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	SURGEON GENERAL'S OFFICE LIBRARY Section_____............................... Form 113c No. .^>..I./*...../_*?___ W.D.,S. G. 0.	
	GOVERNMENT PRINTING OITICB	
 
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A GRECIAN  FEMALE. 
THE
Physiology of Woman,
EMBRACING
GIRLHOOD, MATERNITY AND
         MA TURE  A G.E,
WITH ESSAYS OH
'Coeducation of the Sexes in Medicine," "The Phtsioloqical
  Basis of Education," "Temperance from a Physician's
    Point of View " and " A Plea for Moderation,"
BY
   SARAH HACKETT STEVENSON, M,D.,
Arumrcr Professor of Obstetrics, and late Professor of Physiology
       in the Woman's Medical College of Chicago.

THIRD  EDITION.
J.

              CHICAGO:
        FAIRBANKS, PALMER & CO.,
BOSTON: ALDEN & HAZEN.    ST. LOUTS: R. S. PEALE
      SAN FRANCISCO: A. L. BANCROFT & CO.
                1882.


242W6
^LUAWQ?^ £
 
      Wp


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    COPYRIGHTED by
FAIRBANKS, PALMER & CO.
       1881.
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    PRDJTED BY
•TTAWAY & COMPANY,
   CHICAGO. 
      TO  MY HONORED TEACHER AND  FRIEND,






          ©*♦ Wrn+  ?£«. i&gCovfr,






ONE  WHO  HAS  DONE  MORE  THAN  ANY  OTHER  MAS,



                  LIVING OR DEAD,





      FOR THE  MEDICAL EDUCATION OF WOMEN,





 AND  WHO HAS  NEVER FAILED TO RECOGNIZE WOMEN,



                  WHEN EDUCATED,





           AS  PEERS IN THE* PROFESSION,





  THIS BOOK IS  MOST SINCERELY  AND RESPECTFULLY



                    DEDICATED. 
 
PUBLISHERS'  PREFACE.
  In  this volume is presented  a woman's book for
women.
 * Sarah Hackett  Stevenson,  M.D., needs no intro-
duction;  she is well known  as  a  physician, a  pro-
fessor and  a writer.
  At  the solicitation  of the  Publishers,  who knew
her eminent  fitness  for the  work. Mrs. Stevenson
has prepared " The  Physiology of "Woman."
  It is published  with a hope of  saving the women
of the future from the penalty of ignorance concern-
ing themselves—a penalty  which  untold thousands
are suffering.
  The appended  papers on  "Co-education of  the
Sexes  in Medicine,"  " The Physiological Basis of
Education," " Temperance  from  a  Physician's Point
of View '" and "A Plea for  Moderation " are of great
practical  value, and possess literary merits which en-
title them to careful perusal. 
 
CONTENTS.
                                            Page.
Dedication,       ....         5
Publishers' Preface,       .      .      .      7
Introductory,    .      .      .       •        15
                 CHAPTER I.
From Girlhood  to "Womanhood,  .       .        21
Time Required for Development,    .       .     21
Effects of Great Strain upon the Articulations,    22
Development of the Ovaries,    .       .        23
Anatomy,    .....     24
Necessity of Physiology in the Schools,  .        25
The Uterus,   .....     25
Local Treatment,  ....        26
Support of the Uterus,       ...     27
The Rectum,      ....        28 
10                  CONTENTS.
                                            Page.
Sewerage of the Body,      ...      29
What to do for Constipation,    .       .         29
What to Take,        ....      30
Natural Condition,       ...         30
The Bladder,  .....      31
Necessity for the Care of the Bladder,   .         31
Causes of Inflammation in  the Lower Part of
    the Body,        ...      .32
Anatomy of the Ovaries,        .       .         32
What Determines Sex,      ...      33
The  Womb not Absolutely Essential to Re-
    production,  ....         33
The Ovarian Cell—the Egg or Ovum,      .      33
Normal Menstruation should be without Dis-
    comfort and without Pain,   .       .         35
The Most Reasonable Theory of Menstruation,    36
Why Menstruation is not a Debility,    .         38
                 CHAPTER  II.
Influence of the Imagination,       .       .      41
Six Causes of Good Health in Women,           42 
                    CONTENTS.                  11
                                             Page.
Vigor of Childhood,        ...      43
Heredity,        ....         44
Pernicious Teachings of So-called Reformers,      46
Should Children be Told of a Bad Inheritance,     47
Resume,      .....      48
Causes which Overcome the Vigor of Child-
    hood,        ....         49
Sex a Disturber of Health,   ...      50
Man's Strength and  Woman's Endurance,         53
Concerning Exercise during School Life,     .      55
Mental Education,       .       .      .         59
                 CHAPTER III.
General  Health  and  Capacity for Exercise
    Maintained After School Life,         .      72
Steadiness of Occupation,       .      .         73
Marriage,    .....      77
Proper Age to Marry,    ...         78
Woman's Instinct,   ....      79
Personal Habits,  ....         80
The Care of the Skin,       ...      80 
12                  CONTENTS.
                                             Page.
The Body Compared to a Furnace,      .        81
Baths,        .....     83
Dress,     .                                   85
The Wife,    .....     88
The Proper Time for Marriage,  .      .        88
                CHAPTER IV.
The Happiness of True Motherhood,       .     91
Signs of Pregnancy,      .      .                92
Value of the Bath,  Fresh Air and Exercise, in
    Overcoming Nausea,       .       .         93
Relaxation of the Pelvic Muscles,   .      .     94
Diet,      .....         95
Dress During Pregnancy,   ...     96
Shocks, Longings, etc.,    ...         96
How  the Mind of the Mother Affects the Un-
    born Child,      ....     97
How to Prevent Deformities,    .       .         99
The Care of the Breasts,    .      .       .    iqq
Gathered Breasts,        .      .       .        jq^
Exposure of the Breast at Night,    .      .    102 
                   GONTE3ST8.                 14
                                            Page
Signs of Labor,         .      .      .       103
Preparation of the Bed,     .      .      .    104
The Mother's Dress,     .      .      .       104
Use of Chloroform,   ....    101
The Three Stages of Labor,      .      .       108
How to Act in Case of Hemorrhage,      .    108
Bandaging,      .      .      .              110
Rest After Labor,    ....    110
The Care of  the Infant,   ...       112
How to Make the Child Breathe,    .      .    112
Care of the Cord and Bandaging,      .       113
Infant  Dressing,      ....    113
The Baby's Bath,  ....       115
Sun Baths,   .....    116
                 CHAPTER  V.
The Best Food for Children,     .      .       118
Mixed Feeding,      ....    122
The Mouth,      ....       123
Teething,     .....    124
The Eyes,.....126 
14                 contents.

Deformities,   ....
The Development of the Body;  .
Who shall tell the Children of their Origin,
Mature Age of Woman,
                 APPENDIX.
Co-education of the Sexes in Medicine,       143
The Physiological Basis of Education,        171
Temperance from a Physician's Point of View,   196
A Plea for Moderation,  .      •      .213
Page.
127
130
132
136 
INTRODUCTORY.
  "I believe the highest order of innocence is igno-
rance," are the words of a man of "very high standing
and enviable reputation," in a letter* addressed to Dr.
Storer, protesting against the publicity that author
gave, a few years ago, to the prevalent crime of abor-
tion.  This, too, when the  logical deduction to be
drawn from Dr. Storer's writings is, that ignorance is
the principal cause of the crime.  "Ignorance  is
innocence," is undoubtedly  the prevailing sentiment
am on »• women concerning  themselves,  and even the
penalty which ignorance invariably exacts of  woman,
does not always open her eyes;  because she is taught
that it  is not only her duty, but her  blessed and pe-
culiar privilege to suffer.  But the  common school
and the  interrogation point are fast  friends; and, as
  * Why Not ?  Prize Essay, by N. R. Storer, M.D.  (Appendix.)
                          15 
16              INTRODUCTORT.
the school has  made no distinction in regard to sex,
so we find the interrogation point at the  tip of the
tongue of every girl  in  the  land.   If this question
"Why?"  had long ago been asked, Dr. Storer might
never have been called upon to answer the question,
" Why Not ?"
  The crime of woman's ignorance is  expiated, as so
many crimes are, in the blood of innocence.  Broken
law knows no sex.  It never says, " I will  not exact
my bond because this creature is a woman, and did
not know."   Everywhere  and  always law  is inex-
orable.  Even God's forgiveness does not, and indeed
from the  very nature  of things, cannot make a liar, a
thief, or a murderer,  just what he was before the sin
was committed.
  In this world we are environed by an infinite net-
work  of laws, physical, mental and spiritual, and the
only way to  keep them is  to know  them.   Many of
them are already discovered, but we have reason to be-
lieve that many more are still unknown, especially those
that have in keeping the finer part of us.  The penalty
which never fails, often awakens the first consciousness 
                INTRODUCTORT.              17
of the existence of the law.   Assuming, then, that wo-
man suffers as a criminal for  her ignorance  of the
laws of her own being,  I  feel justified in trying  to
simplify the knowledge  which physiology has given
us concerning those laws.
  As regards the many books upon similar subjects,
there are none, to  my knowledge, of any authority
which do not teach  that nature intended women to be
invalids; hence the need of another book.  This is
not in any  sense a medical book.  Medicine  is not,
and never can  become, a popular  science.  I  oppose
self-prescribing in every form.   The physician who
offers proscriptions  to the public places himself upon
the levei of  one who puts a patent medicine into the
market.  The target  at  which I have  aimed is the
false teaching which women have received.  If any  of
my medical  brethren are guilty of thus  fostering the
credulity of the ignorant, from them I expect censure.
On the other hand, I believe that no true physician can
object to any information these pages seek to  impart.
                                   The  Author.
           2 
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                 THE
Physiology  of  Woman,
              CHAPTER  I.
      FROM GIRLHOOD TO WOMANHOOD.
  Doctor Napheys, in his " Physical Life of Woman,"
says:  " The two years which change the girl to the
woman, often seal forever the happiness or the hope-
less misery of her whole life."  This is but part  of
the truth; the happiness or the hopeless misery de-
pends,  not upon two, but upon  all the years  that
precede this period.  Indeed, the  health of a woman
is often sealed before she has left her mother's womb;
the type of her womanhood  is determined then and
there; her after-life can, at the best,  only  develop,
while it may deform that type.
     TIME REQUIRED FOR DEVELOPMENT.
  Besides, no woman is ever developed in two years,
unless  menstruation be taken for that development,
when it is only the sign of its beginning.   It requires
all the way from five to ten vears to change a girl into
                       21 
22      THE  PH7SIOLOGT OF  WOMAN.
a woman.   Girls of sixteen and eighteen, like boys of
the same age, are nothing  but  children, unless they
have been reared in a very unwholesome  atmosphere.
No matter how long they have been  menstruating,
they should neither think of themselves nor be thought
of as women, till they are at least twenty years of age,
and they are not completely developed, anatomically*
until about the age of twenty-five.   Then the osseous
or bony system ceases to grow, and then may the nu-
merous ligaments of the pelvis, and the articulations
of its many joints, and the articulations of the ribs
be  safely put to the  strain that child-bearing  ne-
cessitates.
EFFECTS  OF GREAT STRAIN  UPON THE ARTIC-
                    ULATIONS.
   I believe that  much of  the pain  of which ailing
women complain, and which is usually charged to the
uterus or ovaries, is a true arthritis or inflammation of
the joints, arising  from the  excessive  strain upon
these articulations before their  maturity.  Were this
same strain  made  upon the elbow  or shoulder of a
growing child, no surgeon would fail to protest. There
is nothing in the  anatomical  structure of the pelvis
that makes it an exception among  the  bones of the
body.  Especially, are surgeons careful  concerning the 
THE  PHYSIOLOGY  OF  WOMAN.       23
strain of ligaments in other parts of the body.  Many
of the ligaments of the pelvis are scarcely named in
works on the mechanism of labor; so the articulations
and ligaments of the pelvis  have never received the
attention they deserve.  This is true, likewise,  of the
ribs, and the insertion of the  diaphragm.  Patients
of this class usually suffer intense pain in the lower
region of the  chest  at  the outer border  of the dia-
phragm; also at the points of  insertion of the lower
ribs into the spine and sternum.
        DEVELOPMENT OF THE OVARIES.
   The ovaries, which are  the only positively essential
organs of reproduction in the woman, begin  to de-
velop in the second month of the life of  the unborn
child.  By the time the infant is two years  old these
organs contain not only all, but even more germ-cells
than  they ever will contain.  From this time on these
cells begin the process of ripening, by which they first
increase in size and then  are discharged or shed, after
the manner of ripened seed from its pod.  The ovary,
then, is developed as any  other gland of the body, by
a slow and gradual, instead of  a  sudden,  abrupt pro-
cess,  implying all the difference between  a calm, reg-
ular evolution, and a sudden, violent upheaval. The
development of these glands goes on without any sex- 
24       THE PHYSIOLOGY  OF  WOMAN.
ual disturbance whatever; so far as the child's health
is  concerned, there is, as  yet, no  sex.  Indeed,  the
function of the ovaries is not a sexual, but a nutritive
function.  The ripening and discharge of the ovum,
or seed, is as involuntary and separate from sexual
appetite as the preparation and discharge of the bile
or saliva.
  If only it could be shown that girls have greater
trouble than boys in teething, then might sex be called
a disturber of her childhood, as it is of all the other
years of woman's life; but, as  a general thing, girls
have less disturbance than boys in the process of teeth-
ing, arising from  what I think we shall see is  a fact,
a somewhat  slower and more complicated develop-
ment of the entire male organization.
                   ANATOMY.
  To give a correct idea of the anatomy of the organs
of reproduction  from  descriptions and drawings, is
simply impossible, and much  as I  deprecate, in  the
name  of science,  the  woman who  travels  about  the
country with a manikin, which is usually so fearfully
and wonderfully made as to  be unlike any known ob-
ject, yet I would  encourage  even such  imperfect at-
tempts to gain information concerning  the structure
of the human body. 
THE  VITAL  SYSTEM.
   A—Heart.  B B—Lungs.  C—Liver.  D—Stomach.   E E—
Spleen,  g—Bladder,  d—Diaphram, which forms the partition
between the thorax and abdomen; under the latter is the cardiac
orifice  of the stomach, and at the right extremity or pit of the
stomach is the pyloric orifice; below are the large and  small in-
testines, f f, k k, j j.  i—Uterus,  h h—Ovaries. 
\ 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF  WOMAN.     25
NECESSITY OF PHYSIOLOGY IN THE  SCHOOLS.
        PHYSICIANS AS THE TEACHERS.
  With this end in view, I believe that every public
school should have a course of medical teaching. This
could be accomplished now everywhere, so far as boys
are concerned, for there is, in every town in the land,
a physician who  is competent to teach  young boys
just what they  should  know in regard to themselves.
But not so with girls.  Women physicians are yet the
exception, and they alone should impart that which it
is essential girls should know.
  After one has  become familiar with the organs of
the body by actually seeing them, or by the study of
good models, then the drawings of the books are very
helpful.  But the most difficult part to comprehend,
is not  the  size, shape, or position of the separate or-
gans, but  their relations to each other.  In any view
that is attempted upon a flat surface, some of the parts
must be displaced in order to show those they cover.
                  THE UTERUS.
  It is of the highest  importance that every woman
should know the  position  which the uterus, or womb,
occupies in the pelvis;  for, it is owing to the displace-
ment of this organ that  much of the ill health of
women depends.   The  uterus is about the size and 
26       THE PHYSIOLOGY OF WOMAN.
shape of a small sized egg, or pear, with the tapering
end pointing downward.  It is  made of muscle, just
the same kind of material  that constitutes the lean
part of meat, with which every one is familiar.   It is
lined with what is called mucous membrane, the same
kind of lining that we  find in all  the outlets of the
body, and is well illustrated in the lining of the mouth
and nose.   This membrane is very important, because
it has so much to  do with menstruation, and preg-
nancy, as we shall  see.   To  the physician, there are
very important distinctions to be made  between the
different  parts of the uterus, but these are all contin-
uous with each other, and are of no practical import-
ance to the general  student.
              LOCAL TREATMENT.
  The narrow elongated  part or the neck of the uterus,
is the only part which is at any time visible.  It is fit-
ted into the top of  the vagina which opens to receive
it, and by the use of instruments, it can be exposed to
view.  This is both fortunate and unfortunate for wo-
man—fortunate when operations and applications are
needed and skillfully performed; but unfortunate in
that it has been the means of building up a routine
practice as useless as it  is demoralizing in its results.
I quote the following extract from an editorial in a 
THE  PHYSIOLOGY.  OF  WOMAN.     27
late number of the Chicago Medical Gazette, one of
our leading medical journals.   " Patients have been
passed on from one doctor to another, in order to un-
dergo the same routine, exposure and application once
or twice a week.       ....
The moral influence on the patient of all the exposure
which long continued  local treatment necessitates,
cannot be other than pernicious; if, indeed, this moral
influence  be not productive of more evil than the dis-
ease itself."  When medical men, especially men who
are making diseases of women  a specialty, begin to
talk  and write  about the morality of local treatment,
it must be time that women should arouse from  their
mental  and  moral lethargy  sufficiently to acquaint
themselves with the constitution of their own bodies,
and thereby prove that they have some claim left to  /
the womanly modesty which is supposed to belong to
them.
           SUPPORT  OF THE  UTERUS.
  By what has already been  said, it is plain  that the
vagina, the fleshy  tube leading to the uterus, is itself
a support of the uterus.  The other supports are liga-
ments;  the most important are called the broad liga-
ments;  they stretch from each side of the uterus, and
are attached to the sides of the  pelvis in such a way
as to divide the pelvis into two nearly  equal parts— 
28       THE PHYSIOLOGY OF  WOMAN.
the bladder occupying the front and the rectum the
back part of this division.  The pelvis is that part of
the body which lies between the hips and the legs. It
is a bowl-shaped cavity containing the organs of gen-
eration in  its central part, while the bladder lies in
front and the rectum behind, as I  have stated.   The
partition made  by the broad ligaments looks some-
thing like a handkerchief folded in a triangular shape,
the apex of the triangle  pointing downward, while
the uterus and ovaries are suspended between and hid-
den by the two layers or folds of the ligament.
                  THE RECTUM.
   Behind  the  uterus  and vagina,  lies  the rectum.
This canal is often the seat of  diseases, such as hem-
orrhoids or piles, ulcers, fissures, and fistulas.   But
very many times these difficulties are the direct con-
sequence of  neglect in emptying  the bowels.   Wo-
men, especially, should give this function of the body
serious attention.   The retention of this waste matter
acts injuriously on the system, both mechanically and
chemically.  Mechanically, it causes displacement of
the uterus, and the long continued pressure and dis-
placement change the size and structure of the  bowel
 itself.  Especially, is the circulation of this part in-
jured.  The blood vessels are very numerous, and the 
the proportion of bone to bulk. 
 
        THE  PHYSIOLOGY OF WOMAN.      29
pressure of the retained waste matter prevents the
proper return of the blood back to the heart, so the
parts become engorged, and the result is piles, ulcers,
etc.  Chemically, the effect of this retention is truly
toxic, or poisonous.
            SEWERAGE OF THE BODY.
  The bowel  is one  of the  great sewers of the sys-
tem ; if it is not thoroughly and  systematically emp-
tied, there is an effort made by the little vessels along
its track to re-absorb the contents, and usually to a
great extent this worn out, effete matter is taken up
into  the blood again,  and we get the result in dingy,
sore  looking skin, bad  breath, lassitude, etc., a group
of symptoms commonly known as " billiousness."
  I  dwell  upon this point because  the  bowel is so
closely connected with the generative organs, and be-
cause its  diseases are  so often overlooked in ailing
women.  My  own experience is, that a large  propor-
tion  of  cases now under local treatment, would cure
themselves if  the bowels were properly cared for.
        WHAT TO DO  FOR CONSTIPATION.
  Here is  a great lesson  for parents.  Torpidity  of
the bowels is very common among children, but it is
a difficulty which never should be tolerated, and hy-
gienic measures, rather  than medicines, should be 
30      THE PHYSIOLOGY OF  WOMAN.
used to overcome it.  Among these are kneading of
the abdomen, rubbing the bowels with oil, especially
castor oil, salt hip baths, enemas of cold water, etc.
                WHAT TO TAKE.
  When I am asked " what to take "  for  this condi-
tion, I usually advise a bowl of hot,  thin corn  meal
gruel before breakfast, or some kind  of fruit—an  or-
ange or apple.  Frequently a glass of pure, cold wa-
ter, taken the last thing at night and the first thing in
the morning, is all-sufficient.
              NATURAL  CONDITION.
  Few  people know what a natural passage really
means.   I am obliged often to cross-question  my pa-
tients to ascertain what I suspect.  According to their
own story, their bowels are regular, they are not con-
stipated; but further inquiry shows the passages  are
invariably hard  and  scant, instead of soft and full.
The irritation of these hard masses upon  the delicate
lining of the rectum is only evil, and that  continually.
These masses  should never be  allowed to pass  until
they are broken up and softened by enemas of warm
oil.
  I  have read that  the  great  physician, Boerhave,
kept an elegant book which he said contained all  the
secrets  of medicine.  After his death the' took was 
         THE  PHYSIOLOGY  OF  WOMAN.      31
opened, and  in  it were written these  sentences:
" Keep the head cool, the feet  warm  and the bowels
open." Whether the story be true or false, its teaching
is perfectly true;  but women as a class keep the head
hot, the feet cold and the bowels locked up.  What
wonder thej^ complain  of "weakness?"
                 THE BLADDER.
  Closely connected with the position and diseases of
the uterus, is  the condition  of the bladder and the
canal leading out of the bladder, called  the urethra.
Indeed, these three  passages—the urethra, or bladder
passage, in front; the vagina, or  uterus  passage, be-
tween, and the rectum, or bowel  passage, behind, are
so close to each other that an inflammation  of one  is
very commonly followed by an inflammation of the
others.
NECESSITY FOR THE  CARE OF THE  BLADDER.
  The care of the bladder is  quite as important as the
care of the bowel.  Persons  may be-  injured for life
by  not attending promptly  to the call  of nature  to
evacuate  the   bladder.   School-children  are  often
made to suffer in  this  manner.   Such  treatment  is
simply  barbarous,  and should be  denounced  with
great severity.   Women, too, are sometimes forced by
motives of delicacy  to neglect this important function 
32       THE PHYSIOLOGY OF WOMAN.
of the  body.   Such neglect, though  only occasional,
may result in permanent injury to the bladder and its
outlet,  the urethra.
 CAUSES OF  INFLAMMATION  IN  THE  LOWER
              PART  OF THE BODY.
  Then the causes of inflammation,  namely, impov-
erished blood,  and the difficulty in the way of the re-
turn of the blood to the heart—the literal damming
up of the current—these  causes, especially the dam-
ming of the current, act alike on all the organs in the
lower part of the body.  All people who lead sedentary
lives, who sit or stand a great deal, and have no variety
in the  motion  of their muscles are especially liable to
congestions and inflammations  of the pelvic organs.
Men are subject  to hemorrhoids and diseases of the
kidney and bladder, while women suffer from uterine
diseases.
          ANATOMY OF THE OVARIES.
  The ovaries are about the size and shape of almonds.
They are two in number, one on each side of the ute-
rus, within the fold  of the broad ligament  which I
have described, and  connected to the uterus by the
Fallopian tubes, which are thus named from their dis-
coverer.   These ovaries, or seed pouches, are made up
essentially of little bladder-like cells,  held  together
by a fibrous tissue containing nerves and blood vessels. 
      the nervous  system.
A—Cerebrum.           B—Cerebellum. 
 
        THE PHYSIOLOGY OF  WOMAN.      33

            WHAT DETERMINES SEX?
  I have often been asked the question: " Is one ovary
male and the other female?"   In other words, do the
germs of one ovary produce males, and  those of the
other, females?  There is  no reason  to  suppose  that
there is any difference whatever in the cells of the two
organs.  As to what determines sex,  it is still a mat-
ter of doubt.  Many ingenious theories have been ad-
vanced,  but none of them  explain all the phenomena.
THE WOMB NOT ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL TO
                REPRODUCTION.
  As I have said, the ovaries are  the only positively
essential organs of reproduction.  That the womb, or
uterus,  is  not absolutely necessary in the process  is
proved by the fact  that a foetus may be developed out-
side of the uterus,  anywhere in the abdominal or pel-
vic cavity.
   THE OVARIAN CELL—THE EGG, OR  OVUM.
  The important part of the ovary is its cells; these,
when full-grown, are about one sixth of an inch in di-
ameter,  and each one is  contained in  a little bladder,
or sac, which bursts when the cell has ripened; after
the  bursting of  its sac, which remains behind  and
shrivels up in the ovary, it passes through the Fallo-
pian tube into the  womb, and thence  out of the body, 
34:       THE PHYSIOLOGY  OF  WOMAN.
unless it has  become fertilized by uniting with  the
spermatazoon, or male cell, which has found its  way
through the vagina, uterus, and Fallopian tube, to the
ovary—in that case the womb retains it by throwing
out membranes to protect it while it  develops into a
new being.  If for any reason the cell fails to be con-
veyed through the Fallopian tube  into the uterus,
after  it has become  fertilized, it attaches  itself just
where it happens to lodge,  inside of the  body, but
of course, outside of the  uterus,*and there it contin-
ues to develop,  just  as though  it were in its proper
place.   This condition of things is more  or less  dis-
astrous  to  the mother, because of the  inflammation
which*the presence of the foetus is liable to cause in
the parts where it is located.   However,  the symp-
toms of this kind of pregnancy are usually of such a
nature as to  be readily  detected by an experienced
physician.  Hence, the necessity of early medical ad-
vice in these cases.  Indeed, I  think that  in view of
all the disasters which are possible in pregnancy, it is
much safer for  every prospective mother  to consult
her physician at once, and thus give him an opportu-
nity to avert danger.
  These cells  were not discovered until 1845.  Pre-
vious to that time there  were a great  many theories 
        THE PHYSIOLOGY OF  WOMAN.       35
in regard  to reproduction.  This  process of ovula-
tion, as it is called, being discovered, is made ac-
countable  for all that is  otherwise unaccountable.
Especially is this true in regard to menstruation.
  The older writers looked upon menstruation as the
result  of an  over-abundance of nutrition  which ac-
cumulates  in a  woman's body to nourish  the  form-
ing  child; but,  if the woman  is not pregnant, this
extra nutritive fluid is discharged from the body.
  Late writers make menstruation the result of ovu-
lation, or ripening of the  seed; and  ovulation, ac-
cording to this  theory, is  the  result of great sexual
excitement.  They describe all  the organs of genera-
tion, especially the ovaries and the uterus, as being
in a state of active congestion, like  a congested lung
or brain  demanding  complete rest, menstruation
being a pathological hemorrhage—the result of the
great congestion,  like, for example, a  hemorrhage
from the lungs.
NORMAL  MENSTRUATION SHOULD BE WITHOUT
       DISCOMFORT AND WITHOUT PAIN.
  Doctor  Emmett writes  as follows :  " Every wo-
man, even in health,  will experience at least some
degree of discomfort  during the  menstrual  period.
That  she  should  be absolutely free from pain, and
suffer no  inconvenience at this time is an abnormal 
36       THE PHYSIOLOGY OF W?MAN.
condition."*  It seems hardly possib/c  that any one
familiar  with the mechanism  of the human  body
should affirm that it is  abnormal for my one of its
functions to  go on without  disturbance.  Suffering
surely means broken  law.  If the function  of these
organs is physiological, it  cannot be  pathological.
In the same book, the author shows from  an analysis
of over  two thousand cases  treated by  him,  that  a
very large majority had painless menstruation. What
should we think were a writer on practice to assert,
that to suffer no pain  or disturbance during digestion
is  abnormal.  Because a large proportion of people
abuse the digestive organs, and  suffer from different
forms of dyspepsia, does that make painless, comfort-
able digestion abnormal?
  I  wish particularly to dwell upon this point,  be-
cause so  many women labor  under the delusion that
pain  is  natural.   On asking the question, " Do you
suffer pain?" the answer is generally, "no more than
is  natural."   My reply is  invariably, "any pain  is
UNNATURAL."
  THE MOST REASONABLE THEORY OF  MEN-
                  STRUATION.
  If the ovarian  cell is  not impregnated when  it
reaches the uterus, the mucous membrane undergoes
  ♦Principles and Practice of Gynecology, p. 181. 
        THE  PHYSIOLOGY  OF WOMAN.      37
a change  which is called fatty  degeneration.  It is
in the process of this change that the menstrual dis-
charge takes place, and  is, probably, the  result of
that change, though the material which is discharged
is an extra supply of blood  which has been accumu-
lating  throughout the month.   Why this  accumula-
tion?   Is  there any need of it?  We  shall see.  At
the end of about  twenty-eight  days, this  accumula-
tion has so increased the tension of the blood vessels
that there must be a hemorrhage from some mucous
membrane to relieve that tension.  The fatty degen-
eration of the mucous membrane of the uterus makes
the vessels which  supply that membrane the weakest
point in the circulation; hence these vessels are the
first to yield; hence, too, it follows  that  if for  any
reason the mucous membrane of the uterus does not
yield, there is a bleeding from the mucous membrane
of the nose, bronchial tubes, stomach, or bowels,  and
sometimes the breasts, known as vicarious menstrua-
tion.   This discharge does not take place during preg-
nancy, for the reason that the extra amount of blood
is utilized in  the growth of the embryo;  nor does it
usually occur during consumption and similar wast-
ing diseases, for the reason that the extra supply is
utilized to make good  the  rapid waste that is going 
38       THE PHYSIOLOGY OF WOMAN.
on in the system.  We thus  see the reason for this
extra supply of blood, and  the reason for its discharge
from the body.
   WHY MENSTRUATION IS NOT A DEBILITY.
  According to  well-known  laws of physiology,  the
period of increased nutrition, or blood supply, should
be a period of increased strength.   A close observa-
tion of healthy  women proves, that the  days pre-
ceding  menstruation are  days  of  increased  power.
Not understanding the meaning of this, women often
tell me that just before their periods  they feel like
undertaking an  extraordinary amount of work, and
frequently  do accomplish more during the few pre-
ceding days than  in  all the  month beside.  It may
be that this normal condition of extraordinary nutri-
tion is what  some  are pleased  to  call "temporary
insanity."  If this be true, then this is just the kind
of insanity that we, as physicians, are attempting to
bring about when we administer tonics and nutritious
food.   We  want to increase the  quality and  the
tension of the blood.  This is just what nature does
periodically for woman, so that menstruation, instead
of  being a period of depression should  be one of
strength.
   The only person of whom I know, who has taken 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF  WOMAN.      39
this subject out of the  realm of theory and  mere
casual observation, and placed it upon a plane of fact
and demonstration, is Doctor  Mary Putnam Jacobi.
She found by direct experiment that just previous  to
menstruation there is an increase in the excretion
of urea, in the temperature  of the  body, in the ten-
sion of the arteries, and in muscular strength.  Now
what does  all this  mean?  As  I have described  in
another chapter, the combustion that is always taking
place  in the body results in  accumulation of  ashes
or debris.   One  of the  most important forms  of
this debris is known as urea;  it is thrown out of the
system by means of the kidneys, and  its retention is
deadly in its effects.  It follows then, that  an increase
of urea  means an increase of  combustion—a greater
state of activity followed, as in the  burning of  extra
fuel, by an increase of temperature.  Now the amonnt
of heat  generated in the body bears a direct propor-
tion to  the work performed  by the muscles, just  as
work of an  engine  can be measured  by the number
of heat  units generated  by the steam.  By experi-
ments made with the dynanometer, and by the lifting
of weights,  it was found that muscular  power was
likewise increased during the week preceding  men-
struation.   It is only of late  years that the tensiop 
40      THE PHYSIOLOGY OF WOMAN.
or force of the blood in the arteries, has  been the
subject of common observation.   By fastening an in-
strument called a sphygmograph on the pulse of the
wrist, each  movement  of the artery moves *a  pen-
cil which leaves a tracing on a bit of paper.  By
comparing the tracing of the artery before  menstru-
ation, with its tracing between the periods,  the first
is found to be fuller and stronger.  These things in-
dicate an actual  increase in  the mass  of blood in the
body, and  this increase is reduced  again by  the
discharge, for this  discharge is always followed by a
lowering in the amount  of urea, temperature, mus-
cular strength and  arterial tension.
 
                 CHAPTER  II.

       INFLUENCE  OF THE IMAGINATION.
  Mothers should not encourage their daughters to
look upon this period as  one of sickness.  While I
would not encourage the  undertaking of any extra-
ordinary work, yet my observation of a large number
of women, proves to  me that moderate work and ex-
ercise at that time are helpful  rather than hurtful.
One of the  worst cases of painful menstruation  I
have ever known, a case that had been under the care
of able  physicians in Columbus, Baltimore, and Chi-
cago, confessed herself greatly benefited by taking a
long walk at  the  beginning of  the  period.   Every
physician knows  the influence of the imagination
over the functions of the body, and that men are just
as susceptible  as women in this direction—the only
difference is that the  employments  of men are more
                       41 
42       THE PHYSIOLOGY OF  WOMAN.
engrossing.  They have less leisure in which to brood
over and magnify their ailments.   Habitual constipa-
tion has been cured  by this influence  alone.  The
power  of expectancy is wTonderfully potent,  too, in
the periodical recurrence of chills.  I have  known
patients  to  look  at the  clock, and  make  all prep-
arations  to  shake at just such  an hour, and shake
they did;   but  if  by  some unexpected occurrence
their  attention  was  diverted, the  time passed  by
without  the recurrence of a chill.  So when  women
are trained  from their very  childhood to lie  in wait
for a monthly attack, the  morbid expectancy itself
forms a  large element  in  the  case.  Working  wo-
men, as a class, never think of resting at  this time
—such a thing is absolutely impossible  even  were it
necessary to health.   If  the Creator demands that
women  should be invalids one week in every four,
then the State is very unjust and cruel in compelling
them to disobedience; if the Creator has  made them
sick, then the State  should care for them,  as for the
blind and insane, and other helpless classes.
   SIX CAUSES OF GOOD HEALTH  IN WOMEN.
  The  analysis  given by Doctor  Jacobi  in  her prize
essay " Rest for Women " clearly  proves that freedom
from menstrual suffering is dependent upon the fol- 
        THE PHYSIOLOGY OF  WOMAN.       43
lowing antecedents:   First, upon  vigor of childhood
and family health ;  second, degree of exercise during
school life ; third, thoroughness and extent of mental
education;  fourth, the general health and  capacity
for exercise maintained after school life ; fifth, steadi-
ness of  occupation ;  sixth, marriage at a suitable
time.  These conclusions  are based  upon a thorough
scientific analysis of  cases, and they are  worthy the
consideration  of  every woman.  Unfortunately they
are inaccessible to those who most need them, being
locked up  in  the technicalities of medical language.
For this  reason, I wish to dwell at some length upon
them, hoping that they may thereby gain something
of  the  popularity  they so  richly  deserve, and  of
which the public has so much need.
              VIGOR OF CHILDHOOD.
  In  regard  to the vigor  of childhood, its value can
scarcely be over-estimated.  There is little doubt that
constitutions  are born, not  made.   There  is  little
doubt too,  that the ideas as to what  make up a good
constitution are often erroneous.  It is a matter of
common  observation  among  physicians,  that  the
largest  and  healthiest  children  are   very   often
the first to  succumb to  disease ;   while those of a
bmaller and even imperfect development are capable 
44       THE  PHYSIOLOGY  OF WOMAN.
of great resistance ;  but, I do not find any  physician
stating the cause for this so clearly as does  Dr. Rich-
ardson.*  He makes a good constitution or the power
to resist disease to consist in "the equal  balance of
all the working organs of the body, not one of which
is specially inclined to take on any form of disease of
a particular  kind, such  as  tubercle or cancer.  The
whole  body  therefore continues to  work in all its
parts in harmonious order of function,  and by the
steadiness of functional  work the  continuous life is
maintained.  Life, in short, is maintained by equality
of perfection in  every organ."
                   HEREDITY.
  That  the constitution  of the  child depends  upon
family history is true.  Heredity, though its doctrines
are surrounded by a great deal of  popular nonsense,
being the fashion of the hour  for those who affect
science, is  notwithstanding, a  constant  factor  in
human, as well as  in  all other forms of life.   While
marriage is undoubtedly a sanitary  measure to the
parties  engaging in it,  possibly, it may be anything
else  to  the child of that marriage.  While man has
the legal right to  entail  upon the unborn the  taint
of blood, his moral  right is a serious question; and
  * Ministry of Health, p. 160. 
THE MUSCLES ON THE ANTERIOR  PORTION
               OF THE  BODY. 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF  WOMAN.      45
if legislation  has a  conscience concerning cousins,
how much more conscience should it have concerning
insanity, drunkenness and syphilis.   What right be-
fore God or man has any individual to perpetuate
upon innocent flesh the scars of his own debauchery \
Yet, where is the family that is entirely  free from
these ravages.  Knowledge here is safety. The young
girl should know the danger that possibly awaits her
and her children.  Great stress, but  not too much, is
laid upon the legality of marriage; yet not a thought
is given to  its morality.   A  marriage  certificate is
made a necessity.  Had I the power I almost believe
I would  make a physician's certificate equally neces-
sary.   If the parties  are bound by oath concerning
their names and  ages, much  more  should they be
bound  concerning any taint in their blood.  Traitors
to their  country expect to lose their citizenship, sa
traitors to moral purity  should be  deprived of mar-
riage with the pure.   An eminent surgeon makes the
statement that  "a  man who has once contracted the
loathsome disease syphilis, will always have it; if he
marries his wife and children will have it,  and when
be  dies his  ghost will have it."  How many  heart-
broken mothers have I heard repeat that  sad refrain,
"Had I only known; if somebody had only told meP 
46       THE PHYSIOLOGY OF WOMAN.
   A thorough discussion of this  subject would lead
 me into the question of moral education further than
 I have time to  go; though I believe the true physi-
 cian  should be  and to a great extent is the conserver
 of moral as well as of physical life.  Indeed, the ques-
 tion  under consideration, the great question of ma-
 ternity, includes the question of paternity—the rela-
 tion of the sexes to each other, out of which  grow
 the  greatest  moral  questions, not only of our own,
 but of all time.   For what is a human being without
 character, and the very essence of character is moral
 purity.
  PERNICIOUS  TEACHING OF  SO-CALLED  RE-
                    FORMERS.
   There are  many false ideas set afloat  by so-called
 reformers,  who  have gotten hold of a host of half
 truths concerning "temperament," "affinities,"  and
 all that.  In reply to these I suggest that parties who
 are free from blood taint,  and  are  blessed with a mo-
 dicum of common sense, may  marry if they  espe-
 cially care for each other, even though they have the
 same  complexion and  the  same shaped  nose.   It is
 lamentably true, that it often  requires the guilt of
some  moral obliquity in husband or wife to discover
these  " incompatibilities," lack of  "sympathy," want 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF  WOMAN.     47
of " affinity," or  whatever other name the violated
conscience  may  invent  for  the occasion.  We all
know, too, that there are  marriages  which, from the
very nature of things, are living death; but  I still.
affirm that much mischief has been bred by a pseu-
do-scientific literature under  the name of  Biology,
Psycholog}', Phrenology,  and  even  Physiology, for
there is no domain these prolific writers will not dare
to enter.  In considering this question married peo-
ple should always impose upon themselves one re-
straint, the welfare of their children.  It is no longer
a  question of  husband  and  wife,   but  of parents.
This consideration would  save many a home that is
now wrecked.  So firm is my  conviction upon this
point, that  I believe it is better to  have even  a sad
memory of home than no memory at all.  The mem-
ory of  a childhood's home is an anchor  sure and
steadfast throughout all the years.
   O, how the low, moss-grown roof  seems  to lift up,
and the narrow  portal to widen, when for the first
time we realize that the footsteps of  angels trod that
pathway to the  door and  wore the  old  threshold
away!
SHOULD CHILDREN  BE TOLD OF A BAD INHER-
                     ITANCE ?
   Another p-.int to be considered in this question of 
4;8       THE PHYSIOLOGY OF WOMAN.

heredity, is whether children should be told of their
inheritance.   Upon this, as upon every other subject
touching man's weal or woe, an intelligent knowledge
is of vital importance.  I say intelligent knowledge
because there is such  a  thing as an ignorant, helpless
knowledge—such as being in possession of a single
fact without any of the associate facts., For example,
a person may know that his parents were consumptive
or insane.   The simple knowledge of  this fact alone
might  be worse  for  him than the ignorance of it.
Those who know such dangers without also knowing
how to avoid them, are made  more  susceptible  to
those dangers  because  of the dread the knowledge
brings.   Sooner or later children know the weak-
nesses  of their parents, whether physical, mental, or
moral, but the  knowledge usually stops here.  They
are seldom  taught how to  avoid those weaknesses.
This is a point requiring great judgment in the train-
ing of children.  Instead of holding certain  inherit-
ances as terrors over  their heads, they never should
be referred to, save as things  that can and must be
conquered.
                     RESUME.
  The first consideration  then in  the  chances of the
child's life, be the  child  male or female, is to be well 
THE MUSCLES ON THE POSTERIOR PORTION
               OF THE BODY. 
 
        THE  PH1SIOLOGY  OF  WOMAN       49

born—to come into this world with a proper balance
of forces ready  to  combat  the forces from without
that are ever seeking to overcome  that equilibrium.
There is  no  reason  why  the human  organization
should not hold its  own for  at least  one hundred
years.
  CAUSES  WHICH OVERCOME THE  VIGOR OF
                   CHILDHOOD.
  There  are many  causes operating to overcome the
vigor of childhood  ; one, especially has  come  under
my own observation, and I think every mother should
be warned against it.   I refer to the irritation of the
child's private parts  either by his  own hands, or by
some irritating substance, such as clothing, filth, or in
boys the narrow opening of the external  meatus.  I
believe from  observation that the practice of self-
abuse is much more common  among boys than girls-
Not alone that  boys have  more license  in these di-
rections, but because of the more frequent congenital
nature of the trouble.   I have not sufficient data for
a positive opinion, but I believe it can be shown that
much of the erratic behavior  of boys is  the  reflex
result of the nervous irritation set up by accumula-
tions within the orifice, or by the  pressure of a too
small external opening  of the genital organ. I have
cases on record showing that the entire moral character
                 4 
50       THE PHYSIOLOGY OF  WOMAN.

of boys has been changed by simply dividing the integ-
ument at the orifice, thus relieving the pressure of the
sensitive nerves at that point.  If a boy has an other-
wise unaccountable  disposition to lie, steal, run away,
or commit suicide, I should advise a thorough examin-
ation of the sexual  organs, and the closest scrutiny of
his  habits.  There is no doubt self-abuse is often an
instinctive attempt for relief on  the part of  the child.
Excessive goodness or excessive badness in  a child is
a suspicious  sign.  I have* come to look upon either
extreme as an indication of disease.   A fair amount
of mischief is wholesome, and  its entire absence is
usually accompanied  by a  lassitude of body  or a
mental precociousness which proves to be  anything
but  wholesome.   Nor is it natural for a child to be
totally depraved—a certain theology to the  contrary.
All such children need medical  care, and if they had
it of the  right kind, and at the right time, society
might be  spared many an adult  criminal.
        SEX A  DISTURBER OF  HEALTH?
  Parents seem to be  perfectly  oblivious of the fact
that sex has any meaning, except as applied to  the
girls of the family; the reason of it is apparent.  The
period of the beginning of sexual growth in the female
is marked by an involuntary discharge from the body 
THE  PHYSIOLOGY  OF WOMAN.
51
of the secretions of the  sexual organs; while in the
male  sex these secretions  are  retained, and placed
under  the control of the will, or the appetite.  That
they equal, if they  do not exceed in amount  the se-
cretions  of the  female organs, and  draw  as heavily
upon the general nutrition of the  body,  are points
maintained  by  some  of the most  eminent of our
physiologists.  If to these facts we  add the fact that
the  male sexual organs are considered to be of a
higher physiological development than those of the
female, then, on theoretical  grounds men should have
more sexual disturbance, for the  higher the type the
more complicated  the structure, the more easily  is
the function  disturbed, and  the greater the liability
to disease.   That  disease  may  never amount to a
positive  lesion, but Dr.  Weir Mitchell,* in his clin-
ical  lectures on nervousness in the male, gives  sub-
stantial proof of this sexual disturbance.  He  pre-
faces his statement of  cases  with  these  words:
" Many years ago when we  first began to sum up and
classify the cases which came to  my clinic at the In-
firmary for diseases of the nervous system, my assist-
ants called  my attention to the large number  set
down as  general nervousness, and  I  then saw with
  ♦Medical News and  Library, December,  1877. 
52       THE PHYSIOLOGY OF WOMAN.
some surprise that so many of these were men.  This
was the more notable because, of course, the persons
who seek  help at the Infirmary, are  mechanics and
working men chiefly, and therefore hardly  such as
are presumed to suffer from nervousness.....
We rarely see this condition delineated in the books.
Tou may read whole text-books on nervous diseases,
and  see no mention of this  striking,  this annoying,
this painful condition; or, if spoken of at all, it is as
if it were entirely the sad prerogative  of woman."
After graphically  describing one of the most  marked
cases, he says: "Had this been a woman's  case, no
one would have failed to label it ' hysteria.' "  No
impartial  judge can fail to recognize the truth that
the element of sex has been assigned too much im-
portance in the diseases of  women, and not enough
in the diseases of men.
   There are some forms of nervous diseases that are
far more  common  and  violent  among  men  than
among  women;  Tetanus, for  example, and Hypo-
chondria.  There  is also a form of Yertigo to which
men are especially liable between the ages  of  forty
and fifty.  The worst cases of nervous sick headache
I have ever seen have  been men, and so  of Epilepsy.
When  these  diseases  attack men they  are called by 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF  WOMAN.      53
their proper names and treated as diseases, and not
as reflex actions of the sexual  organs;  whereas, the
same affections in women  are referred immediately to
the uterus and ovaries.
  I have in mind several very eminent men who are
afflicted with what are popularly known  as "the fidg-
ets," (involuntary muscular contractions,) to  a degree
that is positively painful to witness, especially if they
have  been trying  to  keep perfectly quiet  for any
length of time, in church, for  example.
  As to the  question  of " morbid appetite," about
which so much has been  so eloquently written, I fail
to  see the line  of  demarcation  between the  cause
which excites a taste for a bit of chalk or slate pencil
occasionally, and  the cause which excites a taste for
rum  and tobacco continually.  Both classes of sub-
stances are equally  digestible to the stomach and
agreeable to the taste—of any perfectly  sane person.
MAN'S  STRENGTH  AND WOMAN'S ENDURANCE.
   It is a common saying  among physicians that man
has more strength, woman more endurance; but the
say in o- is very difficult of scientific analysis  so far  as
the woman is  concerned.   Man's strength is a func-
tion of his muscle, but what is the source of  woman's
endurance?   Not her muscle, for that, according  to 
54       THE PHYSIOLOGY  OF  WOMAN.
all authority, is below  par; still less her nerves, for
they are, according to the same authority, in a patho-
logical condition for at  least one-fourth of her time,
to say  nothing of the period required for convales-
cence.   Is it in her blood vessels or vascular system?
Surely not; for this is the seat of a constantly recurring
congestion,  which causes or is caused by the disturb-
ance of the nervous system.  In what, then, does her en-
durance consist?  Even the most plausibly constructed
tables show that on the whole,  the viability, or power
to live, is greater in the female than in the male.  Not
all the evils of society and  perils of  childbirth have
been able to affect the balance against woman.   Med-
ical  men  have to  confess their astonishment at  the
amount of  resisting and recuperative  power mani-
fested by the most delicately organized women.  The
chances for life and health, then, are  on the  side of
the female, not only on  the theoretical  ground of a
less  complicated organization, but according to mor-
tality tables as published. Nearly twice as many boys
as girls die before they are born.   The statisticians
tell us  this is  because the boys are  so  much larger
than the girls;  but this does not change the fact that
they die from want of adaptation to their  environ-
ment.   It is this power of adaptation to  surroundings 
         THE PHYSIOLOGY OF  WOMAN.      55
that has made woman survive in spite of circumstan-
ces,  and the low physiological  grade of her sexual
organs, has saved her from the otherwise inevitable
death resulting from their maltreatment.
CONCERNING EXERCISE  DURING SCHOOL LIFE.
  The  second  element  in  the  menstrual  health  of
woman is the amount of exercise taken during school
life.  The  effects  of  sufficient or insufficient exercise,
according to Dr. Jacobi, are felt more after the cessa-
tion than  during the school life.   These being the
formative years they decide the  fate of  the future
woman ; even a faulty constitution may be much mod-
ified  during the first twenty years of a life.   It  is
a lamentable fact that girls, even little  girls, are
prejudiced against exercise all  too soon.  They are
taught it is unladylike to romp;  while  the  terror  of
spoiling their fine clothes, is to  many of them an ob-
stacle  insurmountable.  According  to  Dr.  Jacobi's
estimate, anything less than three hours' exercise
during  the day is altogether insufficient, and this ex-
ercise  should be  carried on  in the open air.  The
artificial air of the school-room  and the  home  is all
the while enfeebling the bodily powers.
  L. W. Leeds, said to be the greatest living authority
on ventilation, gives the following startling description
of the air which school children are breathing: 
56       THE PHYSIOLOGY  OF WOMAN.

  "It is usually estimated that,  what with the de-
struction by  the lungs and cutaneous transpiration
and other emenations from the body, every child will
contaminate,  so  as to render  it  unfit for healthy
breathing, several  cubic  feet  of air  a minute.  A
school-room forty by twenty feet on the ground and
eighteen feet high  contains 14,400 cubic feet4 so that
in about twenty minutes one hundred pupils will con-
taminate the whole body.   The opening  of a  door,
(or two doors, if they  are  on  the same  side of the
room) of a room  destitute of any  open  flue, will
cause no change of the air of such room to speak of,
because if the air cannot go out it cannot  come in a
room ;  but we will allow, from this cause and the air
which comes in through the cracks and crevices, one
cubic foot of air to come  into  such a room   every
minute.  This 14,400 cubic feet of air every twenty-
four  hours will renew the air  in  such a  room only
once in  ten days, so that for all practical purposes of
ventilation, the air from the doors and cracks amounts
to nothing.   If,  then, the  whole body of air within
this  school-room be contaminated in twenty minutes,
what state must the air be in at the end of even one
day of eight  hours, when it must of necessity have
been subjected to the  same deterioration twenty-four 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF  WOMAN.      57
times?  What at the end of one week (the same body
of air having been locked up every night for use the
next day) when the emanations from the lungs  and
bodies of these children will have  been added 144
times?  In four weeks 576  times; in a twenty weeks'
winter 11,520 times?  The very walls, and especially
the ceilings of such a room  become so impregnated
as to affect visitors' olfactories to such a degree as  to
affect the stomach.   The fact is within the experi-
ence of all persons who are in the habit of occasion-
ally entering an old school  house, even when no pu-
pils are in it.  Such appears to be the subtlety of this
poison absorbed by the walls, ceiling,  and floor of a
school-room, that  a  whole  summer's  sweep of air
through it has no perceptible effect on its extraction;
the very day that it is again  closed up for winter, the
same smell of corruption is  just as apparent as the
year before."
   From such dangers as these it is a wonder that any
children, especially girls, escape.  The outdoor games
of boys to some extent overcome the indoor  poisons.
Once in the day, at least, the lungs are filled  with
pure  air.  But  what of  the girls  who decorously
mope to school, and mope home again into an atmos-
phere just like that of the school. 
58      THE PHYSIOLOGY OF WOMAN.
   While many children  are thus slowly poisoned by
 bad air and want of exercise, I am aware, on the
 other hand, that some children  are  injuring  them-
 selves by excessive exercise.   There is, in  some cir-
 cles of society a tendency to adopt German gymna-
 sium  practices, the English ball  games  and boating.
 American children are not as phlegmatic  as  either
 the German, or English.  On account  of  our dry,
 stimulating climate, the nerves of our children, and
 adults, too, are in  an irritable state.  Hence the ma-
jority of pure blooded American  people need seda-
 tives rather  than stimulants.  This is especially true
 of children in large towns and cities.
  I have found that scrawny, irritable children grow
 fat and  jolly when  they  are put to bed,  fed  fre-
 quently, and treated with an oil bath at night and a
 sun bath in the morning.   Just  here, is where good
judgment is needed  on  the part of  the parent.  A
dull, phlegmatic child needs a great  deal  of  active
exercise to overcome the  natural inertia of his organ-
ization,  and  a  nervous, wiry child should be  made to
1 est whenever possible, and its exercise should be of
a passive rather than an active character.
  What is known  as  " massage," tfie French name
for rubbing, is the  most helpful  form of passive ex- 
THE  PHYSIOLOGY  OF  WOMAN.      59
   ercise, and is  especially adapted  to  all nervous  peo-
   ple, adults as well as children.. In no case should the
   patient attempt  to  do the rubbing, for that would
   transform  the passive  into active exercise,  the  very
   thing to be avoided.  A good, strong, healthy rubbei
   should  always administer the treatment.  It seems
   hardly necessary to  say that  the  mind of these  ner-
   vous children should  also be put to rest, but  the
   trouble  is, these little ones  are  usually precocious,
   and their  fond  parents are  very proud  of that pre-
   cocity, so the mind is encouraged to burn out before
   it has matured.
                  MENTAL EDUCATION.
      The  third  proposition  made  by  Dr. Jacobi is  a
   startling one, and in direct opposition to the theories
   of those who  look upon the sex of woman  as a  dis-
   ease, namely:  That menstrual health is good in pro-
y portion  to the thoroughness  and extent of mental
   education.   What is  called  the  ornamental system
   which includes music  and modern languages corres-
   ponds with a less degree of health, while those who
   have taken the  higher studies which include math-
   ematics  and Latin,  are among the  healthiest class.
   This is  sound doctrine and  corresponds with a law
   evolved  bv the  statistics of Beard and  Madden con- 
60       THE PHYSIOLOGY OF WOMAN.

cerning the longevity  of brain workers.  According
to these authors  the average age of the brain worker
is 64 to 66 years, while the  vitality  of mere muscle
workers is reduced at least one-third.   Of these  facts
Dr. Richardson says:   "There is no such record to be
found elsewhere, and the facts indicate more deter-
in in ately than aught I know, the importance of so-
cieties which encourage the extent and domain of the
mind."  And yet the cultivation of her mind is  held
as a  terror over the  head of woman.  The tocsin note
was sounded a few years since by a Boston physician,
high in authority, and  the secular press took up the
cry.   " Educated to  death "  was the sensational  head-
ing of sensational papers throughout the land.
  Doctor George M. Beard, who makes the  study of
nervous diseases a  specialty, affirms " that the best of
all antidotes and means of relief for nervous diseases
is found in philosophy."
  A paper  written  by myself concerning the killing
of women by education, was  published in the June
number of the National Magazine, for 1875.   As I
have had  occasion since  to  confirm  still further the
views there expressed, I have quoted the entire paper.
  "'Educated to death' is  the  ominous title  of a
story going the rounds of the press concerning a girl 
         THE PHYSIOLOGY OF  WOMAN.      Q\

who, at an early age, fell a victim  to  the  combined
folly of her parents, teachers, and physicians, and to
her natural want of physical endurance.   The story
is taken from a book of Dr.  Clarke's, in  which he
uses it to make a  strong point against the co-educa-
tion of the sexes.   It is  just one of those things cal-
culated to influence the casual reader and bias the
uncritical public  mind—a  beautiful, strong, healthy
girl educated to death!  'Down with the education of
women!' cries  the public, just as the public has al-
ways cried,  ' down with it!' when but one side, or a
fictitious side, of a question is held up  to view, as
Marc Antony  held up  Csesar's bloody mantle.
  "It is unscientific for a medical man  to try to prove
or establish a  law which is to apply to half the race
by taking for his example a person  with  a predispo-
sition to tuberculous disease.   The description of the
patient in what the mother calls health would indi-
cate a  marked scrofulous diathesis—the pure pink and
white complexion and the precocious intellect.   Close
mental application, without physical recreation, pre-
cipitated the event; but  the disease would  undoubt-
edly have developed itself in later life, perhaps even
in a worse  form.   The laws of school are made to
meet  the average class  that  need  goading; so, of 
62       THE PHYSIOLOGY  OF  WOMAN.
course, under such  a  system  the  morbidly  active
brain gets too much work.  The whole history of the
case is a most potent argument for the cause of wo-
man's education—thorough, complete education.  If
the mother of the girl had  known  and made use of
the first  principles  of physiology and hygiene, she
might have saved her daughter.  If one  only knows
how, even inherited  diseases may be mastered.   The
physician quoted in the story was not wrong when he
said, 'Every woman is a law unto herself.' He would
have been right, too, if he had said, every human be-
ing is a law unto himself.  And, until the individual
arrives at the age of maturity, his  parents must be
the interpreters of the law which is unto him.   That
is just  what parents  are  for, to  judge  for  their
children according to their individual idiocyncrasies.
Systems  can not provide for  exceptions; as a rule,
school girls do not die from  over-study, at the age of
eighteen.  We have too many educated, hale, hearty,
and even gray-haired, women  among the alumnae of
our  schools  for Dr. Clarke or any one else to prove
that, as  a rule, education kills women.   For every
case of ' studied to  death,' we  can produce five hun-
dred of ' sewed to death,' as  will be seen further on.
   "Study in itself is not injurious; its normal  action 
        THE PHYSIOLOGY OF WOMAN.      63

is  to  increase rather than diminish physical endur-
ance.   It was well demonstrated in our war  that the
student soldiers  were the  hardiest soldiers.   The En-
glish  have   another  way  of stating  it;  they  say,
' The  sons  of gentlemen  are  always  stronger  than
the cads?   But  we  are  told  the same  rule  does
not apply  to women; that  which strengthens  men
weakens women.  It needs  great discrimination to
determine  how  much of  the feebleness of women is
artificial, how much natural.  I doubt if any part of
it can be traced to brain-work  alone.  The ill-health
of American women, young and  old, has become no-
torious.  It  can  not be the effect of our school sys-
tem,  pernicious as it is;  for it has  not been in op-
eration long enough to affect American grandmoth-
ers; while  in nine  cases  out of ten  the  invalid  loses
her health  through  the want  of education,  and not
through excess of it.  The beginning  of the  trouble
is laid long before the child enters a  school-room.  It
begins in American homes.  The most skeptical can
be convinced of this in  an hour's  walk in this me-
tropolis, closely observing the  children he meets, es-
pecially those  on  promenade  with their mammas.
Let him count  the old  wizen  faces, the bird-claw
hands, and  pipe-stem legs, that point  from  the top, 
64       THE PHYSIOLOGY OF WOMAN.

sides, and bottom of the million wads that  are piled
on to the central  skeleton; let him listen to the hol-
low cough that comes from the depths of the  wads,
and  let him  deny,  if he can, the pleading of that
voice,  'Educate  my mother, teach  her  common
sense!'
  " It begins  in  American homes, and acts alike on
boys  and girls,  the only difference being  that  the
boy's life throughout is less artificial than the girl's;
hence he has the  help of nature to overcome the evils
of his home and  school education.   No period of an
American girl's  life is  a natural  one, not  even  her
babyhood.  A great number of American  mothers,
even  country mothers, whose only study was done at
a district-school  three months in the year, can  not
nurse their own children.  So that precocity and  the
feeding-bottle are recognized as national  things, even
by novelists, as this  quotation from Julian Hawthorne:
' Of the march of events, the news of the day, of all
such  knowledges as  the American infant  sucks in
with  the milk from  his  feeding  bottle, your Saxon
peasant has no inkling.'
  " The average infant period is marked by  a system-
atic effort to  starve, feed, chill, or roast the child to
death.  Up to this time, boys and  girls suffer alike, 
THE ARTERIAL SYSTEM. 
 
        THE PHYSIOLOGY OF  WOMAN.       65

and there is nothing to prove that infant girls do not
survive those attempts to kill quite as well as  in-
fant boys.
  " Now comes the general mismanagement of Amer-
ican  children,  and  the  special  mismanagement  of'
American girls, little girls.   The children go throng;!
with all the bad  eating, bad hours, excitements, etc.,
of the grown-up people; they are  saved from  nothing
—they  are  simply the old  folks  dwarfed.  Foreign
children, whose health is so often contrasted with that
of American children, are never seen in the drawing-
room talking precociously to gray-haired  people,  at
midnight; nor are they taken to the theaters  and op-
eras  and  other places of amusement.  So far as the
presence of children at night goes to prove their ex-
istence, you would not know  they  had  an existence,
if you  were the guest of a foreign family.  They
have  an early, light supper, instead of a  late, heavy
dinner; they are never seen  at a dinner-table, partak-
ing  of all the courses, and  they  spend  the night  in
sleep, where  all children ought to spend it, repairing
the waste and tear of the day.
 "American  mothers  are falsely kind to their child-
ren in this regard.  They ignorantly make it  a point
of duty to have  the dear  little thing3 at table, espe-
          5 
66       THE PHYSIOLOGY  OF  WOMAN.

cially when there is company.  They are proud of
the child's smartness, and they feel a heroic satisfac-
tion when Bridget  is summoned  to bear away  the
poor exhausted little creature that has fallen asleep at
the table or on  the floor.  If the little  fellow wakes
up in the process and  expresses  a  wish not to retire,
he  is brought back to the guests to go  through  an-
other trial for his life.  This is no overdrawn picture.
The chances are, if you spend an evening  in a house
where there  are  children,  you  will see  just such
scenes.
  "Added to all  this morbid excitement; added to
the furnaces, pie crust,  and  ice-water, out of which
the blood  of our  children is  made, the girl has to
stand all her mother's   clothes!—all her mother's
clothes—enough to  kill  ten men,  and  gets none of
her brother's  exercise which helps him  to digest  his
pie-crust and late hours;  gets no sunshine, no romps,
because  she  must keep her face white  and her  feet
small.
  " Country life is  nearly as  bad, especially in  the
country  villages, where  all ,the  worst things of city
life are imitated, ju&t as we imitate the worst features
of foreign  life, upon the recommendation  that they
axe fashionable—a  word that carries  more authority 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF WOMAN.      67
than love or law.  During the winter village child-
ren  are out  sleighing  or attending parties almost
every night in the week.   Even Sunday night is filled
up with some excitement for the children.  Eight or
ten  speakers are advertised to address the children's
meeting; and  the sight  is  a  most pitiable one, half
the poor tired things nodding in their seats, and the
other half wriggling and coughing!  Then comes the
exposure of a  sleepy child to the  night air.   Any
one who has attended these  night meetings for child-
ren  can not help praying against this zeal without
knowledge; while, to one who understands the human
mechanism, such things are no better than  murder.
They are worse, because few parents  would give their
children a dose  that was labeled  poison;  but if the
same thing came under  the  name of spiritual food,
they would give it freely.   There  is time enough
through the day to attend to the children.   Better, if
need be, dispense with  the  morning sermon once a
month, than thus to spend the Sunday nights in dig-
ging children's graves.
  " As the children grow, the girl  grows more and
more into the artificial, the  boy more  and more into
the  natural;  at the end of each year her freedom is
abridged, while his  is increased.  If a  meaningless 
68       THE PHYSIOLOGY OF WOMAN.

society restraint is  imposed noon him, he can knock
it  off, start out and hunt, fish and swim, and no ques-
tions asked; but his sister dares not cut one cord of
her strait-jacket,  lest she lose caste, which society
makes dearer than life to every woman.   These  arti-
ficial restraints fall harder upon the middle-class and
poorer  girls, wTho are obliged to economize and  even
to help themselves.
  " One  of the most corroding  cares of American
women—the  one that is wearing and gnawing their
health  away—is the fictitious value Americans  place
upon  appearance.  The  interpretation  of  this,  in
ninety-nine of every hundred cases, means "dress be-
yond your means," and the greatest strain of it comes
upon women.  The average  American mother, when
she ought to be taking recreation with her children
in the  open  air, or  giving them lessons in manners
and morals, is tucking and  ruffling finery for her
girls to  outshine  her neighbor's  girls.   The whole
status of the girl  is  made to depend, not upon what
she is or does, but how she looks.   ' How do I look!'
is  the  everlasting  story from  beginning to end  of
woman's life.   Looks, not books, are the murderers of
American women.   Let any one of our middle-class
women tell you her experience  in keeping  up ap- 
        THE PHTSIOLOGY OF WOMAN.       69

pearances; ask her the greatest care and worry of her
life,  and what  she would  most like  to  get rid  of.
If she answers honestly, it will be—the burthen of
dress; not her library, or the few years she  tasted of
books, but this everlasting making  and fixing and
keeping up  with  the fashions.  Sensible Christian
women  acknowledge  that  they have to bow down to
this  Juggernaut of Juggernauts, or be ostracised,  be-
cause every woman is judged by her appearance.
  " Here is  an invalid who  needs air and  exercise,
but  she acknowledges to  me by the  time she  ' puts
up'  her hair—no one but a woman knows what time
and  ingenuity  that means—and  gets  on  all her
clothes  for  the  street, she is too exhausted  to take a
walk; so her nervousness increases, and  a few  years
will  end the struggle.  Now, why in the  name of
common sense and Christianity, should  women  en-
dure these artificial humbugs?
  " Here is  a  practical work for the churches.   The
best way to prepare people  for a future life is to  teach
them how to make a success of this life; and there is
no  part  of  this life too  small, too insignificant,  for
Christianity to touch and  brighten.   Now,  here is a
grievous burden right in the way of woman's useful-
ness  and  happiness, and  Church members feel its 
70       THE PHYSIOLOGY  OF  WOMAN.

weight just as sorely and bitterly as do others.  Here
is a live  issue for Christian  teachers—the emancipa-
tion  of  school-girls from  the tyranny  of clothes.
Clothes should be our  servants, not our masters, ay,
our murderers!   Let Christian women establish com-
fortable,  convenient, substantial  suits for street  and
ordinary  wear; suits that can be  purchased ready-
made at less cost of worry and time than women can
sit down  and make them.  There are such things in
use now; they are  comfortable  and handsome,  not
flimsy and forever needing repair.  There  is no more
need of every woman being her own dressmaker than
of every  man being his own tailor—one is just as
absurd as the other—and the  sooner dressmaking is
recognized as a profession, the better for womankind;
for sewing-machines and  dressmaking, in  the hands
of the unprofessional,  are killing more women than
all the books in the world.  Christian ministers can
not get a better text for a sermon; ay, sermons upon
sermons  are needed to root out this fictitious value of
appearances, and put  books, instead  of   sewing-ma-
chines, into the hands  of American mothers.   This
same sewing-machine has been one of the greatest of
curses to our average American  society; instead of
giving leisure for the mother to  bestow upon the ed- 
THE  PHYSIOLOGY  OF  WOMAN.       %\
ucation of her children and to enjoy their companion-
ship, it is used to feed a morbid vanity; and people
of small means, through  it,  affect the style of mil-
lionaires.  It  is  not the  fault of  the machine, of
course, but the result of our false ideas  of appear-
ances.  A well known American teacher at Dresden said
to me, it was the one great thing  against  which she
had to contend in the care of the young ladies under
her care, 'the love of American display,' she called it.
It is well known abroad; it has an English and a Con-
tinental reputation, and has even reached the Orient.
It is a natural  result of our institutions.  People
with  us  often  arise  from nothing; they must have
some standard of excellence,  so  they grasp at the
most conspicuous thing  to their senses—livery.  So
they  worship  livery  until they grow into something
higher.  It is this higher growth to which Christian
schools, Christian ministers, Christian men and wo-
men everywhere, should  lend their every energy, for
the love of livery is poisoning our love of liberty." 
CHAPTER III.
GENERAL HEALTH AND  CAPACITY  FOR EXER-
    CISE MAINTAINED AFTER SCHOOL LIFE.
  We find, in many cases, that with the close of school
comes the close of all healthy activity.   If the girl is
fashionable, then  begins her  society career, whose
chief exercise is dancing and shopping.  The society
girl who habitually takes long walks, or horse-back
rides, is the exception.   Such things  are done occas-
ionally, but scarcely ever to  the extent of elevating
them into the dignity of an exercise.   Few know that
in order to maintain  the tone of the muscles they
should perform  during  the  twenty-four hours work
equivalent to  walking ten  miles.  The  city  girl de-
liberately chooses  the  foul, dusty, smoke-laden air of
a crowded street  car rather than  a  walk of even  a
half dozen blocks  in the  open air.
                         72 
        THE  PHYSIOLOGY OF WOMAN.       73

  I think the shape of the shoe is one great reason
why walking is not practised to any extent by Ameri-
can women.   No  one can walk in a narrow short toe
and a heel pointing inward.   The spinal column is
thrown  out  of axis, and the  weight of the body is
supported upon the toes instead of the  arch of the
foot.  The fashionably shaped shoe practically dis-
ables  the feet as instruments of locomotion.  The
Chinese woman goes but a step farther;  that is, she
does not step at all.
          STEADINESS  OF OCCUPATION.
  The wholesomeness  of occupation was  no doubt in
the purpose of the Creator  when He decreed that
man should feed  himself instead of being fed.   Fai
be it from my purpose to send women out from theii
homes in search of a mission.   Just at this time, when
the reaction from the old time has reached a far  ex-
treme, it seems that women  are going  daft  about
being seen and heard.  I know, personally of beauti-
ful homes that have been abandoned because the wife
and mother morbidly  fancied that  she was called to
a higher work—one, especially, espoused  the temper-
ance cause,  making a very  indifferent speaker, while
her own hearth-stone where  she once presided with
most effective power was left desolate.   Another  be- 
74       THE PHYSIOLOGY  OF  WOMAN.

came an evangelist, but her burning words found no
response  in the hearts of her listeners, because of her
neglected children, who needed a  mother  far more
than the  world needed a reformer.   It  is true, women
have sometimes  abandoned their  homes for far  less
worthy objects, but they have not asked and do not
expect the moral  sense of the  community to support
them in it.  The  care of a family is, in  itself, an  oc-
cupation.  I have no sort of sympathy with the teach-
ings that cause a woman to neglect the  responsibilities
that she has voluntarily assumed.   I do not mean by
this that a woman who  has  a family,  shall  not be
otherwise occupied.   I  certainly believe that sensible
women can accomplish much outside  of their homes
simply by conserving the time that frivolous women
spend in gossiping,  visiting, and meaningless con-
ventionalities.  But  strangely enough,  a woman is
seldom arraigned for neglecting  her  family in  the
pursnit  of uselessness.   It is only when she is  en-
gaged in  some useful employment that she is charged
with neglect.
  I believe that women are pre-eminently adapted to
become  brain workers.   Dr.  Richardson affirms that
"muscle  work, as such, reduces the vitality.  There
is  no sign, no  evidence  anywhere   that  excessive 
THE PHYSIOLOGY  OF  WOMAN.      75
culture  of physical strength has favored  the vitality
either of the individual, or of the race.   The evidence
lies all  the  other way."   If vitality  were  depend-
ent alone upon size  and  strength  of muscle, why
have whole species of large, strong animals died out ?
—perished from the face of the earth—with  nothing
to tell us of their existence save their bones?
  Women present the  two extremes— half of them
are sick from ennui, the  other half from too  much
work.
  The class of women who apply  at the dispensaries
for medical  aid are,  for  the most part,  afflicted  by
diseases  which are the result  of  mal-nutrition and
abuse.   The  waste of their systems by hard work is
out of all proportion to the repair  which they receive
from food greatly insufficient  in both quantity and
quality.  While on the other hand the  cases recorded
by some medical writers of bed-ridden women, whose
physicians have to threaten to play the part of  lady's
maid in order  to drive them from  their beds, make
one wish that Abernethy's cure for gout, "sixpence
a day and earn it," might  be inflicted upon every such
imbecile woman  in  the land.   If Satan  ever had a
mission on earth, it is in finding employment for un-
employed women.   He starts  them on  a career of 
76       THE  PHYSIOLOGY  OF  WOMAN.

self-contemplation; instead of  some high, ennobling
aim  in life, they revolve from  day  to  day around
themselves, and each revolution so weakens their self-
poise,  that a  sort  of molecular  disintegration  of
character takes place.
  Not  only occupation  but  steadiness  of  occupa-
tion is an important element of health.  Women do
a great amount  of spasmodic, irresponsible  sort  of
work.  With no  limitation  save  inclination, they go
so far beyond  their strength that  the result is long
periods of inability  to do anything, and an  impair-
ment  of power  instead of an increase.   Then lookers-
on say:  " Behold how women break down at work."
It is  the  careful,  systematic pursuit of some object
within the reach of their possibilities, a daily  c  n-
scientious offering upon the altar, that regulates the
life and brings  health to its  functions.
  Dr.  By ford,  in his  work on Diseases  of Women,
says:  "It cannot  be too  firmly impressed  upon the
mind of the inexperienced in the profession that for-
mal exercise is too often no exercise at all, that it
is worth  little  compared  with  business   exercise.
The former is  scarcely ever  thoroughly and  perse-
veringly made  use of, while the latter  is  exacting
enough to be observed with the diligence  necessary 
        THE  PHYSIOLOGY OF WOMAN.      77

to make it effective."  He  especially recommends
gardening  and botanizing to be  engaged in persist-
ently as business,  by women.   I, too, have  often
wondered   why women do  not  more  generally  be-
take themselves  to agricultural and  kindred  pur-
suits.   No farmer  is  exposed  to more  hardships
than a  washerwoman.  He  never,  with  arms  bare
to  the  elbow, and  lungs  filled  with  hot,  steam-
laden air, passes suddenly  into a  dry, freezing atmos-
phere to hang up wet  clothes.  Yet washing  is per-
fectly legitimate work for  women.   All  the works
against  woman's education say nothing against wash-
ing.
                   MARRIAGE.
  It is  established beyond all dispute, that all  the
functions  of the  body should be exercised, and  the
sexual function forms no exception.   The history of
celibacy is  very conclusive upon this point.  Instead
of marriage interfering with the  development of wo-
man's mind, it should be, and is, when rightly under-
stood, a healthy  stimulant to mental  activity.  But
the one function  of the body which is pre-eminently
liable to abuse, is the  sexual.   There is no need to
dwell upon this, for it is well known; but it is not so
well known that  much of this  abuse never finds its 
 78     THE  PHYSIOLOGY OF WOMAN.

 way into  the  calendar of crimes, but  appears  under
 the  guise  of  disease known only to physicians, and
 not  always to  them.  For, as I have said  before,
 many women  firmly believe that it  is  their mission
 to suffer, so they make no complaint.
            PROPER AGE  TO MARRY.
   The question naturally arises  here,  "What is the
 proper age to  marry ?"  If we knew nothing whatever
 in regard  to  the  practical  part  of the question, we
 should  say on theoretical grounds  alone, that no or-
 ganism should  reproduce until it is itself produced.
 That is to  say, the growing period  of  the body, the
 period of accession, should precede the period of send-
 ing off a part  of itself to form  an independent, sepa-
 rate  individual, or as Dr.  Carpenter  says:*  "It is
 when the growth and development of the individual
 are completed that the procreative power  can be
 properly exerted for the continuance  of the  race."
 This completion is not reached in either man or wo-
 man  until  about the age of twenty-five years.  The
 mistake which is made in the early marriages  of wo-
men  lies in supposing that menstruation is a sign of
sexual development, whereas it  signifies only the be-
ginning of that development.  The  history of early
  ♦Carpenter's Physiology, page 1107. 
         THE PHYSIOLOGY OF  WOMAN.      79

marriages is an  early  loss of generative  power, and
the deterioration of the individual.  It takes at least
twenty-five to thirty years  for the  mental and moral
condition of  a  man to become  a habit.  All  the
grosser vices, such as licentiousness and drunkenness
begin to  show themselves before that time;  and  so of
hereditary  taint.   Then, too, a  man proves his ca-
pacity or incapacity for the  care  of a family by the
kind  of  care he has taken of his own  affairs.   If he
has not acquired habits of  industry and economy du-
ring the  first twenty-five years of his life, it is fair to
infer that he will  never acquire  them.  The few ex-
ceptions  are not worth mentioning.
              WOMAN'S  INSTINCT.
  The unerring instincts  of woman have  been  an
eloquent theme for those who do not know what they
are talking about.   Such passages from Dr. Naphey's
" Physical Life of  Woman," as the following, are cal-
culated  to  mislead: "There  is a mysterious instinct
in a pure-minded woman which is beyond  all  anal-
ysis, a tact  which men  do not  possess, and do not
readily believe in;  at such  a crisis  this instinct saves
her.  She feels in  a moment the  presence of a  base,
unworthy nature, an unconscious  repulsion is mani-
fest in her eye and  her voice."   The  facts are that 
80       THE PHYSIOLOGY OF WOMAN.

women  generally do not know  anything whatever of
the men they marry, and  their unerring instinct is
quite as likely to lead them into the arms of a villain
as of a saint.  Knowledge better than instinct serves
a woman in the choice of her husband, and it is  a
want of this knowledge that fills column after column
of the daily press  with the stories of innocent girls
betrayed.
              PERSONAL  HABITS.
  Though  I have mentioned many of the subjects
that come  under this head, yet they are all  of such
great importance, especially to the woman who expects
to become  the head of a family, that they will bear
many repetitions.
            THE CARE OF THE SKIN.
  Strange as it may seem, cleanliness is not a com-
mon virtue, even among the better and best classes of
society.   It is  really surprising to  find how  many
there are who do  not wash the  entire surface of the
body every day;  anything less than  this is certainly
unclean.   We are  surprised and disgusted when the
impurities of the air we  breathe, and the  water we
drink, are exposed  to our view.  We should  be still
more surprised were we to see the impurities which
should be, but are not, cast off by  the  skin.  It is
only of  late years  that the minute  structure of the 
         THE PHYSIOLOGY OF WOMAN.      81

skin has been studied, and now this  organ ranks as
one of the most important of the body,  A healthy,
active  skin is just as necessary as a healthy liver or
kidney—indeed, we often find the skin trying to do
the work of both these organs, especially the kidney;
so it is frequently called the complement of the kid-
ney.  In cases where there is a suppression of urine,
the characteristic odor may be detected in the perspi-
ration.  A free action of the skin  is  one of the best
ways of relieving the bad action of the kidney.
  THE BODY COMPARABLE  TO  A FURNACE.
  So far as many of its functions are concerned, the
body may be  looked  upon as  a furnace, into which
fuel must  be placed, and from which ashes must be
taken.   In order that  the  fires of life  shall  burn
brightly, it  is just as important that  the ashes shall
be taken up as that the fuel shall be supplied.   When
we see the  fire burn  we can't tell just how it is that
the  oxygen of the  air unites with the carbon of the
fuel.  We  call  the process  oxidation  or combustion.
Nor can we  tell just how the oxygen of the blood
unites with the worn-out tissue of the body.  We do
not pretend to say that this  is all of  life.   The  pro-
cess by which the  fuel or food is taken up and made
into new tissue, is  one we cannot solve.  No more
               6 
82       THE PHYSIOLOGY  OF  WOMAN.

can we tell how  the particles  which fVm the wood
and coal  were selected  from the ground and the air,
and made into trees.  The process  by which the old
material is torn down and converted into its original
forms is the same as the burning of the fuel; and  it
the waste is not taken up, it closes  up all the flues of
the furnace, the  myriads of tiny tubes that channel the
body.  Over and over again have I seen patients who
are complaining and haunting  the offices of doctors,
year in and year out, who need most to be thoroughly
cleaned, and then to be kept clean.
  Michelet makes  the  statement that for one thou-
sand " j ears no  one in  Europe used  the bath.   Dr.
Lyon Playfair says that "it is no wonder that the epi-
demics of the middle ages cut off one-fourth of the
population;  no wonder there  was  spotted-plague,
black-death, sweating-sickness,  dancing-mania, mew-
ing-mania, biting-mania, and other terrible epidem-
ics.  The emotionalism so much cultivated in those
days  had much to do  with  the manias mentioned;
and even at this time, were there  less abhorrence of
water  and  soap, and more rational  than  emotional
training among all  classes, death  and disease  rates
would be reduced to a minimum." 
THE  PHYSIOLOGY  OF  WOMAN
                     BATHS.
  For those who react well from water, nothing is so
invigorating as a  cold plunge  bath in  the morning.
It starts up the circulation upon the surface and in
the extremities, and keeps it bounding all  day.   For
people who are naturally sluggish, it is the best tonic
in the world; but there are persons who do not react
well from a cold bath, and it never  should be taken
when the body is overheated or overtired.   One  can
not be too guarded on this point.   I know personally
a young patient who was paralyzed in both  sides of
his  body from taking a cold plunge bath when he  was
very warm and very tired.
  If the lips and finger nails are blue, and the  skin
has a "goose-flesh"  appearance upon coming out of
the bath,  one had  better  stay  out of it  altogether.
These are signs that reaction has  not taken place.
The first  shock or chill  on entering the bath should
be  promptly followed by a glow of warmth.. If it
is not, then hot drinks should  be taken and friction
of the skin should be kept up till the glow  is felt.
  A salt  sponge-bath, however, can be tolerated by
the  most delicate person.   Let  the form of the bath
be what it may, the body should in every instance be
thoroughly dried.   In delicate subjects, and  during 
J-4       2HE PHYSIOLOGY OF WOMAN.

coid weather, a flannel  blanket or wrapper is the best
material for drying the body.  After the moisture is
all  absorbed a Turkish towel or flesh-brush may be
used to stimulate the skin by friction.   The value of
the sun  to  the  health of the  body can scarcely be
overestimated.   So far as we know the sun  is  the
source and sustainer of all physical life.  " Let there
be light!" meant  "Let  there be life!" That the Crea-
ator might have ordained some other way is possible,
but it is  enough for  us to  know that He did not.
The body of invalids should  be daily exposed to the
morning sun.  The blue  glass  mania had in it just
this element of good: it made some people  sit in the
snnshine for the first time in their lives.  In reference
to this whole question of the  influence upon the hu-
man  animal, of  the  air, sunshine,  and the blessed
rain, all of which human habitations so successfully
shut out, I have this to say:  Civilization and  Phys-
iology are in many points incompatible.  The sounds,
the sights, the  competitions, the ambitions, etc., of
crowded  populations,  should be  completely  broken
up, at least several times in a life.  The individual
who  wishes  to  hold  his own  against  these  wear-
ing-away  forces should get back into  the  lap  of
mother earth as  closely as possible,  and  there  renew 
 
   A—The natural position of the internal organs.   B—When
deformed by  tight lacing.  Marshall says that the liver and
stomach have, in this way, been forced downward almost  as low
as the pelvis. 
        THE PHYSIOLOGY OF  WOMAN.       85

the springs of his  life.  This  means  literally going
back to his  native home, and rejoining his  kinsmen,
the earth, air, water and  sun.   Had I  time I could
cite cases of those  doomed to  die whom I have ad-
vised to turn "tramp," and literally forage for food.
I have started them off to Denver, or  some other re-
mote point,  with simply a supply for great  emergen-
cies, making them depend  upon  the  ground,  the
woods  and the streams for their rations, sleeping in
tents, and with special instructions  not to see a mar-
ket quotation or a  newspaper—no reading allowed—
and they have returned in a few months with  " night
sweats all gone,"  voracious  appetites,   and  such a
capacity  for  breathing that they " cannot sleep in a
bedroom."
  I believe  it would be well  to  thus interrupt  the
tension of civilized  life every  five  or ten years, ac-
cording to the constitution of  the individual. This
does not mean to dance and dress at the springs or
sea shore, or  to chase about Europe for three months,
at a break-neck speed, but to go home to our mother.
                     DRESS.
  So much  has  been  written  upon this  subject,  I
would  rather say  nothing whatever  concerning it.
Within the  period  of my own  observation  there has 
86       THE PHYSIOLOGY OF WOMAN.

been very  much  improvement in the  dress of ^.
men;  but still there is room for much more.   Fron
their mode of dress and other relaxing habits, wo-
men create a  form which they are  continually tr$
ing to change.  The corset  and  the weight of  the
skirts so press upon the muscles of the body as to
make  them lose tone; they  become stretched, as i*
were,  and  so  remain—feeling doughy and flabby to
the touch;  or the  muscle  fibre may shrink and
shrivel under  the  pressure  and sluggish circulation.
When I  remonstrate with my patients, they invaria-
bly tell me their corsets are not  tight.  The fault of
the corset does not lie so  much in its tightness as in
the impediment it forms to perfect circulation and
respiration.  Few people  are familiar with the  mech-
anism of breathing.  Tbey do not know that the ex-
ternal muscles of the  chest and abdomen are a large
part of that mechanism, and  everything that enfee-
bles these muscles must  correspondingly weaken the
breathing capacity.  The breathing  power has been
taken  as  the measure  of the life power—hence it is
called the  vital capacity; when  it is low  the  other
bodily functions are correspondingly low.
  Another  great source of trouble to the circulation
is the manner of dressing the feet and limbs.   The 
         THE  PHYSIOLOGY  OF WOMAN.      87

shoes made with  elastic gores at the ankles are for-
tunately fast  disappearing  from  the  shops.  They
were a fruitful source of cold feet and swollen  veins.
The elastic garter, or any form of garter that  binds
the leg, is a great  obstacle in the way of the return
of the blood to the heart;  at the best it has to work
against gravity, and its return should be helped in-
stead of hindered.   I have elsewhere spoken of the
shape of the shoe—how impossible it is for the spine
to maintain its true position unless the weight of the
body rests  upon the  arch of the foot.
  The manner of clothing the body at night, espe-
cially in changeable climates, is of great importance.
Many are in the habit of removing the flannel  which
is worn during the day, and replacing it  by a cotton
garment at night.   This is  bad practice.  While the
same garment should  not  be worn day  and night
the material should not be changed.   The tempera-
ture of the body naturally runs down  at night,  and
the surface is much more liable to chill than when the
person  is  taking  active exercise.  The  manner of
clothing the bed is likewise  of great importance.  The
sheets should be  thoroughly dried,  and the bedding
daily exposed to the sun and the air.  It is a risk to
one's life to sleep in a bed that has been made  up for 
88       THE PHYSIOLOGY OF  WOMAN.

any length of time in a room that is not open to the
sun and air daily.   A guest chamber is often a vesti-
bule to the grave. Especially should travelers be care-
ful in regard to their beds.  The heavy linen used for
sheets and pillow cases in hotels  is  liable  to retain
moisture.  This is  particularly  noticeable in Italian
hotels.  The  buildings in Italy are themselves dark
and damp. Travelers  there  spend  their days in the
hot  sun, and their nights in damp beds, walled in by
ancient  stone  on all sides, even to the floor.  Their
obituaries, with characteristic  truthfulness,  tell us
they died of Roman fever.
                    THE WIFE.
  Thus  far I have considered the condition and train-
ing of the child and the girl rather than the wife and
mother;  though  the  general principles  of  health
which have been suggested are applicable all through
life.
      THE PROPER TIME  FOR MARRIAGE.
  Having reached  the proper  age,  and  found the
proper person, the question arises, is there any choice
as to the time of marriage, both as regards the time in
the  year and the time in the  month.  If marriage
were founded upon instinct alone, spring would with-
out doubt, be the proper  season, as  it is  the mating 
        THE  PHTSIOLOGY  OF  WOMAN.       89

season of the lower animals, and the period of the
greatest activity in the vegetable kingdom.   There is
doubtless  a principle here that pervades all nature—
the rythmical wave of reproduction is at its height.
But in true marriage there should  be other considera-
tions  besides  the gratification of the sexual instinct;
besides in  man  there is no season of the year when
the sexual instinct is  absent—hence  marriage  is
proper at any time.
  As to the  time in the month, the middle of the
menstrual  period  is to  be preferred from motives of
delicacy, as well as for physiological reasons.   It  is
not desirable that conception should  take place imme-
diately after marriage.  There is every reason to be-
lieve  that  the mental and physical  condition of the
parent at the time of conception is stamped upon the
embryo; therefore it would be better  for conception
not to take place until  the excitement and anxiety
that are usually attendant upon marriage have passed
away, when the body is rested and the  mind tranquil.
And  here  let me say that the usual preparations be-
fore marriage, and the ceremonies of the occasion it-
self, are enough to induce nervous prostration  in the
strongest—to say nothing  of the wedding  journey,
which is  a refined species  of torture  to a  delicate, 
90       THE PHYSIOLOGY OF WOMAN
sensitive woman.   When we consider the true pur-
pose of marriage, then only do we comprehend the
criminal folly of a preparation which includes every-
thing but that purpose.
 
CHAPTER IV.
   THE  HAPPINESS OF TRUE MOTHERHOOD.
  In mercy to the unborn child, to say nothing of the
outrage upon the mother, no wife should ever be com-
pelled to act against her own desires in her sexual re-
lations.   If woman has  an  inalienable  right in this
world, it is just this.  Granted that a woman in ac-
cordance with her own desires is to become a mother;
then, is  her happiness the purest and  most sacred on
earth.   It has in it more than  the  mere mother in-
stinct;  the lower animals have  that to a marked de-
gree.  Superadded to this is a mental and spiritual de-
light for  which the brute mother  has no capacity.
If the quickening of the spring-time were a conscious
power,  it might  express the spirit that pervades a
woman's being, when she is willingly, therefore joy-
fully, becoming a mother. Alas! that so few mothers
should ever be able to  realize  the  exquisite delight
which  God intended  should be theirs.  Bad health,
neglect, unwillingness, and  many other causes  turn
this  season of joy  into  one of actual, unmitigated 
92       THE  PHYSIOLOGY  OF  WOMAN.

wretchedness.  The  physical condition always has a
great deal  to do with the  mental state at this time.
Women who are in average good health generally feel
a great deal better during this period—but so few can
lay any claim to good health, that obstetrical writers
have placed  among the  natural  signs of pregnancy
things which belong to  a pathological  condition—
such as nausea or morning sickness, capricious  tem-
per  and  appetite,  mild  insanity,  etc.   When it
is assumed that  menstruation  is a sickness,  it natu-
rally follows  that  pregnancy  is a much greater sick-
ness.
             SIGNS OF  PREGNANCY.
  The first thing  that attracts  the woman's notice is
the cessation of the  monthly  discharge.  There are
cases  in which the  discharge  takes place regularly
during pregnancy, but there is no doubt the condition
is one of disease.  On the other hand, menstruation
may be arrested by causes other than pregnancy; but
when a married  woman in good health and regular
habit ceases  to  menstruate, the probabilities are she
is pregnant.  Other  probable signs  are  the  enlarge-
ment of the breasts and  the  abdomen.  What is
known as quickening, which is the motion of the child
in the  womb, is thought to be, by women who have 
         THE PHYSIOLOGY OF  WOMAN.       93

borne  children, a positive  sign; but  as this motion
may be so closely imitated by the movement of gas
in the  intestine, it cannot be  considered positive evi-
dence.   The  only  sign  upon which  the  physician
dares to make a positive diagnosis, is the sound of the
foetal heart; but as  it takes some skill and experience
to find out and recognize it, when  it is  found it can-
not be made available to the woman herself in consid-
ering her own symptoms.
VALUE  OF THE  BATH, FRESH AIR  AND EXER-
         CISE, IN OVERCOMING  NAUSEA.
   One of a woman's difficulties at the beginning and
during pregnancy is constipation of the bowels, and
to this fact alone is due much of the nausea and de-
rangement of the  circulation, or nervous system, or
both.  Pregnancy acts upon the stomach and bowels
much as sea-sickness affects certain people.   I  know
of nothing that will correct  this  difficulty so surely
as proper exercise in the open air, and  the judicious
use of  the bath.
   My  own experience in  sea-sickness  has  left no
doubt in my own mind as  to the efficacy of exercise
and water.   From  being a most helpless invalid on
the first trip, I became quite a good sailor on the sec-
ond, by means of a  salt  water  bath  every morning. 
 94        THE PHYSIOLOGY OF  WOMAN.

 This was followed by a brisk walk  on deck resulting
 in a good  appetite for breakfast.  The regular morn-
 ing bath should be continued all through pregnancy
 —cold or  tepid, full or sponge, whichever by previ-
 ous habits  has been found best to agree.
   RELAXATION  OF  THE PELVIC  MUSCLES.
   During  the last two months of pregnancy, a warm
 salt hip bath at  night, will greatly relieve the rigidity
 of the pelvic muscles, which must relax to a great ex-
 tent before the child can be born.
   Inunctions of oil after  the bath  also assist greatly
 in increasing the pliability of these muscles.  I be-
 lieve  that  a large proportion, if not all the ruptures
 that are caused by childbirth, save in cases of malfor-
 mation, might be prevented  by previous care; and if
 these  lacerations could be  prevented,  then much of
 the ill health of mothers could be saved.  The rec-
 ords of the  private hospitals, which I have taken some
pains  to investigate, show that these lacerations are to
blame for at least half the cases that go to these insti-
 tutions for relief.
  Plenty of fresh air and  sunshine, and a fair amount
of exercise are essential to the health of both mother
and child.   Undoubtedly, the best kind of exercise is
 walking. 
THE  PHYSIOLOGY  OF  WOMAN.      95
                      DIET.
  The diet should be  simple and wholesome  Ripe
fruits are especially desirable, on account  of  their
laxative qualities.  The appetite should not be forced
beyond its usual capacity.   It is a mistake for a wo-
man to suppose that  she must eat so much more than
the ordinary amount.  All stimulants, especially  the
alcoholic, should be avoided; they are injurious  to
the healthy, and to the sick are of very doubtful value,
excepting in cases  of  great emergency.  The best
mind of the medical  profession  is almost  a unit
against the use of alcohol as a beverage or tonic dur-
ing pregnancy and nursing.   It has been a great fash-
ion to prescribe beer  for nursing mothers.  There are
some elements in  the beer  which  do increase  the
amount of milk, but the same elements are found to a
greater extent in good nourishing food, rich soups and
chocolate.   Few conscientious, intelligent  mothers
are willing thus to convert themselves into a kind of
brewery.  The alcohol  in  the  beer  will find its way
into the child's system.   Who  shall answer for  the
consequences?   The mothers themselves are by  no
means proof against the appetite for alcohol.  There
is always danger in the continued use of  any of this
class of stimulants. 
96      THm PHYSIOLOGY OF WOMAN.
          DRESS DURING PREGNANCY.
  It seems almost needless to say that no  clothing
should hang from the waist; no elastic should con-
strict the ankle, or any part of the  leg.  The uterus
itself is very apt to  press upon some of  the larger
veins, and obstruct the free flow of  blood  through
them back to the heart.  This causes the  frequent
swelling of the feet and limbs that we see in pregnant
women.  When this condition is  accompanied by de-
crease  in  the  quantity of the urine, or very great
change in its color, it is best  to  consult a physician,
as there may be some serious trouble with the kidney.
            SHOCKS,  LONGINGS, ETC.
  Women, who from  infancy are trained to  think of
themselves as invalids, are very apt to become such
by the time they have  passed through the feverish
excitement attendant upon fashionable marriage, and
have entered upon their first  pregnancy-   They have
heard of longings, and so they begin to cultivate them
as a  part of the  regular programme.   The usual  re-
sult is to fix the mind upon something impossible to
get, and then worry lest the child should be marked
by that impossible thing. 
         THE PHYSIOLOGY OF WOMAN.       97

HOW THE MIND OF THE MOTHER AFFECTS THE
                 UNBORN CHILD.
  It is beyond all controversy that the mother's men-
tal condition can affect the physical condition of the
unborn child.  It has been argued that this is impos-
sible, inasmuch as there is no nervous connection  be-
tween  the  mother and the foetus.   The same  argu-
ment would apply to the ovum or cell before it  leaves
the ovary.   It is a  more  or  less independent body
from  the very beginning.  It contains no  blood-ves-
sels  and no  nerves,  and jet  who  shall say that  the
ovum is not impressed  by the  mother before  it es-
capes from  the ovary.  It is always in contact with
the mother's tissues,  and from them  it is capable  of
drawing, not only its nourishment, but its morale, so
to speak.  That which determines what quality of
embryo is  to be formed from  the cell may be only a
modification of the  great process  of nutrition.   If
this  be so, then the power to modify belongs  to the
mother;  she acts upon the cell  from  its very  incip-
iency, before it becomes impregnated even, in a man-
ner which not only imparts to  it hereditary character-
istics, but impresses  upon it her passing condition;
and so women whose nervous system  is in a state of
unstable  equilibrium, are  constantly in danger of de-
            7 
98       THE  PHYSIOLOGY OF  WOMAN.
forming their  children both in body and mind.  By
deformity I do not  always mean  an actual monstros-
ity in body, or idiot in brain, but  there are a thou-
sand gradations between such conditions  and an har-
monious development.
  It is a rare exception to find a well balanced organ-
ization, and it has  come to be an accepted  fact that
there are  some weak  points  in  every  constitution.
Up to this date, pre-natal influences have not received
the attention they deserve.
  Aside from the  reference to mothers'  marks as so
many old  women's  stories, to which no credit  should
be given, medical writers  have well nigh ignored the
whole subject.  It is doubtless true that  the so-called
marking  of children is, for the  most part, an idle
tale; but  I think   experience  proves that there are
very few  popular   superstitions  that  do  not  have
their  foundation in truth.  The  weight of author-
ity seems to prove that  the  condition, mental and
physical,  of both parents, at the  time  of conception,
is  transmitted to   the embryo, and that any con-
tinued impression  on the part  of the mother is
likewise transmitted.  It is not  every passing emo-
tion that remains, but only those that  are most pro-
found  and prolonged.   While I  believe it is  only 
THE PHYSIOLOGY  OF  WOMAN.       99
these latter that are able so seriously to  pervert nu-
trition as to  cause an actual deformity, I also believe
that the passing conditions  of the mother have much
to do  with the  stableness, or unstableness of the
child's organization.  Upon what other ground can
we base the great differences between children of the
same parents?   The outcome of all  this should  be
self-control among women.  A recent writer* on epi-
lepsy makes this statement: " The existence of hyste-
ria,  ....  or even  simple nervousness in the
parent, may be  transmitted  into  epilepsy  in  one
of the descendants."  It is all very pretty  and wo-
manly to be hysterical, but it  is not pretty or wo-
manly to disfigure a child.   Possibly no one, man or
woman, can prevent the occurrence of a sudden shock
—there are calamities which can  wring the stoutest
hearts; but no  man or  woman need necessarily  let
the mind forever dwell upon, or recur to  that calam-
ity; and herein is the great  blessing and safeguard of
active employment, something to do.
       HOW TO  PREVENT DEFORMITIES.
  The only cure  for timidity of  which I  know  is
work, and plenty of it, and  of a kind which  does not
permit self-brooding.   I have seen the most timid wo-
  *L. Putzel, M.D.  Functional Nervous Diseases, p. 62. 
100       THE PHYSIOLOGY OF WOMAN.

men grow brave and courageous under the influence
of healthy, useful occupation, and I have  seen those
naturally courageous grow timid and hysterical under
idleness, and the foolish sympathy of friends.
  The prevention, then, of deformity as far as in us
lies is persistent diversion of the mind from the ob-
ject which  may  have produced  the  nervous shock.
If the bodily functions  are in a healthy condition,
there will be little difficulty in controlling  the mind;
but if the system is debilitated, especially if  the ex-
cretions of  the body are not thrown off, or if the
liver  is torpid, the  mind will be more or less uncon-
trollable.
          THE CARE OF THE BREASTS.
  Generally speaking, if women have  had  proper ex-
ercise, proper  bathing and proper dress, there will be
no trouble with  the  breasts.   The habit of wearing
heavy padding is very injurious.  Any  constant press-
ure has a tendency to depress the nipple  and shrink
the tissues of  the organ.
  During pregnancy  all  pressure should be removed,
and mild friction with salt water should be used daily.
If there is a natural  depression of the nipple, it can
be greatly modified  by  the  application  of a shield
from which the air has  been exhausted.   An empty 
        THE  PHYSIOLOGY OF WOMAN.      101

bottle which has been  warmed in hot water will an-
swer the purpose of a shield, if its  mouth is applied
immediately to the nipple.  This should be done fre-
quently from day to day, until the nipple is well
drawn  out.   To prevent the tenderness and cracking
which often cause so much suffering, an application of
the tincture of myrrh should be made to the parts.
              GATHERED BREASTS.
  The condition known  as  " broken breast" I have
come to look upon usually as the result of gross neg-
lect.  Every attempt at what is known as "caking" of
the breast should be immediately thwarted by gently
rubbing  the part  till  the  tissues  become perfectly
smooth again.  If no lumps are allowed to form there
can  be no  such thing  as  "milk abscess."  There  is
never  any  necessity for  applications externally, or
medicines internally, if the milk is prevented from
accumulating and hardening in the ducts, and if the
circulation in  the blood-vessels is kept free.   If a se-
vere cold has  been taken, and manifests itself by a
sudden swelling and reddening of the gland, the ser-
vices of a physician may  be required, but, in general,
anything that will produce a copious perspiration will
restore the circulation, and thus relieve the congested
part.   To prevent the patient from taking cold after a 
102       THE PHYSIOLOGY OF  WOMAN.

general sweating, the  surface of the  entire  body
should  be sponged  off under the  bed-clothes with
strong salt  water, and flannel instead of cotton or
linen should be worn next to the skin.   Patients fre-
quently tell me they cannot wear flannel, but I find
the "cannot"  in  many cases is  only  a whim; the
coarser flannels  do  irritate, but  the  fine silk flan-
nel, or all-silk  underwear, can be comfortably  worn
next the most delicate skin.   Then, too, the irritation
freqently comes from  the tightness of the garment;
it should always be loose-fitting.
    EXPOSURE  OF THE BREAST AT NIGHT.
  Many mothers  expose the  breast to draughts at
night by falling asleep while the child is nursing.  If
the child  is taught regular habits from the very be-
ginning, there will be little  or no necessity for night
nursing.  The habit  of nursing a child all  night  is
pernicious in  its results  to both  mother  and child;
nor should the child  sleep on its mother's arm.  It
should have a crib, with soft, nestling wraps, over and
under it, so as to retain the heat of its body.   Child-
ren put to sleep in this way for  the  night are less
wakeful, because  they are not disturbed  by the every
motion of the mother, to say nothing of the dangers
they escape of being smothered to death. 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF WOMAN.     103
                SIGNS OF LABOR.
  At the  termination  of about forty weeks of preg-
nancy, labor may be expected at any time.  A good
rule is to  count backward three months from  the last
menstruation,  and add  seven days to the day of the
month.  For example,  if the date of the last menstru-
ation was  the first day of February, the date of labor
would be the eighth day of November.
  One of the first things that attracts the attention of
the  woman is a  sense of decrease in weight of the
tumor.  This  is caused by the uterus sinking down
into the pelvis, instead of  pressing up against the
heart and  lungs, as during the latter months of preg-
nancy.  This  change in position may take place  as
early as two weeks  before labor really begins.  The
most important symptom is the appearance of a dis-
charge vulgarly called "a show,"  which consists of
a mass or plug of mucous tinged with blood.  When
this appears, no  time should be lost in  sending for a
nurse, unless she be already in the house.  It would
be  well if every  wife  could be under the care of a
competent nurse during at least the last two weeks of
her  pregnancy; but wives are  often placed in posi-
tions where they must help  themselves, or give  in-
structions to some one who is untrained. 
101        THE PHYSIOLOGY OF WOMAN.
           PREPARATION OF  THE BED.
  They should  particularly know how to prepare the
bed, and their  own  clothing.  For convenience and
cleanliness  a rubber sheet is indispensable.  The bed
should be made up as usual, except that a thick blan-
ket or quilt should be placed beneath the lower sheet.
On top of this lower sheet a rubber should be placed;
and on this again a blanket, or another  sheet.   If a
sheet only is  used the cold rubber may be disagreea-
bly felt.  This  arrangement does not necessitate  the
making up of the bed after the  birth of the child, be-
cause as we  shall perceive, the soiled clothes can all
be removed without disarranging the bed.
             THE MOTHER'S  DRESS.
  A woman's dress should be such as not to require
complete undressing after  labor.  The  night-dress
should be short or open  in front to the bottom, be-
cause of the ease with which it can be taken off and
on.  The chemise is an awkward garment, and had
better  be dispensed  with.   A loose  fitting  under
wrapper of raw silk, or flannel, is the best  thing to
wear next the skin.  Even in  summer time it is de-
sirable, because it keeps up a  gentle friction  of the
surface, and equalizes the temperature, which is a very
important item in the care of lying-in women.  This 
        THE PHYSIOLOGY  OF  WOMAN.       10.1

under-garment and the night-dress, too, can be folded
up  smoothly above the hips, while the lower part of
the body may be dressed in loose, open drawers, and
long stockings, which extend well above  the knee,
and, if desirable, a skirt fastened loosely at  the waist.
All these lower garments can be removed by pulling
them downward.  Then, after washing and bandaging
the patient, the night-shirt  and night-dress may be
adjusted without the fatigue and inconvenience that a
change of garment would cause.  A safer  and simpler
kind of dress would be a single garment  of soft flan-
nel.  Under-shirts are so hard to  get off  and on, and
the flannel  night-dress would answer every purpose.
If the patient wishes  something more dressy, a hand-
some dressing-sack may be worn over the flannel.
  Pain is so universal that even scientific authorities
have adopted the  name " pain" for the  contraction
of the muscles concerned in labor; not only the name
but  the  fact of pain has becomfe classic ; nay, more,
it is even invested with the authority of Divine de-
cree, so that it is rank heresy to  affirm that it is un-
necessary and unnatural.  If a woman who does not
have pain during menstruation is in an abnormal con-
dition, how much more abnormal must the woman be
who does not  have  pain  during labor.   Travelers 
106      2HE  PHYSIOLOGY  OF  WOMAN.

among savage tribes tell us that women do not suffer
at all in childbirth.  Only lately a missionary from
South Africa, in a lecture before one of our  medical
colleges, made the statement that he, himself, had seen
women go into  the woods  after  a bundle of sticks for
the fire, and return in a short time bearing the bun-
dle of sticks on one arm and  a new born child on the
other.   There  is, of course, a wide margin between
this  brute-like  condition of the savage and the ener-
vated invalid condition of  the lying-in woman of civ-
ilization.
  We  see the  same  enfeebling influences resulting
from the domestication of animals.   When the blood
becomes vitiated or impoverished by indoor  life, the
nerve and muscle fibres must both become impover-
ished; pain is  the outcry of this poverty, the voice of
debility. Even though the blood be too full, and too
rich, the result is still the same debility.  It is not to
be wondered at that the  muscles and nerves cannot
perforin their  part in  the mechanism  of  labor in a
natural manner; but as we cannot  consider woman's
condition as it might be, we must consider  it as it is.
  The first pains that  are usually felt  are  known aa
"false pains,"  and they arise from  the contraction of
the muscles in various  parts,  such as the back, abdo- 
        THE  PHYSIOLOGY  OF  WOMAN.      107

men and bowels.   The dilitation of the muscles that
close the mouth of the  uterus constitutes what is
known as the  first stage of labor;  and is, frequently,
the most prolonged and trying period.  If it has con-
tinued beyond twelve hours, it is usually the sign for
interference.   Hot hip baths and hot injections  assist
very much in  shortening this  period, and in alleviat-
ing the pain.  Now that the condition of the civilized
woman is one of art, and not of nature, it is therefore
the duty of a  physician to avail himself of every ap
pliance of art for her relief.
              USE OF CHLOROFORM.
   One of the greatest blessings in the way of obstet-
rical art is the use of chloroform.   It is especially ad-
vantageous in the first stage of labor; aside from the
relief it gives from pain, it helps greatly in the  relax-
ing  of the muscles, so  that labor is  shortened  by
many  hours.  Although  there are no cases on rec-
ord  of death  from  chloroform during labor,  yet it
never  should be given but  by the advice and  in the
presence  of a competent physician; nor  should the
patient ever be rendered  fully unconscious, excepting
in the use of  instruments.  At the beginning of each
contraction or pain, a handkerchief slightly wet with
chloroform should  be  placed  to the nose, and the pa- 
108       TlIE PHYSIOLOGY  OF  WOMAN.

tient instructed to take a deep breath;  enough of the
spirit will thus be inhaled to deaden the pain.  Since
the discovery of the nitrite of amyl, (which  counter-
acts the  effects of chloroform), I consider  the mode-
rate use of chloroform perfectly free from danger in
the first  and  second  stages of labor;  but  it never
should be given in the third stage.
         THE THREE STAGES OF LABOR.
  Labor is divided into  three stages: The first is oc-
cupied by the opening of the  mouth  of  the uterus;
the second by the expulsion of the child; the third
by the expulsion  of the after-birth, or placenta.  It
is during  and after this  last stage that hemorrhages
are  likely to occur;  therefore  chloroform should
never be used.
    HOW TO ACT IN CASE OF HEMORRHAGE.
  In connection with this subject, and for the benefit
of those who may be placed in an emergency when  a
physician is not at hand, I would say that for all uter-
ine hemorrhages it is safe to use hot water injections
into the vagina in great quantities, and as hot as can
be  borne; not warm water, for  that would do more
harm than good, but very hot  water.  This  is a rem-
edy which costs nothing, and  can  be obtained under
almost all circumstances. 
        THE  PHYSIOLOGY OF  WOMAN.     109

   Many authorities advise the use of ice and of cold
 water, but they are  always  disagreeable,  and often
 dangerous, to  the patient—while the hot water is re-
 ally grateful to the patient, and without any danger-
 ous results.  Every woman should  know the  danger
 of hemorrhage at such a time, and  should have  in
 mind the knowledge of something to do.  Many a
 mother's life might be saved by the prompt use of  so
 simple and safe a remedy as hot water, by  those who
 are  hopelessly and  uselessly  wringing  their hands
 around her dying bed.
  Another ready  method is to grasp and hold the
 uterus with the hand on the outside of the  abdomen.
 It can be felt like a round, hard ball, when  it is prop-
 erly contracted, and when it is not thus  felt, there is
 always danger of  hemorrhage.  By  firmly grasping
 the middle of the abdominal wall below  the  navel
 with the hand open and fingers  spread out, and then
 pressing  downward toward the feet, and at the same
 time backward towards  the backbone, the uterus can
 be made  to contract.   Just here let  me  say that no
 midwife  or nurse  should  ever be  allowed  to pull at
 the cord in order to remove the  after-birth,  or as
 some of them express it, "to keep the after-birth from
going up into  the stomach!"  The after-birth should 
110      THE  PHYSIOLOGY OF  WOMAN.

never be pulled away.   The pressure by the hand out-
side, as I have described, will push out the after-birth,
which is much safer than to pull it out.
                   BANDAGING.
  The question of wearing a bandage is one that in-
terests women,  as it is  necessary to prepare it before-
hand, if it is to be worn.   I think it necessary, but
not for the purpose it is usually supposed to  serve,
namely, the prevention of hemorrhage.   If the mus-
cles of the  uterus are  ndt firm enough to contract of
themselves, the pressure of the bandage  will not help
the case. The value of the bandage is in giving sup-
port   to  the abdominal  muscles,  thereby  helping
these muscles  to  regain their proper size.  Besides,
the bandage gives a feeling of comfort to the patient,
and for that reason alone should  be used.
              REST AFTER  LABOR.
  The savage woman may be able to gather wood and
resume her march  after childbirth, but the woman  of
civilization needs absolute rest.  No time should  be
lost in procuring for her a quiet, refreshing sleep, and
nature usually adjusts this  matter without the inter-
vention of art.
  In regard to the length of time a woman should re-
main in bed after confinement, no positive rule can 
         THE PHYSIOLOGY  OF  WOMAN.     \\\

 be given.   Each patient is  a law  unto herself;  no
 two can be treated exactly alike.  The physician in
 charge must be  the judge of the case.  No woman is
 fit to be on her feet until the uterus has become very
 much reduced in  size, and  the  only safe way is to
 make a  thorough examination of the organ before al-
 lowing the patient  to get up.   " Getting up too soon"
 is the foundation of many an invalid life.   The daily
 use of the hot vaginal  douche, containing a drop or
 two of carbolic  acid to the quart of water, helps to
 keep the parts clean and free from any  inflammation,
 and thus favors the return of the uterus to its normal
 size.   A large part  of child-bed fevers come from
 want of care  in  keeping the parts well washed, and
 the  surface of the  body well sponged  in  warm  salt
 water.   The vaginal douche or injection should be
 given with great  gentleness.  No  force  should  be
 used, lest the water be  driven into  the  cavity of  the
 uterus, and  thus  produce great pain, and possibly in-
 flammation.  I have known great harm to be done in
 this way.
   I would  especially warn  patients, even those who
are feeling well, against suddenly rising up in the bed.
This  sudden motion  is sometimes  followed by fatal 
112        THE PHYSIOLOGY OF WOMAN.

syncope of the heart.  The upright position  should
be assumed gradually, never suddenly.
           THE CARE OF THE INFANT.
  As a general thing the immediate care of the infant
is not so important as the care of the mother.  If the
breathing is well established the child can be wrapped
in soft, warm flannel, and be let alone, if necessary,
for some time; but if there is any obstruction of the
breathing, no time should be lost in removing it.  If
a physician is at hand, he will know just what to do.
But  sometimes  children are  born before a physician
can be found, and there are a few simple things which
might be done  immediately, and thus save the life of
the child.
     HOW TO MAKE THE CHILD BREATHE.
  If the cord is still beating, which  can be ascer-
tained  by holding it  firmly between  the thumb and
finger, it is better  not to cut until the beating stops.
Then it should be tied with a small strong cord about
two inches from the navel; for purposes of cleanliness
it is  better to tie another loop about an inch beyond
the first, and cut the cord between the two.
  Plenty of water, both hot and cold, should always
be at hand, and if  the child does  not breathe  it
should be plunged first into the hot and then into the 
        THE  PHYSIOLOGY OF  WOMAN.      113

cold water.   Frequently there  is a quantity of mu-
cous in the mouth  and throat which obstructs the
passage of the air.  The finger should be wrapped in
a soft, clean cloth, and passed well into the mouth,
swabbing  out whatever may be  there.  This move-
ment of itself frequently starts  up the respiration.
     CARE  OF  THE CORD AND BANDAGING.
  A great deal has  been said  and written about the
care of the cord and  the use of the bandage.   Some
practitioners say they neither tie the cord nor use the
bandage, and that  they have  excellent results, but  I
do not think either would be a safe plan without the
presence of a physician who  is experienced in the
method.  While the old practice of tight bandaging
is bad, none at all seems very bad to those unaccus-
tomed  to  it.  The cord should be folded in a soft,
clean linen  cloth, and  bound loosely up against the
body by a soft flannel bandage.   If a bandage is used
at all, flannel is better than linen, because of its power
to keep the surface evenly warm.
               INFANT DRESSING.
  There is a great change for the better in the mode of
dressing infants.   The  tight bandages and close, un-
wholesome caps have well nigh disappeared; though
in  some country districts we find the fashion of  low
                         8 
114      THE  PHYSIOLOGY  OF  WOMAN.

neck and short sleeves still prevailing.   The first gar-
ment required after the bandage is a soft napkin, the
ends of which can be fastened by means of safety pins
to the bandage, and thus prevent  the latter from slip-
ping up  under  the  arms.  The  upper part  of the
body should be clothed in  a high-necked, long-sleeved
woolen shirt; those which  are made upon needles are
the softest and best fitting; over this may be placed a
long flannel skirt, the body of which should be made
with shoulders like the waist of a dress.  The bottom
of the  skirt can  be folded up loosely over the child's
feet, protecting  them from  the  cold.   Soft, knitted
woolen socks are also a great  protection for the feet.
Much of the colic from which infants suffer is in con-
sequence of cold feet.  The  circulation of a young
child is always feeble,  and  the surface of  the body
should never be allowed to chill.
  For  my own cases, I advise the simple mode of
dressing recommended  by Prof.  Byford, in his work
on  Obstetrics.  The cord is merely  wrapped  about
with a soft bit of linen, which is fastened  by  a tape
wound around the whole length of the stump.   This
cloth may be moistened by a little  vaseline to pre-
vent it from sticking.  The only object in thus wrap-
ping the cord is to keep it from contact with the skin 
        THE  PHYSIOLOGY  OF  WOMAN.     H5

and clothing.  There is no real necessity for the ban-
dage.  If  it is tight enough to keep in place it may
do harm,  and if it is  not tight it is  simply  in the
way.  However, I  always recommend the use of a
flannel bandage across the abdomen of children that
have any form of summer complaint.  The only other
garment recommended by  Prof.  Byford, beside the
napkin, is  a long  flannel night-gown, fastened close
up about the neck by a draw-string of tape.  This is
certainly all the dressing the child needs for the first
weeks of its life.  It is both comfortable and healthy.
A mother should never  sacrifice  either  the comfort
or health of her child for the sake  of mere looks.
                THE BABY'S  BATH.
  I am convinced that too much  soap is used in the
infant bath.  Before the first bath the body should be
well oiled; pure lard is the best, but olive oil will an-
swer.  It would be well  to let the  child lie in  this oil
for some time.  Soap should be used only in sufficient
quantities to keep the body clean, and then it should
be  of  the purest and mildest  quality, and  not too
highly scented.  Much of the chafing of the  skin in
infants comes from the too frequent use of soap that
is too highly alkaline.   The water should have a pleas-
ant heat, and, as the child grows older, a little salt will 
 116      THE PHI SIOLOGY OF  WOMAN.

 add greatly to its efficacy.  The child never should be
 kept  long in the water, not to exceed  five minutes;
 two or three plunges, enough to wet the entire surface
 of  the  body, are  sufficient,  and then  it  should be
 wrapped in a soft blanket and dried without exposing
 the body to the air.  This will insure good circulation
 and cleanliness, the  two objects of a bath.
  An occasional oil bath, especially for feeble children,
 is a most excellent thing.  The preparations from
 coal oil, known as vaseline and cosmoline, are espe-
 cially useful for this purpose, as they do  not become
 rancid.  The parts of the nates that are so liable to
 become chafed from  the frequent washings and excre-
 tions, can  be well protected by the use of these  oils.
                   SUN BATHS.
  Sun  baths,  too,  are very beneficial to children, and
 adults likewise.  The whole  surface of the body, ex-
 cepting the head,  should  be exposed directly  to  the
rays of  the morning sun.   Of course the temperature
 of the room should be 75 to 80  degrees, and  care
should be taken to prevent drafts.
                      FOOD.
  The first food that should be  given to a child is the
mother's milk.   It contains^ substance which produ-
duces an  evacuation of the  bowels.  No  sweetened 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF  WOMAN.     117
water, catnip tea, or any other " stuff," should for one
moment be thought of.  There is no objection to giv-
ing young children a few drops  of cold water.  Care
should be taken, however, that the water is pure; if it
has been standing uncovered in  a room any length  of
time, especially at night, it is not fit to drink, for any
liquid substance will absorb the bad gases in a room.
As to the question, " How often shall a child be fed?"
it may be stated, in general, that, during the whole
infant life, there  is  necessity of frequent feeding, on
account of the rapid growth that is going on; but
from the very first regularity of feeding should be es-
tablished.  Every two hours is often enough  for the
youngest child, and the interval can be increased grad-
ually to three. 
                 CHAPTER V.

        THE BEST FOOD FOR CHILDREN.
  Good bread and  milk is, by all odds, the best food
for children.  The  different kinds  of grain are all
healthy, but I am inclined  to think more care should
be taken in the preparation of oatmeal.  The barb of
the oat is very apt to get into the meal, and it may be
the cause of a great deal of intestinal trouble.   Ac-
cording to the  authority of Doctor Watson, the peo-
ple of Scotland and Lancashire are especially prone
to intestinal accretions, and  the  nucleus of these
masses is found to  be  the  beard of the oat.   These
accretions are said  to  resemble the masses that are
found in the sieves of  the  oatmeal mills.   To guard
against this, oatmeal should be well cooked and well
strained.  It is better  for young  children  to take all
                        118 
THE PHYSIOLOGY  OF  WOMAN.     H9
kinds of animal food in the form of a light soup or
broth, not the rich gravy which is so commonly served
as soup.
  The vegetables that are fit for children to eat may
be prepared in  the form of a  soup, such as rice, bar-
ley, potatoes, beans, tomatoes,  and even onion soup is
very  nourishing  when properly  made.    By  using
chicken, beef or mutton for the broth, and a single
vegetable  for the thickening, a  new soup can  be
brought on the table every day, so that the child need
not grow  tired of the  same  thing.  The vegetable
should not be put into the broth in  large pieces, but
finely pulverized and rubbed through a sieve, so that
the soup has a smooth, even body.
  Pastry should never be allowed, and no cake except
plain, sweetened  biscuit.   If  children were thus fed
there would be fewer stomach  and intestinal troubles.
Heat is not always the cause of these troubles in the
summer time.  The irritation  is there all through the
season, but the heat so  prostrates the  child's nerves
that they can no longer  resist the excessive strain,
and so the nervous symptoms in these summer trou-
bles are nearly always the most prominent.
   The question of the artificial feeding of infants is
one of the most difficult  that  the mother and physi- 
120       THE  PHYSIOLOGY OF  WOMAN.

cian have to decide, for the reason that there is such a
difference in the digestive powers of children, even of
the same mother.
  It does not always follow that the mother's milk is
the best  food for the child.   If the  mother is sickly,
especially if she  has  scrofulous or  cancerous blood,
the child's chances are far better on artificial food. In
general, if an infant does not thrive well, the mother's
milk should be tested.  Often a simple inspection of
the milk will show that it is poor and thin;  but  it is
better to have it examined chemically and microscop-
ically by the family  physician.  Sometimes, by im-
proving the nutrition of the mother, the quality of
the milk can be raised to the proper standard; but if
there is a bad constitution at the bottom of the diffi-
culty it is better to feed the child.
  Cows' milk seems to be the most available of all the
artificial foods.   Even city cows may be so cared for
as to give good  healthy milk.  A good breed  of cow
should be selected, and quality rather than the amount
of milk should be the test.   Nearly all housekeepers
can judge of the quality of the milk by simply look-
ing at  it after  the cream is  set.   If the body of the
milk is thin and blue, then it is  lacking in  the essen-
tial ingredients.  If the cow cannot be pastured  she 
       THE PHYSIOLOGY  OF  WOMAN.        121

should be kept in a clean, dry, well-lighted, well-aired
stable, with plenty of pure water and good oats.  Not
a great amount, but a  most excellent quality of milk
is made from oats; it is full of the  nitrogenous, that
is the tissue-forming, element.   The difficulty in milk
feeding is to prevent this nitrogenous part, caseine as
it is called, from gathering in hard, cheesy lumps in
the child's stomach.  It is found that the addition of
arrowroot and a little salt will  prevent the  caseine or
cheesy part of the  milk from collecting in curds.
This food requires special care  in its preparation. The
arrowroot—the Bermuda is the best—should be made
first  into  a  very  thin gruel, with  water  and  a
few grains  of  salt.  Great care  should be taken to
keep the gruel  from scorching.  This can  be done by
cooking it in a porcelain kettle, or in a vessel of boil-
ing water.  After  it is thoroughly cooked and par-
tially cooled, milk, as fresh as possible, should be added
until the  mixture has  the  appearance of milk in-
stead of starch.  This can be fed by bottle  or spoon.
If a bottle is used, great care is necessary  in keeping
it perfectly clean.   If it is desirable  to  sweeten the
mixture,  a few drops  of glycerine  are  better than
sugar.   The preparation of milk requires so much
care that, for general use, I prefer  some of the foods 
122        THE PHYSIOLOGY  OF  WOMAN.

that are found in  the market.  I find Nestle's Swiss
food a  most  excellent preparation, chiefly because it
does not require the  addition of either sugar or milk
—the two things which are most liable to do mischief,
by not  being  always the same in quantity and quality.
The danger is, however, that this food,  like so many
others, may become  adulterated  or counterfeited; so
long as the original formula is followed it is good  and
safe.
  In some instances I have used Kumyss with good
results; but when children are really sick a competent
physician  should always take care of the feeding, for
that is  the most important point  in the care of a sick
child.
                MIXED FEEDING.
  When the mother's milk is good but insufficient, the
child should  not  be weaned,  but the feeding can be
pieced  out, as it were, by artificial food.   Dr. Chas.
W. Earle, Professor  of  Diseases of  Children, in  the
Woman's  College  of Chicago, recommends  a food of
which  rice-water  is the basis,  using  from  one to four
ounces at a  feeding, according  to the  age.   To  this
rice-water is  added a small amount  of cream, from a
few drops to  a teaspoonful, as the child's stomach  will
bear it.  To this, again, a few drops  of  glycerine and 
        THE PHYSIOLOGY OF WOMAN.      123

grains of salt, and then adds what every physician ad-
vises—" Always give the food warm."
                   THE MOUTH.
  One of  the most troublesome things that can hap-
pen to a child is sore  mouth ; and  it is for  the most
part caused by uncleanliness.  The mouth should be
washed  out daily with a soft bit of linen, wet in cold
water. Few children in private practice have  such im-
poverished blood as to cause  sores  in  the mouth,
when it is  thus  kept clean.  A little borax dissolved
in glycerine makes a good application for the ordinary
sore mouth of infants.  Chlorate of  potash is iu very
general use among mothers and nurses, not only as an
external wash, but as  a medicine to  be  taken inter-
nally.  I have reason  to know that  the harmlessness
of potash  is  greatly  over-estimated.  My  attention
was first  called  to  it by the illness of a  child for
whom I had prescribed a solution  of potash  in gly-
cerine for a slight sore mouth.  The nurse discovered
that the child was fond of  the mixture, so she kept  a
rao- saturated with it  in the  child's mouth, after the
fashion of a " sugar tit."  The result was  a conges-
tion of  the child's kidneys; the urine became scant
and high-colored; only a few drops were passed, which
stained the napkin a deep reddish brown. 
124       THE PHYSIOLOGY OF WOMAN.

  This leads me to speak of that  abomination known
as sugar tit, a fruitful source of sore mouth and indi-
gestion.  It should  not be  tolerated for one moment
by any nurse or mother.  Its  use is very apt to pro-
duce wind colic, which, in turn, must be quieted  by
soothing syrup, and that means opium, and opium for
a young child is the worst possible thing that could
be given.
  My answer to the question,  "What can be done  for
colic?" is, if  the child is properly fed, the  bowels
properly regulated, the body properly warmed, it will
not have  colic.   The  mother's milk may not agree
with the child.  If it throws  up  a hard, cheesy curd,
the milk is probably at fault.  This is considered un-
der the  head of artificial feeding.
  To  return  to the  question of sore   mouth, from
which we have  diverged.  If the disease does not
readily  yield to the borax-wash, especially if it is an-
gry looking, or inclines to spread, a physician should
be consulted at once.
                   TEETHING.
  Intimately connected with the care of  the mouth is
the subject of teething.  The first symptoms that the
mother  notices  is a  discharge  of water  from the
mouth.  This usually appears  about the third  month, 
         THE PHYSIOLOGY OF  WOMAN.     125

and the two lower middle  or incisor  teeth appear,  if
all is well, between this time and the seventh month;
then there is a pause of several weeks, and the four
upper incisors appear between  the  eighth  and tenth
month;  there  is now usually another rest until the
child is a year old; then the process begins again, and
in the next three months six  teeth appear, two upper
and two lower grinders, or  molars, and the remaining
two lower incisors;  another rest of three months, and
then comes what the mothers look upon as the tug  of
war, the  cutting of the canine teeth.  The lower ones
are known as the stomach-teeth, and .the upper as eye-
teeth.   "Cutting the  eye-teeth"  is  an  expression
which has become proverbial in its application to cer-
tain  hard experiences.   The  child is now  fully two
years old; again  there  is  an  interval until the 30th
month.   Between  this  time  and the age of three
years another set of four grinders appear,  and these
make up the twenty milk-teeth which  are usually  all
shed by the time the child is seven years  old.  But
all children do not  get their  teeth thus regularly.   I
have known children to be eighteen months  old be-
fore  cutting  their  teeth,  and it is  said that  Louis
XIV. and Mirabeau had teeth when they were born.
If this happens  a child it  is not such a wonder, nor 
126      THE PHYSIOLOGY OF  WOMAN.

should it give rise  to  any superstition, for the teeth
are well formed at least Tour months before the child
is  born.
   Children inclined to rickets  are usually  slow in
getting their teeth; but if the child is otherwise per-
fectly well, this slowness in teething  need not cause
alarm.
   The cutting of the permanent teeth is not attended
by the irritating symptoms that  are common in the
cutting of  the milk-teeth; but as  so  much of  the
beauty and utility of the teeth depends upon this pe-
riod, the advice of a  first-class dentist is desirable.
It may save the individual a great deal of suffering,
and a great deal of expense in  later life.   As to  the
diseases that come from  teething, they  require  the
care  of a  skillful  physician.   Convulsions  are  the
most  horrifying to  mothers; but  the only things  the
mother may do with safety are to put the child into a
hot bath, and apply cold water to the head, and possi-
bly apply a chloroform liniment to the spine.
                    THE  EYES.
   The eyes of new-born children are very apt to be-
come inflamed.  Ordinarily they need little attention
beside absolute cleanliness and protection from strong
hght.  If there is a slight redness and discharge they 
        THE  PHYSIOLOGY OF WOMAN.      127

may be bathed in cold chamomile tea, but on no ac-
count should  any serious  trouble with the eyes be
tampered with by mother or nurse.
                  DEFORMITIES.
  There is, however, one subject with which I think
mothers cannot become too familiar,  namely:  The
causes and first symptoms of diseases  of  the joints.
I have known  children to be punished for laziness and
fretfulness, and sent to school, when  they should have
been taken up in their mother's arms and  put to bed,
and had that  been done  they might have been spared
the use of a sound limb or back.
  In the first  place, as to the causes.  I do not think
these diseases of the joints are all  in the  blood; nei-
ther do I think they are caused only by injuries.  If
the  child has  what  is called a scrofulous constitution,
(and I admit  the term is very vague and incapable of
a close definition), the mother  should be watchful for
any of the signs I  shall mention, because I believe
there is a predispositi  n  in such children for such dis-
eases.   In a general way, a child is scrofulous,  if it is
very fair,  thin-skinned,  and  very  bright, or sallow,
thick-skinned and  very  dull.  Every physician is fa-
miliar with the  two types of  children. It does not
matter much by what name they are designated, but 
128      THE  PH7SIOLOGY OF  WOMAN.

in these types of children, an injury is very likely to
result in joint diseases.  How shall a mother know
when there is  danger in time to  call a surgeon and
save a deformity?
  Deformities of the  spine are of two kinds: that
which  bends the spine to one side, and that which
bends it  forward  and  backward.   The curves to the
side are very common.  There are few people who do
not  have the hip and shoulders of one  side slightly
higher than  those of the other.  Yery much of this
comes from the manner in which children  stand and
sit in school.  It is the exception to see children stand
squarely upon  both feet; nor do  they, as  a rule, sit
squarely in front of their desks, but to one side, one
arm, usually the right, supporting a  part  of the
weight of the body upon the  desk.  It  has just the
effect that  bending a young sapling this way or that
has upon the shape of a tree:  it will be crooked.  If
one limb is shorter than the other, the  spine will  be
curved to one side,  or the curving of the spine from
the  straight  line makes one  limb shorter than the
other.   The first  noticeable sign is a sticking out of
the shoulder  blade.   There is scarcely any case which
may not be entirely relieved by proper surgical care.
But the thing  for mothers to do is to see that  their 
         THE PHl'SIOLOGY OF WOMAN.     129

children always stand and sit  straight.  If the teach-
ers are not intelligent enough to know the importance
of this, they are not fit to be teachers.
  The deformity most to be dreaded, however, is the
antero-posterior curvature of  the spine,  known  as
Pott's disease.  The symptoms ©f this are so obscure
as to mislead physicians even, and the patient is often
treated  for rheumatism or  indigestion.  If  a child  is
growing thin, complains daily of pains in the leg,
back or  stomach, and  a tired feeling all over, it may
mean spinal or hip  disease, or both.  A  disease of
the spine, sooner or later, shows itself by a slight pro-
tuberance, or  bulging out, which, if noticed and at-
tended to at once, may be entirely removed, so perfect
are the  surgical appliances now in use.  If the hip is
diseased, there will  be a  change in the gait  of the
child;  one  foot  will  be  turned out and slightly
dragged in walking, while in  standing the sound foot
and  leg will support the whole  weight of  the  body,
the foot  of the other side being usually  drawn up
lengthwise against the ankle of the well foot.
   Any  of these  symptoms, especially  if they  occur
after  a hurt, should  send a mother at once to  a sur-
geon.   With this end in view, it will not hurt moth-
ers to  study  the anatomy of the body, so  they may
                         9 
130       THE PHYSIOLOGY OF WOMAN.

know when the services of a surgeon are needed.  In
no place  so perfectly as  in the human body is it
proven that ignorance is  the parent of great misery
and crime.
       THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE BODY.
  The process  by which the human  body is built up
from  a single  tiny cell, scarcely  discernible by the
naked eye, is  probably the  most wonderful thing in
nature.  I can attempt to give nothing but  the mer-
est outline.  Embryology  has been carefully studied
in many  of the lower  animals, and  it is found, by
comparison, that the development of the human being
is very much the same.  It  is first observed  that the
contents of the little cell  begin to separate  so as to
form two cells within the old wall; these again divide
into two, and  so on, these subdivisions continuing un-
til the one original cell has  become a countless mass.
It has been named the " mulberry mass," because of
its resemblance to the clustering form of a mulberry.
Very soon these separate cells begin to run together,
or coalesce; their edges become, as it were, cemented
together in such a way as to form a thin membrane.
At the same time it is observed that the cells begin to
arrange  themselves  in  three  distinct layers, so that,
instead of one  membrane,  three are formed.  From 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF WOMAN.      131
these three layers  or membranes are  constructed all
the various parts of the body.   From the upper one
are derived the skin and all its appendages, such as the
hair, nails, etc.; from the middle layer are formed the
blood-vessels, muscles, nerves, bones, and most of the
organs that occupy the cavity of the body, while from
the lower or third layer comes the  alimentary canal,
which begins with the mouth and includes the stom-
ach and bowels, making one continuous canal through
the body.   More properly speaking, it is the mucous
membrane lining this whole  canal,  as well as that of
the bladder and the organs of generation, that is de-
rived from the third layer of cells; but, as the mucous
membrane is the most important part  of these organs,
it is common to say that these organs themselves are
derived from the third layer;  but their muscular part,
no doubt, comes from the middle layer, as do the other
muscles of the body.  By the folding in and folding
out, by the plaiting, tucking, twisting  and channelling
of these  three plain, simple  membranes, are  formed
all the various and curiously shaped organs  of the
body.  We can  even go  back of these three  simple
membranes, and the one  tiny cell, to the simple ele-
ments that form that cell.   We find them to be a lit-
tle oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, a little sulphur 
132      2HE PHYSIOLOGY  OF WOMAN.

and phosphorus, and, later on, a little lime, iron, pot-
ash and soda—a few breaths of gas and specks of dust!
These are the beginnings, not alone of human bodies,
but, as far as  we know,  they are the alphabet of the
very universe itself.  There is great satisfaction in
taking these few simple elements into one's hand, and
from them building up, in our own thought, ourselves
and all that is around us.
WHO  SHALL TELL  THE CHILDREN OF  THEIR
                     ORIGIN?
  A question upon which I have thought a great deal,
and which has frequently been suggested to my mind
by others, is, whether children should be told of their
origin.   A better stating of the question would be—
Who shall tell the children of their origin? for in these
days a child who reaches  the age of twelve without
hearing all about it, from some source or other, is the
exception.   The question,  then, hinges  upon  the
source of the information, and  as a mere matter of
taste  or preference—to  say nothing of duty—it is
presumable that the parent would rather give this in-
formation to the child  than to have it come through a
vulgar servant or low-minded playmate.
  The mystery of birth makes children especially in-
quisitive.  As soon as  they  begin  to think at all, the
fabulous stories  that have been told  them concerning 
        THE PHYSIOLOGY  OF  WOMAN.      133

it fade away with Santa Claus and his reindeers, and
they are bound to know the truth sooner or later.  The
truth did I say?  Well for  every  child if the  truth,
the sacred truth, and that only, were heard, instead of
the vile, blasphemous tales that  so often find their
way into the minds and hearts of children.  The in-
jury thus done to  the heart is  of a  kind that can
scarcely be outlived.   No doubt some of my readers
will say this is  all very well in theory, but how can it
be put into practice?   Easily enough, if parents have
the full confidence of their children; if they have not,
they have lost the most sacred right of parentage.
  Two cases, illustrating  the  two methods of giving
this instruction to children will suffice; both have
come under my own  observation:  The mother  of a
little girl of ten was about sending the child to a pub
lie school, but  could  not bear the thought of having
the child's  mind   poisoned concerning  these great
truths, by contact with the vicious thoughts of older
girls.  She thought  about it and prayed over it.   Just
before school opened, an  opportunity presented itself
in the birth of  a baby in the immediate neighborhood.
The child herself introduced the subject  by wishing,
in the presence of  her mother, that she might have a
little brother or sister.  Then the mother  told her all 
134        THE PHYSIOLOGY OF  WOMAN.

that was necessary for her to know—how she, herself,
had once been a very  little creature within her own
dear mother's body; that she was really a part of that
body; how she grew larger and larger, and at last be-
came  entirely separated  from her mother, and  that
separation  meant her  birth;  and she must always
think of that on her birthday, the anniversary of the
day she left her mother's womb, even when her mother
was dead and gone. When she finished, the child's eyes
were filled with tears, and she threw herself into her
mother's arms, saying, " O, mamma, I am so glad you
have told me; I shall  always love you for it."   The
next week the child was sent  to school,  and  the very
first day she came running home to her mother, tell-
ing how a big girl had  come  up to her, and asked if
she knew where babies came from.  Her  reply was,
"Yes; my  mamma has told me all about it,  and I do
not wish  to talk upon the subject with any one but
her."   That was an honor of which any mother might
be proud; that woman felt well repaid for all the sac-
rifice of feeling it had cost her to so prepare  her child
against the insidious poison of foul tongues.
  Another  girl, about the same age, was sent to school,
and, for the first time, heard of the  mystery of  birth
from a lewd tongue.  She was naturally high-minded 
        THE  PHYSIOLOGY OF WOMAN.      135

and  sensitive, and  she  recoiled from the revelation
with a sense of disgust; but it did not stop here.  The
same girl followed her up, and  told her that her  own
mother was in the " family way," and that she  would
soon have  a brother or sister, which was true;  and
when a little  brother was born the child's mind and
heart were  so poisoned  she  felt that her  mother had
done something  disgraceful; that she never, never
could love her again.  The  child had really worshiped
her mother up to this  time, and the change in her
manner was so marked as to attract attention; but the
mother, who suspected  the cause, was  almost heart-
broken.  That child is now a woman, and  she, herself,
told me the story, and  said  she  felt that experience
had left a stain upon her very soul.  It was years be-
fore she could disassociate  the sacredness  of birth
from the degradation of vice.   While I  believe this
first information  had better come from the mother in
most cases, yet I think  all fathers should talk of these
things to their sons, and thereby inspire them  with a
love and worship for motherhood, instead of letting
them  drift into  manhood, as  in so many instances,
with the feeling that woman, as  such, is  only a prey
to be hunted down, and they, themselves, lose nothing
by the full license of lust.   It is in the power of every 
136      THE PHYSIOLOGY OF  WOMAN.
 father to make and keep his boys pure. Nothing short
 of that should satisfy the soul of any true man.
           MATURE AGE OF WOMAN.
  Hitherto, women have been  taught  to  consider
 themselves  invalids when  young girls, because men-
 struation was not established; then, as still worse in-
 valids because it was  established, and finally as  the
 worst  sort of invalids  because it was disestablished.
 The absurdity of this teaching is apparent upon  the
 face of it;  it is even worse than an  absurdity; it is
 an arraignment of the Creator, for it charges him with
 the effects of the folly and wickedness of human  be-
 ings themselves.
  It  is to the  period of cessation  of menstruation
 that I wish to call attention, and  I am prepared to af-
 firm that no woman should be conscious  of the cessa-
 tion, so far as  her health is concerned.   It is just  as
 aatuial and physiological for the  discharge to stop as
 for it  to begin; neither period is,  of necessity, one of
 sickness.  I regret to say, that while the  expectancy
 of having a hard time at this period generally pre-
 pares  the way  for it, yet, on the  other hand, positive
disease is often overlooked and neglected under  that
vague  diagnosis, " change of life."   For example, I
have known women  to suffer from hemorrhage all the 
        THE PHYSIOLOGY OF  WOMAN.      137

way from  three to  ten  years, supposing  that their
change was  coming on, when examination invariably
revealed  the presence of tumors, or some other mor-
bid condition.  The mind of woman cannot  be  too
quickly disabused of this wide-spread, popular notion,
concerning the necessity of some great disturbance at
the change of life, lasting an indefinite  time, and not
considered amenable to treatment.  Especially should
women guard against these peculiar mental conditions
which are so common, but which are the legitimate
offspring  of the kind  of life they have led previous
to this period.  A large  proportion of child-bearing
women are absolutely living without the performance
of a single healthy function.  They do not sleep well,
or eat well;  their food is undigested and their bowels
constipated;  they are  thin  and scrawny, or fat  and
flabby.   It  is really an  exception to  find a  woman
with good firm, muscle, or anything like a proper tone
to any part of her system.  This  condition of things
they  generally refer to some miscarriage, or bad re-
covery from child-birth, while possibly unknown to
themselves  the foundation  was laid  in  their child-
hood, if  not before  their birth.   After twenty years
or  more of the vicissitudes  of an ordinary  married
life, it is little wonder there is a general breaking 
138       THE PHYSIOLOGY  OF WOMAN.

down.   Those alone who have sufficient vigor of con-
stitution can hope to  weather the storm.   Vitiated,
stagnant blood is  responsible for a great deal of the
disturbance of the system at this time.  What are
known  as  " hot flashes " are often  relieved by the
simplest hygienic measures—the restoration of the cir-
culation and  nutrition of the skin, by the methods I
have previously described, being of the first  impor-
tance.
  Of course, if tumors, lacerations, or any actual dis-
eases of the pelvic organs exist, they should have the
care of  a physician without delay.  As to the morbid,
mental  states, I have known them to disappear entirely
under the influence of good hygiene for the body, and
some useful  engrossing occupation for the  mind;
something  that calls  the thought entirely away from
self-contemplation.  In  these days of popular science
no woman need be in ignorance concerning the struc-
ture of  her own body, or unacquainted with the com-
mon laws of health.  If she  acts with even ordinary
intelligence toward herself, she  will enter upon the
last half of her life in full possession of all her facut
ties.  Then with the discipline of mind that comes
from acting  well her part, and  the  leisure from the
care of  children that her age guarantees, she is better 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF  WOMAN.     139
prepared than ever to fill a useful, honored  place in
society.  Instead of sitting helplessly in a corner, and
known only as the old lady, the woman of fifty, sixty
and seventy years should be in the very prime of her
physical and mental  strength.  Instead of being the
winter of her desolation, this  should  be the rich har-
vest-time  of all  her  previous years.   All  over  our
land are we beginning to see the fruits of  such har-
vests, for all over the land knowledge is being dissem-
inated among women.  They are learning the  lesson
that whatsoever  they sow in childhood, and early
married life, that shall  they  reap in  their maturer
years. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
APPENDIX.
 CO-EDUCATION OF THE  SEXES IN  MEDICINE.
     [Read before the Woman's  Club of Chicago, 1867.]

  Like an inspiration comes back to me my first vis-
ion of an old city, more ancient  than Rome, that liea
sleeping at the foot of the Appsnines, like a tired war-
rior at rest—rest from great victories won for human-
ity; a city which deserves above all others to be called
the City of Woman; that has dedicated its  greatness,
past and present,  to the genius of woman—the city of
Bologna.  There  is music in the very names of Bette-
sia Gozzadini, Novella  Andrea, Novella  Calderina,
Madalina Buonsignora, Dorotea Bocchi, Laura Bassi,
Anna Manzolini, Caetana Agnise, Christina  Roccati,
Clotilde Tambroni, Maria Dalle Donne,  Zaffira Ferati,
Maria Sega, Madalina Noe, some of the  illustrious
honored  women  who  graduated and taught in that
 o-rand old university—graduated and taught as doctors
of  philosophy, medicine and law, while, as if sacredly
 to preserve this dedication  to the genius of woman,
 Raphael's immortal St. Cecelia is to-day the guardian
 angel of Bologna.
   Then came the honored names of Pavia, Ferrara
                        143 
14-4
APPENDIX.
and Padua, till it seemed that for every star that shone
above me in that soft southern sky I found in history
an answering  star.  Was it all  a  mistake?  Were
these illustrious women deluded and disgraced?
  Contradictory as it seems, the  whole continent of
Europe is more liberal in its  education of women, es-
pecially in the study  of medicine, than either Great
Britain or America.
  Famous physicians of our  sex have gone forth from
Salamanca, Cordova,  Alcala, Heidelberg, Gottingen,
Girssen, Wurtzberg, Utrecht, Montpellier,  Paris, Vi-
enna and St. Petersburg.  In the latter city, especi-
ally, women of  noble rank crowd  the universities.
There were at one  time four hundred  in attendance.
There a lady is  proud to add to her already titled
name the title of M.  D.—is proud to be employed in
a work so noble.   Quite a commentary this upon  the
manner in which some of our society women elevate
their pencilled brows at the mere mention of a woman
physician, and have even been known to refuse an in-
troduction to such an one, while the facts in the case
were, the physician was a lady by birth and education—
had rank by virtue of inheritance—if that means any-
thing, while the would-be lady held her rank by vir-
tue of her husband's  purse.
  A friend, now studying in Zurich, writes as follows:
" I wish we  had  something  like this  university over
there.  I think it a shame that here in Europe, where
prejudice  against  woman's  emancipation  is much 
     CO-EDUCATION OF THE SEXES IN MEDICINE.   145

stronger than in America, that here a mixed school
for  medicine exists  in  perfect harmony  with  good
taste and order.  Why is it that we  cannot have such
a thing in our country, where they pretend to respect
women more than anywhere else?"  Why is it? Why,
too, does England, that owes so much of her civiliza-
tion to woman, whose most illustrious eras of history
are those of Elizabeth, Anne and Victoria, why does
she allow herself to  be thus put to shame by conti-
nental civilization?
  Woman in medicine, to our mind, is not so open to
question as man in medicine;  nor can it become such
till women make specialties of the diseases of men as
men do now of the  diseases of  women.  Then,  in-
deed, will there be ground for argument; then, and
not till then, may we question  the propriety of women
in medicine, and until then the question of propriety
is on the other side entirely.
  However, so long  as  the question is  raised in the
minds of many, it becomes us to  look at the argu-
ments, such as they are.  The question means, shall
women study  medicine  at all?   For, as we shall see,
if she  studies  she must  study with men,  and the final
analysis  of the question is, Shall women study any-
thing?
  Now one of two things must be  true: woman  has
or has not the right to study medicine, and that right
includes  the best  possible  way.  We  do not mean
right in the sense of  that Boston sage who tried to be
             10 
146
APPENDIX.
witty when he said, woman had the right to sing bass
if she wanted to; we mean right, not  only in the
sense of free will, but the conditions provided for the
carrying out of that will, both structure and environ-
ment.  We have no conception of possessing any pos-
sibility whose conditions are not provided.
  Before considering the right  of  woman  to study
medicine, let us consider the right of woman to study
at all, for this is the logical starting-point of the whole
question.
  It is almost an axiom in physiology that the pres-
ence of an  organ  presupposes a function.  There are
two great classes of functions, voluntary and involun-
tary.   Physiologists further classify them as functions
of animal  and vegetative life.  By vegetative  func-
tions, we mean those only that  are essential to exist-
ence.  Respiration, circulation,  digestion and repro-
duction can go on perfectly without any brain at all.
It is true there are some anatomical forms in the body
which have been supposed to have no special use, but
are simply the remains  of some lower or pre-existing
animal form;  but we are hardly prepared to call wo-
man's brain a remnant, though woman,  herself,  is
often called a relict.
  The highest function  of brain is  the production of
thought.   Now it is in the order of things that per-
fect function depends upon perfect development, and
this development depends upon the  activity of the 
      CO-EDUCATION OF THE  SEXES IN MEDICINE.   147

part.   Inactivity not only arrests growth, but it wastes
away that which is already grown.
  Any one of us can demonstrate this for himself by
placing any part of the  body in  a  state of absolute
rest.  It is demonstrated  in  disease, by the failure 01
nervous supply to a part, thus making motion impos-
sible; hence the gradual wasting away of parts that are
paralyzed.  Not only is activity a physiological law, but
the amount of activity is a part of  that  law.   There
are certain limitations in the very  nature of things.
"Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther,"  contains two
commands.   " Thus far" is as full of meaning for us
as " no  farther."  Not  enough is  as guilty  as too
much, when applied to the activities which develop
form  and function.  The physician is as  often baffled
by underdoing as by overdoing.
  The highest exercise of the brain  is the production
of thought.  Each brain has its limitation, as each
body  has its stature.  Up to a certain point, nature
provides without consulting the will  of the individual.
There is an instinctive motion of  the mind and  mus-
cles, and we have yet to learn that the instinctive ac-
tivity of the female has any narrower limitations than
that of the male.  It is only when the will begins to
preside that we find a restraint imposed  upon female
activity.   The source of this restraint is'a traditional
sense of propriety, growing out of the original condi-
tion of woman,  viz., slavery.  In  primitive times,
women were bought or captured;  in either case they 
148
APPENDIX.
were the slaves of men.  The beautiful, were favored
and protected, while the ordinary were  the victims of
servitude in its most abject sense.
  We may well ask  ourselves how this came  about.
If woman originally was the equal of man, how did it
become possible  for him to enslave  her?  We must
admit  physical  inferiority,  but with  an important
modification,  viz., the  inferiority is one of quantity,
not of  quality.   The motor system, that is, the mus-
cles and bones, of men is larger and stronger than the
motor system  of women, but the muscles and bones
of women may be just as perfect, even more perfect.
An elephant is larger and stronger than a horse; so is
an ox;  but it is the quality of the motor apparatus of
the horse which makes him preferred to either as a
beast of burthen. To consider  the last argument of
this avoirdupois question, the brain  of man weighs
heavier than that of woman; therefore woman is men-
tally inferior.  To answer this  question, it must be
remembered that what is called brain is composed of
two essential substances—the white and the gray mat-
ter.  The gray matter  is made of cells which do the
thinking, the white  matter is made chiefly of fibres,
w^ich conduct messages to and from the gray matter.
Then there is a quantity of tissue, in which the cells and
fibres are packed. Now, curiously enough, the amount
of gray matter need not in the least affect the circum-
ference of the head, because of the peculiar anatom-
ical formation of a well-developed brain.   The pleat- 
     CO-EDUCATION OF THE SEXES IN MEDICINE.   149

ings or foldings called sulci may be very numerous
and deep without adding  greatly to the size of the
brain.
  It is not  difficult  to  understand, then, that a brain
may be large  and  heavy by reason of the packing,
which may be  in excess of the thing packed.  Man
being more active than woman, having a larger motor
apparatus, we  find  a corresponding increase in the
motor  part of his brain, viz., white fibres and motor
cells.
  Curiously enough, while men have been weighing
and measuring the female brain, they have forgotten
to measure and number the  sulci, in which so much
gray matter may be hidden away.
  Judging from  the amount of gray matter in the
brain of woman, we should say it was placed there to
be used, and the only limitation to its use is the law
under which this organ of thought is constructed.
  The first mental exercise  that the master, man, al-
lowed the servant, woman, was in the direction, of art,
by  way of making  her more  interesting to himself,
while the science of all art was kept not only closed
but padlocked.  The  arguments  of woman's mental
inferiority  always contain  this stereotpyed question:
" Why are there no  great composers and artists among
women, when  music and art have  always been open
to them?"  When we  have learned  to  fathom the
depth  of the  meaning of the word accomplishment,
we shall be able to fathom the  depth of  woman's 
150
APPENDIX.
knowledge of any study in which she has been allowed
to indulge.
  It is only when we attack a subject with the intent
to wring  from it  some great need of our own life,
that we can in any sense say we have studied it, much
less  that  we  have mastered it.   If  the secrets  of
things were possessed of intelligence, they could not
more successfully combine against amateurs.
  The question arises: Is it in  the nature of women
thus to study?  No.  The mistake the masters made
was in ever  placing the cup of  knowledge to the lips
of their slaves.  For a while they were content with
sipping, that their lips,  perchance, might be  more
beautiful.
  But the sipping  has excited a great thirst, that will
not be satisfied till the cup is drained to its dregs. The
slaves were not satisfied with the A, B C; they have
reached out after the combination into words, thougths,
books, science, principles, till the  whole vast realm of
the kingdom  of intellect has been captured!   And
how was it done?  Simply  by  making  a beginning.
A little knowledge proved a dangerous thing.  By
allowing the mind to  be  exercised at  all, it exercised
all.  Nature can never be so repressed, so transformed
by artificial forces, but that it recognizes and uses its
own whenever and wherever found. The wild animal
may lie in your arms  and  peacefully  lick your hand,
but not for your life dare you let  the  smell of blood
come to his nostrils. So has the  mind of woman slept, 
      CO-EDUCATION OF THE  SEXES  IN MEDICINE.   151

lulled by the narcotics distilled by a sensual life, and
now the reaction of the awakening is terrible in some
of its manifestations.
  Granted the right to study, we must also grant the
right to study in the best possible way.
  First, we lay down the broad  principle  that man
and  woman  were  made  for  each other, physically,
mentally and morally, and we would maintain this
principle, not by mesmerism or spiritualism, nor any
species  of moral infidelity, but by science.
  Nature makes no  provision for the separation of
the  sexes at any period of their existence.   They be-
gin  life in the  same  family, frequently at  the  same
birth; their environment  is  precisely the same.   The
closest  analysis  has never been able to discover any
distinctively  female air or  sunshine.   So  far  as the
researches  of physiology  have gone, no  special male
food has as yet been discovered,  unless  tobacco and
alcohol  be such.  If boys and girls may feed  their
bodies with the same things, from the  same table, by
what logic can we separate the same boys and girls in
the process of mind-feeding?  Upon  the same princi-
ple there should be female churches;  if the  mind can
not bear mixed education, much less can the soul.  It
is  true  the Jews and the Roman Catholics in  some
places fence off their women by curiously constructed
pens  and bars; nevertheless they feed  them the same
strong theological meat, and if a woman breaks the
law of  Sinai there  is  no  law of sex in  the penalty. 
152                 APPENDIX.

And their women have been the conservers of the re-
ligious power in both  Jewish and  Catholic  church.
Any distinctively feminine or masculine institution is
morbid in its tendency.
  The idea that men and women are to be kept apart
originates in the lowest conceptions  of the relation of
men and women, viz : the sexual.  It gives to sex un-
due prominence by keeping it uppermost in the minds
of the young.  The female  boarding-school is, in the
very nature of things, the hot-bed of morbid influ-
ences.  Half the vices of men are the direct offspring
of the unnatural education of men.  The monasteries
and  convents that  Protestants have reared for their
children are worse than those of the Catholic, because
they lack the religious enthusiasm of the Catholic.
If any doubt the truth of this let them  investigate the
popular fashion called " smashing," as  it is practiced
in certain colleges.
  Men and women were made for  each other, in all
the higher and spiritual as well as the lower and phy-
sical relations of life, and when you separate them at
any time of their lives, in all the higher you rob them
of their birthright.
  Why is an American  girl capable of taking care of
herself among the wicked men that congregate in the
European capitals, where a native-born girl  must be
doubly guarded ?   Because, to use  plain English, the
American girl is not continually thinking of her  sex.
She  is so  accustomed to the companionship of the 
      CO-EDUCATION OF THE SEXES IN MEDICINE.   153

other sex at home, in school, .and wherever she goes,
that she has natural, not morbid, thoughts ; she thinks
of herself simply  as  a human being, and  man as
another ; she escapes insult by not expecting it.   Not
so with the girl just  let loose from the restraint of a
convent—Protestant or Catholic.   The frame of mind
that  anticipates  insult courts it.  Every institution
departs from healthy normal development just in pro-
portion to  its exclusiveness.  If reproduction  were
the only end of woman's existence, we have seen that
it is provided for without the intervention of the in-
tellectual faculties at all ; but we find not so  much as
a cell wanting in the cerebral development of woman,
notwithstanding the lethargy in which centuries of
tyranny have steeped her; hence her mind must be as
capable of companionship as is her body.  Whether
or not woman had from the  beginning more  personal
chastity than man, we are not  prepared  to say. If
not, then the results of unchastity falling so heavily
and unequally upon  her have reacted upon her  char-
acter, so that now she is  really more virtuous  than
man.  The fact exists,  whether the condition be  orig-
inal or acquired.  But along with this personal purity
comes a  sort of selfishness or narrowness.  The wo-
man's idea of right is  personal, a something  that be-
longs exclusively  to her, while the man's idea is so
impersonal that he frequently leaves himself entirely
out  of the  question.  We   have  known women to
arise from an  ecstacy of prayer, having  supplicated 
154
APPENDIX.
for mercy with the tongue of an angel, and deliber-
ately go  to work and plan an act of gross injustice.
Of the two evils, man's inhumanity to man is prefer-
able  to woman's inhumanity to woman.  The exclu-
sively  womanly or the exclusively  manly organiza-
tions are always lacking.   The general and the special
need to unite their forces,  and thus individual charac-
ter shall be both comprehensive and  personal in  its
righteousness.  Woman needs  less  personality;  man
more.  George Sand had  the  typical man's  view of
life, which  is, to say the least, very unbecoming in a
woman.  It is this constant concentration of thought
upon herself that forms the basis of that hydra-headed
disease hysteria, a disease  which the doctors may well
pray to  have continued, for if ever  it be  concluded
they will have less to write about, and still less to  do.
It is true that hysterical women are the support of a
large number of physicians, and it is  notoriously true
that these patients  invariably prefer gentlemen physi-
cians, though the disease is not one that requires man's
superior  skill in medicine.
  Lying  between the spinal cord and the brain proper
are a series of bunches of  nerve cells, which are capa-
ble of feeling and acting, but which are not capable of
elaborating the impressions  they receive into ideas.
In the lower animals we find  these bunches or ganglia
highly developed, much larger than  the brain itself.
In idiots also they are well  made, while  the cells of
the brain substance proper are very poorly made, most- 
     CO-KDUCATION OF THE SEXES IN MEDICINE.    155

ly not made at all.  The point of application is this :
We can  predicate a  kind of mentality of the spinal
cord, though perfectly automatic; a still higher men-
tality to  the middle brain, or these ganglia which we
have mentioned, a mentality into which feeling enters,
the consciousness of pleasure or pain.  Impressions
received  from without  may stop here, and never give
rise to anything but an emotion, a feeling;  or they
may pass on to the upper brain cells and give  rise to
the highest intellectual conceptions.  Music furnishes
us with  a  good  illustration of the separate and com-
bined  function  of  these three  nerve  centers.  The
mechanism of music is performed almost entirely by
the spinal cord.  The emotion of pleasure or pain ex-
cited by  the sound has its origin in the ganglia, while
the intellectual conception of music, the power  that
creates an oratorio, lies in the  cerebral cells, and the
real musician is an embodiment of this triune  power.
The ideal human being is one in which the automatic,
the emotional and  the ideational  are perfectly  har-
monized.  By inheritance and education the emotional
centers  become  unduly developed in woman; hence
she acts  from feeling instead of judgment, according
to  the time-honored standard—it  is womanly to  be
emotional ; and  indeed the typical woman has  very
little need of a cerebrum  at all, and the  fact that she
has  one is  only another proof of the  conservative
power of nature, the power by  which all things, when
once created, maintain  their identity.  The compan- 
156
APPENDIX.
ionship of the sexes in the higher departments  of
learning can not help but establish a better equipoise
of character for each.  The emotions and the passions
find their  true level ; instead of controlling they are
controlled by an educated will.  Thus we may declare
the attempt at co-education in this country a practical,
successful fact, and  the only difficulty that has ever
arisen in its way has first arisen in the mind of some
bigot, who has attempted to twist facts into a proof of
his theory.  Witness : Dr. Clarke's " Sex  in Educa-
tion."
  Now, as to the specific question  before us, shall wo-
men be  educated with men in medicine ?  This is
equivalent to asking shall she  study medicine at all,
for as we shall see, if she studies, she must study with
men.   The argument is set forth with a formidable
number of negatives: incompetent, improper, unwo-
manly, etc.  Woman has proved beyond a doubt her
competency to learn medicine, by passing  the  most
rigid examinations and  capturing  more than her nu-
merical share of prizes.   It is singularly true that the
women who  apply  for  examination in the European
universities are  never  plucked.  We should be sure
to hear of it if they were.   And this means a great
deal when you add to a cruelly rigid examination the
prejudice  which some of the professors are sure to
have against a woman who is thus flying in the face
of providence, and  the dissent of one  professor can
prevent the candidate  from passing.   Still the oppo- 
     CO-EDUCATION OF  THE SEXES IN MEDICINE.   157

nents argue that while  a woman  may learn medicine,
she can not practice it, and the back-bone of this op-
position is periodicity and  maternity.  It remained
for a woman to revive the theory held by the fathers in
medicine,  viz.: that the periodicity is a physiological
and not a  pathological  process; that whatever of dis-
ease is in it is the result of abuse, as dyspepsia is not
digestion, though it often takes the place of that im-
portant function; and this same woman  has done more
than the fathers did in that she has proved the theory
by scientific facts.  The truth is, the period is one of
increased rather than of  decreased power; instead of
a source of weakness it should be a source  of strength,
and would be if the nervous system were not out of
balance with  the  other  forces of the body.  But be
the theory what it may, the  facts are, women by thou-
sands are  at  work everywhere, in  all countries, at all
hours, every week and every month, at all times in
the month, who know nothing of the theory;  they
only know that they must earn  their bread, and they
do it.  Industry is no new thing for women, but high-
priced industry is, and that is the kind  of industry
that is injurious to females.  Women  in  the profess-
ion, of medicine, who now rank by hundreds instead of
tens, do not lose  one week every  four,  though  Dr.
Clark and others have  so instructed them.  If women
physicians were thus incapacitated they would  still
be able to compare time favorably with the majority
of male physicians who are suffering from divers dis- 
158
APPENDIX.
eases.  We have in mind several of the leading lights
in the profession who are daily fighting tuberculosis,
dyspepsia, kidney and intestinal disease, to say nothing
of those who are  troubled with chronic  alcoholism.
But dyspepsia and delirium tremens in men are only
eccentricities.  The  main difference now between the
practice of medicine by men and by women is that the
mistakes of women are not tolerated ; our  sex  have
not earned the privilege of making mistakes, a privi-
lege that comes  only with long practice.
  If periodicity is thus answerable, maternity is not.
It has been my lot to know something of life in ho-
tels and fashionable boarding-houses. I have observed
that  the  women  who  expected to become mothers
were exposed in what  seemed to me the most cruel
manner, attracting far more attention  than  any phy-
sician could attract at her daily work, while as to
the amount of  work performed no physician could
have exchanged places with  them.   If shopping,
calling, dressing and dancing, unflinchingly pursued
up to the day of  confinement, if these are  not  hard
work we do not know the meaning of the word.  But
the same women would  be  shocked,  horrified, were
you to put some useful occupation upon them, even
though it expended far  less of their vitality in  its
performance, and the world  too would cry out, how
unwomanly!
  Just so long  as woman's work is aimless,  useless,
she can brave any exposure up to death  itself, and it 
     CO-EDUOATION OF THE SEXES IN MEDICINE.   159

will  all be charged  to the amiability and  sweetness
of the feminine mind;  but if she die in the  harness
of a useful  occupation, this  comes from  departing
from the  path of duty assigned her by providence.
I have, observed, also, the habits of the poor during
the child-bearing period.   They wash,  sew, bake and
scrub up  till the last  moment.  I have known the
poor housewife to finish enough washing and baking
to last through her illness, and give her floor a fare-
well scrub, all after the first labor-pains  were upon
her.  If the poor creature had been engaged  in a lu-
crative  pursuit, whereby she  was  earning enough  to
pay  for proper care during her confinement, provi-
dence and the path  of duty would have received an-
other sentimental shock;  but  because she is  earn-
ing nothing, no strong male  voice warns her against
the violation  of the laws  of her  being;  no strong
male arm is uplifted to protect her.   We see, then,
that women do work hard  and long all through peri-
odicity and  maternity, and the only reason  that the
work is not questioned is that it is unpaid.
  Granting all that is predicated  of both conditions,
we must remember there are  still from twenty-five to
thirty years of a woman's life entirely free  from the
influences of both conditions.  And we have yet  to
learn from any scientific standpoint why a  woman  at
forty years of age should not be  in the  prime and
 rigor of her womanhood.  Such  she  would be were
she not made to believe that the sexual function is 
160
APPENDIX.
the principle function of her existence, and when that
fails she must fail.
   It is time  that  thoughtful  women were  asking,
" Need these things be so?"
   The physical disabilities being thus conquerable,
we approach the question of propriety and  fitness.
I confess to having had scruples in this direction, but
they all vanished at my first clinic in diseases of wo-
men.   A woman was the subject stretched upon the
operating table ;  a woman was the servant, the nurse
that stood by the table performing the menial part of
the operation ; men were the physicians who  were •
profiting by the operation.  We reasoned thus : if it
4"b proper, and we have  never  heard that it was not,
for a woman to lie there as a patient  ;  if it is proper,
and we have never heard that it was  not, for a woman
to stand there as a nurse, why is it not proper, and
we have heard that it is not, for me to stand there as
a physician ?  Why is peerage more unbecoming  to
women than vassalage ?  If it is indelicate for a wo-
man to be a physician, much more is it indelicate for
her to be a nurse, and thrice over is  it i/ndelicate for
her to he a patient.
   The longer I practice medicine  the more I am as-
sured that there is a great moral question involved in
certain kinds of practice. I forbear  to discuss it;  but
I  must say in justice to  professional  men that they
deserve  a  great  deal of credit whenever they main-
tain a high standard of honor.  They certainly sus- 
     CO-EDUCATION OF  THE SEXES IN MEDICINE.   161

tain a strain upon their morals to which human na-
ture in its present  development should not be sub-
jected  more frequently than is absolutely necessary.
  The  inevitable result of mental development is the
amelioration of the condition of the human being.  It
is an advantage man possesses over all his brother an-
imals.   They must submit to the situation, be it ever
so unfavorable; he  may modify  the most untoward
situation by sheer force of mind.  Women are just  as
much in need  of  this ameliorating, modifying power
as are  men, because  the misfortunes of life fall even
more heavily upon women than  upon  men, and na-
ture has endowed her with the  power of mind  to
overcome these misfortunes.  But, it is feared, if wo-
men use this power it will revolutionize society, espe-
cially in its domestic  relations.  To many, the self-
dependence of women means no more homes, no more
wives,  no more mothers.   A Platonic Republic is the
logical outgrowth of  woman's independence.
  I have observed two things:   First, that the ordin-
ary oak usually becomes very tired of the  ordinary
vine.   Secondly, if there is one thing  above  another
for which human  beings constantly maintain a whole-
some respect, it is a pocket-book.  Judging from  these
personal observations, I believe there is no one thing
which could so favorably modify domestic life as  to
make women self-supporting.
  Successful occupation is the cure for many, many
6ins.  The ordinary practice of medicine is one of the
               11 
162                 APPENDIX.
 most natural and appropriate  means of self-support
 for woman.  There are many men, and good men, too,
 that cannot conceive it possible for a woman to practice
 medicine and at the same  time be womanly.   They
 forget that  the  essence of womanliness, as of  manli-
 ness, is born, not bred.  It is intuition, the predestin-
 ated disposition, if you please, of the ultimate  atoms,
 not mere education; it  is inspiration,  not  inflation,
 and if this primordial, foreordained essence  be want-
 ing you'll find coarse-mindedness, though the subject
 may never cross the threshold of her own boudoir.
   A real woman becomes  all the more womanly in
 ameliorating the sufferings of others.  All  the more
 delicate  and sacred to her becomes the great mysteries
 of life and death,  when she becomes the ministering
 priestess, as she has ever been the ministering servant
 of both.
   If, then, women  may study medicine, the question
 arises, How shall  she study it?  alone,  or with men?
 She cannot study entirely with her own sex,  for as yet
Hhere are not a sufficient number of women  of brains
 and experience in  the profession  to  do the  teaching.
 For years to come men must be their teachers.  The
 question naturally asks  itself if women may learn of
 men, why may they not learn with  men?  To make
 the argument of  co-education consistent with itself,
 our medical teachers should all  be women—a result
 which,   however competent  women  may become, we
 hope never to see. 
      CO-EDUCATION OF THE  SEXES  IN  MEDICINE.   163

  With the possession of the best teachers is also the
possession of  the best colleges.   The  educational
curse of  this country to-day is  the multiplication of
educational institutions, and the  rearing of separate
colleges  for women  is  but  adding to the  difficulty.
The cheap schools of this country, medical and other-
wise, need boiling down.  The money which we spend
in our separate  schools had far  better  be spent  in
opening  the doors of the old institutions.   If thought
necessary, there may be separate  lectures on certain
branches, as is the plan at some  schools now, but we
think the necessity a species of mock modesty;  there
should not be, and there  really  is no sex in science.
We think there is no comparison  in  the moral  effect
on the sexes of a day's work in  the  dissecting-room
and a night's revelry in a ball-room.
  There  is, perhaps, no  mother who would not feel
proud to send her daughter  to  the Queen's drawing-
room. That is, certainly, the very top of the scale of
social life.  But there is far more exposure of the per-
son, far  more to  bring the  blush  to  a modest cheek,
in one such exhibition than  in a whole medical course
in a mixed college.  Modesty is a relative virtue, cus-
tom regulates it.   The  tribes  that go naked have no
feeling of shame; neither have the half-dressed women
of society.  Why should the students of science feel
shame, or think of shame, when only the highest facul-
ties of mind are engaged, not the  emotional centers,
as in the dance.  Then, too, we must consider all the 
164
APPENDIX.
appointments of the ball-room; their influence is sen.
puous to the last extreme.  Chas. Reade says: "The
pedants who object  to  promiscuous botany never
think of objecting to promiscuous dancing, which, in
some of its belongings, the custom of ages has failed
to render decent."
  I am prepared to make this statement:  There is no
medical subject that may not be lectured upon in the
most refined and modest manner.  The nomenclature
of medicine gives the lecturer the power  to lift deli-
cate subjects up from the plane in which vulgar lan-
guage  places them.  No young man can afford to
have the morale of his nature spoiled by hearing these
subjects described in indecent language, and if the en-
trance of women into male colleges is going to make
the professors and students more refined,  all hail the
day.  That such is the result, we find upon inquiry
to be true in the few  colleges that admit women.  The
professors themselves say they will do everything to
encourage  the  presence  of women, if only for  that
purpose alone.
  Foreign schools have no difficulty in educating the
sexes. " How do the students treat you?" I inquired of
one who has recently returned from Zurich.  " Just
as students," was the sensible reply.   " There is never
the least offense offered;  neither, on  the  other hand,
are they intrusive in their politeness."
  Finally, I believe in co-education, because really all
the medicine we know is learned at  the clinic.   Our 
      CO-EDUCATION OF THE SEXES IN MEDICINE.   165

system of educating women is thus rendered ludicrous.
We go off by ourselves in the separate college to lis-
ten to didactic lectures containing  no word offensive
to the most  fastidious, while the  great bulk of our
practical knowledge, indeed all  of  it that relates to
general diseases, must be obtained in mixed classes,
because all the important hospitals are under the con-
trol  of  the male  colleges.  The only objectionable
part of the  study, then, is  learned by woman here,
just as on the Continent,  while the harmless labora-
tories are all locked and  barred against us.  Fortu
nately for women, they know how to get nourishment
out of crumbs even.  They are  so used to picking up
what is left,  and making use of the pickings to the
best advantage, that some  of them have already made
most brilliant reputations  from  chances most meager.
  To sum up, I believe in  education, first because wo-
man has a brain, and  the  presence  of an organ pre-
supposes some use for it.  The female part of the race
needs the uplifting, the modifying power which is the
outcome of mental development.
  I believe in the  medical education  of women  be-
cause it opens up an honorable  occupation peculiarly
fitting to women.   I think it better that she should
perform  a scientific instead of  an  ignorant kind of
service under precisely the same circumstances—espe-
cially when the scientific is the more lucrative.
  That it is a lucrative means of support is  to be re-
membered, for women  are in great  need of financial 
166
APPENDIX.
self-dependence.  Dependence is the mother of many,
many crimes.
  I believe in  co-education, first, on  the  broad prin-
ciple that there is no sex in science, or in any of the
higher departments of learning;  that exclusiveness
in education is unnatural and morbid in its tendency,
giving too much prominence to the lower part of our
nature, because that is really the basis upon which the
separation is made.  It is in itself a gross insinuation.
I  believe the  reflex  influence  of co-education upon
character is good and healthful.   Secondly,  because
our teachers must be men.  Thirdly, because of the
perfect success of the co-educating schools of medi-
cine.   Fourthly, from a financial point of view.   We
cannot afford  to  support more  institutions than  we
already have.   Cheap, ill-appointed medical  schools
are already the curse of the profession.
   Finally, I believe in co-education, because, practi-
cally, we are  thus getting our  education.  The only
place to learn  medicine is in the hospital—our separ-
ate education is purely theoretical.
   The following editorial [Medical and Surgical Re-
porter, July 31, 1880—three years later than the date
of my paper]  treats upon  the  leading  arguments  of
the above paper so fully and so fairly I cannot forbear
to quote it in  full.  Coming from  the most conserva-
tive city in this country, Philadelphia, it certainly de-
serves to be made known to all the friends of woman's
education : 
     CO-ED UOATION  OF THE SEXES IN MEDICINE.   167

  " The questions which interest medical men in  re-
lation to this subject are mainly these : Are girls phys-
ically adapted to sustain the same course of study as
yoitths ?   Is the co-education of the sexes desirable?
What limits does physiology set to the business and
professional education of women?
  " The  first of these inquiries  seems to us to have
received a positive reply in the affirmative by that in-
expugnable  authority,  experience.  The doubt  was
long raised  that as much  brain work  as youths per-
form would interfere with  the regularity of the men-
strual  function  in girls; and  that the  sickness inci-
dent to these periods would prevent them from equal
competition.  The facts are not so.  Either the brain
work of the average youth rs never enough to hurt the
average girl, or  else the latter can stand more than  she
has hitherto had credit for; the result of large experi-
ments, carefully conducted, prove conclusively that the
girls of this country can carry out the course of study
in our high  schools and colleges without exposing
themselves to either more sickness or greater mortality
than the  other  sex.  There  are, moreover,  quite as
many  examples of distinguished scholarship among
the girls as  among the boys.
  " There is no such unanimity on the question of
the  co-education  of  the sexes.  Up to the present
time the best authorities differ.  Friends of the move-
ment point  to numerous institutions where the sexes
are educated together with the best results.  The  dif- 
168
APPENDIX.
fidence and coarseness of the boys almost wholly dis-
appear; the  audacity and coquetry  of the girls are
hardly known.   The  sexual  erethism, which in both
sexes is so mightily fostered by isolation and segrega-
tion, quite disappears in the indifference produced by
familiarity.
  " President Noah Porter,  of Yale College, in his
work on Education, acknowledges  that considerations
of health offer  no decisive objections;  that in  some
institutions the presence of both sexes appeared  to be
advantageous to the morals of both; that serious phys-
ical evils as well as moral ones attend the isolation of
boys in schools and  colleges;  but that, for all  that,
there would  be such  dangers to modesty and purity
in the education of  both in many institutions, that in
his opinion  the system  should be confined to very
narrow limits.
  " We must  leave  the inquiry, therefore, without
any positive answer; though  believing  that the  accu-
mulating evidence is in  favor of the plan of co-edu-
cation under certain not severe restrictions.
  " A more vital question is the fitness of woman  for
pursuits  hitherto  generally supposed to  be  only
adapted for men.  There has been a great deal of cant
and selfishness expended in the arguments against her.
All the talk about her smaller  brain and her weaker
power belongs to this category of cant.  Most educa-
ted women one  meets impress one as quite the  intel-
lectual  equal  of the ordinary   doctor,  lawyer, or 
      CO-EDUCATION OF THE SEXES IN MEDICINE.    169

preacher—often as his superior.  With the same tech-
nical  training as these, the woman would  probably
do as  well, or better, inasmuch as she neither drinks,
chews, talks politics, races horses, nor seeks doubtful
characters of the  other sex—habits, one or  all, that
very few professional men are free from.
  " The  physical disqualifications  she is under  are
those  of menstruation and motherhood.   In regard to
the former, Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi has shown, from
a large  study of American women, that  only a small
minority  are  disabled  from  active work  by their
monthly sickness,  and that  in the majority, it does
not interfere at all with their regular  pursuits of
whatever nature.
  " Pregnancy, maternity and  serious uterine diseases
are positive  though temporary and  not  universal ob-
stacles.   They  must  certainly  debar women  from
many pursuits, and prevent at least the regular atten-
tion to others.  Those, however, who have  seen the
steady labor in  the fields undergone by the peasant
women of Europe, and that at the counter by  the
wives of the bourgeois of Paris and other French cit-
ies, or the heavy burdens carried  by women over al-
most  impassable roads in the mountainous districts
of Norway  and Sweden, the carrying power of two
women being equal to that of one horse,  certainly
must  acknowledge that  much that has  been written
on  this subject, in this country, is singularly futile,
and either the product of ignorance or partisanship. 
170
APPENDIX.
  " The proper position for a  scientific mind to take,
and the only way in which this question can be satis-
factorily settled, is to let it be brought to the test of
experience.   Give women free access to all trades, vo-
cations and  professions.   Put no obstacles  in their
way.  Let   them try  their  strength  in all arenas.
Where they are competent they will be  competitors ;
where they are not, the iron  law of the  extinction of
the unfit will operate to drive them back, without the
need of any artificial obstructions."
 
THE  PHYSIOLOGICAL BASIS  OF EDUCATION.

 [Read at tlie Tri-State Medical Society, Springfield, 111.]
  Of all the  daisies that  have been turned down by
Scotch plough-boys, only one has descended to  us.
Was it the brain or the  eyes of Robert Burns that
made him differ so much from the other plough-boys ?
We shall see.
  Every  observer is cognizant of the fact  that  the
methods of education are in a transition state.  The
old is losing its hold—the new is getting a stronger
grip.   The leaven placed  in the measure of meal by
the gifted, but unfortunate  Rosseau, is beginning to
work, because the surrounding atmosphere  of public
opinion is growing congenial, for ideas  are germ-like
in  their  nature;  they lie  latent  or  dormant  till
awakened by a certain breath  of life, warm and hu-
mid.   It is just  dawning upon the minds  of educa-
tors that education should develop the  person rather
than increase his  knowledge; and  by the person  we
mean the body with all its organs and all their sepa-
rate functions, what we call  mind  being one of those
functions, which so far from being independent of the
others, is the most dependent of them all.   Here and
                       171 
172
APPENDIX.
there an individual has long since comprehended this
great truth, but for it to become a working power it
must permeate the minds and hearts of the people.
They must not only know this  truth  abstractly, but
feel it sympathetically.  We shall see that to be sym-
pathetically  moved  is  not only  philosophical  but
physiological—philosophical because  it is physiolog-
ical.
  The  receptivity of the  human mind is  its great
danger as well as its great  strength.  If prejudice
gets  in first,  truth is kept out.  The mind often sits
in darkness because of  prejudice against the source
of the light.  The Jewish nation lost the great truths
that  Christ taught because they despised the Naza-
rene.  Had he  been one of their own kings—a verit-
able  son of David, who  spake as man never spake be-
fore, the  nation would have  received  him.   But the
prejudice against  its source for the  time being nulli-
fied the power of  the truth.  So in a certain sense the
prejudice  against the source  of the new education
has prevented its adoption.  Emile came forth  from
the pen of Rousseau, as a poetico-philosophic rather
than a scientific  treatise, but as is so frequently the
case, the  poet philosopher felt out (sympathetically if
you please) what the  scientific mind is just now  mak-
ing out by experiment.  Physiology has had  a smart
chase after Pegasus in a good many directions, and
each overtaking proves the  real Pegasus  to be the 
       THE PHYSIOLOGICAL BASIS OF EDUCATION.   173

most natural instead of the most supernatural of ani-
mals, thoroughly physiological, even to his wings.
  In  human development there  are two essentials,
matter  and method—anatomy  and training.  Rous-
seau's system did not contemplate structure as devel-
oped  by the recent anatomy  and physiology of the
nervous system, but by a kind of prophetic power his
thought projected itself in  lines  parallel with  these
structural discoveries,  and so the theory harmonizes
with  facts.  The import of the word educate  contra-
dicts the method; what there is to "lead out" of the
human being is nothing till the world has been led in.
This is the way in which man  conquers the world.
One by one things external  to himself approach for
recognition and  approbation, and even the power to
recognize and appropriate is not such an inherent in-
dependent quality or property of the central nervous
apparatus as is generally supposed, but is itself to  a
great degree a developed function, growing out of the
exercise of peripheral functions, as is well demonstra-
ted in the teaching of  idiots.  Where does the inher-
ent power hide  itself in the deaf and blind mute, and
in the idiot? Not till the sense of touch comes to the
rescue, and by constant use  becomes the medium of
entrance for all  sensations, does the  mind begin to
manifest itself.   Even though a child be deaf, blind
and idiotic, it may still be  taught.  Given the  me-
dium for the entrance of one single sensation, and an-
other and another sensation, ad infinitum, may enter, 
174
APPETDIX.
and each makes the way easier for the next.   It is our
purpose to analyze the order of the entrances and the
routes taken.  The first thing that approaches is the
atmosphere.   It  imprints nature's first kiss of wel-
come upon the lips of the infant stranger, and asks  to
be admitted—the first to come, the  last to go—the
tried and faithful life-long friend. Plow does it enter ?
Those  who have  never analyzed  the process  say it
rushes in, forces  its way  through the mouth and nos-
trils into the lungs.  Not at all;  before  the  first
breath is taken  the pressure without the chest is ex-
actly equal to that within, and  not  till  that equilib-
rium is broken can there  be motion.  First, inequal-
ity of pressure, then  motion in the  direction of the
least resistance—a  simple principle  in mechanics.
The lung  has no power of itself to  expand; but the
chest must expand  and  puU out  the lung, which is
ever and always, except in disease, closely applied to
the inner surface of  the chest.  We  are  thus explicit
because of the erroneous  ideas in respect to the me-
chanism of respiration.   Now  let nature  speak for
herself.  See how beautifully she does her work.  The
atmosphere, far  gentler than the gentlest  mother's
hand, softly wraps itself about the delicate surface of
the body, and at  once a thousand silvery nerve-strings
which lie hidden beneath that velvet surface vibrate
to  that  touch,  a thousand silvery  strings centering
away in  the medulla carry the  message—" a stranger
waits  outside," and  the cells, all  a-quiver  with long 
       THE PHYSIOLOGICAL BASIS OF EDUCATION.   175

waiting for the precious oxygen, send back answer by
another thousand silvery strings, "bid the stranger en-
ter, we need him."   At once the tiny threads begin  to
pull at the  gates, the flaccid  muscles  become  tense
and strong, the ribbed sides turn on their hinges, the
diaphragmed floor  descends, the  chest expands, the
lungs  follow,  eighteen  hundred million  cells are
opened, the air enters, life begins!
  As  the air in contact with  the  surface stimulates
myriads of nerve waves towards  the center, so with
every substance that touches the body.  We say the
pulsations move toward the center.   This language
is misleading.  The molecular vibrations of the nerve-
cords pass in both directions, but the receiving appa-
ratus is at the center or at some ganglion of cells be-
tween.  In this sense of touch, and its resultant mo-
tion—mental or muscular, central  or  peripheral—lies
the  very  essence of education.  As  the air, so the
light approaches; gently does it  impinge upon the
surface of the  retina, whose rods  and cones respond
to the touch.  The  optic nerve is all a-quiver, but we
have  no proof that  its first vibrations produce any-
thing  more than a  general sensation of light.   The
child gives no sign  that  individual objects are distin-
guished; at first, there is only a  fixed, vacant  stare.
We all remember the time when " the baby " first be-
gan to " take notice."  The  impression  of light, from
being  general and vague, comes to be particular and
definite; and just so far as the impression at the cen- 
176
APPENDIX.
ter  departs from the general, and becomes supremely
special, does eyesight become an intellectual power,
such  as Agassiz and Humboldt possessed.   Before
the eye can be the window of the soul's outlooking, it
must first be the window of the soul's incoming.   Be-
fore a physician  can pass judgment on a patient at a
single glance, be sure he has used his  eyes as Hippo-
crates  used his before he painted the  signs of death,
in words which, to this day, have lost no  shade of
color, and as Harvey used his before he gave to phys-
iology that wondrous poem on  the rhythmic move-
ments  of the heart.
  As with air and light, so with sound.   As  the lips
of mother earth, before those of the earthly mother,
imprint the first kiss, so do they  whisper the  first
message.  The  auditory nerve  answers  to  the  first
whisper, but the child  does not listen.  It was  not
something at  the center that said "I am going forth
to hear," but something outside, that stole softly in-
ward,  said  " I have something to tell  you."  Over
and over again did the voice whisper its message be-
fore its message was heard.  How many times was
the precious word "mother" repeated before its sepa-
rate waves were identified!    To hear,  in a general
way, is of no value to the hearer; it is the specializa-
tion of function that gives power to its  possessor.
Who  better needs to know this  truth than the physi-
cian?   And where can he find a  stronger accuser than 
       THE PHYSIOLOGICAL BASIS OF  EDUCATION.    177

his own  uneducated ear, which fails to interpret the
mystical  rhythmic sounds of life?
  The idea that the mind,  fully fashioned, sits en-
throned in the brain, waiting to be "drawn out," can
not be sustained by a single fact.
  Mentality is a function that developes by the proper
use of its organ, the nervous system; and there is no
part of that system  so .remote but that its slightest
vibration may be felt in every other part.  Indeed, in
the light of modern  neurology one might find a phys-
ical  basis for  Swedenborgianism.   If  the nervous
system is the organ of the soul  or mind, then does
the  soul  inhabit the body,  for the body is literally
filled with and encompassed by nerve cells and cords.
Mind is  evolved, mental nourishment or nerve stimu-
lants enter by routes just as natural as those provided
for food  and air.  In the study of mental evolution,
nature must be our teacher.  A careful analysis of the
emergence of infancy into childhood, in a single in-
stance, would serve  as a type for all.   But where  is
such analysis ?  Who has made  even the attempt ?
In our estimates of the human race in  this and that
direction, or  as  a whole, what account is taken of in-
fancy?   But  the physiological  estimate must begin
there.  Some one has asked, "Who are  the trees?" We
would ask, " Who are the children?"   The only thing
we can positively predicate of infancy is contractility;
contractility, too, in its crudest form;  for example,
compare  the awkward motions  of a  baby with the
                12 
178
APPENDIX.
graceful motions of a fish, compare  the  crude, slow,
hesitating fingering  of a  baby's hand with  the  fin-
ished, dexterous, definite  lightning-like touches  of
Paganini's left hand.  Contractility is a form of  res-
ponse to one's environment, which man  possesses in
common with all living matter; we call it responding
to stimulation.   Stimulation may be initiated at  the
peripheral, or at the central termination of the nerve-
fibres.  We may safely say that  for a long time the
stimulation comes from without, and there  are those
who affirm that what appear to be spontaneous stimu-
lations at the centres, are  only the  reawakening of
previous  stimulations from the periphery; that  the
centers have this power of storing up  such forces
much as the plant stores up sunshine.   It is by con-
tact with something, somehow, somewhere, that nerve
waves are set in motion, and the resultant of this  mo-
tion is either mental or muscular action.   How the
world shall enter, depends upon structure, and any at-
tempt on the part of the educator to bring things in
through abnormal ways is sooner or  later disastrous.
The great fault of the old system of education is  that
it begins at the  pinnacle instead of  the  corner-stone.
It appeals to the judgment and reason, of which there
are none, and neglects the feelings and sympathies, of
which there are an abundance.  Abstract ideas are fit
only for  mature minds.  Yet an alphabet composed
of twenty-six most absurdly abstract ideas is driven
and pounded into the infant brain.   The a  b c  and 
       THE PHYSIOLOGICAL BASIS OF EDUCATION.    179

 the multiplication table are a good introduction to ab-
 normal stupidity or abnormal  precocity.  In the one
 case, the higher centers repel the stimulation;  in the
 other tcase they respond, but at  the  expense of their
 own  structure.   In a large proportion of cases, the
 candidates for school examinations are candidates for
 meningitis or insanity.   It is stated that the polytech-
 nic  school of Paris produces  the best scholars and
 the  greatest  amount  of insanity of  any school  in
 France.   The individual child should  be taught as
 the race has been taught.  The first attempts to com-
 municate ideas  among primitive people were by pic-
 ture writing, and so if an object is to gain admission
 to the child's mind, if the thing  itself  cannot  be
 brought in contact with the sight, hearing, touch or
 taste, let its picture enter.   We often hear the state-
 ment made that it is impossible  to overcome the im-
 pressions made upon the mind in childhood, but we
 have not so often heard the anatomical or  physiologi-
 cal reason.  These lasting impressions are  made upon
 the  sympathetic rather  than the  cerebro-spinal gan-
 glia.   The sympathetic system is the first  developed;
 long before the  cerebral cells have  departed from
 their embryonic forms, and in  animals  that never de-
 velope a  brain, the  sympathetic  is well at work pre-
 siding over the essential functions of life, establishing
 a garrison at every available outpost and making ac-
 cessible  roads between,  till every part of the  great
economy is  in communication  with every other part, 
ISO
APPENDIX.
and by a gradual transfer, not by a sudden transition,
should the purely sympathetic merge into the purely
intellectual.   The impressions made on the lower or
sympathetic ganglia, are well  nigh indelible.  They
may not remain in their entirety, but they can never
be wholly effaced, while it seems to be possible for
the impress  on cerebral cells to become obliterated.
Hence,  the  danger of  a  wrong  first  impress.   We
once wrote in a school-girl essay that human sympa-
thy is something more  than sentiment, or else senti-
ment has a far  deeper  meaning  than we give it, but
we did  not then know the scientific import of the
statement.   We believe it is Dr.  E. Seguin who so
clearly differentiates these two routes to the mind.
He calls attention to the glow of warmth in the re-
gion of the  solar plexus, the  abdominal brain when
ideas, or stimulators of  ideas enter by the physiologi-
cal route.   Entering as emotions they are  ready to
become transformed into ideas by the time they reach
the highest centers; thus no  violence is done to the
nervous system.  Without seeking it at all,  I had re-
cently a most  unique  and impressive demonstration
of this  idea.  A highly educated German  physician,
and  a man of  extraordinary natural powers  as  well,
was describing to me the great difficulty he had expe-
rienced in learning English.  After he had exhausted
his vocabulary, he placed his hand not upon his heart,
but upon his stomach, just over that bunch  of nerves
called the solar plexus, and said with an accent I can 
      THE PHYSIOLOGICAL  BASIS OF EDUCATION.   1S1

not imitate, "when I hear my mother tongue it makes
me feel so warm, so good here, and then it streams up
to my head, and I feel good all over;  but the English,
it does not make me glow; it comes here, placing his
hand upon his head;  it does not come up good and
warm like the German."   If  he had  been appointed
by  Dr.  Seguin  himself to decribe the  sympathetic
route to the mind, it could not have been more vividly
portrayed.  His mother tongue touched  his feelings,
while the English appealed only to his head.
  In  our system of teaching the natural " glow of
warmth" in the abdominal brain  is lifted up into the
unnatural glow of warmth in the  encephalon.
  Only the other day we were asked why there were
so many large headed, small bodied children in the
schools?   This answers it.  The  blood which  should
be in the abdominal brain supplying the organic func-
tions—the building processes—is  sent before its time
to the head brain, because of the artificial  stimula-
tion excited  there.  There is, there can be, no better
definition of the hydra-headed monster  that  people
call " nervousness," before which  physicians seem to
stand with helpless hands.  And just here is where
the physician  owes a duty to the  public.  Some me-
dium of communication between  the profession and
the public is needed, call it  what you please—State
hygiene, sanitary science, or what not—the need exists.
  The profession has been too exclusive  of its learn-
ing, and the profession is reaping  its  reward, in every 
182
APPENDIX.
newspaper in the land filled with delusions for the
sick, especially the  nervous.   The  sad truth  is, we
have left the public  to the charlatans.   The time has
gone  by when the physician can sit upon  a  throne
and dispense unquestioned  prescriptions in  Latin.
The people  demand to know, and we shall be obliged
to  come down to their wants, the  plane of  their ne-
cessities.  The public is  deluged with irresponsible
knowledge, while the only body that  can speak  with
authority in these matters holds its peace.
  As contractility is the  most of the  child, it is the
part of good sense to make the most  of this  contract-
ility; that means to place it  under the complete con-
trol of its possessor, just as the contractility of the
vocal  cords is under the control of the singer.  There
is a natural  order to be followed; at first the muscles
contract in groups.  The  child can use  its fists before
it can use its hands;  it can use all its fingers before it
can use two or three of them; and  all of this before
it can use one finger, just as  it can see all light and
hear all sound before it  can see a special  object, or
hear a special tone.   The process proceeds  from the
general to the special, from the group  to the individ-
ual.  It is the difference between spading up a gar-
den and removing a  cataract  from the  eye.   We find
muscle to be very teachable;  that is to say when it
has been caused to contract, the tendency is  to repeat
that contraction.  Many physiologists, with great rea-
son, too, maintain that this contractility is the inher- 
       THE PHYSIOLOGICAL BASIS OF EDUCATION.    183

ent power of muscle, above  and independent of any
nerve power; but while this may be true, it is just as
true that the  ability to control  this contractility be-
longs to the nervous system.   It  is only when we see
the performances of the trained gymnast, that we be-
gin to comprehend  the possibilities of this power of
contractility.  It is not  necessary, in order to do our
work, and  do it  well,  that every muscle in the body
should be trained to its utmost.   There are compara-
tively few  who are called upon  to perfectly control
each muscle of the trunk and lower limbs;  but when
it comes  to the human  hand, there is not a human
being born who  does not  need its complete mastery.
Fully half the power of each generation is  lost to the
world, because the hand is uneducated. In the light
of modern science, the  ancient " laying on of hands "
has great significance.   The hand is an organ, not of
touch alone, but of  sight and hearing; one may even
think with his fingers.  There  is no  calling in the
world  in  which this brain in the hand is so  much
needed, as in the practice of medicine, except it be in
the profession  of  teaching.   What  impressions of
momentous import are  given and  received, between
physician and patient, teacher and  pupil; and just
here is where  the teacher and physician should join
hands to  save the children.  These messages of child-
hood  need  interpretation.   Physicians and  teach-
ers alike  should know the meaning of a quick  and
bounding,  or  a  small  and  sluggish  pulse.   They 
184
APPENDIX.
should know the meaning  of a  hot,  dry or cold,
clammy touch; they should know the full import of
a soft, flabby, or a round, hard muscle; of a shrink-
ing, receding, or an approaching reciprocal response.
Thus, the  children who feign sickness might be de-
tected, and the  children who  are sick might be pro-
tected.  This physiological handling of children is no
vagary of  the brain, no " glittering generality," with-
out practical facts for a basis.  The child's tempera-
ture, pulse, and respiration,  are all the  facts  needed,
facts as capable of being estimated and measured, and
just as sure as the turning of the earth on its axis.
He would  be thought a very ignorant school-boy, who
did not know the freezing and the boiling points of
water; but  how many school-boys, how many teach-
ers even,  know what the temperature of the  blood
should be, or knowing, have ever made any practical
use of their knowledge.  There  is scarcely a house-
hold so ignorant as not to know enough of the ther-
mometer to keep the crockery and water pipes from
bursting.   They  know  how much tension clay  and
iron can bear, but they have probably never heard of
the tension of flesh and blood.  When we graduated
we could  name  every  branch of the Amazon,  and
mostly all the  other rivers and creeks on  the globe,
and  every town  situated thereon, but we  did  not
know- there was such a thing as the aorta, to say noth-
ing of its branches.  Was this because anatomy was
too difficult for young minds?  We  defy the anato- 
      THE PHYSIOLOGICAL BASIS OF EDUCATION.    185

mist to invent harder  names  than  the  geographers
have invented, and as for the personal usefulness of
the Amazon, compared  with the  aorta,  it speaks for
itself.  We know of  an eminent  physician  who al-
lowed his  own  precious boy to  burst  the fine blood-
vessels  of the brain learning  to conjugate Greek
verbs.   One  test of  that  boy's  temperature would
have told  the  father  that  the  child needed rest, but
the  temperature was taken  too  late.   " The  silver
cords were loosed, the  golden  bowl broken."   The
physicians and the physiologists have done this much
for humanity; they have  discovered the economical
basis of life,  and have  placed within  the reach of
every  parent, every  teacher, the positive signs of
danger.  Health depends upon a perfect equilibrium
between nutrition  and  destruction.  When this bal-
ance is  disturbed, the disturbance manifests itself by
some variation  in  pulse, temperature or respiration.
These  outposts of nature are  so  accessible  that the
most stupid can find them, and learn the signals of
danger.  The ingenuity  of  man does  not  leave  a
steam-boiler unprotected that the engineer may know
when  the  pressure is getting greater  than the co-
hesive power of the  metal;  but what does the same
man know of the  cohesive power of his  own flesh,
or  the governor which nature  has  placed within
his own veins?  Ninety-eight  degrees  F.—thus  far
shalt thou go  and no  farther; go  beyond this at
thy peril; what  could  be more definite?  The  fam- 
186
APPENDIX.
ily  clock  has long  been  exalted—far  be it  from
us to drag it down from its old  place  on the wall
—monitor  of birth and  death, and all the days be-
tween; but just as easv to  understand, not so expen-
sive, not so troublesome  to keep in order, and of far
more vital importance, is  the family  thermometer.
It says to the mother, to the teacher,  here is the
standard of human life; it marks the moment  that
life's  forces begin to waste.   What is standard time
compared to such a standard?  The child's education,
then, must begin at the  beginning—the contractility
of his muscles.  At first the movements are involun-
tary, aimless, in response to whatever stimulant is ap-
plied.  The steps  from these automatic  motions to
those that are made in response to the reason and will
are slow  and gradual,  a  methodical preparing of the
way from the  periphery to the center, a utilizing of
the natural channels, by which the world enters and
becomes the property of  the individual.  It is the
upper and inner part  of the nervous  system, taking
possession  of the lower and outer.   That formidable
disease, a lack of control  and co-ordination of muscu-
lar contractility, known  by the people as St. Vitus'
dance, yields  to the  physiological training of the
muscles.  Farini, the greatest muscle-trainer in Eu-
rope, could do more for such diseases  than Charcot or
Brown-Sequard, the greatest healers of nerves in Eu-
rope.  But we must bear in  mind  that unscientific
gymnastics are even worse than unscientific medicine. 
       THE PHYSIOLOGICAL BASIS  OF EDUCATION.    187

The system may eliminate a  poisonous drug, but an
overstrained  muscle or  nerve is  slow to  recover its
tonicity.  So, beware of  the charlatan who advertises
to knead you and electrify you.  We know how much
strain  a vegetable fibre can  bear, and  how  long it
takes to recover its contractility after it has been ex-
hausted, but we  do not know thus  accurately the
power  of the muscular  fibre; we can only approxi-
mate the standard.
   To the  mind of many  there is  an incompatibility
between muscularity and mentality; nothing is fur-
ther from  the truth; without a good muscular devel-
opment there is an  everlasting antagonism between
the vascular and  the nervous supply.   Muscular de-
velopment maintains the equilibrium, and gives sta-
bility to the  nervous system.  If there is any differ-
ence in the mental power of man and woman, unde-
veloped muscles  are responsible.   We find that the
muscles of the body have what is  known as bilateral
symmetry, similarly disposed on  either side  of the
body.  Bichat was the first to observe that all the or-
gans of animal life, the brain, the  cord, the senses,
the organs of prehension and locomotion, all have this
bilateral development.   This is common to all the
higher animals, and yet man is the only one of these
animals that neglects the use of one-half of these per-
fectly symmetrical muscles.   Let us see if the reason
for this be one of  structure or  education, or  both.
The organ we are  considering is muscle; its function 
188                  APPENDIX.
is to contract.  The control of  that  contraction lies
largely in the cerebral ceils; the integrity of the cells
depends upon their nutrition, or blood supply.  The
more immediate the connection of the cells with the
heart the better their activity.  The more remote  the
part the greater the deterioration  in the quality and
quantity of the blood.   The nervous  system demands
not only a  certain amount and quantity of nutrition,
but  a  certain  force or tension of  that  nutrition.
Hence,  as a rule, other  things  being equal, short-
necked people are  more cheerful and can do more con-
secutive  work than long-necked people.  It follows
that the side of the brain that is in more immediate
connection with the heart gets the best supply; conse-
quently can do the best work.  This brings us to con-
sider the channels of the blood as it leaves  the heart.
(In order to make this part of the subject clearer we re-
fer to the drawings made by Armand  de Fleury, illus-
trating  the various types of branching of the aorta.)
We wish to call attention to the fact,  that the type of
cerebral circulation  defines the type of the  disposi-
tion.  When the  cephalic or brain arteries are sym-
metrical branches  of one single trunk given off from
the  aorta,  we  get swift,  harmonious motion, with
scarcely  any of  the fighting propensity, as  in  the
horse.  The mole,  instead of a single ascending trunk,
from .the arch of  the aorta, has two, but the branch-
ing of these two is likewise symmetrical, so that there
are equal-sided, harmonious movements.  But when 
      Til 12 PHYSIOLOGICAL BASIS OF EDUCATION.    189

we come to the lion, the bear and the dog, and, with a
6hade of difference, the wild boar, we find two ascend-
ing branches from the aorta, a right and left, the right
having  three  divisions,  two going to the brain, the
other to the  right arm, while the other arm or fore-
limb is  supplied by the  small left branch of the arch.
Here we get a very uneven  distribution of blood to
the two sides  of the  animal, and so do we get bound-
ing motion and  ferocity of  disposition.   We  might
carry this analysis farther, were  it  necessary, but as
far as the comparative anatomy of the brain circula-
tion has been studied it seems to prove that the type
of that circulation defines the motions and manners
of the animal in question.  In  man  the  aorta  has
three upward branches, but the two carotids  do not
rise precisely  alike.  The right carotid, like the right
subclavian,  is a  branch, not of the aorta, but a short
trunk called the innominata, while the left carotid
and subclavian arise directly from the aorta itself, the
innominata on the right, the  carotid and  subclavian
on the left, making  three aortic branches.   The hu-
man type is thus a cross between the symmetry of the
horse and the asymmetry of the lion and tiger, and we
find in  man just what we should expect, a mixture of
evenness and  peacefulness with nervousness and snarl-
ing, to  call it by no harsher name.   Now, if  to this
structural inequality we add one-sided education,  it is
no wonder we get one-sidedness of character. It is no
wonder we  have so many  hemorrhages and tumors 
190
APPENDIX.
of the left side of the brain, and so  many paralyses
of the right side of the body.  The physiologists hav-
ing discovered and interpreted this  untoward fact  of
non-symmetrical  blood  supply,  have followed it  up
with the consoling fact that the vascular system is ex-
ceedingly  modifiable, and that if a demand be created
by  exercising the other side of the body the supply
will be forthcoming. That the one-sided action comes
more from education  than structure is proved by the
fact that  the beaver  and chimpanzee, with precisely
the same  channeling of the  blood, are ambidextrous.
They seem to experience no  difficulty in  controlling
the muscles of both sides equally.  They  have never
heard of the  awkwardness or disgrace of  being left-
handed, and have never  been  to school.  If nature has
ordained that the left hand should be an idler, what a
mistake the  violinists are making.   The  farther  we
investigate the better we shall learn that the  mistake
is not made by nature, but by the mothers and nurses,
and that  nature, like the Bible, is often obscured by
the big shadow of somebody's little idea. Even the
tendency of the young child to lie on  the right side is
less natural than  artificial.
  Charles Reade, who has taken  pains to  thoroughly
investigate this subject,  says  the greatest  authorities,
from Farini on  muscle  to Brown-Sequard on brain,
are unanimous  in the opinion that both sides of the
body should  be  equally trained.  Think  of  the im-
mense gain in all kinds of manual work, if the left 
       THE  PHYSIOLOGICAL BASIS OF EDUCATION.    191

 hand could relieve the right.   This is a physiological
 cure for, or rather a  prevention of,  writers', seam-
 stresses' and telegraphers' " cramp," while the effect
 upon society of an even instead of a lop-sided brain,
 can scarcely be conjectured.  The left carotid has been
 making human history long enough; we  should like
 the right carotid  to have  a chance.   Decidedly one-
 sided  have  been  the  world's  doings,  yet, who ever
 thought of finding a remedy in physiology ?  If edu-
 cation  has   thus  taken from  the race fully half its
 power, what may  it not give back to the race?  We
 thus see that, of all the animals  of his class, man is
 the most helpless, both mentally and physically, when
 life begins.  Indeed, an intelligent infant is a mon-
 strosity, and insanity or dullness is the usual condition
 of  his adult life.   It is proverbial that many intellec-
 tual giants  have  been  everything but " smart" chil-
 dren.  But if we could analyze the methods we should
 find the physiological  paths to such  brains all open
 with elements of ideas.  The intellects  that  prove
 strong and  stable  through all  the years never  begin
 with ideas.   So great an authority as Dr. E. Seguin,
 of  New York, affirms  that " the  cause of almost all
 insanities is the discordance, nay, antagonism, raised by
 education,  scholastic, religious  and social, between the
 cephalic and the central parts of  the nervous circuit.
 This is supported by the evidence that in true savage
 life, where  the whole nervous  system  is evenly left
alone to the drifts of  instinct, insanity is unknown, 
192
APPENDIX.
but where the strain on the mind is excessive, and the
sympathetic wants are ignored or subdued, insanity is
rife."  The  education of the so-called mind, then, is
reflex, not direct; the  only  direct training the chil-
dren can receive is of the senses  themselves.   If ap-
proached in the natural method, the brain accomplishes
a peaceful mastery, otherwise there is  constant strife
throughout the realm.  The vascular and nervous sup-
plies are continually at war.  Again, in our great
eagerness to educate the intellect, we have ignored the
child's morals as well as his muscles.
  Men are not hanged, thrown into prison,  or upon
beds of sickness because  they  cannot demonstrate a
theorem or write a treatise.  There is no such penalty
attached to  the violation  of a law of orthography  or
logic as to the violation of a law of health or morals.
Schools there are a plenty that teach dead languages,
but none that teach living justice.   There are schools
even that teach how to die, but we know of none that
teach how to live.   Medical schools do  not; only the
fittest could  possibly survive  the vile  hygiene of a
medical college.  We hope and believe that the moral
atmosphere  is purer than the physical.   The disas-
trous experiences of the  American people within the
last twenty years has proved to us that  our popular
education is a  dangerous power.   It is educating the
people to  despise  labor, and there is nothing  in it to
make men honest, truthful and just.  Man  is the
only animal of his  class that starves  to death in the 
      THE PHYSIOLOGICAL BASIS OF  EDUCATION.    193

midst of plenty.  He may be able to calculate eclipses,
and speak in divers  tongues, and yet die for want of
sense.   The  power  we  speak of is well  christened
" common sense "—a taking in of the things necessary
to life through the open doors provided  by nature.
Trained intellects, or the intellects  that are worth
training, are few and far between; but trained senses
and morals might, and should be, the common herit-
age of all.  This is all that ordinary human life de-
mands.   And if an individual is freighted with more
than he can find use for,  all the worse for the individ-
ual; he is incapacitated.   This is largely the kind of
work the public schools are doing—incapacitating the
masses, by working at the intellect exclusively;  not
teaching them how to use what they get,  and not
stopping when they have gotten all they can use.  If
we wanted to improve upon a polyp, even, we should
begin by training his tentacles, but the masses of peo-
ple are worse off than the untrained polyp; their  ten-
tacles are paralyzed  by a sort of intellectual curare,
known  as " getting an education."  The young man
or woman who has a good moral character, and knows
how to  do some useful  thing well, is well prepared
for life.  Again, our greatest scientists have expressed
the opinion that the Bible should have a place in the
schools, because it is the best book of morals in the
world.  We are glad to know that a woman has tried
to establish a department of morals in the schools of
our land.  Matilda Fletcher and Gen. Burnside began
                13 
194
APPENDIX.
a good work in a good place—teaching morals in the
District of Columbia.
  The most that the physiologists are able to do is to
bring these scientific truths to the teachers, who must
invent their own methods.  Many steps have already
been taken in this direction.  The kindergarten, in its
original  conception, is right in its  method, but the
kindergarten, as practiced, for  the most part simply
makes a  transfer from books to objects, the aim being
the same, viz: crowding the child's mind with knowl-
edge instead of developing its functions.  The essence
of the error is just the same, whether it be made with
blocks or books.   Knowledge may come; it surely will
come; but it never should be made the aim of educa-
tion.   Education means the utmost of every organ,
every function.  Its work is to prepare  the way and
make straight the  paths, viz:  the five senses.  The
peripheral nerves,  including  the  nerves of special
sense, may be likened to so many absorbents, waiting
with  eager, open mouths  for  things  fit to receive,
which, when received, are transformed  into mental
or muscular results, as food is transformed into tissue,
the transforming power in either case being something
above and beyond the tissues themselves.  The intro-
duction of the world to the mind presupposes a certain
receptivity—first, of the ganglionic cells near the sur-
faces, and last, of the brain  cells  themselves; and,
it would seem, were this receptivity of the brain cells
entirely  wanting, any attempt  at education would be 
     00-EDUCATION OF  THE SEXES IN MEDICINE.   195

hopeless; but  the  schools for the feeble-minded and
idiots prove that the embryonic tissue cell of the idiot
brain can  by use be transformed into the real nerve
cell.  If they have subserved no other purpose, these
schools  show  the  almost infinite  possibility  of the
Hatural  method of education, the  sending  of some-
thins: into the brain for it to  take hold of and  act
upon.  Given one single pathway to the mind, let all
the others  be irrevocably closed, still the world may
enter and become transformed into ideas.  And when
the  true  and kindly  earth is  thus led in, a truer,
kinder heaven will  come  out  of  humanity.   We
leave it with you to answer whether it was the brain
or the eyes of Robert Burns that made him differ  so
much from the other plough-boys. 
TEMPERANCE  FROM  A  PHYSICIAN'S  POINT  OF
                      VIEW.
      [Read at Lake Bluff Temperance Meeting, 1876.]
  The question of appetite is altogether the greatest
paradox  of life.  Self-regulating,  or, as  we  term it,
governed by instinct, in the lower orders it subserves
the preservation and perpetuation of life.   Regulated
by  himself or  by reason  in  man, it may become a
destroyer  instead of a preserver.   It is  the  paradox
of unreasonable reason — the power  most to  be
dreaded of all  human or natural  powers—the  most
prolific  source  of evil  to  the race.  Well  may  we
tremble at the  winds and the waves when perverted
reason is  at  the helm.  Intemperance is  no fungus
growth.  It is  as  old  as the race, and  has its  roots
down deep in  the soil of man's necessities, not  the
necessities  of the ideal man or  the possible man, but
of the present man, whose  body is physiologically de-
praved,  every  atom crying  out for  some abnormal
stimulant,  something  to quiet  the  vague  unrest and
apprehension that pervade the whole.
  Physical life  is expressed  by  infinite motion; no
living thing  is at rest.  Superadded to this animal
life in man is his mental or spiritual life, which even
                        196 
TEMPERANCE.
19?
in sleep is  still active, like a night-watch on guard.
This life, so delicately poised that no philosopher has
ever been able to measure the adjustment thereof, be
the  balance lost never so  slightly, things go wrong ;
but we  know not where, and we cover  our ignorance
with the mantle of a word, nervousness.  This unbal-
anced  condition is handed  down from parent to child
under a thousand forms.   Some of the signs are sim-
ply meaningless habits to  the ordinary observer; the
women of a household may " borrow trouble and bite
their finger nails," while  the  men  " cake to drink-
ing."   The record goes no further; but who  shall
trace the  subtle  initial  cause of  that  "borrowing
trouble," and  " taking to drink."   These things have
a far deeper meaning than we have been wise enough
to discern.
   The perfection of the race demands that man  shall
be at one with himself and his surroundings,-which in
its fullest sense means at one with God.   But if vice
and  misery are necessary  outgrowths of  the social
body,  the  perfection  of that  body is but an  idle
dream.   Is  it possible that the world, not here and
there one man, or  one  community,  but is  it  possible
that the great world ever shall  be emancipated from
its moral slavery?  That it is slowly but surely break-
ing the shackles of political bondage, makes  us hope
for moral freedom.
   Malthus,  though a  benevolent Christian  himself,
discovered and made known a  cruel, inexorable  law, 
198
APPENDIX.
which seemed to close forever the door of hope to the
race at  large.  He demonstrated  that while the pro-
ducts of the earth can  be made to increase in only
an  arithmetical ratio, population  may increase in a
geometrical ratio; hence a part of the human family
is doomed to starvation—a simple question of mathe-
matics.  If in  the very  nature of things  there  are
more mouths  than there is bread,  some must  go
hungry.
  While this law is theoretically true it  is not actu-
ally true, for though it is possible for the race to mul-
tiply beyond the power of the earth to support, it
does not so multiply.  Along with the growth there
is developed a conservative power.  There is in civili-
zation what  the  physiologist would call  an inhibit-
ory or restraining force  upon the undue increase of
population, so that the problem becomes in a measure
self-adjusting.
  If, then, the  overcrowding of population, with its
consequent vice and misery,  is not a  necessity in  the
constitution  of things, the reformer  can stand upon
bed-rock, and not upon thin air.  If this wide-spread
disease,  human misery, is of human  origin, and  not
the result of  Almighty decree, then it is within hu-
man power to find remedies.
  The  fruitful  source of intemperance in  the lowest
classes  is constitutional  depravity, the want of fresh
air, nutritious food, and occupation.
  There is abundance of air.  It encircles our globe 
TEMPERANCE.
199
 to the depth of forty-five  miles, but how  successfully
 we plan to shut  it out of human  habitations!   The
 food of the earth has never  yet been measured, much
 less exhausted, and yet the cry of the hungry  ever
 ascends to heaven.   There is work waiting  for hands
 to do it, but the  poor hands grow weary and die be-
 fore they  find it.  Here  are  the supplies; here are
 the people dying  for want of them, but where is the
 adjustment?  Our social reformers try to make these
 people better without  change of condition, whereas
 angels would become degenerate  with such surround-
 ings.   It is notorious that our systems of charity en-
 courage  and perpetuate the misery they intend to
 relieve.
  It  is only  when some great calamity  or  crime
 startles the public that we begin to realize how and
 where the poor are living.
  The sun, from a  distance of ninety-five millions of
 miles, is finding out these places of festering human-
 ity, and marking them from day to day  through the
 long summer with the awful sign of a thousand dead
 children!   We read  in the daily papers such para-
 graphs as  the  following:  "The authorities are wak-
 ing up to the  necessity of immediate action to pre-
 vent the spread of disease; the  increased death rate
among  children  has  created  a panic  among  par-
ents.   A general overhauling  of the quarters where
thousands  of families are huddled together, like so 
200
APPENDIX.
many pigs, in small and ill-ventilated apartments, has
been ordered."
   We stand here to-day surrounded by nature's best,
and wonder why the world is not religious and tem-
perate.   Let us put ourselves in their places, in order
to know why our fine speeches never reach the world;
and if they did, what do words mean when the body
is burning, freezing or starving?
   If the authorities have the right to overhaul tene-
ment houses, why not by statute compel landlords to
furnish so much space to each individual, twenty cu-
bic feet per minute, and thus prevent these terrible re-
sults?   Cheap, comfortable homes for the poor would
be  a practical work for the temperance reform, and
the possibility is within the reach of every citv. The
cases  are exceptional where a man would prefer the
saloon  to his home, if he  had one.  We are glad to
read the authorities are waking up, but it is sad to
remember  that  the authorities too  frequently wake
up too  late.   And we fear  our own  fair city will
only add to  the long list of blunders, deliberately pre-
ferring cure to prevention, though at  ten-fold greater
cost.  Now, in  the days of her  youth, is  the  time
for her to kill the growth of a western Seven  Dials,
or Five Points, and they already have a good begin-
ning in  Goose Island, the Patch, and  other  places.
Nature has done wonders by way of situation.  Ours
is pre-eminently the summer-city of the United States,
if not of the world.  No city  of its size in the world 
TEMPERANCE.
201
 is so free from epidemics, ever freshened as it is by the
 breezes  of the lake and the  prairies.  Nothing  but
 our own stupidity can ever make it unhealthy.  But
 the persistence with which the authorities are pre-
 venting  the people from taking advantage of the great
 baptism which  nature has provided,  in the  clear,
 health-giving waters of Lake Michigan—this is omin-
 ous of our future.  If the city treasury is in need of
 funds, better  the fines  be imposed  upon  those who
 do not, instead of those who do, bathe.
   Were  I  consulted  medically  as  how best  to pro-
 mote the temperance  cause in Chicago,  I  should say,
 first, let  the people be washed in Lake Michigan.
   This feverish, insatiable thirst that comes upon  the
 system in hot weather is always relieved by the bath.
 Thus the saloons might be cheated of many a patron.
   In  general we would  say that if a  few  of this
 city's disappearing thousands were thrown into free
 baths, and  parks, drinking fountains and  shade trees
 provided for  the poor, not boulevards and  distant
 parks for the rich, Chicago would lay a sure mortgage
 of health and morals  upon  the  future.  Here is a
 chance for some ambitious mayor—free bathing-houses
 for the people.
  The intemperance of the working classes,  the day
 laborers, is traceable to about  the same  causes, except
that in  this  class overwork takes the  place of the
pauper's  idleness.  That  is  to  say, the labor de- 
202
APPENDIX.
 manded is  beyond the force which the innutritions
 food of the working man can generate.
   This is especially true of  working women, who, in
 addition to the day's work, must care  for their child-
 ren—thus  one person doing the work of two, upon
 food sufficient for about half a person.   These women
 tell me that by working early and  late they are able
 to pay rent, buy fuel, etc.,  but can  not afford to  eat
 meat.   No  constitution  could endure  such  a  strain
 upon such a diet;  consequently I  find them in  the
 hospital.  [I should like to convert one end of my
 hospital into a bath-house,  and the other into a  good
 market.]  What wonder, then, that  the working man
 should seek some substitute for the food that is denied
 him, something that shall  at least seem to  take the
 place of real nourishment?  And here the instincts
 of the man have anticipated the discoveries of science.
 The poor laborer has found out that his meagre fare
 goes farther—or what is the same in effect, seems to go
 farther, for it is a grand delusion—is more satisfying,
 when it is mixed with alcohol.
  This substance stands  at the head of a class which
 are known to the  physiologist as reserve or economic
 aliments.  It is not itself a food; it is  not consumed
 in the  system, but  its presence retards the combus-
 tion of the real  alimentary substances, and thereby, it
is thought, promotes the transformation of heat into
force.   " We can  understand, then,  that alcoholic
drinks  may  be indispensable, in  some degree,  to a 
TEMPERANCE.                203
man who is obliged to perform severe labor with in-
sufficient nourishment.  As to the fatal excess which
so often succeeds a moderate  use of these  drinks,
physiology shows us that our  efforts should be di-
rected  less against this than  against the conditions
which  make  the use of alcohol  an imperious and fa-
tal necessity for the working man."  (Moleschott.)
  In other words, let the  temperance reformer see to
it that beefsteak and bread are cheaper than whisky
and beer; that is practical work.  Cheap, wholesome
food for the poor would close half the saloons in the
land.   Alcohol certainly does, in a certain sense, econo-
mize combustion; but it does it, as we believe, at the
expense  of the  nervous  system, for in  its passage
through the body it is found again principally in the
nervous tissue, where it takes up its  abode for some
time,  while some maintain  that a  part of it is re-
tained.  This sometime residence in  the nervous tis-
sue explains  the  mystery which has  always  sur-
rounded  the  question of  the  effect  of alcohol upon
the system.  The temperature  of the body depends
upon  the  oxidation of tissue,  and this  oxidation is
regulated by the nerve  centres.  Alcohol, by acting
upon  the nerve  centres, retards the oxidation, hence
lowers the  temperature, and this theory has been ver-
ified by direct experiment.  There  are  those  who
maintain  that what is  thus lost in  heat is gained in
power.  It is well known that the  strength of the
body  depends  upon the  transformation  of  its heat 
201                  APPENDIX.
into force.   It would seem  that whatever lowers the
temperature must ultimately lower the  force, and the
facts in the case  support  the theory.   Everybody has
observed that the muscular force though so violent in
its manifestations under alcohol, is not real; the actual
condition of the drunken  man is one of weakness,
and this  weakness is in proportion to the degree of
intoxication.  We have exalted motion with decreased
strength.  There is a theory to the effect that alcohol
acts upon only the surface of the brain, exciting the
ideas  of motion, not upon the actual  motor centers
themselves;  hence the motion is of a powerless kind.
  The only case  where alcohol  could possibly  do
good in the way of economizing force is where disin-
tegration  is out of  proportion  to assimilation, the
waste greater than the supply; and even in  this case
it is a questionable policy to decrease the waste if it is
possible to increase the supply. Even though the im-
mediate action of moderate  doses of alcohol  has this
sustaining or economizing  effect  that is claimed, the
economy in  the long run proves to be waste.
  The effect of the drug is  not accumulative.  That
is to say  it takes more and  more  to  bring about the
same impression upon the  system from day to day.
The long continued contact with the tissues, especially
the nervous, for which it  has a  peculiar affinity—
probably  owing to its  great  affinity  for albumen—
gradually changes their chemical composition,  and
the inevitable  result is impaired health, both mental 
TEMPERANCE.                205
and physical, of the individual, to say nothing of the
hereditary influence on his  children,  which shows it-
self in epilepsy, insanity, criminal tendency, etc.; so
that, while alcohol  has  the  semblance of  a tonic and
restorer,  and as such has taken a great hold upon the
physician's  prescription list, and upon public senti-
ment, it is really a  narcotic, irritant  poison, yet, like
arsenic and opium, may sometimes be used through a
long life-time.   And upon precisely the same reason-
ing should we encourage the intemperate use of all
these poisons.  But science  and reason preach in vain
while the working man is hungry.  He  will satify his
present necessity, and he finds that  a  glass of beer
moistens  his dry bread, producing a  more exhilarat-
ing effect than tea or coffee, while it is cheaper than
either.
  In my walks through this and other cities, I have
often stopped to look at a  party of working men at
their noon-day meal, purposely  to satisfy myself as to
what kind of food they were eating,  and  I must say
that in but very few instances  did meat constitute a
part of their meagre bill of  fare.
  The drunkenness of the higher classes has  two spe-
cially predisposing causes, the want of occupation and
the want of rest.   The tragic story of the  want of oc-
cupation is incomparably told in the New Testament.
The evil  spirit  that had departed from the  man  re-
turned and found the man's  heart empty, unoccupied;
then the  spirit  took  with  him  seven others  more 
206
APPENDIX.
wicked than himself, and they entered  in and dwelt
there.  Doubtless, intemperance in some form, was the
ringleader.   Temperance has not done its work when
it has taken the bottle away; its place must be occu-
pied by some all-absorbing good, else the last  estate
will be worse than the first.
  Here is one of the great missions of the parent, to
see to it that every child has an  occupation; to dis-
cover and  expand the natural  inclination, if there be
one; if not, then to choose something for the child to
do, so  that it be not left to  drift according to the
wind and tide, so  that  the  mind and  heart shall be
full;  then  the spirit of intemperance and its legion
companions shall find no room  to enter  and dwell
therein.
  Through all our country towns, who are the drunk-
ards?  For the  most part  the unemployed.  Young
men whose fathers have let them  drift into manhood
with nothing to do, and  the sea of life has bewildered
them; they know not which course to take, and so
they are left  to  the  merciless waves of instinct and
appetite.  The  hangers-on, the time-killers, the  bar-
room loafers—many a one had the making of  a man
within him, but the germ, finding no  nourishment,
has died.
   Inebriate asylums  are finding out  the  sanitary
power of employment, and we quote from one of their
late  records: "An inebriate who is allowed to idle
away his  time will  never acquire  that mental and 
TEMPERANCE.
207
physical stamina which is requisite for his reforma-
tion and  cure.  Employment bureaus and industrial
schools, then,  are grand  allies of  the  temperance
cause."
  As to the drunkenness caused by over-work  among
the higher  classes,  the facts  are  too well  known
to  need detail.   Professional and political men are
falling  every  day victims of ambition, which goads
them on  to undertake  more  than they can perform,
and when the tired brain and muscle flag, they are
scorched to renewed efforts in the flames of alcohol.
  And so we find all classes, from lowest  to highest,
yielding to this craving for stimulants.  The appetite
is universal,  belonging to all time  and  all nations;
hence  we may call  it natural in  the same sense that
tendency  to evil is natural.  We imagine  that  as
long as man shall live he will be tempted to sin.  The
most sanguine do not hope to kill  out the tendency,
that is a part of us, but  we  do  expect to keep this
tendency under control; that is what makes strength
of character.  To be victorious we  must have some-
thing to conquer, and so nature supplies us with this
omnipresent  foe, of which intemperance, or in its
broader sense, appetite,  is  the  strong  right arm.
How  shall we control it?  Not by introducing light
wines and beer.  Fermented  liquors may do for  the
Italian or  the German, but not for the Englishman or
the American; they only whet his appetite for more.
The Duke of Wellington's beer-act  has  increased 
208
APPENDIX.
England's  drunkenness.    The  people,  thinking it
harmless because sanctioned by the government, have
through it developed an  appetite for stronger drink;
and so we  find it  in the wine districts of the United
States.  The  northern races,  especially the  Anglo
Saxon, owing to more stimulating climate and greater
development of nerve, will not be satisfied with fer-
mented drunkenness; they  never  stop short of the
strongest distillation.  Criminal statistics  of intem-
perance will bear out this statement.   Those who be-
lieve in substituting beer for intemperance, had better
study up the  relation of  certain forms of kidney and
liver diseases to beer drinking.
  We know of but two methods—education and legis-
lation; indeed, both may be included in one, for right
legislation  must follow right instruction.  In educa-
tion religion also is included.  The higher the moral
standard, the purer the thought, the better the man,
always.  That the particular kind of religious belief
does not lie at the bottom of this  question, we  have
but to compare Catholic  Italy with Protestant Scot-
land.   Spending about the same time in both coun-
tries, with  about the  same opportunities for observa-
tion, I do not remember to have seen  a genuine case
of drunkenness in Italy, while the number I saw in
Scotland outnumbered all I had ever seen before in
my life.  And when the  good family with  whom I
was staying arose from their knees after  evening wor-
ship, and asked me to take a hot toddy, or "night-cap," 
TEMPERANCE.
209
I confess religion and temperance took on a new phase
of meaning to me.
  We would especially educate women.  The mothers
of children should fully understand the fearful  possi-
bilities  of the  child.   Beside the  open  Bible  we
would  place the open physiology.   To most  people
that book means only horrible bones and blood, whereas
it is a gospel second only to that of Christ.  An emi-
nent American  divine once said he did  not believe
in educating women, and as I looked  at his dys-
peptic countenance I thought it might have been bet-
ter for him if his mother had  known more.
  If we could reach the poor  women of our country,
and teach them  how to  select  their meagre food, and
then how to prepare  it  in the most nourishing man-
ner, this would be a wondrous  gain to the  temperance
cause.
  I believe, too, that the habit of drinking, per se, is
most  pernicious.  In the families I know, I see the
children drinking far  greater quantities of liquid than
their systems require.  Thus the tone of the digestive
organs is impaired; especially is this true of the effect
of the great American drink,  ice-water, of which our
people, old and young, take such quantities with their
food.   This sudden lowering  of the temperature  of
the digestive organs  is very  dangerous, and we be-
lieve a great cause of sun-stroke.  Bad as we believe
beer and wine  to be, their effect upon the digestive
organs  is not so pernicious as  these great draughts of
                  14 
210
APPENDIX.
ice-water.   If mothers knew the maximum amount
of liquid which the system requires per day, and the
normal  temperature   required  for digestion,   they
might even  in the infancy of the child teach it self-
control  instead  of unbounded  indulgence.   Three
pints of fluid in twenty-four hours, and two  and a
half pounds of solid food are all  that are essential to
the strength of a working  man.  One of our strong-
est grounds  of hope for our own country is  the  great
fact  that ours is the  only land  on the face of the
globe in  which the women do not use alcohol  as a
beverage.  This means a great deal for America.
  To legislation we must look for the  regulating of
the sale of alcohol, just as the sale of arsenic and opi-
um  are now regulated.   Both are used as tonics, yet
both  are deadly poisons, and as  such are recognized
by the law,  yet neither is more  deadly than alcohol.
There are people in the  Austrian Alps  that eat mar-
velous quantities of arsenic.  Why not, then, call it a
food?  No.   When public  sentiment  is sufficiently
educated legislation will  discover that it has the right
to control the sale of this as of every other poison
with which people are daily committing suicide.  The
drinking of  alcohol is  only one  form of  suicide, the
most deceiving and therefore  the most  dangerous of
all forms.
  To legislation we must look for the control of pre-
disposing causes, such as crowded  tenement houses, 
TEMPERANCE.
211
bad food and water supplies, the whole class of causes
belonging to state medicine.
  As to the existence of a specific remedy for drunk-
enness, my observation leads me to say that  we have
in our materia medica several very powerful sedatives
and tonics, sedatives which  control the stage of alco-
holic excitement, and tonics that relieve the other ex-
treme of depression; but  the difficulty lies in prevail-
ing upon the drunkard to avail himself of either.   I
have  myself seen  men refuse to take the  cinchona
which was right at hand, and go a long distance for an-
other drink; that too, after having taken the tonic—
deliberately  preferring the liquor.   This is  a clear
case of choice, and I know of nothing but the grace
of God that is an antidote to a drunken will.
    I have thus taken a very inadequate view of what
may be called the physical side  of this  question.   I
have left the spiritual  part for  those who  are better
able than  I to  deal with  spiritual  things.   Among
all our eminent Christians, this side  has surely been
well maintained.  I have strong hope for the  future,
but I confess my hope is based largely upon a better
■flesh and blood.   I have  no acquaintance with disem-
bodied spirits.   I say this at the risk of  being called
materialistic.  I accept the name, but not in its com-
mon interpretation.   I am materialistic, but  only in
the sense that Christ meant when he  said to the fault-
finding Jews, right under the shadow of his wondrous
miracle, " Whether is it easier to say thy sins  be for- 
212
APPENDIX.
given thee, or arise, take up thy bed and walk!"   The
first  may be  your preference, but I  feel that I have
the divine  sanction, and if I  could I would  speak to
this  great  world to-day, and  say to every soul  sick
with the palsy of intemperance, " Arise, take up thy
bed and walk." 
A  PLEA  FOR MODERATION.
[Read at Teachers' Institute, 1875.]
   Some one has said, " It is better to wear out than
 to  rust out."   It is a very captivating sentence.  The
 author has simply given expression to  what we have
 been  believing  and acting upon  all  our lives.  And
 we make the sentiment  an excuse for all kinds of
 abuse of our physical and mental  powers.  Self-mur-
 dered students  quote it with their dying breath, and
 the doors of insane asylums close upon those who ut-
 tered it in their last sane moments.   Yes, we believe,
 not only this, but we go a step farther, and hold it a
 sacred duty to wear out as soon as possible.   There is
 a feeling of self commendation and saintliness in be-
 ing rapidly oxydized.
   The manner in which people are  madly rushing on
 to this consummation  makes  one sympathize with
 Ruskin in hating railroads and  telegraphs and  every
 thing else classed under that  specious  name, Progress.
   In  view of the enormity of mental  suicide, one is
 strongly inclined to believe that civilization is founded
in error, and that children and  savages are  the  only
normal type of mankind.   Even staid and sober Eng-
land is  aroused  to  the  growing danger of the situa-
                       213 
214
APPENDIX.
tion.  One of her most able physicians writes thus:
  " During the last thirty years there has been a very
large increase in  the  mortality from  diseases of the
brain.   In the year 1839 there were 1,495 deaths reg-
istered from this cause, and in  1869 there were 5,517.
Thus, whilst the population in England has increased
30 per cent., the  mortality due to brain disease has
multiplied nearly  jour fold.   In the  same period the
deaths from paralysis and apoplexy have considerably
more than  doubled,  viz:  from  10,000  annually  to
22,000.   The  deaths  from insanity have also nearly
doubled.  The causes for this portentous phenomenon
are not  mysterious nor far to seek; nor, when found,
are they difficult to understand.  The great develop-
ment of railway and telegraphic communication has
resulted in an enormous increase of business transac-
tions, entailing a vast augmentation  of the  cares,
worries  and anxieties of life.   The brain, receptive of
all impressions, has a double load to bear in the econ-
omy.   The 'struggle for life' is ever increasingly
severe, every throe of this struggle  implies  disinte-
gration   and  waste of brain  tissue; and whilst the
chances  of irregularity or disorder in the nutritive
changes increase in a geometrical ratio, the increase
of disease is a logical sequence.
  " It is interesting to trace  an illustration of these
principles in  the  correspondence of sudden increases
in the rates of mortality with the social and  commer-
cial disorders of certain epochs.  No one will find any 
A PLEA FOR MODERATION.          215
difficulty in recalling the convulsions that agitated the
commercial world  in  the years 1845-46.   Bearing
this  in  mind it does not surprise us to learn that im-
mediately after this  period, viz.,  in 1847, we find the
registered  deaths  from  'brain diseases' to be more
than  doubled—from  1,495  to  3,012 —whilst  the
mortality in paralysis and apoplexy is increased 50 per
cent.   The calm that succeeded was accompanied by a
corresponding  improvement  in  nervine health, for
from this year until 1852 there was no increase in the
mortality from this class of causes.  Since 1853 there
has been a gradual increase.   For every million per-
sons living in 1853 there died from 'disease of brain,'
etc., 196, and in 1869 there  died 254.  It is again
worthy of notice  that  in 1866-67,  years of great
agitation, the average of deaths from  this cause, 267
per  million,  was higher than in any year before or
since."
   If England has  cause for alarm, America has ten-
fold greater cause.   If English brain has suffered from
panics, social, political  and commercial, it is quite
miraculous that American brain is not entirely  disinte-
grated.  We have not been able to obtain full statistics
of the  nervous diseases  in this country during the
period  mentioned,  but that they have enormously  in-
creased  is sufficiently patent without the proof of
figures.   It is  not without foundation that we have
earned  the reputation of  being  a fast people; pulpit
and press, at home and  abroad, have again and again 
216
APPENDIX.
prophesied that we are going all to pieces; but, John
Gilpin like, we gallop on—cannot  stop if we  would.
Within a space of fifteen years  one of the greatest
wars in history  is fought, a disintegrated union re-
stored, and deep financial gulfs  safely bridged, to  say
nothing of the opening and development of the great
Northwest, and the  spanning  of the continent with
iron and steam.   Black Fridays blacken forever thou-
sands of homes,  a Credit Mobilier engulfs men who
are the pride of  the nation, a  noble, stalwart  Greely
falls the victim  of overwork and  political intrigue,
and we scarcely stop to even ask why.   Who can ever
estimate the nerve power that burned up with Chicago
and Boston?
  In the hospitals, and in private practice, the physi-
cians of Chicago are  called upon daily to prescribe for
those  who, to use their own language, " have  never
been well since the fire," and, as might be expected,
the disorders are  of a nervous character—a case in
point proving the effect of sudden calamity upon  the
human system.   The more complicated the organiza-
tion the greater are the chances for  irregularity  in its
action; especially  must this  be true  of those  organs
which  are  the centre of all action, as the brain and
spinal  cord.   Where all  functions are performed by
one set of organs the danger of irregularity is at its
minimum.   It is  impossible to  destroy a polyp by
destroying any part of it;  as long as there is life in  a
piece  of it the functions of the animal  go on;  but 
              A PLEA FOR MODERATION.          217

when we reach the complex  structure of man, where
there is a separate organ for each function, the danger
of irregularity is at its maximum, and the nerve force,
which regulates and controls this vast and complicated
machinery, is the first to suffer.
   The development of intellect is becoming the disin-
tegrator of intellect.  Each  new discovery, each new
invention, is an added  care,  a new source of disease.
The  intensity  of life force  is  increasing, while the
amount of  life force is decreasing.  The  causes, as
has been intimated, are partly natural, largely educa-
tional.   Our climatic influences are favorable to just
such a  development  as  we find.   We are  just far
enough removed from  freezing and boiling to escape
the  depressing influences which follow an excess of
either, while we  have sufficient of  both to make  up
 the  variety which is  necessary to  sharpen  vitality.
 We  use a great amount of  strong, stimulating food.
 We are largely a meat-eating people; hence, our rest-
 less activity and deeds of violence.  It  is the glaring
 eye and ceaseless pacing to  and fro of the caged lion
 humanized.  Cause  and effect have so reacted upon
 each other  that now we say  with  truth our nature de-
 mands stimulants.  And so the people of the United
 States are unrivalled in their consumption of tea, cof-
 fee, tobacco and alcohol,  while the trade in opium  is
 growing larger  every  year.   The  fever  heat of busi-
 ness, politics  and religion,  is  almost the mechanical
 equivalent  of highly oxygenized air and highly stimu- 
218
APPENDIX.
lating food.  That people wear out faster in this coun-
try than elsewhere, is not  due to climate wholly, nor
to the excessive amount  of work  performed.  The
work  we do  is not half so exhausting as the worry
about what we can not do, and  the positions we can
not attain.  A restless anxiety is  characteristic  of
American physiognomy, from the  child at school to
the man at his desk.  Even at  places of amusement,
the depressor muscles have the advantage of the leva-
tors.  Whenever your mirror shows you an anxious
countenance, take warning.  It  is the  face of an ene-
my inhabiting your  body, and will soon  have full
possession—an enemy far more to be  dreaded than
pestilence or famine, because so subtle and impalpable.
  Again, there is  just  enough  of the cosmopolitan
element in our blood  to give fire to that blood.  An
exclusive nation, like  an exclusive family, necessarily
becomes  dormant and sluggish.  We are somewhat
in danger from the other extreme;  but just now the
mixture  seems  to  combine  the  highly  vitalized
elements of all its ingredients, so that the boy  in
whose  veins flows  the blood of England, France and
Germany, though sweeping the crossings to-day, ex-
pects  to control finance or government to-morrow;
and his expectation is not  too great.
  The largeness of our territory has  its influence.
Where such vast areas  are to be improved  the irre-
sistible tendency is to hurry.  Towns spring up like
mushrooms, and the  people are  as mushroomy as the 
A PLEA  FOR MODERATION.
219
 towns—the reaction  of their work upon their  char-
 acters.   Contrast the hurly-burly western farmer who
 runs a half dozen farms, with the slow, careful Scotch
 or German gardener, who cultivates a patch to its ut-
 most, never allowing  even a dried leaf or old bone to
 go to waste.   Just here there is strong contrast be-
 tween our own East and West.  Here the land and
 the  pork  and the corn are so abundant, we have
 cultivated a sort of plenty-more-where-this-came-from
 air.   Frugality and  economy are  almost unknown.
 We are nearly wanting in that  strong,  staid  middle
 class who  have laid  up a  competency by saving the
 pennies.
   Again,  our  form of government fosters excessive
 ambition.  Where position  and occupation are deter-
 mined by the circumstances of birth, there is less in-
 centive to  find a higher position or occupation.   The
 mind is more or less  resigned to  what is understood
 to be  inevitable; hence, greater contentment.   But
 where our possibilities  lie within our own power the
 mind strains itself to  the utmost to  reach its own
 ideal.  Though here,  as elsewhere, the two ruling am-
 bitions  are money and politics.  In  this country a
 man is allowed ten  years in which to make a fortune.
 If he does not succeed  in that time he is advised to
go  to stealing; and he generally  goes,  while the
scores  of would-be presidents convert  their  disap-
pointment  into softening of the brain  and paralysis.
Our young men have no encouragement to be honest, 
220
APPENDIX.
because  criminals occupy the chief places, and nr
questions are asked  as  long as  their money  lasts.
There is no  country on the  globe  that offers such in-
ducements as America offers for  the gratification of
unbounded ambition.  There is scarcely a height we
do not attempt to climb.   The superabundance of our
activity makes us dare to grapple with forces beyond
our  power.   It  was unpalatable, but yet we had to
acknowledge the point to a quiet bit of satire in the
Saturday Review,  directed  against the presumption
of Americans; how  the  staid solons of the English
nation were  surprised by  the sudden lighting down in
their midst  of a young American  woman, to instruct
them in social and political  economy.  No doubt the
woman  was capable of teaching  them  many things,
but who but an American would have thus ventured?
  Among the other  educational causes  of our exces-
sive life, the press stands deeply  criminated on ac-
count both of the super-abundance and super-frothi-
ness of  its matter.   The average citizen  disposes of
two  or  three dailies; our monthly literature is of
gigantic proportions, and  still growing, and of making
of books there is "literally no end;" and the paper,
magazine or book that does not savor highly of sensa-
tion finds few readers.  After having aroused  this
abnormal taste for the sensational, the press systemati-
cally proceeds to feed it.   There is not possibly  time
to digest this enormous  amount  of reading, conse-
quently it is skimmed over, and begets in the skimmer 
A PLEA FOR MODERATION.          221
a sort of quick-wittedness, not thoughtfulness. Before
there is time to follow one suggestion to  its logical
conclusion another has taken its place; hence we have
keen perception but deficient reason.   The processes
of reasoning are slow.   The too rapid succession of
events is incompatible with the highest development
of the ideational or  reflective.   The country boy who
reads but  one newspaper a week or month  thinks on
what he reads.   While he ploughs he ponders it and
draws  his  own strong  common-sense conclusions.
The result is, the second  or third generation of  city-
bred boys take the places of clerks and  secretaries,
while the country boys become the leaders in business
and the professions.   The premature  ripeness of the
city must be reinforced by green country brain.   We
are not prepared to say, with Disraeli's hero, the in-
vention of printing is the greatest  misfortune that
ever befell mankind, nor  could we like Gov. Wise, of
Virginia, be thankful  that no newspaper was printed
within forty miles of us; but while we count the
blessings we also  recognize  the  glaring  abuses  ol
this mighty  tongue of civilization.
  Again, our public school system, or rather our high-
pressure  system, is one  of the initial forces in this
universal rush,  while our seminaries are a sort  of
mixture of Blimber and  Squeers.  Every teacher in
the land,  holding tight rein on every boy and girl, ap-
plies the whip, in the  shape of black or credit  marks,.
and cries "faster."   The teacher who can get his 
222
APPENDIX.
 pupils on  the  fastest is the best teacher; so  he who
 would be inclined to linger  in academic shades, as  of
 yore, dare not yield to the inclination, lest he lose his
 living.   Parents co-operate  with teachers; so, between
 the two,  the child is transformed  into a little hungry,
 worrying animal, that can neither eat nor sleep, lest he
 fail to be "punctual," "perfect," or "promoted."  The
 word " tardy,"  like  a horrid nightmare, haunts the
 dreams of modern  childhood.  The  great object  of
 the student is to get through.   The young men are
 feverish  to get into business for themselves, and the
 young women are feverish lest they become old maids,
 or strong-minded, the two terrors of modern girlhood.
  The teachers are even more worn out  and nervous
 than  the scholars.   As  a class they  are self-made,
 which means  overworked  brain and  undeveloped
 muscle.  Theoretically school-teaching is a healthful
 occupation, for the  constant association  with healthy
youth is  advantageous; but practically we fail  to find
a healthy school-teacher.  " Burnt out" best describes
 their  condition, owing mainly to in-door life, vitiated
air, want of physical exercise, and the daily expendi-
 ture of all the nerve power their systems can generate.
 Blessings on the brain  that shall invent  a  perfect
 system of ventilation for school-houses, churches and
 halls.
  Having thus far analyzed this epidemic of the age,
it is the part of the good  physician to suggest  the
remedy,  and " there's the rub."  When the son of the 
A PLEA  FOR MODERATION.
223
King  of  Holland fell  a victim to croup, his uncle,
Napoleon I., proclaimed a  concours, for  the purpose
of finding some remedy by which the mortality of the
disease might be ameliorated.  Eighty-three disserta-
tions on  croup were sent in, full of symptomatology
and pathological anatomy, but remedy there was none.
In  this, the most important regard, Napoleon's con-
cours was a failure, and we find ourselves  in much the
same position as the physicians that made the failure.
There is a stereotyped answer to all these questions—
"remove  the cause;" but when the cause has become a
part of the patient's existence, it is not easily removed.
There is reason in the argument that  our hurry is a
necessity; that it is the only thing that keeps us from
flying to pieces—the safety valve of our life.  Certainly
after the pressure of steam has been multiplied and re-
multiplied, the engine must fly; the great force must
be rapidly converted into motion, or the very molecules
of the machine will be forced into space.  Manifestly
the remedy does not lie in stopping the machine. But
perhaps away  back  there, before the  engine started,
some father, or mother, or school-teacher, need not have
remultiplied  the pressure.   Thus we find  ourselves
full of intense life, and the causes are continually act-
ing to increase that  intensity.   It is  physically and
morally impossible for us to walk when every fibre of
our being is ready to run.  Could the usefulness of
life be increased, and its purpose better consummated
by this abnormal increase of vitality, it  would be a 
224
APPENDIX.
question whether it would not be better to live fewer
years and  do better work.   But the truth  is, the
friction of the machinery destroys the machine  long
before the work is done.   Intensive life is incompati-
ble with extensive life, and it is necessary to have the
extensive life, because time is an essential element of
all  true development.   We  may force  the fruit to
ripen, but what is gained in time is lost in perfection.
He who has forced his intellect to mature  at the age
of thirty cannot hope for the results that sixty years
might bring.
  It is a law of all life that rapid growth predetermines
rapid decay.  The converse is likewise  true—slow
growth, long life.  Witness  the  soft maple and the
oak.    The  master does  not build  his  ship out of
precocious   timber,  like the  maple.   So far from
doing  more and better  work, in our  great  hurry,
statistics  show  we do less and poorer work.  Even
the clothes we wear and the food  we  eat bear the un-
mistakable marks of haste;  then the clothes are put
on  hastily,  and  the  food is eaten  hastily, thereby
coming wide of  the use for which  clothes and  food
are  intended.  Our characters are  reflected in  our
calicoes and muslins and dwelling houses; the rule is
you  can see through them all, they are so  thin.   We
haven't time to make them strong and substantial.
   Our people in  traveling abroad are surprised at the
number of  aged men who are engaged in active life,
especiallv as statesmen.  To-day  the great  men of 
A PLEA  FOR MODERATION.
225
England,  France  and  Germany  are  old men;  and
yet  English  physicians  are warning  their  coun-
trymen.   While  our  octogenarians  are  devoting
themselves to pipe  and slippers, or  whiling  away
a second childhood,  those of other nations are lead-
ers  in finance and government—men who  through
long and  patient years have learned  how  to think,
how to deliberate.   Who of us act with deliberation ?
Where is there any deliberation  in  our senate or our
legislatures ?  If a bill is not passed immediately we
have learned it is a trick of its enemies to secure its
defeat.  You  can  count our thinkers  in  legislation
upon your fingers.   Even in  those emergencies of life
which  demand the  utmost haste, the mind that has
been slowly and carefully disciplined is the mind for
the emergency,  so that for  both rare and common
uses the timber of slow growth is superior.
  If it is dangerous to stop after having once started,
it is equally dangerous never to start at all—for use is
life.
  It is the  sacred law of  all living matter, that all
parts not in active exercise shall  take on a lower form
of life; thus come the degenerations of  inactive tissue,
and thus  come the degenerations  of  inactive mind.
The results of inactivity are even  more  deplorable
than those of over work, for to death is added disgrace.
To  let one's brain and muscle die for want of use  is
ignoble in the extreme.  To overwork  is fatal; but
there is a  kind of compensation in the honor of having
                  15 
226
APPENDIX.
done too much, which never comes to those who have
not done  enough.  We  say  this  for the  benefit of
those natural born lotus-eaters who might be inclined
to take advantage of our plea against overwork.
  The  remedy we  would suggest  is  the "golden
mean "  of Horace,  that which Hume  calls the  best
thing on earth.  Moderation  is the medicine for this
modern mania, and  to insure its success must be bred
in the very bone of  human beings.  The trouble with
us all is, just as we have  by hard  experience learned
how to  live, life is done; then we are ready to mode-
rate, when the fire  is  all out, and nothing but ashes
on the hearth.  Americans need to learn three things:
how to laugh, how to rest,  and how to sleep.  Art can
do much to atone for  the  faults of climate.  Though
we can not  breathe the joy-laden air of  France tfi
Italy, we can  attain  to  considerable perfection  in
laughing,  by  persistent cultivation of the faculty.   It
is possessed by all men, and is a characteristic distinc-
tion between man  and brute.  We believe it a relig-
ious duty for people who are inclined  to  overwork,
and  somewhat disposed  to look  on the dark side of
life, to go where they will be made to laugh in spite
of the " blues."  It was our  fortune once to sit  near
an old  gentleman at one of  Boucicault's comedies.
We went in the interests of hygiene, and were amply
rewarded.  The old man laughed  so  loud that the
whole  audience turned from  the comedian  to  him.
Opera glasses  were leveled  at him from every  di 
A PLEA  FOR MODERATION.
227
rection; but he laughed the louder, and being some-
what asthmatic, the effect was the most ludicrous pos-
sible upon those  who  sat  near.  At the close of the
performance  he  straightened   himself  up  and  ex-
claimed aloud, " Well, this is good for the bile!"  Be-
ing interested in all remedies for bile, we set it down
as a never to  be forgotten  principle  in our therapeu-
tics. Other things being equal, we believe every good
laugh adds at least an hour to one's life.
  How to rest is not easily learned.  If we were to
speak from experience, we would say no natural born
American  knows how, or can ever learn how, to rest.
Rest does not mean idleness; often the most idle are the
most  restless.  We  think for Americans it means to
stop worrying.  It seems as if Martha must have been
the mother of us all, so prone are we to be cumbered
by many cares.   We ought to  welcome as angels of
mercy all  agencies  that can help us drive dull care
away.  The means to which we resort to do this will
depend  entirely upon our  culture.   What would be
rest and enjoyment to one mind would be torture  and
disgust to one more cultivated.  That principle of
philosophy by which water see^s its level  is  true of
the human mind, in all its varied  functions, though
fortunately, unlike water, mind may elevate the level
of its own standard.  To  know how to rest is a  for-
tune in  itself.  It is the cares,  worries  and anxieties,
not the  work of life, that are the fruitful source of
the increase of disease. 
228
APPENDIX.
   Sleep is a wonderful  power in the economy of na-
 ture.  Shakespeare, with his unrivalled gift of divin-
 ing nature's secrets, has told us what  science and ex-
 perience prove:
      Sleep, that knits up the raveled sleave  of care,
      The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath;
      Balm  of hurt minds, great nature's second course,
      Chief  nourisher in life's feast.
   Shakespeare knew.   When  your anxious  counte-
 nance is accompanied  by  sleeplessness, take double
 warning.
   To those who have  the  interests of education in
 their hands, we must look for  the beginning of this
 new regime of life.   The high-pressure  system  must
 be abandoned.   It makes mediocrity attempt impos-
 sibilities, and goads genius  on to the next step—mad-
 ness.   It  is  unquestionable that  our  school-days,
 whether spent in  school or  street, give bias to the
 whole life; the hurry begun then and there ends in
 nervous disorder, premature age and death.   The ner-
 vous strain under which the school children of this
 generation are working is perfectly fearful, and teach-
 ers are to blame.  I  speak  from experience of a pro-
fession  to  which I  claim  the honor of belonging,
(though possibly  I teach more of rheumatism  than
of rhetoric,) than which there is no calling more hon-
orable; but I am now dealing with  the pathological,
not the physiological, with the morbid, not  the nor-
mal,  condition of things.  It would be a far pleas- 
A PLEA FOR MODERATION.
229
anter task to direct  your attention to the many rare
virtues of the profession; but the dangers of our edu-
cational system demand our attention.  I know of a
class in a high school that within the last three years
have become  almost hopeless invalids in consequence
of the intense  pressure under which they have been
laboring.  Usually, the girls are the first to suffer,
because  they have less outdoor exercise than boys.
In spite of the promotions  and the graduations, the
boys  will have their play, and it proves  their salva-
tion.   Teachers must learn how to conserve the forces
of life.   Instead of sending themselves and their pu-
pils home every night with every atom of  vitality ex-
hausted, they should  always possess  more or less re-
served  power, and teach their pupils how to acquire
and hold the same.  The broken sleep of one night is
not able to make good the loss of the  day, and soon
the  brain declares itself bankrupt.  The teacher of
the future must understand the  mechanics of life and
thought.  Metaphysics have long been diligently in-
vestigated, but one might as well attempt to build  a
cathedral by commencing  at the spire as to attempt
perfect mental  structures by commencing with meta-
physics.  The  amount of work a mind can do  de-
pends directly upon  the kind  and amount  of brain
matter through which that mind works.   There is no
reason, except  ignorance, why one's mental income
can  not be as accurately measured as one's  business
income.  Every one is  conscious when he has over- 
230
APPENDIX.
drawn his bank account; so might every one be con-
scious when he has overdrawn his brain account.  It
takes moral courage to stop just this  side the fatal
step.   Large self-control is needful not to touch a dol-
lar of the principal when  the interest is all used up;
and nothingbut the staunchest self-control, based upon
moral  integrity, can withstand  the fever of excite-
ment which is goading us  on, and robbing this age of
its grandest results.   Moral  truth  and law are ever
found  indispensable to the physical support and pro-
longation of  human life;  herein is a wide departure
of man from the brute; and the  foundations for these
are seldom laid after we are  fairly out  in  the world,
and have begun the struggle for  life.
  Let no student be in haste to get through.  Too many
get through into the grave, or what is worse.  Better
add a  year to the course than  take one from it.  It
does not  add in the least to one's intellectual stature
to look worn-out and spiritual like, and it's no compli-
ment to  the spirits.  Saints who have bodies are the
very best kind of saints.   Let  none be betrayed by
the poetry of "midnight  oil."   That  ancient lamp
will  do for an emblem or a frontispiece, but not for
life.
  Our purpose is accomplished  if any  are persuaded
to find the golden mean which  lies between wearing
out and rusting out.
THE END. 
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PRESENTING LESSONS THAT CHARM THE CHILD OF TWO YEARS; DELIGHT
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disgust the intelligence and well-known quick perception  of children.  It is not merely a
" baby's book"—it is more, being both entertaining and instructive for years of the  life of
the boy or girl.
   When the lesson permits, which is nearly always the case, it is fully illustrated with the
most appropriate and suggestive cuts.

              It Has  Absolutely  No Competitor in the Market.
   Every page shows a rare simplicity in conveying sparkling truths that will elate the lit-
tle child, and edify his nurse, parent or older companion.
   The pictures are all designed and engraved expressly for this book.   The book is given
to the public in the hope that it  may assist  parents  and teachers in the arduous work of
educating the next generation, and will be found of invaluable assistance in the kinder-
garten.
   We invite the attention of Agents to the large number of flattering commendations of
the press.  Papers of the reputation  and ability of those which  here follow, would not
mislead the public or our agents. We confidently believe  that no book issued'during the
 Sast ten years presents the selling qualities of " Mother Truth's Melodies."  The work can
 e sold in connection with any other that  an agent may be interested  in, and will neither
compete nor interfere with such other sales.

                        DESCRIPTION  AND  PRICES.
   "Mother Truth's Melodies" are published in one quarto volume, of nearly  300 pages
printed from clear new type, on fine, tinted, heavy super-calendered paper, made expressly
for this book, and illustrated with nearly four hundred illustrations.   It is bound in the
most substantial and  elegant manner, side stamps in black and gold, of beautiful designs
and is furnished to subscribers at the following prices:                                '

       QUARTO  EDITION.          |            12tno. EDITION.

In English Cloth................$175   In English Cloth................$1 $q
In English Cloth, Gilt Edges .  2 25  \  In English Cloth, Gilt Edges .  2 00

                   SOLD ONLY ON SUBSCRIPTION.
8239 
cois^i^r.EJisrDA.Tioisrs.
Mother   Truth's     Melodies.
   It ifl certainly the best book for children we have ever seen.  We are using it in our
department, and the children are delighted with it.             Mrs. N. S. Welch,
                                             Primary Teacher, Buchanan, Mich.
   I am truly delighted with it; it meets a long-felt want.  The illustrations are numerous
and very fine; the book is a perfect kindergarten.  I do not know of a more charmino- book
for children.                 Hon. L. P. Alden, Supt. State School, Coldwater, Mich.
   It ifl certainly a great improvement on " Mother Goose."
                                      Prof. E. Olney, LL. D., Ann Arbor, Mich.
   I cordially recommend it to all parents as a book with which, not only the children, but
they themselves as well, will be delighted.
               Hon. W. L. Smith, Deputy Supt. of Public Instruction, Lansing, Mich.
   It has a place in children's literature not before occupied.
                                   Mrs. Kendall Brooks, Kalamazoo, Mich.
   It meets our ideal of a nursery and childhood book more nearly than any other that we
have ever seen.              Prof, and Mrs. A. E. Hatnes, Hillsdale (College), Mich.
   We commend the book heartily to all.—Herald of Health.
   This is a very excellent book for the little ones.—New Haven (Conn.) Union.
   It ought to help the nurses to wise living and correct learning.—N. Y. Times.
   Every mother in the land ought to have a copy of this charming book.—Evansville (Ind.)
Journal.
   We commend it to all and invoke a blessing on young "Mother Truth."—Home Visitor,
Chicago.
   The deepest and most intricate truths of science and natural history are presented in
a wonderful simple manner.—Jersey City (N. J.) Journal.
   It contains not one untruth or foolish saying;  it is  a gem of a book.—Boston (Mass.)
Comm issioner.
   We congratulate the author on her success, and shall order many numbers for the use
of our own household and our immediate friends.—Laws of Health, Wemersville, Pa.
   It is the best juvenile work we have ever seen, and needs only to be read to be appre-
ciated and relished.—Grand Rapids (Mich.) Leader.
   Every lover of children and truth will be interested in this charming book; every house
in the land should have  a copy; it will entertain and instruct more  truly and more sen-
sibly than any other book wre ever saw.—Macon (Ga.) Kind Words.
   The illustrations are  profuse and appropriate, and  help materially to make clear the
text to the young mind. It is, on the whole, a happy effort to put into rhyme truths  of value
in after life—Lynn (Mass.)  Transcript.
   Our old friend, little Jack Horner, is here  still, but reformed; the nonsensical, " Hi-
diddle-diddle" of "Mother Goose" becomes exalted into the music of the spheres.—N. Y.
Home Journal.
   It is the latest, handsomest, most instructive and interesting book for children we have
on our table, and as a work of art and merit it surpasses anything of the kind we have ever
seen.  There are not a dozen pages in the work but are alone worth the price of the book.—
Indianapolis (Ind.) Sun.
   This volume will be welcome to conscientious mothers and nurses, as it combines amuse-
ment and instruction for infantile and immature  minds, in  the true kindergarten spirit.
Mothers will enjoy them as lullabies, and the little ones in riper years will have nothing to
unlearn. These first impressions will remain as a ground-work to facilitate their future
education.  It is difficult to conceive, without reading this book, that science and morals
can be made so simple and easy as to be attractive  to the youngest child;  but so it is, and
by it we know that it is as easy for a child to learn and remember that the sun is the " mid-
dle" planet of our solar system, as " the cow jumps over the moon."  What a saving of time
and frictions, when the melodies  of childhood impart lessons in mathematics, astronomy,
botany, chemistry, hygiene, anatomy, ethics and morals—lessons that never have to be un-
learned; foundations of truth that never have to be uprooted.  Surely our friends have
conferred a blessing on humanity, and given a helping hand to kindergarten education.—
Washington (D. C.) Alpha. 
THE   GOSPEL  AWAKENING.

                       Edited by L. T. Remfap.

         ONE LARGE OCTAVO VOLUME.   861  PAGES.

   One large octavo volume, 861 pages, comprising 150 Sermons and Addresses, Prayer-
meeting Talks, Bible Reading and Prayers of the Great Revival Meeting conducted by Moody
and Sankey in Philadelphia, New York, Chicago and Boston, as well as in Great Britain,
with the Proceedings of the Christian Conventions of Ministers and Laymen, from verbatim
reports by our own Phonographer and those of the New York Tribune, Chicago Inter Ocean
and Boston Globe. Also the  Lives of D. L. Moody, I. D. Sankey, P. P. Bliss, Major D. W.
Whittle, Rev. Joseph Cook, George F. Pentecost, and Miss Frances E. Willard.  The work
forms a large Crown  Octavo Volume of 801 closely printed pages.  Sent by mail, postage
paid, on receipt of the price.  This book is equal to 1,800 pages of any $2.00 Moody book
.published. Thirteen Illustrations.  Fifteenth thousand now ready.
    Cloth.................................................................$2  50
    Cloth, Gilt........................................................... 3  OO
    Sheep................................................................. 3  25
          THE   HOME  GUIDE.

  An Encyclopedia of All Things  of Every-Day  Life.

   As an Encyclopaedia of domestic science, we know of no book that approximates to it
tn the fullness of its information.—Chicago Post.
   Its practical, economical and hygienic features will be recognized by every one who
examines its pages.—N. W. Lumberman, Chicago.
   No home can afford to be without this book.—New Covenant, Chicago.
   For a generation to come it will be ranked with the few books which are a blessing to
the home.—Journal, Chicago.
   Especial value to those upon whom devolve the responsibilities of household manage-
ment.—Tribune, Chicago.
   Elegantly illustrated.  522 Octavo pages, 68 illustrations.
     Price.................................................................$2 OO
     Cloth, Gilt........................................................... 3 50
THE   CHILDREN'S    ALBUM.

            An  Illustrated  Book of Objects.

   Contains 2,036 Engravings.  The design of this book is to illustrate clearly to the young
the principal and most common words which admit of being explained by pictures.  Tenth
thousand now ready.
     Bound in Cloth....................................................$1 50 
CEN.  U.  S.  GRANT'S
TOUR    AROUND    THE     WORLD.
                  Edited by L. T. Iiemlap (Palmer).
   Contains a full and accurate description of General Grant's Tour: the receptions, both
public and private, tendered him; addresses of welcome—his responses; his conversations
with public men, and a full description of entertainments, gossip, etc.; also receptions on
the Pacific Coast, and the unprecedented series of receptions at Chicago, November 12th to
30th inclusive.  Elegantly illustrated.  One large quarto volume, 500 pages.  Twentieth
thousand now ready.  The only book on the General's Tour printed in English and Gekman.
    Cloth, Back and Side in Black and Gold....................$2 OO
    Cloth, Gilt Edges, Back and Side in Black and Gold__2 50
    Popular Edition, Paper Cover................................. 1 25
THE   MASQUE   TORN   OFF.

                By T. DeWitt Talmage, D.D.,

Author of " Crumbs Swept Up," "Around the Tea Table," "Abominations of
             Modern Society,'1'' "Sports that Kill,'1'' etc., etc.
   One large Octavo volume of 526 pages, elegantly illustrated with 14 full-page engravings.
Contains the discourses as lately delivered in the Brooklyn Tabernacle—giving Dr. Talmage's
experiences and observations as lately seen by him, in company with two elders of his
church and three high police officials, during their midnight explorations in the haunts of
vice of New York City. They have been revised by him for this work, and are written in
his strongest descriptive powers—sparkling with graceful images and illustrative anecdotes,
terrible in their earnestness, uncompromising in his denunciation of sin and wickedness
wherever found, sparing neither friend nor foe, rich nor poor.  Every page of intense inter-
est.  No one can read this work without taking new interest in the subjects treated.
   The work contains nearly forty chapters—on as many subjects—and are Dr. Tal-
mage's best efforts in his earnest, aggressive warfare upon the foes of society, and the ex-
posure of the traps and pitfalls that beset the youth of our land in every city. He sounds a
note of warning, and points out the only way to escape these pits of darkness and social
and moral ruin. Twenty-fifth edition now ready.
    Cloth.................................................................82 OO
    Cloth, Gilt........................................................... 2 50
    Half Morocco...................................................... 8 50 
                                THE

        PHYSIOLOGY   OF   WOMAN,
                               EMBRACING

 GIRLHOOD, MATERNITY   AND   MATURE  AGE,
                       WITH LECTURES ON
"Co-Education  of  the  Sexes  in Medicine,"  "The  Physiological
        Basis of Education,"  " Temperance  from a Physician's
           Point of  View,"  and  "A Plea for  Moderation,"
       By  SARAH   HACKETT   STEVENSON,  M.  D.,
Adjunct Professor of  Obstetrics,  and late  Professor  of Physiology  in the
                   Woman's  Medical College of Chicago.
    This is an ably written volume of 230 pages, and, as indicated by its title and the name
 of its distinguished author, it is eminently a Woman's Book for Women. The author says
 in her introduction: "'Ignorance is innocence,' is undoubtedly the prevailing sentiment
 tamong women concerning themselves, and even the penalty which ignorance invariably ex-
 acts of woman, does not always open her eyes; because she is taught that it is not only her
r'duty, but her blessed and peculiar privilege to suffer."
    We have full sympathy with a work of this kind. We like her direct way of getting at
 things.—The Medical Counselor, Chicago.
    This is a book peculiarly fitted for mothers.—Northwestern Advocate (Methodist),
 Chicago.
    She has treated her subject with' great thoroughness and delicacy, and made it just such
 a book as should be in the hands of every mother  in the land.—The Advance (Congrega-
 tional), Chicago.
    There is need of this book.—Evening Journal, Chicago.
    Information of the most incalculable worth is contained within its pages.—The Occident,
 Chicago.
    Contains information that is sadly needed.  No  wife or mother, who will read the book
 carefully and thoughtfully, can fail to understand every sentence it contains .—Medical Jour-
 nal and Examiner, Chicago.
    Its style is direct and simple, and entirely  free from medical terms. It is a practical
 work.—Prairie Farmer, Chicago.
    It ought to be read by  every woman in the land. To multiplied thousands it would be
 a gospel of knowledge and good health.—Reformed  Episcopalian, Chicago.
    It is a good common-sense treatise on such subjects as its name suggests.—Daily Tri-
 bune, Chicago.
    When the world grows wiser our wives and daughters will all be instructed  in just such
 knowledge as this book contains.  Again, the appropriateness of learning such facts from
 an educated woman will everywhere be acknowledged as correct.  The present volume is
 not  medical, but only  the wise advice of a woman who, by education and experience  is
 fitted to give it.  It is a good book for careful  study of every young lady, and just as good
 for every mother. Its design is not to make women their own doctors, but to so acquaint
 themselves with the laws of life  and health that they may have vigorous bodies and avoid
 those useful and much-abused members of society, the doctors.—Daily Inter Ocean, Chicago.
    This book is published with a hope of saving the women of the future from the penalty
 Of ignorance concerning themselves—a penalty which untold thousands are suffering.
      Price, in Fine English Cloth,................................91.00.
    Supplied to customers through our canvassers—who are ladies exclusively. 
"AN  AGRICULTURAL  LIBRARY IN  ONE VOLUME."
THE   AMERICAN  FARMER
                 A HAND-BOOK OF AGRICULTURE

        FOR  THE  FARM   AND   GARDEN.

        ONE  LARGE  ROYAL  OCTAVO VOLUME,
Illustrated with  nearly 400  Engravings and IS  full-page  Illustrations.
      FOURTEENTH EDITION RE-EDITED AND REVISED.
    This is the most valuable book for the Agriculturist that has ever been published.  It
contains more useful information in all the Departments of Agriculture than any
othf i volume.  Within the pages of this book will be found much valuable matter that can-
not be found elsewhere, which will command the undivided attention and careful perusal of
al  who are engaged in Agricultural pursuits.
    To^the Farmer, the Gardener, the Horticulturist, and all who desire to combine
Knowledge with System, Labor Saving, and Economy, no matter how large, or how small
and humble the scale of operations may be, this book, if consulted, will pay for itself many
time* over.
    It is a fact, patent to all, that the really prosperous class, as a whole, is the agricultural.
The farmer is demonstrably better off, more independent;  fares better, lodges better, and
gets a better return for his labor than the worker in the city.  We often witness the anomaly
of  thrifty farmers and starving tradesmen.  The country must be fed, and the farmer feeds it.
    Agriculture is an art and a science, the individual the artist; the science consisting in
the combined experience of the most successful men of the present and past ages. To avail
one's self of the benefit of science, the farmer should be a regular  subscriber and constant
reader of agricultural and horticultural periodicals, and a purchaser of the best books bear-
ing upon his business.  His  library should contain agricultural, scientific,  and literary
works; the result will be a model farm, with ample  buildings, and all  the best scientific
helps in agriculture manufactured; his stock the best kept, and of the finest breed, and the
envy of aM.

                       DESCRIPTION AND  PRICES.

    Thb American Farmer is published in one large royal octavo volume, printed from
clear, now type, on fine, heavy, extra calendered paper, made expressly for this book, finely
illustrated with over four hundred engravings, and bound in the most substantial and ele-
gant manner, and furnished to subscribers at the following prices:
     In English Silk Cloth, Sprinkled Edges...................$3 50
     In English Silk Cloth, Gilt Edges............................ 4 OO
     Library Style, Fnll  Leather. Marble Edges................ 4 30 
A  BOOK FOR EVERY HOME.
BRIGHT AfiD  HAPPY HOMES.


     A HOUSEHOLD  GUIDE AND COMPANION.


Containing the choicest treasures of Wisdom, Instruction, Amusement and Devotion,
original  and selected, embracing Marriage, The Home, Husband and Wife, Father and
Mother, The Children, The Government of the Home, The Etiquette of the Home, The
^Esthetics of the Home, Education in the Home, The Home and the School, The Home and
the College, Amusements in the Home, Technical Instructions in the Home, Religion in the
Home, Sickness in the Home, Death in the Home, Home and Heaven.  Also,  a Manual of
Amusing and Interesting Experiments in Chemistry and Natural Philosophy, Fascinating
Arithmetical Questions and Puzzles, Entertaining Games, and  Sleight-of-Hand Performan-
ces for the Play-Room and the Parlor, Instruction for Young People in the Use of Wood-
working Tools, with Specific Directions for making articles of Beauty and Utility.

             By PETER   PARLEY, Jr.
                     WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY

THE RT, REV.  SAMUEL FALLOWS, D.D.
   One Elegantly Illustrated Quarto Volume.—One Thousand Engravings.

   The author of this volume has gleaned from many inviting fields a large portion of the
material for a work which, in many particulars, has  never been attempted before. The
topics under which the accumulated riches of thought and expression have been arranged,
are fruitful in suggestiveness.  They have been sufficiently amplified to make the work a
Thesaurus of Household Wisdom.
   Bishop Fallows well says: " No human names thrill and stir us like the lyric names of
Child, Mother, and Home. None contain such a wealth of affection, or such elements of
tender remembrance.  None bind us so closely to the law of duty, and to the law of love
None bring Heaven so near, and make it so real.  No work, therefore, can be more impor-
tant than an earnest and well-directed effort to make the homes of our country bright and     t
HAPPY."                                                                 ^

                    DESCRIPTION AND PRICES.

   "Bright and  Happy Homes" is published  in one large royal quarto volume, printed
from clear, new type, on fine, tinted, heavy, extra super-calendered paper, made expressly
for this book, finely illustrated and bound in the most substantial and elegant manner, side
stamps in black and gold, of beautiful designs, and furnished to subscribers at the follow-
ing prices:

In English Silk Cloth  Back  and Side, in Black and  Gold,
   Sprinkled Edges.......................................................—$4 50

In English Cloth Back and Side, in Black and Gold, Gilt Edges,  S 25

In Fall Russia, Presentation Edition, Gilt Edges...................  7 50 
 
 

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