Anna M. Galbraith

“ Further, with our present knowledge of the certain suffering, disease, and death that are bred by ignorance of all these subjects, it is little less than criminal to allow girls to reach the age of puberty without the slightest knowledge of the menstrual function; young women to be married in total ignorance of the ethics of married life; women to become mothers without any conception of the duties of motherhood; other women, as the time approaches, to live in dread apprehension of "the change of life;" and many women unnecessarily to succumb to disease at this time. ”

“ Indigestion.— The chief causes of indigestion are: eating rapidly, eating at irregular hours, eating indigestible foods, constipation, and lack of exercise. No one who values her good health will allow herself to be hurried through a meal, nor will she allow the perplexities of life to be thrust upon her at the table for solution. The first requisite for the digestion of foods is that they should be well masticated, so that the digestive fluids may act on the finely divided particles to the greatest possible advantage. ”

“ Further, if the hymen was intended as a guarantee of moral character, and for moral protection, either of man or woman, would we not have some reason for reflecting on the wisdom and righteousness of a Creator who has failed to make equal provision, and to give a like guarantee of an uncorrupted manhood? As physicians, we know too well that where one woman enters the marriage relation tainted in body there are thousands of men reeking with disease; and there is no demonstrable test to distinguish these, no proof for the young woman of the virginity or virtue of the young man. ”

“ Cancer always begins as a local disease, and when it occurs in the uterus, it is easily accessible and eradicable in its earliest stages; that is, if the disease is discovered in its incipiency, an operation will remove all the diseased tissue. If, on the contrary, the disease is left to nature, the growth spreads out into the surrounding viscera like the roots of a tree in the earth, and the cancer may be literally said to eat into the tissues which it invades. At the same time the germs of the disease begin to be carried all through the body, and the entire constitution is affected. ”

“ Education is the instruction of the intellect in the laws of nature, under which I include not only things and their forces, but men and their ways; and the fashioning of their affections and of the will into an earnest and living desire to move in harmony with these laws. ”

“ Lactation.— If it is at all possible, every mother should nurse her own child; in the interests of both the mother and the child. So far as the mother is concerned, the process of lactation is beneficial because it hastens the return of the uterus to its normal size. Wet-nurses are known tyrants, and if the quality of the milk has anything to do with the disposition of the child, as is believed to be the case, the idea is distasteful of having a woman who belongs to the lower classes provide nourishment for your child; and artificial feeding is one unmitigated trouble. ”

“ In the lower animals the brain is simply the great nerve-center which, with its prolongation the spinal cord, presides over all the functions of life which differentiate the animal from the vegetable. In the human being the brain is much more highly developed and complicated; and is, in addition, the seat of the mind, the intellect, and the affections. Like all the other tissues of the body, the brain receives its nourishment from the blood-vessels which pass through it, and its healthy maintenance is in a direct ratio to the condition of its blood-supply. ”

“ The woman who exhausts herself physically and financially on the preparation of her trousseau and her wedding does her husband a wrong by bringing him a wife who is on the verge of nervous prostration. ”

“ A most important part of an education is the knowledge of how to procure the most perfect development of the body possible, and how to maintain the health. This has not been touched upon here, since the outlines for the general physical education have already been given in "Hygiene and Physical Culture for Women,"* and the present volume concerns itself only with the four critical epochs of woman's life. ”

“ Third, those who hold that sexual intercourse is a physical necessity for the man, but not for the woman.
The first theory, "that the sexual relations should never be sustained save for the purpose of procreation," has many advocates. They teach that there are other uses for the procreative element than the generation of offspring, and far better uses than its waste in pleasures. They claim that a life of total chastity increases the physical and mental vigor; and there will result a procreation on the mental and spiritual planes, instead of on the physical ones. ”

“ Each metamorphic or developmental period of life— dentition, puberty, and the menopause— throws a special strain on the nervous system, and the recent studies of the sympathetic nervous system at the time of the menopause show that very extensive anatomic changes occur at this time. That being the case, the woman must lead such a life as will insure her having on hand a large reserve force necessary to meet these heavy demands. Tilt's observations show that women who have experienced no suffering at puberty or, at the menstrual periods do not suffer at the menopause. ”

“ The secret of a happy married life depends to no small extent on the very beginning: the relation is so entirely new, and much lies hidden in the character of each that was never suspected by the other. ”

“ Furst believes that the differentiation may occur before, during, and a little while after the impregnation; that the chances of the development of one or another sex in one and the same woman may vary before final differentiation occurs. It is impossible to determine the sex of the embryo before the tenth week of fetal life. The cause of the differentiation, he believes, lies largely in the good or bad state of the health of the parents; in the first instance there being an excess of females, and in the latter an excess of males, relatively speaking. ”

“ The purpose of menstruation is to keep the uterus in suitable condition for the reception of this product of conception at any time. It is now known that the menstrual flow is not the whole of menstruation, and that the changes going on in the uterus are almost as continuous as the process of digestion. The whole of the reproductive life of woman has been divided into cycles of twenty-eight days each ”

“ The Best Age for Marriage.— The reproductive life begins with puberty, but maturity is not reached before the age of twenty-one. It is only then that the standard of development is reached that is most compatible with the successful bearing of the grave responsibilities of wifehood and motherhood. The too early exercise of the reproductive functions leads to increased suffering on the part of the mother, depresses her vitality, and increases her liability to disease. Statistics show that the mortality is very much greater where girls marry under twenty years of age. ”

“ This man, accustomed all his life to gratify his sexual passions promisculously, marries a virtuous young girl. In her menstrual periods she has had to do only with the secondary phenomena; with the expulsion of the ova not at all. She has had no instruction in the corresponding physiologic life of the man, and is astonished at the male sexual indications, and is led to believe in their physiologic necessities. The result is that she not only suffers physically, but feels outraged and disgraced. She is liable to the chance of maternity at any time; and such offspring will probably be sickly. ”

“ Gonorrhea often prevents conception by the inflammation traveling up the womb, and along the Fallopian tubes to the ovaries, whose covering is rendered thick and dense, so that the ovum cannot escape, or if it does, the fimbriated end of the tube is so agglutinated that it cannot grasp the ovum.
Alcoholism is considered a cause of sterility. It evidently does diminish the sexual potency in the male, and for this the female is often blamed.
It does not follow because a woman has not given birth to a child that she has not conceived. ”

“ Before she is employed the wet-nurse should always be carefully examined by a physician to insure her freedom from disease. The best age is between twenty and thirty years, and the age of the child of the nurse should be at least within a month of that of the child to be nursed. The best sign of the good health of the nurse and of the condition of her milk is furnished by the health of her own child. The breasts should be well formed and the nipple of good shape. It is well, if possible, to get a woman who has borne several children, as she will understand the care of the child better. ”

“ In normal pregnancy there is some congestion of the kidneys; where there is actual disease of the kidneys prior to the pregnancy, this congestion is apt to become so severe as to threaten the woman's life. These organic diseases are not to be confounded with functional diseases which are dependent on some other cause; as palpitation of the heart due to indigestion, or heart murmurs dependent on the thin state of the blood, or congestion of the kidneys due to exposure to cold;— all of which may be cured by proper treatment. ”

“ The woman who risks her happiness with a man many years younger than herself violates a precept of nature.
The average stature of the man is about three inches greater than that of the woman, and in the physiologic marriage any great deviation from this should be avoided.
The essentials for a happy marriage may be summed up as follows: that the parties shall be of suitable age; that they shall be physically well mated and in full sympathy with each other's views of life, of the same social position, and of equal education. ”

“ If the woman is suffering from a uterine hemorrhage, have her take at once a hot vaginal douche, from 118° to 120° F., and have the foot of the bed raised. The head should always be kept low.
Women hold their health in their own hands to a far greater extent than they have ever dreamed of; and if the majority of women suffer, it is very often their own fault, either because they have disregarded nearly every law of health, or have allowed trivial ailments to go on until they were almost incurable. ”

“ Hygiene of Pregnancy.— The health and perfection of the child depend largely upon the health and perfection of the parents at the time of its conception, as well as upon the condition of the mother during the pregnancy. Even when both parents possess a strong constitution, but one or both of them is suffering from a temporary exhaustion or malaise, the child will be born below the standard of health it ought to possess. Children born during the first year of married life seldom equal in health the children born of the same parents later ”

“ Constipation.— Constipation is the rule with the average American woman; the causes are their corsets, the tight bands of their clothing, lack of exercise, and the fact that they drink too little water and too much tea. The most rational means to overcome it is to drink more water; at least three pints a day should be taken, in addition to soups, tea and coffee, and so forth; the water must be taken into the system as such. Then attention must be given to the diet; plenty of fruit should be eaten, vegetables, and coarse bread. ”

“ IT has been well said that the bulwarks of a nation are the mothers. Any contribution to the physical, and hence the mental, perfection of woman should be welcomed alike by her own sex, by the thoughtful citizen, by the political economist, and by the hygienist. ”

“ The life of an infant for a long time after birth is a frail one, and before birth its existence is extremely precarious; it often perishes a few days after conception. A period coming on a few days late, and at the same time one which is unusually profuse, is the only evidence which the young wife may have of an abortion. Among prostitutes, the frequent delay of menstruation, then abundant hemorrhage, is in many cases only habitual abortion, and leads to changes in the generative organs which must result in sterility. ”

“ The majority of women patients say that they first used alcohol in the shape of whisky, brandy or gin to relieve pain at the time of the menstrual period. The pain that is caused at this time by a chilling of the body would be as effectually relieved by drinking a cup of hot tea; while if the pain is intense and constant, recurring every month, it is doubtless caused by some local inflammation, and the use of alcohol only veils the real trouble, and the woman loses valuable time by not consulting a physician at once. ”

“ Fainting.— Fainting may be due to a weak heart, to heart disease, or to sudden shock, as on receiving a bad piece of news; during pregnancy the close air of a room may cause a woman to faint. The first thing to be done is to lay the woman down on the floor or bed with nothing under her head; loosen all her clothes about the neck and waist, and throw the windows open so that she will get plenty of fresh air. If she is able to drink, give her one teaspoonful of aromatic spirits of ammonia in four tablespoonfuls of cold water. ”

“ Her children have passed the age when they need her constant supervision, and the mother must take some relaxation from her home cares, in the form of social diversions, amusements, outdoor life, and change of scene. Any mental occupation that will take the woman out of herself is the best possible safeguard against a state of introspection which conjures up a host of evil fantasies, and which is the first step in the downward road to a fixed and permanent melancholia. ”

“ A chief feature characteristic of uterine disease is malnutrition from atrophy— a sudden curtailing of the blood-supply from the degeneration of the genital-nerve apparatus and consequent impaired vitality of tissue from defective nourishment. The anatomic changes in the glands and substance of the uterus also favor the irritation, and the development of new growths, which may be malignant or benign— as cancers, fibroid growths, and so forth. ”

“ During the second two weeks the patient may be allowed to divide her time between the bed and the couch; in the latter part of this time she may be allowed to go around her room a very little; and for two weeks more she should remain on the same floor. The first sitting up should not last more than half an hour. Getting up and going around too soon after the confinement, "being too smart," is one of the most prolific sources of falling of the womb, and all manner of uterine trouble, by which the general health of the woman is greatly impaired. ”

“ Nature makes no such egregious blunders; preparations for every change in life have been going on for a very long time before the evidences of such change become manifest.
In a healthy girl the psychic and physical changes incident to puberty occur so gradually as to escape the girl's own notice. The first and, if the girl has not been properly prepared for it, always startling change is the appearance of the menstrual flow. The mother who has not told her daughter of this coming change in her life before it is due has committed a serious error ”