
tion is retarded, giving rise to evolution and belching of
gas ; the respiration becomes labored, and palpitation of
the heart is induced by the slightest exercise or mental
excitement. This low condition predisposes the patient
to neuralgia, which may affect the head, the neck, the
eyes and the back or any other part of the body.
Various theories have been advanced by pathologists
regarding the exact nature of the disease. They agree
that the absence of menstruation is not so much the cause
as the consequence of disease. Although chlorosis gen
erally occurs at puberty, yet it may affect those who have
menstruated, and even married women.
The disease is generally curable, particularly in women
of good constitutions who have usually enjoyed healthy
food and pure air. The danger lies in the organic diseases
that may follow : Valvular diseases of the heart, dropsy,
paralysis, hemorrhages and consumption. The establish
ment of the menses is the most reliable sign of the return
of strength and health and of complete recovery.
Among the most common causes of chlorosis are great
mental anxiety, overwork in the school-room, lack of open-
air exercise, etc. Let these causes be removed by proper
hygienic regulations. As the disease is largely nervous,
CHOREA, OR ST. VITUS DANCE. 215
the remedies should be applied in this direction. It is a
complaint which is hardly susceptible of self-cure. Com
petent medical counsel should be sought and followed.
Chorea, or St. Vitus Dance.
The disease known as St. Vitus Dance received its name
from a dancing mania that prevailed in Strasburg, A. D.
1418, at a celebration of St. Vitus, in which the people
commenced to dance to music and continued until
completely overcome by fatigue. However, chorea seems
to be a different disease from that which so suddenly
developed at the celebration referred to, and is of more
recent date.
It consists in a tendency to involuntary and irregular
muscular contractions of the limbs and face, the mind and
the functions of the brain being quite unaffected. The
spasms of chorea differ from those of most other
convulsive affections in being unaccompanied by pain or
rigidity. They are but momentary, jerking movements,
indicating rather a want of control of the will over the
muscles than any real excess of their contraction.
In some cases the disease resembles merely an exag
geration of the restlessness and fidgetiness common among
children. In others it goes so far as to be a very serious
malady, and may even threaten life. Fatal cases are fortu
nately very rare, and in a large majority of instances it
yields readily to treatment carefully pursued, or disappears
spontaneously as the patient grows up.
Chorea is a disease much more common among
2l6 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
children and young persons than after maturity. Ninety
per cent, of all the cases occur under twenty years of age.
The ratio in sex is three girls to one boy. This shows its
relation to nervous influence. It is most common
between ten and fifteen years of age, which is an evidence
of its being to some extent influenced by the establish
ment of menstruation. It is more common in northern
than southern climates, and is rarely seen among persons
of purely African blood. This would indicate that a cold,
changeable climate is productive of this disease, as is also
a fine nervous temperament, which is rarely met in the
pure African.
The causes influencing the disease are high-sexual
development, nervous temperament, sudden fright,
suppression of any customary discharge, uterine disorders
and intestinal worms. Some children appear to get it by
sympathy for other persons suffering from its attacks or
from imitating them. Rheumatism is said to be a cause,
but this is without foundation. Cases where chorea is
associated with rheumatism would be better called a
rheumatic affection of the spinal cord.
Symptoms of Chorea.
The system may or may not be deranged. Most cases
begin gradually by want of good digestion. Capricious-
ness, headache, low spirits, timidity, irritable temper and
an inability to sleep well are premonitory symptoms.
Then begin slight jerkings of the muscles of the mouth
and head ; then the tongue is affected and speech becomes
SYMPTOMS OF CHOREA. 2 1/
impossible from spasms of the tongue and muscles of the
lower jaw. By and by the patient is wholly choreic by
involvement of all the muscles of the body. He is rest
less and unable to stand still. Muscular co-ordination is
impaired, from which the limbs are not subject to the will.
The upper limbs are more affected than the lower ones.
There is general debility which aggravates the symp
toms. In bad cases the erect posture cannot be main
tained. Later, the muscles of the trunk are involved, and
the patient cannot be kept in bed. Spasms of the muscles
of the face occasion grimaces. Nevertheless the spasms
are somewhat under the control of the will, for the spas
modic movements may- be stopped by a strong effort of
the will. The spasms cease entirely during sleep. Occa
sionally the choreic movements are confined to one side
of the body.
In aggravated cases there is general nervous debility.
The mind becomes affected and imbecility may set in, or
else the patient becomes very timid and seeks holes and
closets to get out of sight. Chorea is generally an acute
disease. It rises to a certain point, remains stationary,
and spontaneously declines, with a tendency to recover.
Some cases last only a few days ; exceptional cases last
for years. When it develops in pregnancy, parturition
generally stops it. If it occur in a girl at puberty, it gen
erally disappears on the establishment of the menses; if
on account of suppression of menstruation from cold or
any accidental cause, it usually subsides on the re-establish
ment of the flow.
2l8 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
Treatment of Chorea.
Many doctors do not place any reliance upon medica
tion, but try to remove the cause. An effort should be
made to re-establish a normal condition of health in all the
functions of the body. When this point is reached the
disease disappears. The rules for hygiene should be
assiduously enforced. A shower bath to the spine, and
artificial or natural sulphur baths and sea-bathing are use
ful. Gymnastic exercise will have a beneficial effect in
tending to correct irregular movement of the muscles and
tone them up, if often and regularly persevered in, but not
carried to the extent of fatigue.
The digestive organs should be carefully watched.
There should be a liberal supply of easily-digested, good,
nutritious food. Milk laxatives, repeated at intervals,
have been found curative in cases where there has been
defective hygienic conditions as constipation, loss of
appetite, or worms. If worms be suspected, the addition
of turpentine to the laxative will be found serviceable.
Whether purgation should be active or light depends on
circumstances. The bitter purgatives are best.
The debilitated condition of the nervous system will
demand attention, and effectual means should be adopted
for its restoration. If the patient be pale and apparently
bloodless, the preparations of iron will be found useful in
restoring the equilibrium of the blood corpuscles. The
preparations of iron may be combined with the vegetable
bitters, as gentian, calumba, etc. To allay the spasm,
HYSTERIA. 219
ether may be applied to the spine by an atomizer till the
skin becomes white, but not frozen. Currents of elec
tricity of low intensity are good.
Hysteria.
Hysteria has long been used as the name of the malady
that is to be described, but there is no appropriateness or
significance, nor doeS it reveal anything of its history.
Hysteria literally signifies womb, and received its name
because, like the organ, it is peculiar to women (which is
denied by some) and is generally met during the develop
ment of the uterine functions. It rarely happens before
puberty or after mature -womanhood.
The disease is but little understood by people generally,
presenting as it does such diverse manifestations. Patients
suffering from it are deserving of commiseration and kind
ness both from physician and friends. In some patients
it causes merriment ; in others, sorrow ; in some, venera
tion ; in others, contempt.
How humiliating it must be to a girl when she realizes
that some power, acting independently of herself, is
causing her to laugh when she ought to weep, or weep
when she ought to laugh. She has no command over
herself, the body acting in utter disobedience to the will.
Imagine a young woman talking immoderately in situa
tions where prudence and modesty demand that she
should keep silent ; or revelling in fits of ecstacy when
soberness would be more appropriate ; or writhing and
twisting and exposing her person, putting at defiance
220 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
both modesty and self-regard. She suffers at times with
severe pains, intensified by the slightest movement, or it
may be an entire want of feeling, accompanied by utter
inability to move a single muscle in some parts of the
body, followed by the consoling remark, by physician or
friend, " It is simply hysteria ! "
How uncomfortable must be the sensation of a ball
rolling up the throat, as if to choke one to death! At
other times, every muscle of the body contracting, forcing
the movement of the limbs with such energy as to defy
the resistance of able attendants, and then, in a moment,
a body motionless and still as death. Through all the
changes, the pulsation of the heart, the great master- wheel
of life, moves as smoothly and beats as calmly as if
nothing were wrong.
Such are some of the manifestations of this wonderful
affection called, for the lack of another name, " Hysteria."
Its symptoms are so varied that a whole book might be
written giving their descriptions. Yet, with all the
patient s suffering from the effects of this disease, she
receives no sympathy from friends or neighbors, simply
because the disease does not kill. Is it true that the only
type of disease that should evoke our sympathy and
demand our commiseration for its victim is one that kills?
How many poor human beings, in extreme anguish with
this peculiar affection, are made to suffer still more
intensely by the unfeeling reminder that it does not kill !
How many have been heard to say: " Oh, if it would only
kill, so that I might have some hope of emancipation from
HYSTERIA. 221
this unfeeling task-master, it would be a source of some
pleasure, but to think I can t ever die, distresses my very
soul ! "
Perhaps no disease in the whole catalogue of ailments
has been so full of pathological perplexity as hysteria.
Little is known of it, although it is prevalent in most
countries, and presents a wide variety of symptoms. In
the early history of pathology the uterus was believed to
be an animal, and hysteria was supposed to be the
wanderings and vagaries of that animal within the body,
as if in a frolic. But, in the later development of
pathology, numberless theories were advanced without
reaching any conclusion that was free from unanswerable
objections.
Some hold the opinion that it is the result of a morbid
condition of the uterine nerves ; others attribute it to a
morbid condition of the stomach and bowels ; others to a
congested condition of the lungs and heart ; to spinal
irritation ; to cerebral excitement ; to displacements of the
womb, or any serious lesion of that organ, or any disturb
ance of its functions. It is not our purpose to enter into
a pathological discussion of this mysterious phenomenon,
but only to give some evidence of its differential effects
upon subjects. Although this malady is found among all
classes of women, and but rarely among men, and then
only in a mild form, it is seldom met among the working
classes. Its principal sphere of action is among persons
who lead an.indolent life. The predisposing constitutional
conditions of hysteria are temperament, especially the
nervous, and such as are either lazy or feeble.
222 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
Hysterical patients are largely developed among those
girls in whom Nature is making an effort to establish the
menstrual epoch. From this experience, no doubt, the
theory was evolved that the disease had its origin in the
reproductive organs. The disease may be attributable to
extremes of heat or cold, and dampness ; to violent
exercise or fatigue ; to irritating articles of diet and
spices ; to tight-lacing ; to too-frequent ablutions of water;
to [love or jealousy ; and to disappointment, especially in
love affairs. The more immediate causes are fright,
anger, reproach, violent and sudden affliction, improper
conversations, the sight of repulsive objects, sudden joy,
the unexpected appearance of an object of love or hatred,
or irritating applications to the skin. From a moral
standpoint hysteria is infectious, and should it in a com
pany of women seize one individual, more may be
similarly affected. Indeed it is surprising, when it breaks
out in a boarding-school, to see the large number that
may be attacked. It is recorded, upon good authority,
that a certain boarding-school had to be suspended and
the girls sent home on account of the moral effect of the
development of the disease in a girl in the presence of the
class.
Persons most likely to be affected by this disease
manifest all the traits of a very impressionable nature.
They are light, frivolous, and very friendly to their own
opinion, often fanciful and hasty, and in disposition very
changeable. They easily pass from the most violent
expressions of joy, from excessive fits of laughter, or the
HYSTERIA. 223
most affectionate caresses, to sulkiness, pouting, sighs.
tears and bitter reproaches, even to regret, self-accusation
and melancholy. It is claimed by some that hysterical
persons dissimulate, and feign ailments that do not exist.
It is told of a lady who had kept her bed for months,
despite the remonstrances of friends and medical attend
ants, that the ruse of setting her bed on fire was resorted
to, and that, in her fright, she flew out of bed and house,
although she had always insisted that it would be death to
her to move from it. She returned to her home and
couch, but like other people and in a natural condition,
and from that time retired and rose regularly without the
slightest apprehension or sickness.
I remember having been called to see a young woman
of nervous temperament, very impressionable traits of
character, light, frivolous and opinionated. She had,
either by dream or otherwise, got the notion that, at i
o clock upon a certain night, she was going to die. I, as
well as her friends, endeavored to relieve her mind of this
fanciful impression, but without avail. On the night set
for the sad event, about an hour before the arrival of the
" fatal hour," she sent a messenger to summon me to her
bedside, wishing to see me once more before departing
this life. Through the importunity of the messenger I
w~nt, but without any faith in the prophecy. On my
an val I found gathered around her bed her weeping
mother, who was little less visionary than her daughter,
and a large number of friends, who were more or less
credulous, and whose countenances wore the evidences of
224 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
deep distress. It was only a few minutes before the fatal
hour. I remonstrated with her, assuring her that it was
all a fancy ; that there was not the slightest evidence of the
coming of death. She could not be persuaded, but, bid
ding farewell to all her friends, like Hezekiah of old,
" turned her face to the wall," and endeavored to die. It
is scarcely necessary to say that the attempt was a failure,
and she was soon, as usual, attending to the affairs of life.
Although this occurred almost a quarter of a century ago,
she is still living in the enjoyment of fair health, the
mother of a family.
There are numberless diseases that under the influence
of hysteria are greatly aggravated. Hysterical coughs
are not infrequently so exaggerated as to lead one to sup
pose that some serious lesion of the lungs or air-passages
maybe developing. Many cases of hysterical palpitations
of the heart are known, of such violence that it has
required the utmost difficulty to persuade the patient that
there was no organic disease of that organ ; that the dis
turbance was the result of a peculiar derangement of the
nervous system. The physician does not dare to say
hysteria, as that name is remarkably offensive to a person
suffering from its effects.
In the history of a long practice in the medical profes
sion it is surprising to note the great variety of the
peculiar cases of this singular disease that may be called
up. It would fill the inexperienced with wonder and
astonishment. Feigning pregnancy is not an uncommon
freak in this wonderful disease. The writer has a vivid
HYSTERIA. 225
recollection of a woman who had been married for a
number of years, but was childless, and remained so.
But she thought herself pregnant, and imposed the decep
tion upon her husband. He consulted the family physician
concerning the long-hoped-for condition of his wife. The
physician, after a careful examination of all the evidence,
diagnosed a case of hysteria, but did not darken the
patient s hope of a prospective heir by revealing the real
state of affairs. The patient, who in her own mind already
i
had unmistakable evidence of her pregnant condition, was
left to the enjoyment of her fancy. Months rolled on,
until the time for her expected delivery was at hand; as is
frequent, she feigned Sickness and pain. A few of her
lady friends were gathered in, and the physician was sum
moned. She labored in great pain, but was unsuccessful
in bringing forth, which very much disappointed her. But
it seemed to have a beneficial effect upon her hysterical
affection, as she never manifested any special hallucination
afterward.
This case would not, however, have developed into
such unpleasant consequences had her husband been more
decided in his opposition to her fanciful notion. But,
being himself of an impressionable nature, he was half-
disposed to persuade himself that her condition v. s not
simulated, but real. Yet it seems as if the shock tc the
mind caused by the humiliation produced by such circu .v-
stances is attended with absolute freedom from successive
attacks.
It sometimes happens that hysterical patients feign
220 MAIDENHOOD AXD MOTHERHOOD.
death. A case of this kind is related upon the authority
of a reputable physician : A woman was apparently dead,
and had been visited by a number of physicians, all of
whom agreed that she was not dead, but dying. She
had been in this condition for eight days, and both
friends and physicians were seriously concerned for her.
It was suggested by counsel that her physician should go
to her, bid hergood-by, and tell her, that, inasmuch as she
would die in a few hours, he need not return. He was
not to leave the room, however. He was to conceal him
self in such position that he could see the eyes of the
patient. The understanding was that if she winked, or if
the eyelids trembled, it was a case of hysteria. An
injection of asafoetida mixture was then to be given, as
she refused to allow even a drop of water to pass into the
mouth. This course was followed. In half an hour she
opened her eyes as from a deep sleep, and spoke to her
attendants as if nothing had been the matter with her.
What was strange, she never afterward alluded to the
affair.
Hysterical convulsions may be mistaken for epilepsy,
but the inexperienced need not be misled. A fit of epi
lepsy is sudden, with entire loss of consciousness, while
hyster -i is gradual, and the loss of consciousness is never
com ,iete. In addition to this difference, it may be added
that epileptic patients froth at the mouth, with frequently
an admixture of blood, occasioned by wounding the
tongue with the teeth, by the convulsive action of the
muscles of the jaws. But these phenomena are never
present during an attack of hysteria.
HYSTERIA. 227
The author uas called to see a patient n-jt long since
who was said to have paralysis. He found her in bed,
unable, as she averred, to move her left arm or left leg.
Upon ^inquiring into her history it was found that she had
repeatedly had similar attacks. Upon further investiga
tion it was discovered that, from imprudent exposure to
cold, she had suppression of the menses. I diagnosed a
case of hysteria. She was given treatment to overcome
her suppression, and, in a couple of days, all traces of her
paralysis disappeared. Her preceding attacks of paralysis
had occurred in similar circumstances
Aphonia, or sudden loss of voice, is not infrequently
a manifestation of hysteria. This is the cause of great
alarm to friends; as no other trace of this disease may be
present, hysteria may not be suspected.
Severe pains in various parts of the body and limbs
are the most common simulations of hysterical patients.
Such assumptions of pain have kept women in bed for
months, undergoing the severe ordeal of fomentations,
plasters, blisters, etc., aided by active constitutional treat
ment, without any improvement. Such patients frequently
persuade themselves that it is impossible for them to move.
They keep their beds for months, when they could have
arisen at any time and walked.
A very striking instance of this simulated illness is
related by Dr. Bright of a young lady patient who had
kept her bed for nine months. On attempting the slightest
movement she was thrown into paroxysms of excitement
and great agony. There was no evidence of any disease
228 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
whatever. She protested against getting np, vowing that
it was impossible for her to move. Her physician, not
being able to afford her any relief from her feigned dis
ease, left her for a month, and, on returning, was agreeably
surprised to find her well. Under a deep religious impres
sion she had abandoned her hallucination and gone to
work.
It is upon this class of patients that spiritualists and
" metaphysicians," as they style themselves, perform such
wonderful cures. Through the influence of the mind,
they put patients under a stronger impression ; they get
well because there was no physical disease. If such
charlatans would confine themselves to curing hysteria,
they might be of benefit to society. When they unright
eously undertake to cure absolute lesions of the body
through the operations of the mind, impressing upon their
patients that they are not sick, that they only think they
are, they should be regarded as impostors and treated
accordingly.
Simple hysteria is easily detected. For any trivial
cause that should do no more than cause a smile, hysterical
women laugh immoderately, and not infrequently end in
sobbing and crying. During a play in which several per
sons are engaged, any unusual or general merriment will
throw a girl into an immoderate and irrepressible fit of
laughter, soon to be followed by long and deep sighs,
which are efforts to gain breath. The fits of laughter may
be alternated with fits of crying, and as if in terrible
distress. If these fits of laughing and crying be not
HYSTERIA. 229
immediately arrested by an extraneous effort on her
part, or her mind be not quickly diverted from whatever
excited the laughter, the fits become stronger, and are
frequently followed by a bolus or ball coming up her
throat, choking her until she gasps for breath. She vio
lently grasps her clothing to relieve her throat. She may
become partially convulsed and throw her limbs, or grasp
at anything within her reach, and press her fingers into it
with unusual force ; or she may spread out her hands and
fingers as though they were sticks. She may have an
intermission and relaxation for a moment, only to be fol
lowed by a return of the paroxysm. These remissions are
employed in wailings and meanings, and relations of her
abandoned condition. Every person is against her, no one
loves her, and she refuses to be comforted. She tells
strange things, and reveals her secrets, no matter whether
they expose herself or injure her friends. There is no
certainty how long this condition may continue. It may
subside in a few minutes ; it may last for hours, or even
days.
The writer remembers an instance in which it con
tinued for a fortnight. Another, in discussing the subject
of hysteria, relates a case that occurred in his own prac
tice, in which a lady who had received a mental shock
fell into a hysterical fit, and, for twenty nights following,
these fits recurred, commencing about 9 or 10 o clock in
the evening, and ending between 4 and 5 in the morning.
During the day she was as well as usual, and it did not
seem as if another attack would recur. Yet, when even-
230 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
ing arrived, she became hilarious ; her eyes sparkled, and
she became talkative and witty. These were premonitory
symptoms of another attack ; they would change in their
order of appearance. Generally, while in this talkative
state, during which her eyes were closed, she would relate
amusing stories about herself, her mother, sister, doctor,
or any one else, or repeat Shakespeare by the page.
Suddenly she would startle the attendants by a piercing
shriek, exclaiming, " It is coming ! " pushing her hands
upon her temples. The davits hystericus was upon her.
From this she would pass into a convulsion, in which she
would make a bow of her body backwards, so that
pillows had to be put against the headboard of the bed
stead, lest her nose should be broken. She would come
out of these convulsions in two or three minutes, but in a
moment more the " spike " would be driven through her
temples again, inducing the same alarming shrieks, to be
followed by another similar convulsion. This would last
sometimes an hour or two, when vomiting would super
vene, and the body would remain relaxed. This vomiting
was, if possible, more distressing than the previous con-
dition. She would retch violently, vomiting only a little
gluey mucus. In an hour or so this would pass off, and
she would fall into a semi-trance, answering questions, but
following her own thoughts, and, with a smile on her face,
would tell the amusing incidents of her life, or of those of
persons present, or of absent friends. Finally, she would
fall into a doze, from which she would come out refreshed
and ready for her breakfast.
HYSTERIA. 231
This lady had had a similar attack years before. She
was cultured, endowed with a fine nervous organization, and
was not a hysterical woman in the common acceptation of
the term ; she was brilliant in society, but always self-
possessed. After twenty nights of such torture she came
out of that condition slightly weakened, but with unim-
pared health. Fifteen years have now passed, and
although she has had her share of human sorrow, hysteria
has not again disturbed her.
It is the characteristic of this disease that no matter
how long it may be prolonged, it rarely affects materially
the digestive organs. The appetite remains unimpaired,
and the general system manifests no disposition to
succumb to these distressing symptoms.
It is truly a mortifying and embarrassing sickness.
Yet no death from uncomplicated hysteria has ever been
recorded, and this, as has been already remarked,
together with the peculiar and often silly behavior of those
afflicted in this way is the reason why many esteem it so
lightly.
Treatment of Hysteria.
As remarked, it is a lamentable fact, and must coin
cide with the experience of every honest practitioner of
medicine that, strictly speaking, medication has been able
to accomplish but little toward the permanent relief of this
troublesome ailment. It is undoubtedly true that in the
hurry and bustle of the life of a busy practitioner, he may,
in a proper and expeditious application of the great list of
232 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
anti-spasmodics give timely relief to a large number of
these nervous patients. But he cannot generally be
expected to devote the time necessary to enable him to
permanently benefit them.
Every individual case requires a careful and inde
pendent investigation of all the factors that enter into the
attack. A respectable authority, Dr. Mitchell, says upon
this point : " A careful study of the girl s character, of her
home surroundings, of the incidents of social life, which
come with the development of possible passion, will be
the best guide to treatment, and, with the obvious indica
tions given us, by distinct physical ailments, local or
general, constitute our chief resources."
If upon feeble, exhausted women there be precipitated
changes of social circumstances, love affairs, disappoint
ments, or physical accidents, invalids will be created who
unite their exhausted state of system with a bewildering
list of hysterical phenomena. These are the cases of bed
ridden, broken-down, hysterical women that have baffled
the best-devised remedies at the command of a faithful
practitioner and driven him to despair of a restoration to
health. They remain the pests of households, wrecking
the constitutions of nurses and devoted friends, and, in
conscious self-indulgence, destroying the comfort of every
one around them. Of these chronic hysterical invalids,
who have been neglected in the early manifestations of
their affection some attempt has been made to speak. A
full and complete description of all hysterical phases would
beggar the most graphic pen.
HYSTERIA. 233
t
It is, however, my duty, for the benefit of those whose
ears are no.t so heavy that they will not hear, to protest
loudly against the neglect of incipient cases, lest they be
drifted against the rocks and shoals upon which so many
have been shipwrecked. This, being a disease peculiar to
women, the question naturally presents itself on the very
threshold of a discussion of remedial agents : " What
are the distinguishing characteristics of the agencies that
have to do with the physical life of boys and girls, and
that are found with such unequal results ? " It is net
sufficiently satisfactory to the observing mind to aver
that these consequences result entirely from varying
physical organisms. These physical constructions, both
as to the organs themselves and their functional develop
ments, are the handiwork of Him who formed them with
such skilled appropriateness and adaptation to the end to
be attained. It would not become the creature to arraign
the intelligence and the benevolence of the Creator before
the lesser majesty of natural law, upon the charge of
having so formed and fashioned one-half of the human
family that, in the organic functions of the body, suffering
and disease must inevitably follow.
We must look in some other channel than the normal
operations of the physical organisms of woman to account
for her disparagement in this matter. I maintain that it
is the result of her literary education ; that her mental
faculties are expanded beyond hurnan powers of endurance
by being placed alongside pf her brothers in class, and
stimulated by their ambitious nature to emulation of them.
234 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
The result is collapse and wreck. It has been demon
strated beyond the possibility of a doubt, that though the
mental faculties of woman are of a finer texture than
those of men, they are composed of more " shreds," which
make the mental chords equally strong and susceptible of
even greater strains. Yet, if man were exposed to the
same mental strain of woman in those peculiar circum
stances, in which she looks forward to hours or days of
pain and anguish, the asylums of our States would need
to be greatly enlarged for his benefit. It is, however,
believed that the key to the present inquiry may be
found in the term education, if it be taken in its generic
sense, which would include all that is involved in educa-.
tion, mentally, morally and physically. A manifest defect
in either one or more of these different species of educa
tion is patent in the training of the girls of our country.
Some light may be thrown on the education of
American children by a quotation from one of the period- .
icals of the day. It is perhaps as pertinent as anything
that could be offered: " In fashionable and would-be
fashionable circles, the poor little infants are dragged to
f
balls as soon as they are weaned, and converted into hot
house little men and women. The books furnished to
them, the matinee entertainments provided for them, are
but calculated to arouse adult passions and thoughts into
abnormal, monstrous growth. There is no such thing as
a nursery in the majority, of American city homes. The
children are left to the care of ignorant, hired bonnes, or,
Irish girls. They swarm in the halls of boarding-houses,
HYSTERIA. 235
or haunt the servants rooms, trying to stretch their little
brains to grasp the ideas that reach them there. When
they are passed out of babyhood they are dismissed to
schools, where they learn good or evil, as paid teachers or
their companions choose. Let any one observe the
groups of flaunting, half-grown girls on their way to
school in the cars, or the over-dressed coquettes, misses
sent out to parade the streets to display their clothes on a
fine afternoon, and listen to their conversation, and he
will not wonder at their escapades into marriage or of a
worse fate. It is not book publishers who are to blame ;
it is not play-wrights ; it is not the French bonnes or
Irish nurses. They furnish what the public demand of
them.
" The one thing needed to give us a generation of
modest, chaste gentlewomen in our daughters, is
mothers mothers who know their business and who
do it ; mothers who have the sense to see there is a
time in a young woman s life, as in a man s, when
animal spirit or excess of vitality needs outlet ; mothers
who can guide their daughters through this strait in .all
innocence and purity instead of subjecting them, from
their very birth, to treatment which forces every impure
element of their nature into unhealthy and obnoxious
action. "
Sound remarks by Sir Benjamin Brodie on this point
are no less pertinent. He says: " You can render no more
essential service to the more affluent classes of society
than by availing yourselves of every opportunity of
236 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
explaining to those among them who are parents how
much the ordinary system of education tends to engender
the disposition of these diseases among their female
children. If you will go further so as to make them
understand in what their error consists, what they ought
to do, and what they ought to leave undone, you need
only to point out the difference between the plans usually
pursued in bringing up the two sexes. The boys are sent
early to school, where a large portion of their time is
passed in taking exercise in the open air, while their
sisters are confined to heated rooms, taking little exercise
out of doors, and often not at all, except in a carriage.
The mind is over-educated at the expense of the physical
structure, and, after all, with little advantage to the mind
itself; for who can doubt that the principal object of this
part of education ought to be, not so much to fill the
mind with knowledge as to train it to a right exercise of
its intellectual and normal faculties? Or that, other
things being the same, this is more easily accomplished in
those whose animal functions are preserved in a healthy
staie than it is in others? "
In summing up the treatment of this singular phenom
enon as it presents itself to the practical observer, by far
the most efficient elements will be found in the interceptive
treatment. This consists in a thorough application of
the principle of hygiene as has been assiduously recom
mended in this work, through all the phases of life.
Good exercise in the open air is all-important. Air is the
life-supporting principle of the nervous system ; it sup-
GENERAL EXHAUSTION, ETC. 237
plies the body with oxygen, and makes it pure .and
healthy ; by it every element in the physical structure of
the individual is developed and made strong to withstand
any unfavorable moral influences that accident may put in
the pathway of life. It is also necessary to avoid the
evil influences that are so frequently associated with
school-girl life ; that tend to lead tne mind by a gradual,
insidious process until the unsuspecting, innocent girl is
caught in the foul snare and held by fetters as strong
as uncontrolled passion can forge out of the inde
terminable depravity of the sensual heart ; for it is con
ceded that love, with all its immoderate desires and
disappointments, lays the foundation for this disease,
which, when once acquired, will only leave the victim
when Nature has reached her limit and the body entered
its season of decay.
General Exhaustion from Disturbed Menstruation.
Having spoken of the disorders of menstruation and
the proper means to be adopted to overcome them as
well as of some nervous diseases that may develop under
the influences consequent to such functional disturbances,
there still remains a constitutional effect of which some
thing should be said. The reference is to a general
exhaustion of the vital forces of the system, which is
sometimes seen in girls who have had trouble in their
monthly sickness. It not only develops great nervous
irritability, but a general wasting of all the tissues of
the system. The patient grows pale and wan. The eye
238 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD
loses its accustomed luster ; the lips are pale and blood
less ; there is more or less headache, accompanied with
giddiness ; the hands and feet are usually cold and moist,
with a clammy, unpleasant sweat ; not infrequently the
patient complains of nervous pains in different parts of
the body ; there may be a sensation of absolute
exhaustion, as though the body had not the strength to
hold together.
These attacks may come on suddenly and without
warning. The feeling of real strength is variable. At
one time of the day the patient may accomplish some
physical undertaking. At other times she is unable to do
anything. At times, sitting quietly in a chair seems to
require an exhaustive effort of every bone and muscle, to
which she is unequal. The going-to-die feeling is quite
common in these cases, and is frequently the cause of
great alarm. It may be experienced either in daytime
or night ; on going to sleep or waking from sleep.
Should these symptoms and conditions continue for any
length of time, and the general health be feeble, the heart
and lungs will sympathize with the general debility. The
patient will be troubled with attacks of palpitation of the
heart and nervous, irregular action of that organ. The
breathing will become irregular, and a sense of suffoca
tion will be experienced. A cough, which at first may be
purely nervous, but soon becomes more marked and
serious, will be developed, and the patient will sink
rapidly by acute consumption, or, more generally, by a
slow but sure process of general wasting consumption.
GENERAL EXHAUSTION, ETC. 239
Treatment for General Exhaustion.
This debilitation and general prostration suggests the
treatment. It should consist in a general restoration of
the lost forces of the system, both through hygienic
influences and medication. A tepid bath in the morning,
with a thorough rubbing of the skin and manipulation of
the muscles, serves to equalize the circulation and stimulate
the exhalation, thereby eliminating the poison from the
blood. Free exercise in the open air, commensurate with
the patient s strength but not to exhaustion, should be
enjoined. The bowels should be regulated by proper
articles of diet. The food should be rich and nutritious,
consisting of cream or rich milk, to which may be added
some lime-water ; if the milk should sour on the stomach,
three parts milk to one part lime-water. Fats should be
administered liberally in emulsions. Cod-liver oil is an
excellent remedy, when it agrees with the stomach. Fat
in the form of good butter may be taken frequently with
other food.
Tonics, both vegetable and mineral, may be given
internally. The preparations of iron will be found useful
They may be combined with some of the bitter tonics.
A very good combination:
Citrate of Iron, Three Drachms.
Quinine Sulphate, Thirty Grains.
Tr. of Nux Vomica, Three Drachms.
Water, Three Ounces.
Dissolve the iron in the water and the quinine in the
240 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
tincture of nux vomica and mix. Dose, teaspoonful three
times daily.
In such grave diseases a competent physician should
always be employed, as the disease is too serious in
character for the patient to rely upon home treatment.
It must also be kept in mind that in the most favorable
circumstances complete recovery often tries the patience
severely. No woman need expect to be restored in a few
days or weeks, even with the best of attention to hygiene
and medical care. The laws of health may be neglected
for years and passable health enjoyed. Little by little,
and step by step the constitution is undermined ; but not
until a general breaking down occurs, is the full extent
of the mischief suspected. This serves to suggest the pro
cess of recuperation. That must be restored which was
destroyed, and often in about the same way little by
little, step by step. Many people forget this. They are
impatient and seize upon every gain made. They over
estimate the progress in recovery and not infrequently
relax their recuperative efforts far short of complete res
toration. This is one great vexation to the medical attend
ant. When the patient is consciously helpless, no difficulty
is experienced in having directions followed, but his
utmost efforts to have the process continued after the
patient has passed out of the worst phases, often are
unavailing. The patient begins to feel well. She thinks
she is well. She relaxes her medicine and hygienic
regimen. In a short time a relapse follows, from which
recovery is more difficult and more prolonged.
-
y
CO
02
THE MAIDEN.
General Remarks.
The romping, hoydenish maid of ten or a dozen sum
mers, whose rosy cheeks and agile steps bespeak health
and happiness, whose disheveled locks sets propriety at
defiance, whose frank, ingenuous countenance tells of a
pure heart, and whose simple, unaffected ways show
guilelessness of the world s arts such a maid has been
admired in all ages. The unselfishness of her nature is
apparent in all her movements. Untrammeled by the
restrictions which later in life environ her, she joins freely
and fearlessly in all the sports of youth. There is no sex
in youthful pleasures and recreations. What is proper for
the boy is proper for his sister. What is relished by the
one is equally relished by the other.
This is the case where Nature has her way. Parents
may erect barriers between the sports of their sons and
daughters, and they may be trained to feel a difference,
But naturally there is no more difference between the
tastes, desires and inclinations of a boy and girl in the
same family than there is between two boys or two girls.
In nothing is there aught of reserve in the thoughts,
words and the actions of the maid. She is an open,
241
242 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
frank, innocent child, free from conventionalities, happy
in herself, and happy in her surroundings. To her, life is
glorious, blessed. She is alive, and that is enough for
her. She rejoices in the fullness of her being, and she
drinks in all the beauties and delights of the beautiful
world of which she is a habitant.
But a change comes over her life, at once strange,
mysterious, all-pervading. Silently and irresistibly the
forces of Nature within her are ripening for the great con
summation of her being, A change insensibly creeps into
her tastes and emotions. She becomes shy, reserved,
listless. She does not understand it at all. She cannot
apprehend the great changes that are going on within her,
physically and psychically. She resents it. She endeav
ors to absorb herself in the matters that have hitherto
been her delight, and she finds them tasteless, insipid,
4
repulsive. A feeling of wonder takes possession of her,
tinged with amazement and fear. She cam*iot realize
where she is. The past seems fading away from her, and
the future is only revealed in flitting, uncertain glances.
She tries to hold on to the vanishing past, and yet is
incited to look and reach forward. She is
" Standing with reluctant feet
Where the brook and river meet,"
hesitating, trembling, uncertain whether to advance or
recede.
If she have been wisely instructed by her mother, she
knows something of the physiological changes that are
taking place in her being. She knows that she is passing
GENERAL REMARKS. 243
from childhood into womanhood. She knows that this
development will bring her into a sphere that is entirely
separated and barred against all invasion of the other sex.
She is prepared for something of this. But she is not
prepared for the greater, more mysterious and more
wonderful transformation that takes place in her thoughts
and feelings. This is a great mystery which no mother,
no teacher can explain.
The girl herself cannot analyze her feelings. She has
a vague, indefinable conception of the transformation that
is going on, but its causes are hidden from her. All her
experiences are new. She moves about in her accustomed
ways with the feeling that she is in "unknown places. More
frequently, the feeling is that she is another person than
herself. Familiar haunts and employments have a strange
ness that bewilders her. Some new machinery has been
set at work within her soul, and she is appalled with wonder
at the revelations it opens up to her. What once pleased
her, now irritates or disgusts. What was once the keenest
delight, has now no power to stir her purpose. What
once attracted her, now appears dull and common-place.
On the other hand, she begins to find attractions and
interest in things that were once passed without her
notice. She finds herself more sensitive. Her sympa
thies are more quickly touched, and they move her more
profoundly. But with all these new experiences, there is
a feeling of inharmony. Her whole being is out of joint,
and she lays the blame on the objective world.
As the days lengthen into weeks and months and the
244 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
transformation proceeds farther, she becomes conscious
of the birth of new hopes and desires. At first they are
dim, and flitting. By and by they become more clearly
defined and tangible, as well as more absorbing. Gradu
ally and imperceptibly she relinquishes her hold upon her
childhood and reaches forward with intense interest and
longing to the fuller life of womanhood opening up before
her. Literally and fully she " puts away childish things."
Thereafter they have no claim upon her interest and
affection. She begins to have the feelings of a woman.
The characteristics, tastes, habits, occupations and desires
of her sex take hold of her. She seeks the companion
ship of women, and feels interest in their conversation
and pursuits. She comes into a new, nearer and more
equable relation with her mother. She takes delight in
her home, as she never did before. She cares less and
less for out-door sports, and seeks the retirement of her
home with pleasure.
One of the most marked changes which she experiences
is the feeling with which she regards the opposite sex.
The great mystery of sex is gradually revealed to her.
Hitherto she had viewed her boy friends from the stand
point of companionship ; now she regards them from the
standpoint of sex. This change of feeling is most decided
and most clearly defined. The maiden is fully conscious
of it, and betrays her consciousness in her actious. She
becomes timid and bashful in the presence of her boy
friends. She no longer permits the freedom of unrestrained
romps with them, nor admits them into hef^confidences.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS. 245
She is diffident and ill at ease in their presence. This is
the time when girls troop together. They form intimate
connections with each other, and interchange the most
tender confidences. They are oppressed with mutual
secrets, and are continually planning to be together more.
They feel withdrawn, separated widely from the opposite
sex, and have no great interest in it.
After a little time, this state passes away. The power
of sex, first repellant, becomes ail-powerfully attractive.
The maiden begins to find her feelings glowing with
admiration for her male companions. She no longer
classes them in a body, but discriminates. Some she
dislikes and some she "admires. Some awaken a deeper
feeling, which, when thoroughly aroused, completes the
transformation from girlhood to womanhood.
Accomplishments.
No scheme of education however comprehensive, is
complete which does not contemplate the acquirement of
certain polished arts and accomplishments, the purpose of
which is to render the possessor more pleasarlt and agree
able to others. An accumulation of bricks and lumber is
not a house. The skill of the architect is laid under
tribute, in order that beauty, symmetry and grace may be
superadded to rare utility. It is not variety, but a com
mendable common-sense which leads men to adorn their
houses with various ornaments, not really necessary to
protection or comfort. There is a sense in the human
mind that finds gratification in the beautiful and the orna-
246 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
mental. It is as much a factor of the soul as is the sense
of taste or smell. Its gratification brings as much real,
substantial enjoyment as the gratification of any other
sense.
The same thing is observable in dress. Something
more is demanded than that the material shall meet the
ends of covering the body and protecting it from the
inclemencies of the atmosphere. It must be of material
that satisfies the sense of taste and harmony of color and
quality, and be fashioned and fitted so as to display the
contour of the body to the best possible advantage, and
allow the freest and most graceful motion of the different
parts. No one is so utterly void of the sense of beauty
and fitness as to deny the advisability of calling in the
aid of art in clothing Nature. The inclination to do so
everywhere exists. It is an innate and universal instinct
of humanity to desire to appear well. It shows itself in
the uncouth and fantastic adornments of the lowest class
of the uncivilized as strongly as among the possessors of
the highest culture and enlightenment. The rings and
bells and feathers with which the rude inhabitant of
Southern Africa adorns himself, are, with the fashionable
garb of the American or European, an evidence of the
possession of a love for the beautiful and the artistic, and
a confession that in yielding to the influence of this
emotion he finds real pleasure and gratification.
Among natives of higher civilization and refinement
the pleasures of taste expand beyond material adornment.
They find their highest gratification in the cultured graces
ACCOMPLISHMENTS. 247
of the mind. No one can find enjoyment of life alone
and apart from his fellows. No one can live among his
fellows and either give or receive pleasure if he have not
added to substantial utility much that is purely orna
mental. Social life holds nothing that is desirable to him
who cannot contribute something to the sum total of
cultured accomplishments, It is a weariness and oppres
sion to him, and he is a burden to it.
What is true of all is emphatically true of the education
of the young woman. Her province in society is to please
and be pleased. Her broad sphere in the world is to -give
grace, beauty, harmony and brightness to life. It is not
all of ..woman s sphere to ornament and please ; but these
desirable features of social existence depend so very
largely upon her that they constitute no insignificant part
of her mission. Her own personal comfort and success
in society are conditioned, to a very great extent, on the
possession and exercise of certain graces of body and
mind. The acquirement of these, therefore, becomes an
essential and very important part of her education.
A certain writer on this subject says : " A young
woman may excel in speaking French and Italian, may
repeat passage after passage from popular authors, may
play like an expert and sing like a siren, may dance with
the grace of Sempronia, and decorate her home with her
own drawings, and yet be very badly educated." This is
true enough, but it only proves that her preceptors erred
in placing an undue estimate upon these accomplishments.
It is as great a mistake to overestimate these accomplish-
248 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
merits as it is to underestimate them ; the result is as
deplorable, though not more so, when all the time and
attention is given to learning the arts which please and
captivate, as when these are entirely neglected. The
architect builds a house first, with foundation, walls and
roof, calculated to protect the inmates and assure material
comfort. He adds the adornments afterward. An educa
tion must comprise all the factors of substantial utility as
the foundation and framework. The body must, first and
foremost, be educated to be strong and healthy ; it should
have grace and symmetry developed along with these, not
as constituting the absolutely essential condition, but as
extremely desirable. The mind must be stored with all
useful information and trained to right ways of thinking ;
but it is well that it be educated in those qualities which
appreciate the beauties of harmony and color and form
and poesy.
It is not all of life and very far from being all of
woman s life to eat, sleep and be clothed decently and
comfortably. It is not all of life to be able to pass
through the world seeing only its fertile soil, its magnifi
cent building stone, its commercial timbers, its useful
carboniferous deposits, and its various facilities for agri
culture, commerce, navigation and manufacture. The
soul has a capacity and yearning for the beauties and
harmonies of color and sound and taste and smell.
Nature teems with these beauties and harmonies. The
soul that is not educated to see, appreciate and enjoy these
delights, is only half developed. These appetites and
ACCOMPLISHMENTS. 249
cravings were not implanted in the soul to be neglected.
The body had never been constructed with the possibility
of graceful movement, the hand to skillful touch and
manipulation, the ear to detect the melody and measure
harmony, the eye to discriminate form and color, if these
possibilities were to be allowed to remain dormant. The
soul is not gifted with the capacity to enjoy mental and
moral beauties that it may never be called upon to exer
cise itself in their contemplation. The utilitarian theory
of education falls far below the manifest teachings of
natural endowments. Talents and capacities were
bestowed that they be developed, both for the benefit of
the possessor and for that of others with whom his life is
or may be associated.
The nature and extent of the polite accomplishments
which it is desirable for a young woman to attain, depend
very largely upon her station in life, and the prospects
which the future have in store for her. But, no matter
who or what she may be, or how circumstanced socially,
it will always be to her advantage, subjectively and objec
tively, to acquire, to some degree, the grace and culture
which a practical acquaintance with music, art, dancing,
literature, etc., bestow. It is profitable for two reasons :
One is that the possession of these accomplishments brings
its own reward. The body is stronger, more comely,
more healthful when it is trained to graceful movement
and position. The mind grasps a larger scope and quaffs
deeper pleasures when its faculties of beauty and harmony
have been educated and trained. The other reason is that
2$O MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
a woman thus cultured, is a more_useful, e_ngaging_and
ornamental member of society. She helps others. She
pleases her friends and companions better, rises to a higher
plane in society, and opens a brighter future for herself.
She will be a better companion, friend, counsellor and
helper to her husband. She will make her home brighter,
happier and more desirable. She will bind her husband
and children so closely to her and to the home of which
she is the light, that the temptations and allurements of
the world will fall helpless and harmless. She will be able
to train her sons into nobler men and her daughters into
purer and better women if she possess these accomplish
ments than if she lack them.
The education of young women in the polite arts is,
unhappily, too much of a formality. A prescribed course
is followed by all with little or no regard to taste or
capacity. It is altogether different in the education of
young men, and rightly, too. It is proper that every
young women should pass through a certain training to
give her grace, skill and appreciation. It is a mistake
that, after she may have developed a tendency to pursue
some particular art, she should be compelled to give time
and labor for another for which she has no aptitude what
ever. In society, as in business, specialties count. If
a gift for one thing be discovered, it is advisable that it
be cultivated. Out of a score of girls who follow the
same musical training, one perhaps may become a
musician. This does not argue defective training for the
others, or inattention on their part ; it may only prove
ACCOMPLISHMENTS. 251
that they had no musical taste and aptitude. Out of the
nineteen a good proportion might have developed into
fine artists or teachers of letters. Full, rounded develop
ments are not always secured most satisfactorily by
similar training. Very often such training serves
to keep the subject from ever becoming anything. The
whole nature is dwarfed and stunted. On the contrary, it
not infrequently happens that a pupil who showed no
capacity whatever for a certain department of education,
has, under the sympathetic stimulus of an enlarged develop
ment in another direction, become quite proficient in that
which was once despaired of. The philosophy of this
seems to be that the- soul must be probed to its very
depths before the best that is in it can be evolved ; when
so probed, it will sometimes develop capacities that were
undreamed of by its possessor.
The acquirement of the arts and graces of polite soci
ety is to be desired by every young woman. No such
accomplishment is wasted. In the after years of her life
she may be so situated that she cannot practice the grace
she has learned ; but its impression is on her soul and in
her life, showing itself in a thousand intangible ways.
Her home will show her taste, and skill, though it may be
difficult for her to see exactly how. The veteran soldier
walks with military precision, and the sailor with a swag
ger, loner vears after each has ceased his vocation. The
o o ^
discipline of training established the habit. The poet sees
beauty even while he may be engaged in the most prosaic
duties.
2$2 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
So the woman, who is trained to be polite, graceful
and entertaining, will continue to exhibit these graces in
all her after life. Her maiden accomplishments will bear
fruitage in her matronly home life and duties.
When to Make Engagements.
The social customs of America are wholly different
from those of Europe and the rest of the world. With us,
girls are allowed all freedom in courtship. The responsi
bility of deciding on a husband is generally left to the girl
entirely, with such counsel as her parents may choose to
give her, or she may seek from them and others. When
a man and woman of marriageable age seek each other s
society, with a view to marriage, it is expected that, in due
trme, the subject of marriage will be named between them.
If its prospect is agreeable to both, an engagement follows.
This engagement is made between the parties most inter
ested, and this is ordinarily considered to be enough to
make it binding, though courtesy and a due deference
demand that the parents of the bride shall be asked to
sanction it.
The engagement is an important step in the courtship.
It should never be taken hastily, and when once made,
should be treated sacredly. The honesty of both man
and woman is pledged in the solemn covenant. It should,
and ordinarily does, settle the question of marriage. After
troth is plighted, the time of marriage is a mere matter of
convenience. The material condition of the contracting
parties decides how long the engagement shall continue.
WHEN TO MAKE ENGAGEMENTS. 253
No man has the moral or social right to ask a woman to
marry him until he is in a position to seriously consider
the fulfillment of his promise, and no woman should
promise to marry a man when the conditions are such that
she cannot think of marriage for years.
An engagement should not be made, then, until both
parties are fully satisfied with each other. It has been
said that the prime purpose of courtship is to determine
the mutual suitableness of the persons for a life companion
ship. Until this decision have been made in the minds of
each, no binding of the one to the other should be thought
of. The length of time from the beginning of the court
ship until an engagement may be proper depends pretty
largely on circumstances. With some persons, a few
weeks intercourse is sufficient .to thoroughly understand
and judge each other. If marriage be practicable, there is
no good reason why an engagement should not be made
and preparations for the marriage begun at once.
In the case of persons who have long known each
other who have grown up in the same commun
ity there is little to be learned beyond compatibility of
temper, taste and disposition, and the development of
affection. In the case of persons who have been strangers,
longer time is to be given. Everything is to be learned.
The maiden, especially, knows nothing of her suitor, save
what her own judgment reads in her intercourse with him.
And as few men reveal their whole nature and their true
disposition to persons of the opposite sex, the maiden
demands more time before being called upon to settle the
254 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
momentous question. She ought to see him in various
circumstances, and note the influence upon his disposition,
in order to fairly judge him. She has a right to know his
previous history and the physiological history of his
family. She must be sure that she loves the man, and
that her love rests upon proper foundations to endure all
the trials of marital experience. No such love can be
genuine and, therefore, abiding, which has ignorance for a
prime factor. Blind love is nothing more than sexual
passion. True love is intelligent, resting upon a knowl
edge of the object, and a profound confidence in and
respect for the character of that object. There is a sort
of animal magnetism interchanged between persons of the
opposite sex, when brought into continuous contiguity.
This is not love. It is, -at best, no more than passion.
There can be no genuine love without this passion, but
there may be absorbing passion without love.
Long and Short Engagements.
A reasonable time must elapse after an engagement is
entered into before the marriage should take place. There
are sound social, economical and physiological reasons
why this should neither be abridged too much nor extended
too long. Some time is required for the maiden to make
preparations for beginning her new life. It is a custom,
and a wise one, that she should provide herself with a
wardrobe sufficient to last her a year or more after mar
riage. The new wife will have enough to engage her
attention without the toil and worry of providing herself
LONG AND SHORT ENGAGEMENTS. 255
with apparel. Custom is inexorable in decreeing it an
impropriety to anticipate the engagement by any prepara
tions for marriage. Consequently, all such preparations
must be made after the engagement.
It sometimes is deemed \visc to break an engagement.
While this is to be discouraged, yet there may arise cases
in which it is manifestly for the good of all concerned.
The post-engagement period of courtship brings the parties
into a new, different and more intimate relationship. Much
of the reserve that existed between them naturally and
properly is laid aside. They feel that they belong to each
other. They are bound to each other in a solemn engage
ment, and their relations are only one step removed from
those of marriage itself.
It is not surprising that, under this fuller and freer
intercourse, especially when the motive of insincerity is
largely taken away, that each should become more fully
cognizant of the character of the other. This is the more
likely to be the case when the engagement has been hastily
made, when the parties are young, or when the ante-
engagement courtship has been a sort of half-waking
dream. Now, while it is true that an engagement to marry
is a very sacred obligation, marriage is still more sacred.
If it should be discovered during the engagement that the
parties had not understood each other, or were manifestly
unsuited to each other, it is better for both that the mar
riage should not take place. If wrong be done in breaking
the engagement, then a greater wrong would be done in
fulfilling it. If a mistake be committed, matters are not
bettered by committing another and graver one.
256 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
This constitutes another reason for allowing some time
to the engagement. Its place in courtship might well be
called the verifying period, in which the person s conclu
sions are to be proved, and convictions firmly riveted.
This consideration in itself would urge no definite pro
longation of the engagement. It depends entirely on the
state of knowledge and conviction at the time the engage
ment was made.
There are physiological reasons against a long engage
ment. The personal relations between the persons is very
intimate. If they live near each other, and are conse
quently much in each other s society, there is great
nervous excitement and exhaustion of nerve-power, how
ever sedately they may comport themselves. Most
Americans are nervous, excitable and passionate, and the
strain upon such natures is great. It not infrequently
leads to such a debilitated condition of the system that
disease is superinduced. Contiguity in the relationship
that exists may lead to serious derangement of the pro-
creative organs.
For the reasons given above, it is evident that sufficient
time should elapse perhaps two or three months to
allow the prospective bride to prepare herself, and not
more than a year or fifteen months, lest physiological ills
be incurred.
Love at First Sight.
From what has already been said of the nature of true,
lasting affection, the conclusion must be that it is a growth,
a development. It begins with attraction, leads to inter-
LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT. 257
est, expands into respect, deepens into tenderness, and
rushes to passionate desire. This is the rule. But, like
all rules, there are exceptions, or, at least, alleged excep
tions. Cases are known to almost every one of persons
who were irresistibly drawn to each other at their first
meeting ; a few minutes or hours so deepened the impres
sion each had made upon the other that all the character
istics of genuine affection were developed. Fiction and
romance have abounded in cases of this sort, and it must
be conceded that real life has not been without authentic
instances.
Such exceptions are inexplicable on physiological or
psychological grounds. There are eccentricities and
anomalies in the physical world, and in the metaphysical
as well. Why should there not be in the psychical ? In
the former cases, the explanation is that they are excep
tions, abnormal conditions, and are essentially sui generis.
Nothing better than this can be said with regard to the
cases under discussion. The general rule of the genera
tion, development and consummation of sexual love can
be given with considerable precision ; when an exception
is found which digresses widely from the general rule of
experience and observation, it must be treated as a
rarity.
It will be sufficient, then, to admit that there are cases
of genuine love at the first encounter ; that persons at the
first meeting have exerted such a marked influence upon
each other, that each involuntarily thought and desired a
more intimate relation, and was irresistibly attracted. It
258 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
may be said that no variation from the general directions
for courtship and engagement should be made in such
cases. Indeed, there is all the greater need for careful
and prudent discrimination during courtship. A deep
impression is not love. An irresistible fascination is not
love. A passionate yearning may not be love. Careful
introspection should be made, and analysis of the emo
tions, so that no mistake shall be made.
Love What Is It?
Love is the most common thing on earth ; and yet it
is one of the profoundest mysteries. The source from
which it springs, the means by which it is stimulated, the
ways by which it travels, have never been discovered, and
cannot be determined. It is at one and the same time
the simplest and most complex passion known to animated
creation. It excites to the noblest deeds of heroism, self-
abnegation and devotion ; it is the direct agent in leading
to the basest selfishness, cruelty and deceit. It makes an
angel of one, and a devil of another. It brings the
sweetest, purest and profoundest bliss ; and it is the cause
of the bitterest, crudest and most withering sorrow.
In its truest sense, love is the light and majesty of life.
It is the ultimate principle to which all things must be
resolved. Take it away, and the world becomes a barren
waste. Banish this principle, and there is only a world of
monuments, each standing isolated, gloomy and crumb
ling. It is an army of gravestones without a chaplet ; a
shrubless plain without a leaf of green to relieve the
LOVE WHAT IS IT? 259
insipidity and monotonous uniformity that everywhere
extends. Things base and cruel, creeping and obscure,
withered and bloodless, alone could spring from such a
soil.
Love is a principle that must look beyond and above
the world for its origin, inspiration and life. Refining
and elevating in its character, it expels all that is sordid
and base. It bids to great deeds, noble thoughts. It is
the philosopher s stone which transmutes common clay
into the purest gold. It illumines the darkest pathway.
It makes home happy and memory blissful. It blends
hearts together in inseparable unity. It is the very sun of
life largest and most beautiful in the morning and
evening, strongest and steadiest at the noontime. With
out it, the soul has no central, living force, and life is
worse than death.
The ancient Greeks represented love under a two
fold aspect ; there was the love for the good and beautiful,
the excellent or desirable in the abstract ; the other form,
in addition to these qualities, included the love of the
sexes, one for the other. The Greek word eras meant
passion, desire, affection, or kindness, while the word
agapce signified love, friendship, affection, charity, and the
love of God to man.
Moral love is what will most claim our attention. This
implies that affection which persons of different sexes feel
toward each other. Upon analysis, we find it to consist of
ideas attached to mind and in part to matter. Love is
pure. It is not what the sensualist feels, and the
26O MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
voluptuary does not know the meaning of the word. The
vicious know it not. These follow but a vain shadow, a
low, vile passion, not the ennobling, sublimating, soul-
refining delights, known only to the virtuous, as_ J aita.ched
to the idea comprehended in the word love.
For instance, two men, different in character and
pursuits, meet a young lady at a social party. She has
arrived at blooming seventeen. Her form is perfect ; her
lips are like rubies ; her teeth like ivory ; her eye like the
gazelle s ; her countenance angelic ; in her is realized the
beau ideal of poetic beauty. As she moves in the gay
circle of the dance, her whole deportment combines all that
is agile with all that is graceful ; as the wavy curls flow
down her fair neck, the eye rests for a moment on the
rotundity of figure, displayed in her heaving breast. Two
individuals thus view her ; the one from the gambling
table and the haunts of vice and debauchery ; the other
from an unpolluted home, the abode of a loving mother
and an affectionate sister. The two see the girl at the
same moment, and she inspires the one with passion, the
other with love.
They both gaze on her, and while one would plot how
to rob her of the pearl of virtue, and gratify a transitory
passion by sacrificing her purity and happiness to his
ungovernable lust, the other is inspired by a heavenly
sentiment. He grows deathly pale, his lips quiver, his
voice trembles, and, filled with inexpressible tenderness
and purest emotion, he views her as the fair star of his
destiny, the beacon-light of his future ; and, studying her
LOVE WHAT IS IT? 26 1
interest and felicity no less than his own, he desires to
devote his life to the pleasing task of making her happy ;
and that is the holy state of matrimony. This is love,
pure and undefiled.
In like manner a tender lady sees a man who is the
object of her esteem. His comely proportions, his
exalted character, his loving heart, his noble disposition,
all tend to impress her favorably and, scarcely known to
herself, she thinks of him when he is absent, blushes in
his presence, betrays some little tender emotion and
already her heart is his own. She loves thrilling and
delightful emotion in the pure heart of a woman for
woman s heart is kind and is not made of rock ; on
the contrary, it is more like wax, pliable and easily
impressed.
" What thing is love, which naught can counter-veil,
Naught save itself, even such a thing is love ;
And worldly wealth in worth as far doth fail,
As lowest earth doth yield to heaven above.
Divine is love, and scorneth worldly pen,
And can be bought with nothing but itself."
There is thus in the sexes an adaption to one another.
Each without the other is imperfect. The coarseness of
man, his hardness and asperity, are refined, softened and
smoothed by the gentle influence of woman. They have
a mutual attraction for each other, like the opposite poles
of a powerful magnet. Woman may be represented as
the negative pole. She is passive, as it were. The motive
and power must come from man. Thus man and woman
but fulfill their destiny when they meet and unite for
life.
262 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
Moral love in man has the same principle as physical
love among animals. It is an intangible something in the
being "diich attracts another. They are irresistibly drawn
togethe . They are absorbed in each other. Individual
identity ; s lost in the blending. They are bound by chains
that cannot be severed. It is the most blissful bondage.
Each absorbed in the other, is forgetful of self.
Neither thinks of self as disassociated from the other.
It is an involuntary passion. It can neither be bidden to
arise nor to depart at will. It is directed by no variable
element and is bound by no rules. A word, a look, a
motion may call it into being, and eternity cannot
stifle it.
Courtship.
Courtship is the mating of kindred souls. It is one of
the sweetest, most delightsome periods of life. The ele
ment of uncertainty gives a zest to the quest. The taste
of the profound joys of mutual love sweetens every hour.
Anticipation excites eagerness, while new discoveries of
character constantly revealed lends a most absorbing
interest. Life is a poem, the earth a paradise of roses,
the heavens a galaxy of diadems. All the senses are
absorbed in blissful lethargy. The most prosaic utterances
glitter with rare beauty. The most common-place scenes
are invested with romantic interest. The air is fragrant
with a thousand delicious odors. The past fades away
and the future holds nothing but what is desirable.
This is a period and pursuit about which the sweetest
poetry and the silliest prose have been written. A time
THE ENGAGEMENT RING.
COURTSHIP. 263
that demands the exercise of the calmest reason, it is a
time when reason is held in abeyance to passion. A time
which demands the most profound thoughtfulness, it is a
time in which no thought is exercised. A time of the
gravest importance, it is a time that is dreamed away in
careless enjoyment. A time that calls for the clearest
self-vigilance, it is a time in which self is permitted to
float about at the will of the senses. A time that should
call for the most careful scrutiny and equable judgment, it
is the time in which the eyes are holden and the judgment
swayed by the emotions.
There are two great reasons which stamp the period of
courtship second to no other era of life. One is that it
calls for the exercise of the highest discrimination, resolu
tion and judgment. A young man and a young woman
are attracted to each other. The point of attraction may
be trifling, insignificant, intangible. Neither, perhaps, can
tell exactly what in the other interests and attracts. This
attraction leads to association. Association ripens into
friendship. Friendship blossoms into love. Love finds its
fruition in marriage. Between the first and last terms of
this series, lies the period of courtship. What is its pur
pose ? Manifestly, to gain a more intimate knowledge of
each other s character, disposition, temperament, habits,
etc. For what ? To decide whether each is adapted to
the other, and whether or not an intimate, indissoluble
union may be desirable.
The essential purpose of courtship, then, is the study
of character. To do this creditably demands the exercise
264 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
of the intellectual faculties to the highest degree. It is
not a time to allow the senses to become so steeped in the
bliss of the present that discernment and discrimination
are blinded. Love is blind. But courtship is not love.
It should not be blind. It is the development, the culti
vation of love. But at the same time, it is the determin
ing whether or not it be desirable to have love cultivated
and brought to a ripened fruition. There can be no true
marriage which does not rest upon love. But there can
be no true love which does not rest upon a basis of respect.
There can be no intelligent respect which looks to any
qualities in the object respected which are outside real
character. A man may be attracted by a dainty habit,
bewitched by a rougish eye, charmed by a graceful form and
carriage, delighted by a witty repartee ; but he cannot
respect, in any proper use of the term, a handsome dress, a
brilliant eye, a perfect movement, a ready tongue. He
cannot love what is not preceded by a profound respect.
Passion is not love. Admiration, pleasure, enjoyment,
delirium these are not all the ingredients of deep and
abiding affection. It goes beyond and beneath all these
emotions. It finds no secure resting place till it reaches,
analyses, synthesizes, and weighs the character of the
object of passion. These processes are to be pursued dur
ing the courting time. It is, then, not alone a time of
cooing and wooing, but more essentially a time of deep and
careful study. Everything in the future depends upon the
thoroughness, the impartiality and definiteness of that
study. And this suggests the other reason referred to.
COURTSHIP. 265
The happiness of marriage is conditional on the manner
in which courtship is conducted. Marriage does not neces
sarily imply happiness. Courtship need not necessarily,
in every instance, lead to marriage. On the contrary,
marriage has often proved the bitterest sorrow. There
are some cases, in which the cause of the unhappiness did
not exist at the time of marriage, but they are exceedingly
rare. There are very few cases of marital unhappiness
that are not the direct result of ignorance. The wife did
not know the husband, or the husband did not know the
wife, when this relation was established. That element of
character which now, in its operations in life, breeds the
unhappiness, was either unknown or unweighed when the
decision of marriage was made. The same disposition
which leads to a feeling of repulsion now, would have pro
duced the same effect then had the disturbing cause been
known and observed. The same inability to love now,
because of certain traits of character or habits of life,
existed before marriage, and would have asserted itself had
not the eyes been too blinded to perceive the existence of
these offensive traits, and the mind too full to trace them
to their legitimate fruitage.
It is doubtless true that a husband or wife often
develop, after marriage, the characteristics which destroy
domestic peace and undermine marital happiness. But it
is also true, that it is development, not. creation. Few
men or women at marriageable age, have not reached
maturity. They are then what they always will be. Certain
traits may be developed to legitimate sequences; but the
265 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
principle existed in the character all the time. The thief
at thirty had the instincts of a thief at twenty, though he
may never have stolen anything. If the courtship had
been conducted on the rational basis which its importance
demands, the character of each would have been fully
known before marriage. It is, then, a mere matter of
judgment whether marriage shall be contracted or not.
It may be conceded that the mutual study of character
during the period of courtship is difficult. But this is no
reason why it should be abandoned. There are two great
reasons why this study is difficult ; one is because of a mis
conception of the purpose of courtship ; the other is
because of the absence of candor and honesty on the part of
both. Very many courtships are begun and conducted
for the sole purpose of captivating and securing the person
courted. The young man starts to woo and to win the
maiden whose charms have attracted him. He thinks of
nothing else, aims at nothing else. The idea of studying
her to see if she be a suitable life-companion for him never
enters his mind. The same is true of the maiden in many
cases. Her aim is to lead the wooing into a declaration
of love and a proposition of marriage.
Thus inspired, each goes to work to conquer. Each
treats the other dishonestly. They are not true to them
selves in the presence of each other. They put on false
characters. They practice every possible art of deception
for the concealment of their real character. They assume
qualities they do not possess. They study to appear bet
ter than they are, to be what each discovers the other
COURTSHIP. 267
would like them to be. They seek by the adornments of
dress, by the blandishments of manners, by the allure
ments of smiles and honeyed words, by the fascinations of
pleasure and scenes of excitement, to add unreal, unpos
sessed charms to their persons and characters. They study
to appear in each other s eyes as possessing no defects, no
blemishes, no flaws.
They succeed in deceiving each other. They marry
under this delusion, and in a short time it will pass away.
There is no longer any need for concealment and decep
tion. The end sought has been attained. Each comes to
know the other. Each finds the other to be very differ
ent from what was believed, perhaps wholly unlike the
object that won love. Such an awakening is dreadful. Is
it to be wondered at that an unhappy marriage follows?
The wonder would be if it did not.
In many cases the inevitable and unalterable is
accepted philosophically. Each accepts the new being mar
riage has discovered, and genuine love grows up between
them. In too many cases this is not possible to be done,
and hence, the many unhappy marriages. Many of these
could have been averted had the courtship been conducted
honestly and properly. It is better not to marry, than to
marry wretchedness and misery.
The very importance of courtship suggests that it be
not allowed to commence too early in life. It embraces
interests that demand the matured mind to decide. Court
ship for the mere sake of courtship that begins and ends
with courtship is not to be taken into account. There
268 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
is no such thing. Such conduct has a different name
altogether. It is flirting, and demands sentence of
condemnation by this name.
The first suggestion is not to think of this all-important
affair too soon, nor suppose it necessary that a miss
of sixteen or seventeen should receive special atten
tion. The period of courtship, like all other periods
of woman s history, is limited to a certain number of
years, and, like the hand on the dial of the clock, makes
its circuit, no matter at what number the pendulum is put in
motion. So a woman will have her years of love or match
making, no matter whether she begins at sixteen or
twenty. Not unfrequently it is said of a woman of twenty:
" I know she is twenty-five, because she has been
having beaux for five or six years," forgetting she
regarded herself as a woman entering society and receiving
company at fifteen.
Do not court the subject, nor permit your imagination
to be forever dwelling on it. Rather drive it from you
than draw it near. Ever repress that visionary and
romantic turn of mind which looks upon the whole space
that lies between you and the hymeneal altar as a dreary
waste ; all beyond, a paradise. In cases innumerable, the
very opposite is true, and the exchange of a father s for a
husband s home has been like the departure of Eve from
the Garden of Eden to a wide, uncultivated wilderness.
A Greek fable says that some stags, whose knees were
clogged with frozen snow upon the mountains, came down
into the brooks in the valleys, hoping to thaw their joints
COURTSHIP. 269
in the waters of the stream, but the frost bound them fast
in the ice till the herdsmen took them in their stronger
snare. So it is with many young persons ; finding many
inconveniences in single life, they descend into the valley
of marriage, only to refresh their trouble and multiply
their inconveniences. They enter fetters, and are bound
to sorrow by the cords of man s peevishness.
Take extreme care of hasty entanglements ; neither
give nor receive particular attentions, until the matter have
been well weighed. Rather keep your affections shut up
in your own breast, until reason and judgment command
their bestowal, that your choice may be one of prudence
and not of haste. A neglect of this point, until you have
fallen into the snare of an imaginary love, weakens your
means of defense, compromises your judgment, and makes
you an easy pray to the craftiness of man.
As it is better for woman to defer marriage until
between twenty-two and twenty-five, it follows that court
ship ought not to be begun earlier than twenty. Her
physical nature is .then well developed, her mind matured ;
she is able to behold and appreciate the realities of life,
and if she^ bear children will impart to them the inheri
tance of maturity. Now, since it is easier to demonstrate
upon purely moral and physiological principles, the disad
vantages and improprieties of long engagements, it is but
fair to conclude that courtship should not commence
within the limits of the " teens."
Content yourself and enjoy the blessed privileges of a
girl in the domicile of your mother. Drink the sweets of
270 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
a mother s care, protection and education, that you may
be fully armed and equipped and made strong for the
great battle of life. Be sure that your married experiences
will come soon enough. Marriage is for matured women,
not for girls. It is the completed life, but it should not
encroach on the domains of youth and happy maiden
hood.
How to Select a Husband.
When a young woman arrives at the age when it is
proper for her to contemplate marriage, three queries are
said to present themselves to her mind : When shall I
marry ? Who will marry me ? Shall I marry at all ? To
the first of these questions attention is now to be directed,
with the hope that a few words of advice may enable a
young woman to decide the question more in harmony
with the laws of physical being than, unaided, she could
do. A mistake made here is a certain prelude to a life of
unhappiness, positive or negative, if it compel her to
travel the voyage of life in company with an ill-suited,
uncongenial companion who is not only her husband, but
the father of her children.
Few questions meet a young woman that are more
important to her than this one of choosing a life
companion. The relation of husband and wife is so inti
mate and complicated that its happy adjustment outranks
all social considerations, and stands next to health in
securing happiness and general well-being. There are
certain conditions, well-established by experience, which
HOW TO SELECT A HUSBAND.
should exist, in order to insure the largest measure of
happiness in conjugal relations. Some of these are
physical and others social and moral.
Consanguinity.
A due regard must be given to the degree of relation
ship by blood subsisting between the parties contem
plating marriage. How closely related persons may be
to marry safely, is an old subject, involving long and
interesting discussions. Many of the States have gone
so far as to enact statutes forbidding marriage between
persons who sustain to each other the relation of first
cousins. Extensively gathered and carefully compiled
statistics are shown to establish the fact that the progeny
of this degree of relationship are frequently of feeble
constitution and susceptible to inherited tendencies.
Dr. J. G. Spurgheim says that " scarcely one among the
royal families of Europe, who have married in and in for
generations, can write a page of consecutive sound sense
on any scientific, literary or moral subject." Dr.
Charles Caldwell says : " One cause of human deteri
oration is family marriages. It has almost extinguished
most of the royal families of Europe, though- at first
they were the notables of the land for physical strength
and for force of mind and character." Dr. Buxton
says that " from ten to twelve per cent, of the deaf
mutes are the children of cousins. In one hundred and
seventy consanguinous marriages, were two hundred and
sixty-nine deaf or dumb children, and seven in one
2/2 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
family." Many similar instances might be adduced from
equally high authority, illustrating the evil results of
persons marrying that are too nearly of the same blood.
The author can say that his own observation does not
coincide with the testimony given above. Intimate
knowledge of a great many marriages between first
cousins fails to show anything like this ratio of serious
consequences. While it is always better not to marry
within such close degrees of relationship as this, yet
unqualified condemnation of it cannot be allowed.
Cousins who are married happily ought not to be made
miserable for life in dread of having defective or deficient
offspring. There is far more menace in taint of blood
than in the mere relationship. Where this herditary pre
disposition exists, whether it be in families so related or
in any other family, it is likely to develop in the chil
dren.
A German author has urged the propriety of consan
guineous unions where the family has traits of mental or
physical excellence, as a means of further developing
these qualities. Sterility is urged as an objection to the
marriage of cousins, the assertion being made that such
unions are less productive than others. Statistics prove,
however, that in the average unions one in eight is
barren, while between cousins only one in ten. Another
objection is that early deaths are more common. But
statistical tables show that whereas fifteen per cent, is the
general death average, only twelve per cent, is the rate in
families whose parents are cousins. This general truth,
CONSANGUINITY. 273
however, it is well to keep in mind, namely, that few
families are wholly free from some lurking predisposition
to serious mental or physical disorder ; and it is not wise,
as a rule, to risk the development of this by too oft
repeated unions. Stock-breeders who have had large
experience in raising the lower animals have established
the rule that crossing nearly-related individuals a certain
number of times produces the best specimens, but, if
carried beyond this, it leads to degeneracy and sterility.
Constitution.
No woman should seriously consider marriage without
including one of its essential ends, namely, the rearing of
a family. Considering this, she will also think how greatly
her own happiness will be conserved, her burdens lightened
and averted, if her children shall be sound in body and
mind. The man she marries will be the father of her
children. He will bequeath to them, as has been shown
elsewhere in this book, the constitution which he himself
possesses. Though she herself may enjoy perfect health
and a faultless constitution, she cannot expect that her
children will be equally endowed if their father have a
shattered constitution. It becomes, therefore, a matter of
serious import to her, if not a duty to herself and the chil
dren she may bear, to study the health of the man she
elects to marry. It is not a cold business calculation,
repugnant to the highest social and moral sentiments that
obtain in accepting a husband ; on the contrary, it is only
a justifiable prudence and commendable common sense.
274 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
There is but one life to lead and one family to rear.
This life should be made as full of light and happiness, as
free from care and sorrow, as it is possible to make it,
and this family should possess the highest physical and
mental endowments which it is possible for the mother to
bestow. For these reasons, she is only consulting her own
best interests when she elects to join her life with one
whose physical constitution is free from blemish or defect.
The constitution of the possible husband can be ascer
tained. It is partly a matter of record in the physical
character of his family. It will be no impropriety to
scrutinize this family through at least the previous genera
tion. The habits of the husband should be known because
of their effects upon his physical constitution. If he have
lived recklessly for any considerable time with regard to
the laws of health, there certainly must be an impaired
constitution, though this may not yet evidence itself in the
health. Continued disobedience to the principles and con
dition of health will undermine any constitution, however
robust. If the man have been long dissipated, the general
constitution is affected deleteriously. He may now be
thoroughly reformed and be leading an upright and honor
able life; in such condition there are no social nor moral
objections to marriage, but there are causes for grave fears
from a physiological point of view.
It can be repeated that the young woman must con
sider that, in choosing a husband, she is conditioning the
ohysical interests of her children. She may be willing, so
tar as she herself is concerned, to mate with a physical
CONSTITUTION. 275
wreck ; but she has no moral right to curse her children
with the heritage which such a wreck will give. She owes
a duty to these unborn children which she cannot shirk
nor evade. She owes a duty to herself as a member of
society to bless it with good members.
Other Qualities.
There are other natural qualities which a woman should
scrutinize in the man she intends to marry. Among these
are health, race, temperament, education, habits, etc. In
comparison with the two that have been named consan
guinity and constitution they are minor considerations.
Considered alone, out of relation, they are by no means
unimportant.
A woman ought not to marry a man in poor health.
No man in that situation ought to ask a woman to marry
him. If the derangement is only temporary, they both
can well afford to wait. If it be chronic, it is likely the
result of constitutional defect, and what was said in the
foregoing will apply. There are several good reasons
why this should not be done. One is that no man is at
his best when out of health. He cannot give that atten
tion to his person which is needed. The first months of
marriage have an important bearing on the feelings which
husband and wife are likely to cherish toward each other
for a long time afterwards, perhaps through life.
A man in ill-health is not so patient, so kind, so con
siderate of others, so forbearing, as he is at other times.
It has already been said that there is ordinarily a revulsion
276 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
in the feelings of a man toward his wife in the first few
days. In this condition there is a demand for the exercise
of the very virtues named above which he is least able to
exhibit. He is likely to be cross, impatient, selfish,
thoughtless, uncompanionable. Seeing him thus, the
newly-made wife, herself in need of the tenderest care and
solicitude, is almost irresistibly impelled to a feeling of
repugnance, which in her excited condition, is likely to
tend to positive disgust. This is a sad state in which to
begin conjugal life. A barrier may be erected between
husband and wife that it will require years to remove.
Still another reason exists in the fact that conception
frequently follows the first approaches of the newly
married couple. It is not desirable from any point of
view that a husband should become a father when his
physical condition is in a debilitated condition. For her
sake, for his sake, for mutual relation s sake, for her
children s sake, a woman should not marry a man in
ill health.
Women generally marry men who are of the same race
as themselves. There are many social reasons why this is
best. There are race characteristics which play an impor
tant place in determining the comfort, pleasure and happi
ness of marital life. The union of two persons of different
nationality is likely to bring into contact peculiarities that
are antagonistic, and domestic friction certainly ensues.
It need not be so, but it generally is so.
But there are no physiological objections, to the inter
marriage of different races. On the contrary, it is fre-
OTHER QUALITIES. 2/7
quently of the greatest advantage. It often leads to a
keener intellectual and a sounder physical development in
the children by the intermingling of diverse races. This
has been shown in a good many instances in the crossing
of races very much diverse, as when an Anglo-Saxon or
Frenchman has allied himself to an Indian or African
woman. Such extreme cases, however, are not to be consid
ered here. But it is quite common for marriages to occur
between the different European races, with marked benefit,
intellectually and physically. It is seen in a large scale in
the admixture of whole nations in Europe where the
amalgamated succession was very much superior to either
of the progenitors.
Temperament needs to be considered. The best gen
eral rule to lay down is, that persons too nearly allied in
temperament ought not to marry. Such union does not
in any degree militate against the mutual affection and
happiness, but it has a tendency to develop constitutional
weakness in the children. It is not necessary to choose
opposite temperaments, though this is certainly advanta
geous, but only to avoid too great similarity.
It seldom occurs that a woman finds the highest hap
piness in allying herself to a man who is her intellectual
inferior, or whose education is inferior to hers. It would
be the best thing of course, if the contracting parties
could stand on an equality in these regards. When this is
not the case, the balance is best secured when the hus- \^
band is the superior. He is the natural as well as the legal
head of the house. Women naturally look up, not down,
278 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
to their husbands. When the later condition exists, it is
almost certain to tend to domestic infelicity. Just in pro
portion to the ignorance and inferiority of the man, so will
be the disrespect of the wife for him, and so, also, will be
his own impatience, irritability and intractability.
No woman is justified in joining her pure life to that
of a man of loose or vicious habits. It is not to be
expected that a man will be found who is perfect, or abso
lutely pure and clean. Few men are that. But there are
certain habits which make any man unfit to mate with a
pure woman. A great many young women are seized with
the semi-romantic notion that they can marry depraved
men and reform them. The experiment succeeds about
once in a thousand times, and in a good many of these
exceptions the probabilities are that the man would have
reformed anyhow
The man wh s such a slave to his passions and
appetites that he will not abandon these habits for his own
sake, or for that of the girl he loves, will not do it for his
wife s sake. It depends, indeed, very largely on the
impelling motive to the objectionable habit. Men are
addicted to bad habits from various causes. Sometimes it is
from an excess of spirits ; again from mere idle curiosity ;
again from depraved tastes or from innate lack of princi
ple. If the habits result from the former causes, they will
yield to changed conditions and refining influences; if from
the latter, nothing short of a new creation will avail much.
A little wise discernment will discover the impelling motive
to the woman, and her influence during courtship will dis
cover to her what she is likely to accomplish as a wife.
QUALIFICATIONS OF A HUSBAND. 279
Qualifications of a Husband.
The qualifications that have been considered refer to
natural and physical conditions. There are certain other
traits in a husband which the young woman ought to
consider. These may be termed, in contradistinction to
the others, social or moral qualities, as they concern more
directly social and moral ends in married life.
Filial Love.
The first qualification of a good husband is love of his
mother. The young man whose heart swells not with
filial pride at the very name of her who in pain and sorrow
brought him into existence, whose watchful care exhausted
itself through all those days and years of perilous infancy
and childhood, and whose soul is wrapped up in his health,
happiness and prosperity, will not make a kind and loving
husband.
He should not only love his mother, but the whole
household should feel the influence of his refining presence.
His sisters should be objects of his special regard, watch
fulness and care. The influence of home becomes so
stamped upon the life, character and disposition of a boy,
that to a greater or less extent it insidiously develops itself
in his own home. If, in his nursery, passion were unre
strained, truth not adhered to, consistency not seen, the
youthful mind will receive the impression, and future life
develop it. But, if in his home, all is purity, sincerity,
truth, contentment and love, then will these influences be
felt upon the home of the boy.
280 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
A man who does not habitually reverence his mother
in speech and conduct, cannot make a kind husband. It
may be that his mother is not amiable some mothers,
unhappily, are not. This does not affect the case in the
least so far as outward conduct is concerned. The man
who will treat his mother disrespectfully, or speak of her
in terms of reproach or indifference, testifies by such
actions that there is something unnatural in his moral con
stitution. Lo^V-eJbr^ mother is .a..aaLtural.J.nstinct of the
human heart. It is impossible in a properly regulated
mind not to cherish tender thoughts and speak in respectful
terms of the mother.
The man who fails in these regards gives evidence of a
selfish disposition. He is the one who will look upon a
wife as a chattel, designed for his personal comfort. He
can respect no woman profoundly and tenderly, no matter
what her relation to him may be, if he does not respect
the woman to whom, above all others, he owes the
most.
Kindness.
A kindly disposition and habit is a most desirable
quality in a husband. It is the key-note of the home-
life. This disposition in the husband and father gives tone
to the household. Kindness in the heart is like rose-leaves
stored away in a drawer to perfume and sweeten every
object around. It is the essential principle of love, since it
excites to bear and forbear, and to busy itself in little acts
calculated to do good to others. It is not the great deeds
QUALIFICATIONS OF A HUSBAND. 281
and the disposition to make great sacrifices, that condi
tion the home atmosphere, so much as the little acts of
daily kindness rendered. Kindness is the stimulant and
preservative of love. It is impossible to resist it. It is
balm to a bruised spirit and health to a sick soul. It
refreshes the wearied heart like the gentle shower upon
the parched earth.
See to it that a kind heart pulsates in his manly breast.
Kindness will go farther and bring more pleasure and
happiness than all the pride, haughtiness and asperity that
can be assumed. A kind, sympathizing word falls from
the lips like dew-drops upqn the flower, imparting odors
that stimulate the drooping spirit in a woman s breast.
A man with a kind and affectionate disposition will
always find friends, or easily make them, while the
opposite disposition sees only enemies. Kindness is one
of the sweetest gifts in Nature. Like the pure rays of an
unclouded sun after a gentle shower, it cheers and enlivens
amidst anger and sorrow. It is essential to the happiness
and well-being of every family, cheering the heart of the
care-worn wife, giving stimulus to her sinking spirit and
solace to her aching heart.
Purity.
No quality is more ennobling in a man or woman than
that of purity ; nothing is more repulsive, or unites either
more closely to the brute creation, than impurity. Purity
in its most comprehensive application to the life, the
character and the soul, should be sought after in a hus-
282 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
band. Without it, no perfect union, no complete happi
ness, can be enjoyed. It is a law of physics that in the
material world evil corrupts the good, while the converse,
unfortunately, is not the case. Bring two perishable
substances in contact, the one sound and perfect, the
other unsound and decaying, and the good will be con
taminated by the evil and ruined by it, while the perfect
will have no power of arresting the destruction of the
other. Place a single decaying apple in a bin of good
fruit, and the whole will be destroyed. It may be a
thousand to one, but the one will conquer.
In some degree this law prevails in the domain of mind.
One depraved mind and soul coming in constant contact
with another that is pure and chaste has the advantage in
influence. It is a proverb that one bad pupil will ruin a
whole school of good ones. There are reasons why this is
so, but it is sufficient to admit the fact. The woman of
pure mind and chaste life who mates herself with a man
not possessing these qualities, but possessing their
opposites, incurs the risk of two evils. One is that in the
intimate familiarity of conjugal life the perfect knowledge
of her husband s character must become known to her.
With this full knowledge there will be a shattering to dust
of the idol she has erected in her own mind, and before
which her heart had bowed in affectionate reverence.
Herself pure, she will be shocked at the grossness with
which she finds herself united. Following this shock will
come a loss of respect and reverence. These emotions
disturbed, there must inevitably follow a shaking of the
QUALIFICATIONS OF A HUSBAND. 283
affection itself, since respect is the foundation of all
genuine, lasting affection. Repugnance and alienation are
natural and easy steps.
The other danger is that she herself will suffer. It is
sometimes said, half-jocosely and half-sneeringly, and yet
with a great deal of truth, that a woman s affections are so
constituted, that the meaner and baser the object of affec
tion becomes, the more tenderly it is loved and cherished.
It is only a half truth, but it is that. Granting this much,
it is easy to see how the wife will suffer degradation
through her tenacious affection for a depraved husband.
He is naturally the stronger ; she the weaker. He leads ;
she follows. He is bad ; she good and therefore the
tendency is for her to go to him. Morally she is above
him ; but gravitation tends downward. Human nature, at
its best, is depraved. It is easier to go down than to go
up. It is easier to pollute a pure mind than it is to
re fine and. .elevate an impure one.
There are few men and women of middle life who can
not call up in memory instances in which pure-souled
girls of early acquaintance who, through mesalliance in
marriage, have degraded into coarse, offensive, repugnant
women. On the other hand, the cases are rare wherein
such a marriage has resulted in the redemption of the
husband and his elevation to the refined plane on which
his wife moved at marriage. There are such cases, cer
tainly, but they are few in comparison with those that
have eventuated diversely. There is a romantic notion
cherished by many girls in their teens that they will marry
284 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
men and reform them. It is generally but a bit of cheap
sentimentalism, and those who are beguiled by it are not,
ordinarily, strong enough mentally or morally to accom
plish the end, even where it may be possible.
Marriage is too serious a matter for sentimental experi
ments. It is too profound and far-reaching in its influ
ence on the life and happiness of any woman to warrant
her indulging an experiment or taking any unnecessary
risks. The time to decide these questions concerning the
character of a husband is before marriage, not after.
Then it is too late. She has taken this man for better or
for worse ; and if it be the latter, she must abide by it. The
time of courtship is the opportunity for discerning the
character and deciding the result.
No woman contemplating marriage is justified in
deciding to ally her life with that of a man whose life has
been impure, or whose soul is base and sensuous. It is
not an easy matter for the maiden to fully discern the
character of her lover. But it is not difficult. It requires
only ordinary observation and discernment. The mind
filled with impurity will betray itself in a hundred ways,
and by tokens that cannot be misunderstood. Shun the
base soul as you would the deadly contagion. Avoid all
possibility of realizing the dark picture that has been por
trayed by refusing to unite your fair, pure life with one
that is smirched with the pollution of an impure life or
soul. Give your life into the keeping of no man save his
whose mind is pure and whose life is clean.
There are many such men. Despite all the harrowing
tales that are daily recounted in the history of human lives
QUALIFICATIONS OF A HUSBAND. 285
of depravity and wickedness of men, the majority of men
with whom young women of taste and refinement associate
are clean. The very fact that a young man finds delight
in the society of pure women argues for his own purity
of heart. The vile do not seek the good persistently.
Soul seeks its congenial soul. Besides, it is to be remem
bered that for every case of evil that comes to public
notice there are a hundred that remain unnoted unnoted
because they have done no wrong. The man who goes
astray attracts attention, because it is something unusual.
The exceptions are always more prominent than those
which conform to rule. No woman need marry a man of
coarse mind and depraved life because there are not scores
of better men to be found.
Temperance.
No characteristic should be more rigidly insisted upon
in a Husband than that he be temperate. The man who
has acquired the drink-habit, no matter what his other
qualifications may be, is not the man for a woman to
marry. No evil is more prevalent, more wide-spread,
more destructive of all that renders life enjoyable and
desirable than that of intemperance. It ruins body and
soul alike. It numbers its victims by the thousands, and
selects them from the noblest as well as from the lowest
walks of life. It attacks men under the guise of friendship,
worms itself into their confidence, steals away their reason,
undermines their resolution, influences their passions,
entraps their senses, and sweeps away the bulwarks of their
286 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERFIOOD
purity and honor. Alcohol is a foe to the human race so
subtle and powerful that it destroys the very humanity of
man ; vitiates all the mental processes of those who indulge
in it, degrades morals, induces pauperism and crime in
individuals and communities in the superlative degree,
when compared with all other causes, corrupts the home
into a hell, and wasts the material resources with a lavish
and remorseless hand.
Its history is the history of misery and vice and crime
and woe and wretchedness throughout the world. Its names
are legion, and its forms without number. It varies in
hue as the color of the rainbow, and in taste to suit all
palates ; sparkling in wine-cups, foaming in tankards,
creaming in bowls, it weaves a spell of enchantment
around the young, the gay and the thoughtless, and leads
them by gentle witchery, until their feet are bound with a
cord of seven-fold brass. No siren is more seductive, no
music more captivating than the ruining wiles of alcohol.
Eloquence has been laid under tribute to proclaim its
virtues, poetry has wreathed for it a garland of roses,
while mirth and wit have crowned it king of all good
fellowship.
But, in the end, " it biteth like a serpent and stingeth
iike an adder." The cup that sparkles with brilliant hues
which captivate the eye, and whose hidden power fires
the veins with fever and life, has a dreg that is the poison
of death. He who drinks for pleasure will drink again for
passion ; he who drinks for passion will drink again for
madness ; he who drinks for madness will drink again for
death and hell.
QUALIFICATIONS OF A HUSBAND. 287
From every point of view, it is hazardous for a woman
to join her life to one who is intemperate in his habits.
She is committing her happiness into the keeping of one
who is not his own master, but who is the slave of a
demon that knows no mercy, no relentment, no remorse.
She is entering upon a future that is dark and threatening
for her comfort, peace and material enjoyment. She is
electing for the father of her children one whose veins
are poisoned with a venom that pervades every globule,
and which will be bequeathed to the children she may
bear. Every consideration of wisdom and prudence urges
upon her to avoid such an alliance. The skies may be
bright about her and the tempter may whisper to her silly
heart that there is no danger ; he is not like other men ;
he will never be different from what he is now. There is
danger. Experience, a thousand times repeated, declares
in tones that cannot be drowned or misinterpreted, that
there is always danger ahead of the man who is intem
perate. History and observation alike decree that all
men are alike who come under the domination of appetite.
Stronger and better men than he who now fills all the
maiden s life and desires, have fallen so low in the scale of
humanity that nothing remained but a bloated and dis
figured form.
The demon of drink will not let its victims alone. He
will entice, cajole or drive until he have them wholly in
hand, and then he will rush them headlong into the abyss
of ruin. He debauched Noah ; he cursed Canaan ; he
brought down the divine maledictions again and again
288 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
upon Israel. He has sat in the cabinets of kings and in
the halls of legislation ; he has murdered armies and over
thrown states ; he has inspired plots and intrigues and
crimes in every nation, in every clime, at every time, and
among all peoples. And he is stronger, more seductive,
more ravenous and more agressive to day than ever
before. No class, no age, no sex is safe from his power
if once a pause is made to dally or parley with him.
There is no safety except in entire abstinence from any
toying with the tempter. No warning can be made too
emphatic against committing the keeping of life, peace,
comfort and happiness to one who is in any degree under
the power of this demon.
Industry and Frugality.
These are twin virtues. They should co-exist. With
out either, no man, however opulent he may be in the
present, has a certain guaranty against want and poverty
in the future. Dissevered, each is weak. Where one
exists without the other, the life becomes like a sieve or a
treadmill gaining much but losing as much or a con
tinual grind with little comfort and enjoyment. But where
the two qualities are found in a man, a safe and comfortable
future is assured. He may never become wealthy ; but
this is not to be always desired. He is certain to acquire
a competence.
It is the husband s part to provide his wife with a
home and maintain the same. It is the wife s place to
make that home happy. . Marriage is too sacred a step to
QUALIFICATIONS OF A HUSBAND. 289
contemplate wholly from a material standpoint. " Marry
ing for a home " is as much to be condemned as " marrying
for love," and nothing else. At the same time, marriage
is by far too serious a step, and too far-reaching in its
influence upon a woman s life for her to totally disregard
all material prospects. It is her right and duty to herself
to demand that the man who solicits her to go into his
home as its mistress, shall have the qualities which insure
a permanence to that home, as well as a provision for its
continued maintenance.
This is not degrading marriage. On the contrary, it is
placing it upon a plane of reasonable common sense. Too
often are young women liable to underestimate or to over
estimate the present condition of the man who asks them
in marriage. The practical but near-sighted maiden will
say, he has nothing but his trade. She forgets to note
that he is not only a skillful workman, but is industrious
and energetic in his work, temperate and frugal in his
habits. Therefore, she decides that she cannot join her
lot with his, dreading the uncertain future. Another will
say, he has a good home and a competence. She neg
lects to note how this home was secured or this competence
accumulated. She also fails to observe that his industry
is spasmodic, or has no existence at all, and that he is
lavish and extravagant in his expenditures.
A decade or two roll by. The first-named man at
middle life is honored, respected, with a comfortable home,
a competence accumulated, and enjoys a happy lot. The
other has made no advance, and perhaps has frittered away
290 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
in idleness and extravagance all that he had a score of
years before. Cases like these are known to everybody.
The sequence follows legitimately in each case. The
maiden must be wise as well as practical. She must, if
she would reach a safe conclusion, not only look at the
present, but at the factors which exist in the life of her
lover, and trace the operation of these to the logical con
clusion. Industry and economy will, other things remain
ing the same, succeed in the race of life ; whereas, the
lack of these even with opulence will inevitably bring
want. Possessing the qualities above-named, and all
other things satisfactory, the absence of any considerable
means whereby to support a family, need not deter. The
strong right arm of that man, nerved by love for his wife,
will hew a way for himself and for her that will land them
in a comfortable old age.
Aside from the considerations named, a woman should
desire her husband to be industrious and frugal, for physi
ological and moral reasons. Such a man is likely to enjoy
better health and incur less temptation to fall into offen
sive and ruinous vices. Idleness is the parent of vice ;
industry, of virtue. Industry is a condition of contentment,
and contentment is happiness. Industry and virtue are
correlative. Virtue, says one, keeps its possessor to his
daily task, and his daily task keeps him to virtue. Experi
ence and observation amply corroborate the truth of
the apothegm. The industrious and economical man is a
better man than the idler and spendthrift. He is more
cheerful, pleasant and happy. He creates a better home
QUALIFICATIONS OF A HUSBAND. 2QI
atmosphere, is less selfish and more helpful and consider
ate of others. He may be prosaical, but he is honest ; he
may be plain, but he is pure minded. He has no time for
the tempter. He is too busy to form evil associations,
cherish extravagant dreams, or indulge vicious appetites.
But in the long race of life he is a certain winner. In the
sober, practical realities, he is a sure defense and reliance.
Happy is the maiden whose heart has been given to such
a man. He will fill all her life with sterling joys and sub
stantial blessings.
Business.
Closely associated .with and assumed in industry and
frugality must be found the possession of some legitimate
means of making a living. No man has any warrant for
expecting success, no matter what his parts may be, who
has not mastered some particular trade or profession. This
was rigidly insisted upon among the ancients. No matter
how opulent a father might be, he made each of his sons
elect some business calling, and thoroughly master it in
all its details. The intention was that if ever the contin
gencies of the future should deprive the young man of his
patrimony, he would not be helpless ; he would have the
means of subsistence in the skill of his hands. It was a
wise provision, and the necessity for it still exists.
A man with versatile accomplishments, yet no specialty,
is a very uncertain creature. He can do a little of every
thing, but a good deal of nothing. An English writer of
position says truthfully : " Versatility seldom pays. " He
292 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
meant that it seldom leads its possessor to any great or
desirable success. It makes a very companionable sort of
a man. But a man who sets up a home of his own and
asks a woman to take the risks of life with him, must be
more than a pleasant companion. He is to be the archi
tect and builder of the family s fortune. He must not
only be industrious and thrifty, but must have some
specific channel in which these qualities can find successful
occupation.
" But," says the young woman, " I intend to marry for
love." What do you mean by this expression? Is it love
in the abstract? The voluptuous, physical part of your
being is the only monitor that guides you in laying a foun
dation for home and all future enjoyment. He is to be
regarded of paramount admiration that lays hold on life
and business as if he had a mission in the world, and
intended to discharge it with fidelity ; who is among the
working bees in the hive of business, not a drone upon
society. Thousands of young women rush blindly into
matrimony, taking it for granted that he who professes so
much love and attachment will provide for the current
wants of the family, without stopping to ask whether or
not he has any way of doing it. Every young man, before
he undertakes the obligation of a household, should acquire
a trade, a business that will insure at least a comfortable
living for those dependent upon him.
Young woman, if the man who is offering you his
hand in this holy covenant have no well-defined business,
or if he have, and do not possess the proper energy and
QUALIFICATIONS OF A HUSBAND. 293
industry to follow it, look him squarely in the face and
ask him with all sincerity : " What do you intend to do
with me ? "
The propounding of such a question implies no doubt
of his affection or intent. On the contrary, it is evidence
of the profoundest interest and confidence in him that you
can ask such a question. No sensible man will be
offended with you. He will esteem you all the more
highly for the good, common sense you display. He, if
he be a man worthy to be a husband, is seeking a com
panion, a helpmeet for himself; one who is willing to
engage in the battle of life with him and bear equally its
burdens.
The man who has no trade or profession is in a sad
plight. He is practically a helpless member of society
He is an incumberance in the home of which he should be
the life and support. He is wholly without excuse. In
this wide-spread and expanding country, no one need be
without some legitimate business. All trades and profes
sions are open to the man who has the skill and energy to
go in and occupy. Men and women without a business
are the pests of society. They are thieves, stealing what
is not their own ; beggars, eating what they have not
earned ; drones, wasting the fruit of others industry ;
leeches, sucking the life-blood of others ; evil-doers, set
ting an example of idleness and dishonest living ; hypo
crites, shining in stolen and false colors ; vampires, eating
out the life of the community.
2Q4 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
Aside from the fact that a certain definite business is
demanded in order to insure against all the contingencies
of the unknown future, there exists another reason why a
woman should hesitate to marry such a man. The lack of
a specific business is an indication of character that ought
not to be ignored. It means either the man was too indo
lent and imprudent through a lack of necessity to provide,
by this means, for his maintenance ; in which case, what
was said in a previous chapter should be considered. Or
it indicates a lack of persistence and singleness of aim, so
essential to any great success. Many young men fritter
away the time of trade-learning in doing nothing.
They waste the golden time of youth in endless changes
and wanderings. They try this thing and that, and go
on to another. They cannot settle their minds to do one
thing, but must be continually trying everything that
comes to hand. They look at a hundred things and see
nothing ; whereas if they looked only at one thing they
would see it, and see it distinctly. They grasp at random
at many things and catch nothing. And so they find them
selves ready to marry and yet have no special business on
which to support a wife.
This variableness indicates instability of character. It
is a weakness. Such men would hardly succeed even
under the most favorable circumstances, while ordinarily
they stand no show at all. One trade well understood is
worth more than a half knowledge of a score of trades. It
is excellence that is always in demand in the market. The
skilled workman can always find something to do.
QUALIFICATIONS OF A HUSBAND. 295
Jealousy.
There are some men excellent in every regard, but
who are unfortunate enough to be afflicted with a sort of
insanity regarding the woman to whom they have given
their affection and whom they desire to marry. They are
jealous-minded. Such a disposition is greatly to be
deplored. It leads to most deplorable unhappiness in the
lot of a wife whose husband is afflicted in this way. He
is chronically unhappy himself, and she is equally so.
The jealous man insults his wife every moment of her life.
Chaste, upright and sensitive, how galling it must be to
her to be subjected to suspicions, and surveillance and
espionage ? No sensitive spirit can brook such treat
ment.
Silly and unreasonable as this trait is, it has been the
cause of untold misery in many homes, and has led to
domestic infidelity and ruin in numberless cases. Not
infrequently it has driven the wife into crime, or insanity,
or the grave ; and the husband who harbors the feeling to
inebriation, to gambling, or to murder. It indicates a
small mind, an unreasonable disposition and a passionate
spirit. These are not the traits to insure domestic peace,
tranquility and happiness. On the contrary, they are the
fruitful source of broils, and misery and wretchedness and
woe.
Be sure that no jealous blood courses through his
veins. Jealousy is that fiend of human happiness that
destroys thousands of families, poisoning the atmosphere
296 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
of domestic bliss. It plucks the rose from the cheek of
beauty ; it withers the laurel in the crown of happiness,
and makes general havoc in all the social relations of life.
Treason, murder and suicide follow in the train of this
demon spirit, preying upon the vitals of self-government,
grinding the blade that shall pierce the bosom of her who
has plighted her all upon the nuptial altar.
Of all the passions, jealousy exacts the hardest service,
and pays the bitterest wages. As you value your life and
all earthly happiness, cut short your acquaintance with
the man who watches in unrest and with scrutinizing gaze
your every movement in the social circle ; whose face
reddens with suspicion at beholding a stray ring upon
your finger or an unknown picture in your album. If
jealousy lurk in his bosom, so sure will misery dwell in
his home.
Morality and Religion.
Never seriously consider a proposition of marriage
J } from a man who does not possess a substantial moral char
acter and a religious veneration. Morality and religion
are the foundation of all true character. The man who
has no sensitive regard for right because it is right, and
God because He is God, is no proper custodian of a
woman s life, reputation and happiness. He is not the man
that any woman should elect to be the father of her chil
dren and their guide in tender years. No excellencies that
a man possesses can atone for the lack of these qualities.
He may have graces and accomplishments, wealth and
QUALIFICATIONS OF A HUSBAND. 297
standing, talent and power ; but if he lack a sensitive
moral nature and an enlightened conscience, he lacks what
makes everything else desirable.
All the investigations of modern science, in respect to
crime, have established the fact that its mental and moral
qualities are hereditary ; a thief, a robber, or murderer
imparts like propensities to his offspring. The criminal
classes in all countries have sprung from the marriage of
wicked and vicious persons. Through this channel, not
withstanding the efforts of the State to reform, criminals
increase in a greater ratio than the population.
Frequently young men who have spoiled themselves
by a career of vice and crime are most particular in respect
to the character of those whom they seek to marry, and
are very watchful in selecting for wives pure, young and
inexperienced girls, totally ignorant of the vices of the
world. Occasionally such unions have a beneficial
effect, the influence of the purity and virtue of the one
predominating over the tendency to vice in the other ; but
such cases are extremely rare. " Can a man take fire to his
bosom and not be burned?" The young woman, once
pure and good, is either contaminated by contact with one
who is wholly demoralized and defiled by sin, or her very
existence becomes wretchedness and misery. Instead of
enjoying those noble qualities of soul which she ought to
admire and respect, she finds naught but selfishness,
sensuality and moral corruption.
Do not risk your happiness on missionary experiment,
and marry a man who is known to be of bad character
293 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
with the idea that you can reform him. This herculean
task may be, indeed, accomplished, but quite too frequently
the reformation is only feigned, and the man who promised
in the days of his courtship to be his wife s highest ideal of
pure and noble manhood, lapses only deeper into the slums
of moral corruption where evil practices for years have held
him. The man who holds out to a woman, as an induce
ment to marry, the opportunity to reform him, is usually
unprincipled. He who really wishes a reformation should
start on that high road himself, and pursue it until the work
is fully accomplished, before any woman should enter with
him into such an important and lasting relation.
The Right Time to Marry.
This is a matter of comparatively little importance. It
will depend largely upon the social condition of those
entering into the marriage relation. A time of year
should be selected which affords the most leisure. The
real enjoyment of the honeymoon will depend on entire
freedom from business cares and concerns.
In the country the autumn generally brings a long
season of comparative inactivity. When the harvest is
garnered and the fruits of the season gathered in, no
pressing demands are made upon the time. There is
leisure to enjoy such social amusements as may be had.
The new home can be set up and its arrangements made
without such haste as makes the task a burden, or without
encroaching upon time that ought to be given to other
things. Nothing so delights a husband and wife as the
THE RIGHT TIME TO MARRY. 299
arrangement of a new home. It is also necessary at the
outset of the new life to establish social relations with the
community in which they are to dwell. It most frequently
happens that a wife is brought to a new community. It
is exceedingly advisable that her husband be much with
her in receiving the friends that may call, and in assisting
her in the returns made. It will relieve her embarrassment
and more readily establish an easy footing. He may,
perchance, by a word of caution or counsel, enable her to
avoid making blunders that would not only be annoying,
but injure her future relations in the community.
Reference to the statistics of the country on this point
reveal the fact that spring and fall are usually the times
selected. There are some reasons that are indicated from
the teachings of Nature that would point to springtime as
the more commendable. This is the period generally
selected by the lower animals as the time for mating,
which may be a significant suggestion to the human
family. At least, some have teken advantage of it as an
argument favoring marriage at this time. They follow it
with the additional reason that, in the case of a birth
within the year, the child will have attained sufficient age
to resist the disorders of teething before the approach of
the second summer.
It is well, at least, to avoid as much as possible the
extremes of heat and cold, as both wear heavily upon the
physical organism. Every advantage of season possible
should be taken, that the woman may enter upon her
new and experimental life in the enjoyment of the most
favorable surroundings.
300 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
Regarding the time in the month, prudence and Nature
are alike suggestive. There are certain times in every
woman s month that alone would indicate an unpropitious
time for the consummation of such social relations. There
is, with most women, a feeling of extreme sensitiveness as
to ordinary appearance in society under certain circum
stances, and surely it would be quite embarrassing to
enter matrimony at this particular period. Hence, she
should select a day about midway between the times of her
periodical sickness. If her periods occur every twenty-
eight days, she should allow twelve days to intervene
between her entire recovery from her sickness and the day
of her wedding. This would bring her safely into Nature s
period of sterility, that she need not suffer the embarrass
ment consequent to early pregnancy. This sometimes is
followed by a few days of premature birth, which, in a
gossiping and uncharitable community, might reflect
unjustly upon her character. Moreover, this would be a
time in her month in which she would be in the enjoyment
of her best health, having fully recovered from the
exhaustion consequent to her sickness.
The Wedding.
The term " wedding " is employed ordinarily to desig
nate all the festivities incident to the celebration of mar
riage. It includes, therefore, the precedent and subse
quent circumstances of which the marriage rite is the
central point. Comprehensively, it refers to the prepara
tions of the bride for receiving and entertaining her
THE WEDDING. 3OI
friends, the announcement to expected guests, with invi
tations to be present, the marriage ceremony itself, the
marriage banquet, other festivities, etc. In so far as
these matters are concerned with social etiquette, this
work has nothing to do. In so far as they concern the
physiological interests of the bride, a little counsel maybe
profitable.
The elaborateness of the wedding will always depend
on the circumstances of the contracting parties. It is the
privilege of the bride to elect how extensive these shall be.
This is a most beneficial social custom, though, unhap
pily, it is not always exercised to the best advantage.
Too many brides are concerned as to how the wedding
will be considered by others, and forgetful of the drain
that is being made upon their own nervous resources.
There is too much serfdom to social culture, too little re
gard to physiological common sense in social centers. It
is the one great event of life to a woman ; and, therefore,
she must make the most out of it possible. It must pass
off with proper eclat, or she will be socially degraded.
It must equal or surpass similar events in the lives of
those who were her social equals. These, and other like
considerations, often influence brides to use their privi
leges on this important occasion, only to multiply trials
and complications through the exhausting demands neces
sary in passing through the marriage celebration.
While the bride is to decide how, when, and where
she is to be married, it is always advisable to consult the
bridegroom in regard to the general and many of the par-
3O2 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
ticular arrangements. For obvious reasons, his judgment
is better than hers. While she is liable to think of others,
he thinks only of her. He will ordinarily favor all
arrangements which impose the least labor and nervous
excitement on the bride, and this is a consummation
devoutly to be wished. Men, as a rule, are simpler in
their tastes than women. Unmarried men, too, have
closer intimacies with married men than maidens have
with their married sisters. The bridegroom, therefore,
will be more likely to be thoughtful of those arrangements
which tend to the better physical good of the bride than
she will. In any event, it is a ceremony which concerns
both equally, or almost so, and there should be entire
harmony with regard to all attendant circumstances.
There will rarely be any difficulty in securing this mutual
agreement. Persons deeply in love with each other do
not easily disagree.
If the bride reside with her parents, or have a home, it
is customary to have the ceremony performed there ; or if
she be an attendant at church, in that place. In the latter
case it is customary to return to the home of the bride,
where a formal reception, a banquet, etc., are held. In
either case the conditions are about the same. There will
necessarily be considerable excitement of the nervous con
stitution of the bride/ The thought of the great change
which is about to come in her life, the severance of all old
and tender relations, the venture into a new sphere, on
new and untried conditions these alone are sufficient to
excite her nerves to a high pitch. To these will be added
THE WEDDING. 303
the presence of many friends, not all of whom are thought
ful of the nerves of the* bride ; the novelty of finding her
self the central figure in ceremonies more or less public ;
the vigilance necessary to preclude annoying blunders,
etc., all these will add to the drain upon her vital powers.
It must not be forgotten that nervous exaltation, however
delightful, is exhausting. It is a constant and great drain
upon the vital powers. It will inevitably be followed by
a season of depression as great and prolonged as was the
antecedent excitement. For this reason it is exceedingly
desirable that the wedding be as simple and as brief as
social etiquette will permit. The change from maidenhood
to wifehood is of sufficient magnitude to demand, for its
safe and happy accomplishment, the most favorable condi
tions attainable. It is the greatest of unwisdom and
gravest of error for the woman herself to make these con
ditions most unfavorable. She has, practically, the whole
wedding arrangements in her control. Ignorance or
thoughtlessness will bring bitter regrets. Not a few women
there are whose failing health dates from marriage. Many
of these women do not yet know, precisely, that it was not
marriage which laid the foundation for a shattered system,
but the unnecessary and imprudent conduct in the festivi
ties connected with marriage. From the physiological
standpoint, then, prudence demands that the strength be
husbanded with the utmost frugality. Invite no excite
ment. Avoid all social festivities, however pleasurable,
which impose an unnecessary drain upon the nervous
forces. Nothing will be lost in a social way. If
304 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
circumstances warrant an expensive and elaborate
wedding, the standing of the bride is so secure that she
ean dare to be plain. No friend of good sense will ques
tion the motive which prompts quietude and simplicity.
If circumstances demand an inexpensive wedding, yield to
them gracefully. No one ever gained anything of substan
tial benefit by pretending to have what she had not, or to
be what she was not.
Unless the marriage be entirely private that is,
where the bride and groom with a friend or two, go to
the clergyman s or magistrate s house, have the ceremony
performed, and then depart upon their wedding journey,
there will be guests to invite. Any book on social eti
quette will teach the forms by which this may be properly
done. Suffice it to say, that as the wedding is the bride s
affair largely, it is her privilege to elect whom she will
have present. There are two classes of persons whose
claims stand first, and who cannot be ignored ; these are
her own and her prospective husband s relatives. It will
be entirely proper for the bride to ask her husband for the
names of all his relatives whom he desires to have present.
She will ordinarily find that he will restrict the number of
these to the lowest possible number. After the relatives
come mutual friends, if there be any, her own friends and
his. The invitations must all come through the bride or
her parents. The bridegroom will elect his groomsman,
though he cannot invite him to attend the wedding.
The only purpose in adverting to these social amenities
is that the bride should fully acquaint herself with what
THE WEDDING. 305
she is expected to do. Knowing this, let her, in good
season, carefully prepare the lists of persons who are to be
invited. It appears like a very small matter, but it is not,
infrequently, a cause of worry and anxiety to the bride at
the last moment, lest she have left unasked some one
whom she would regret to neglect. If the matter be
attended to systematically and in proper time, there is far
less liability of neglect or omission. And it is desirable,
above all things, that all worry and annoyance shall be
avoided. Women have been known who have fretted
themselves into a sickness because they discover, at the
last moment, .that they have overlooked some one whose
presence was especially desired. Such risks should be
avoided. In the high state of nervous excitement in
which the marriage usually finds the most sedate of
women, the veriest trifle is magnified. It is sometimes
the case that a very slight cause of worry will, in the
exaggerated nervous condition, lead to injurious results.
What at other times would be dismissed with an apology
and regret, will at this time weigh upon the spirits like a
mountain load. For these reasons, let the invitations of
the guests be attended to at a sufficient time before the
celebration of the marriage to be free from its bustle and
excitement.
The marriage ceremony is generally trying to the sensi
tive herves of the bride. Instinctively modest and retir
ing as most women are, the publicity of the ceremony
abashes them.
306 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
The bride finds herself a cynosure for all eyes, and
conscious that she is being stared at, not with intentional
rudeness, but by reason of a presumed license which the
^occasion allows. She feels that her every movement is
watched, her every word and look scrutinized critically, her
dress and appearance inspected to the remotest minutiae.
This shames, embarrasses and oppresses her ; and this
is intensified by the feeling that she is liable, under
this embarrassment, to omit some detail or commit some
error that will confuse others. She feels that she is in a
condition to blunder in almost anything.
This mental state is trying. It has its ulterior effects,
rendering her nervous excitement greater, and the exhaust
ive process more rapid and more emphatic. Happily for
her, the ceremony is usually brief. There seems no way
to avoid this ordeal. The best that can be done is to
counsel the bride to thoroughly familiarize herself with the
details of the ceremony. Let her go through it, either by
rehearsal or mentally, so that she will be surprised by
nothing in the real performance of the rite. This famili
arity will give her confidence in her ability to acquit
herself creditably ; and this confidence will be soothing.
The more comfortable she can be during the ceremony,
the better it will be for her afterwards. If she can carry
herself beyond this climax without experiencing undue
excitement, she will have little trouble in preserving her
calmness until the end.
The custom is to follow the ceremony with a banquet.
It is a very unwise custom if we consider the character of
THE WEDDING. 3O/
the feast and the conditions under which it is eaten. From
what has already been said, it is manifest that the bride
must be of extraordinary mold, indeed, if she do not
find herself by this time not only without appetite, but
also in that physical condition in which it is highly
improper to take food into the system. The physical and
mental strain under which she has labored for several
hours, perhaps, has so affected the circulation of the blood
as to leave the stomach and other digestive organs without
a necessary supply. By no effort of will can she restore
the equilibrium of circulation. The banquet is not unusu
ally held at a late hour. Rarely, indeed, does the wedding
feast take place at the time at which a meal should
ordinarily be eaten. It is considered of such minor
importance that it must await its turn in the programme,
no matter at what hour this may be. This is no small
matter. Many persons, in ordinary health and under no
press of excitement, are injured by feasting at irregular
hours. Much more seriously may it affect the newly-
made wife. It must also be added that the nature of the
viands is such that, unless sparingly partaken of, the result
is certain to be injurious. The materials are rich and
indigestible for the most part. Cakes and pastry follow
highly-seasoned substantiate, and of each and all the
bride is expected to partake. The banquet is given in
her honor. She must, perforce, show approbation. Well-
meaning but thoughtless friends press her to partake of
this and that, and she is powerless to resist. The result
is, she finds that she has, without appetite, eaten a consid-
3O8 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
(
erable meal, at an irregular hour, of innutritious and
highly-indigestible food. She finds, also, that her system
is in no condition to retain such gormandizing. Nor is she
allowed any repose. Back into the social circle she must
go. to entertain her guests at the expense of her own
powers. The best that can be said here by way of advice
is that the wife eat as sparingly as she can. Not because
her system does not need food, but because the circum
stances are against its accomplishing its designed purpose.
A woman with tact can escape gormandizing, and escape
giving affront at the same time. It will be better for her
f she do so. Better to delay eating until another time,
when the conditions are more favorable.
A wedding journey is the prescribed finale of the fes
tivities. It is usually begun on the day of the marriage,
and is of variable length, both in the distance traveled and
in the time devoted to it. It is a custom with some com
mendable features, but many that are the exact reverse.
It is advisable that husband and wife should be alone for a
week or two, both in order to enjoy the pleasure of each
other s society, and to become thoroughly acquainted with
each other. It is also highly desirable that this relation
should be apart from the family and friends of both.
There is a vulgar familiarity indulged by close friends
which cannot but be annoying and humiliating to a
woman of sensitive and refined tastes. The looks, actions,
and sometimes the words of such friends seem to intimate
that the one object and aim of marriage its summum
bonum is the indulgence of animal appetite. The sly
THE WEDDING. 309
look, the suppressed titter, the covert insinuation, all point
to this one fact, that such a thought is uppermost in the
mind. The husband, poor fellow, is made to run the
gauntlet of no end of gibes and intimations, doubly galling
because they mean nothing disassociated from the woman
who is now his wife, and whom he loves and respects
above "all of her kind. He can resent nothing. He knows,
perhaps the guilty wretch! that he has guyed his
friends when they were married. Besides, to show irrita
tion is to put himself out of character as a happy bride
groom. It is better, therefore, that the honeymoon be
spent away from familiar friends.
It is not unusual to devote this time to travel, going
from place to place sight-seeing, and living at hotels and
public houses. This is unwise. Traveling and sight-seeing is
exhausting, even in ordinary circumstances. It is ten
fold more so under the conditions of the honeymoon.
Few women at marriage are experienced travelers. They
do not know how to travel and escape its weariness and
unpleasantness. They are accustomed to the quiet of
the home life, and the railway or hotel is trying to their
nerves. The husband, be he ever so kind and attentive,
is a comparative stranger. The modest wife shrinks from
telling him her feelings or asking his aid. What she
requires, more than anything else, is quiet and rest. This
she cannot possibly attain in the bustle and strangeness of
a city hotel.
A writer on this subject does not overstep the truth
when he says : " The foundation of many an unhappy
310 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
future is laid on the wedding tour. Not only is the young
wife tried beyond all her experience, but the husband,
too, partakes of her weakness. Many men who really
love the women they marry are subject to a slight revul
sion of feeling for a few days after marriage. When the
veil falls and the girdle is loosed, says Schiller, the fair
illusion vanishes. A half-regret crosses their minds for
the jolly bachelorhood they have renounced. The
mysterious charms, which gave their loved one the air of
something more than human, disappear in a prosaic
sunlight of familiarity." This mutual revulsion of feeling
is entirely natural. It will pass away in a few days, and a
deep, abiding tenderness, founded on a more substantial
basis than lovers affection, will take its place. Patience
and self-command on the part of both are needed, lest
permanent dislike be established.
Many a woman, too, dates the loss of her health to her
wedding tour. Starting upon it under the conditions
which have been detailed, and continuing it in much the
same circumstances as characterized the wedding festivities,
she lays the basis of impaired health. Add to this the
fact that the consummation of marriage means a great
change to her physically, and the reason for her destroyed
health can readily be seen. So many cases of permanent
unhappiness and permanent ill health dating from the
wedding journey, come under the notice of all physicians
that it is no wonder that many of them condemn it
altogether.
This, however, is not necessary. A short journey is a
benefit, if it be followed by a week or ten days of quiet,
THE WEDDING. 311
peaceful rest in some home-like place. If it be summer
time, a sojourn by the seaside in a quiet hotel is delightful.
After a day or two the wife will be familiar with the
appointments of the house, and the home-like feeling will
come over her. If the marriage occur in a colder season,
nothing is better than a visit to a prudent, affectionate
friend of the bride one who is herself happily married.
The wife will gain both the home-rest so demanded, and
also can confide in her experienced friend what she cannot
yet tell her husband, and can receive better counsel than
even her husband can give.
Marriage Contract Its Importance.
In the eyes of the law, marriage is a civil contract only.
It is valid under certain prescribed legal conditions. The
law looks no further than the well-being of the citizen.
It recognizes the beneficence of marriage and takes
control of it. It prescribes who may marry, when and
how. When these regulations are followed, the law
insures to the marriage relation the enjoyment of all the
rights and privileges which attach to it. This, however,
is a narrow view of marriage. The institution goes back
and beyond all civil enactment, and rests in the authority
of Divine appointment and approval. It was known at
the very dawn of creation, and bears all the evidence of a
necessary condition of human existence. The sacred
record clearly asserts that the woman was made for man,
implying that without her and apart from her, man was
incomplete, and the conditions of human society imper-
312 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD,
feet. It may be said that marriage is ordained by God
in the same manner that man s nature was ordained by
Him. In its formal appointment, however, it is the work
of man, and has ever been essentially a natural and civil
institution.
Man, in his intellectual and spiritual being, was
designed to be a complete representation of the Creator.
This, in solitude and isolation, he could not be. In the
fulfillment of this great design there arose a necessity for
a companion, a counselor, who should be a " help-meet
for him " the exact counterpart and complement of
himself, capable of receiving and reflecting his thoughts,
sympathies and affections. So soon as the step in the
work of creation establishing the nature and extent of
man s social being and its entire applicability to the wants
of society in all time to come was finished, Adam,
directed by the inspiration of God himself, gave the great
Magna Charta of marriage which should be of universal
obligation to all of his posterity " therefore shall a man
leave his father and mother and shall cleave unto this
wife and they twain shall be one flesh. " In this charter,
as well as in the manner of woman s creation she
being taken from man unity of man and wife is fully
established and manifestly expressed in the words " one
flesh." What more significant term could be employed to
unfold the intimacy of the relation existing between
husband and wife, than the expression " one flesh ? "
The closeness of this relation is referred to in the New
Testament by the great Apostle to the Gentiles to illus-
MARRIAGE CONTRACT ITS IMPORTANCE. 313
trate the closeness of the bonds of union existing between
Christ and His church, which Christ Himself represents as
being inseparably joined together. But our Lord and His
Apostles re-established the integrity and sanctity of the
marriage covenant by reiterating and thereby confirming
the original charter of marriage as the basis upon which
all regulations were to be framed, giving the reasons upon
which the institutions of marriage rested. " Have ye not
read that He which made them at the beginning, made
them male and female ? " and said " For this cause shall a
man leave father and mother and shall cleave unto his
wife, and they twain shall be one flesh." The necessity
of the institution would appear to have grown out of the
relative positions that man and woman occupied toward
each other in their creation that of being created male
and female. " For this cause shall a man leave his father,
etc."
The cause still exists upon which marriage is based ;
hence the institution itself and all that was originally
implied in it remain in full force. Marriage being of
Divine authority, its sacredness must not only be admitted,
but in its enjoyment is to be experienced the highest type
of social life. The importance of the marriage covenant
may be seen in its biding effect upon the parties during
their natural life. Such a contract should not be entered
upon without the most careful and candid consideration.
The formation of a partnership that is only to last for a
few years should demand our earnest thought. How
much greater should be the care taken in entering upon
3 H MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
one for life ? Surely all the factors entering into such an
alliance demand a most deliberate and candid considera
tion, and judgment rather than a hasty obedience to the
dictates of a blind and impetuous passion.
Remember that all the relations of life, physical,
mental, social and moral, are involved in the formation of
the marriage contract. The entire development, position
in society, and true character before mankind, is to be
weighed in this scale of matrimonial alliance.
The statistics of all countries clearly demonstrate that
marriage is conducive to health and longevity. Married
persons live longer and enjoy better health than the
unmarried. This is only what might be expected, when
we contemplate the wisdom of the Great Architect of our
being. In carrying out His plan in the drama of life,
which involves marriage, the greater health and happiness
are enjoyed by His creatures. It might naturally be
supposed by the casual observer that, inasmuch as entering
upon the marriage exposes women to disorders and
dangers not common to the unmarried, the death rate
would be correspondingly increased ; but such is not the
case, pn the other hand, married women are not only
exempt from many diseases that prey upon the unmarried,
but they are free from the mental strain and worry which
so many unmarried women experience, especially as they
advance in life. From well authenticated statistics, there
is no question that the tendency of marriage is to prolong
life and to conduce greatly to individual welfare and
happiness, when its ends are not perverted and its privi
leges abused.
MARRIAGE CONTRACT ITS IMPORTANCE. 315
From what has been said with regard to the nature,
extent and social bearing of marriage, anything looking
toward an alliance of such serious and permanent character
demands our most thoughtful consideration. It is to be
feared that too many rush forward heedlessly, without
giving the thought which the importance of the act
demands. " To be engaged " is a condition in life that is
entered into as if it were of but little moment. Many of
both sexes are often heard relating with a gusto how
frequently they have been engaged. Surely such engage
ments made but little impression upon their affections, or
they would not be able to as easily extricate their hearts
as they did their words. - To trifle with affection is quite
too serious a matter to be recklessly indulged, lest they
should become so fickle as to be like the needle sur
rounded by a number of magnets unable to settle any
where.
Ponder well the advice given in regard to the choice
of a husband, and finding one that possesses the charac
teristics described, who offers you his heart and hand,
accept him as a gift from heaven, and permit nothing
short of the sentiment of the following lines to fill your
heart:
" In bower and garden rich and rare
There is many a cherished flower,
Whose beauty fades, whose fragrance flits
Within the flitting hour.
Not so the simple forest leaf,
Unpraised, unnoticed, lying
The same through all its little life
It changes but in dying.
3l6 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
Be such, and only such, my friends ;
Once mine and mine forever ;
And here s a hand to clasp in theirs,
And shall desert them never.
And thou be such my gentle love,
Time, chance, the world defying ;
And take tis all I have a heart
That changes but in dying."
Divorce.
The legal separation of a husband and wife and the
effectual severance of the tie that bound them together,
has been allowed in all ages. The authority for it is
traced to the Mosaic laws, which form the basis of all civil
laws upon the subject. That the Scriptures teach that a
divorce is proper for cause, cannot be gainsaid ; but that
a multiplicity of causes such as now obtain in the civil
statutes of our country can be traced to this authority, is
not true. A close study of society at the time the
Mosaic code was given will reveal the fact that marriage
did not rest on the high plane it afterward reached. The
Hebrews were undoubtedly far in advance of contempo
raneous nations, but they were far from being perfect.
Persons were married in much the same manner that they
are in India and China to-day. The woman had little, if
anything, to say about it. The persons marrying might
or might not love each other, might or might not be
mutually suitable ; these were accidents if they existed.
The marriage was a commercial or economical manage
ment merely.
By reason of this there was much unhappiness and
crime among families. The laws of Moses aimed at
DIVORCE. 317
*
mitigating the social condition rather than at sanctioning
a wrong. Whatever may have been the license given,
either by the Mosaic code or by the social enactments of
the times for the abrogation of the bond of union by
which the husband and wife became one flesh, the great
Lawgiver Himself while upon earth fully established its
extent and import. He condemns in unequivocal language
the practice resulting from the enactment of Moses, the
putting away of a wife without any crime on her part,
through dislike or mere caprice of the husband, as utterly
opposed to the original, Divine idea of marriage, according
to which a man and his wife were joined together by God
to be one flesh, and are not, by man to be put assunder,
except it be for the crime of adultery. " Whosoever, there
fore, puts away his wife by a bill of divorcement, without
her being guilty of this criminal act, causes her through ^
the medium of the license thus given to marry another
man, to commit adultery. Thus the party suffering the
divorce is criminal in marrying again as is also the man
she marries, but the husband who divorced her is
responsible for her crime."
In some parts of the United States there are associa
tions calling themselves Christians, who wholly ignore the
Divine rfature of this bond of union, making it altogether a
civil institution that may be annulled by the authority of
the State for almost any pretense whatever. But any
legislation whatever that overlooks or sets aside the great
principles of social life as they have been outlined by the
wisdom of the Lawgiver of Nazareth, is fraught with
3l8 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
*
baneful influence to the State and will work corruption in
the lives and practices of its subjects. No matter how
this question is viewed, whether from a physical^ social_or
moral standpoint, the disregard paid to the solemn,
binding nature of the nuptial bonds, and the unlimited
liberty assumed by the courts to grant bills of divorce, for
almost any pretense, is dangerous, and will poison the
best life of society.
By losing sight of its sacred and binding effect upon
the parties, hasty and inconsiderate matches arc encour
aged, an inclination to overlook each other s peculiarities
is stultified. TThe_security of the family ties_is__shaken,
and the morality of the social life jeopardized. The
practice of many courts in the States has become so lax in
the exercise of the trust imposed in them, that divorces
are granted, separating the wife from her husband without
even her knowledge of the transaction, until to her sur
prise the periodical of the day announced the marriage of
her husband to another woman, thus driving her from the
bed and board of her husband, to wander alone amid the
charities of an unfriendly world, or seek refuge in an
alliance with another man, with whom she must, accord
ing to the law of God referred to, live in a state of
adultery.
It well becomes the State to environ the marriage
covenant with such bulwarks of legislation as will compel
the courts to scrutinize with the most profound care the
averment in the petition for a bill of divorcement, that
wives be only separated from their husbands when found
SUBSEQUENT MARRIAGE. 319
guilty of infidelity to that bond of union existing between
them, by which they become one flesh. What must be
the depths of moral turpitude existing in the heart of man
or woman who can appear without blushing before the
social world who may have two faithful spouses living, to
each of whom external fidelity, before God and man, has
been plighted ?
Subsequent Marriage.
Widowhood is a condition which befalls many women.
Death is ruthless and impartial, and careless of the misery,
wretchedness and woe which follow his ravages. All that
human wisdom, energy and power can do may be put
forth to make a home lovely, strong and abiding ; it may
be builded on the external verities of purity, righteous
ness and piety, garrisoned and girdled with honor, trust
and affection, and fill -all desire by its brightness, sweetness
and beauty ; and yet there is no permanence. Disease
besieges and death invades the home, leaving their mark
in blasted hopes, widowed hearts and empty chairs.
Sometimes it is one, sometimes another of the household
that is taken away ; but hardest of all is the case when the
husband and father is called.
From the earliest times and among all people the lot of
the widow has been considered a sad one. Among the
Hebrews she was treated with special respect, while her
condition, in the Sacred Word, is made one which appeals
with .peculiar power to the Divine commiseration and
care. In some parts of the earth even to-day widowhood
32O MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
involves social degradation. In our own and other highly
enlightened lands, the hardship of this lot is recognized by
special laws and courts which take cognizance of the legal
rights of widows and orphans. She is a widow ! Let this
sentence be spoken, and the person designated at once
claims the respect, the deference and the sympathy of
society.
It cannot be said that the material lot of a widow is
different from that of another woman. Socially she main
tains the position to which she is entitled. In the church
she is treated with even more deference than she was as a
maiden and wife. If she has a home she controls it as
she pleases and her property is her own. But, after all,
this being admitted, it still is true that the woman who has
once enjoyed the affection and care of a husband has a
sad and lonely lot when bereft and widowed. She has
tasted of the sweets of marital affection and the serene
happiness of domestic life. She has experienced the joy
and content that comes of being tenderly loved, cared for
and trusted, and of loving, confiding and relying upon
implicitly in return. When the bitterness of grief has
passed away, there remains a tender remembrance of what
has been lost, which the emptiness of the present only
intensifies. As the days pass on, this remembrance
becomes a yearning, and it is not at all strange that it
should. When this. state is reached, perhaps there may
come across her life another opportunity to enjoy the love
of a husband and the comfoits of domestic life. Shall she
accept ?
SUBSEQUENT MARRIAGE. 321
There is no reason why she should not, and there are
many good reasons why she should. The same consider
ations which once induced her to become a wife are still
operative and she has nothing more to consider than she
had in selecting her first husband. Morally, the right to
re-marry is indisputable. By the operations of death, she
" is loosed from her husband" and is free to marry another.
This is the teaching of the sacred Scriptures. Viewed
from the social standpoint, other things being equal, her
lot as a wife is much to be desired in preference to her
present widowed condition. If she marry wisely and
prudently she will find in her new husband a friend and
protector equal to the one she has lost.
An opinion prevails quite extensively that a woman
can never love truly and deeply but once. This is mere
sentimentalism, and to the physiologist, it is a manifest
absurdity. To the psychologist, it is a wholly untenable
position. He recognizes that love is only one of many
emotions of the soul and conforms in its operations to
certain well-defined laws. It consists chiefly of two
elements, a pleasurable sensation, created in the soul by
some objective fact person, thing, experience, etc., and
a desire to do good to that object if it be a person. All
that is needed, then, for the creation of love is the percep
tion of a certain quality in an external object ; the
perception will excite the pleasurable emotion and the
emotion will lead to the desire. The feeling cannot be
excited unless the object containing the proper quality be
brought in contact with the perceptive faculties. But
322 MAIDENHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD.
when this is done, the emotion irresistibly is stirred. The
more frequently the lovable quality is contemplated, the
deeper is the impression made, and, consequently, the
more profound is the emotion resulting. But the converse
of this is also true as a psychological fact, whatever senti-
inentalism may have to say about it.
Let a case be supposed : a man and woman are
naturally in love. At a proper age, they are married.
They are well mated, and live together in the enjoyment
of reciprocal love in a pleasant home for a decade. The
husband dies and the wife is left a widow at, perhaps
thirty years of age. Like all women in her condition, she
feels that half her life is taken away. And though the tie
by which Heaven declared them to be one flesh is severed,
she feels that she can never love another man, because the
only man who ever did excite the pleasurable emotion of
love in her is gone. This feeling will continue for some
time. But as her husband will never more be brought
in contact with her predominant senses, he must gradually
cease to excite the emotion. Love, however deep and
genuine, cannot live upon itself. It must be continually
nourished, and memory is not a sufficient mother when the
senses are alive and active. The actual fact is, that love
dies out and only a memory of it remains. If, when this
stage is reached, the woman comes into social contact with
:a man who possesses the qualities capable of exciting in her
the affection of love, she will love him. The more she
sees of him, the deeper her love will become, and she will
repeat exactly her former experience. There certainly
SUBSEQUENT MARRIAGE. 323
are degrees of love; but these depend on the number of
qualities possessed by the person loved which excite the
pleasurable emotion, and the depth of the impression made
on the senses by each or all. But it does not follow by
any means that a first husband necessarily possessed these
qualities and made this impression, and a second or third
husband d
