The Physical Life of Woman: Advice to the Maiden, Wife and Mother Part 3

Many young women suffer considerable pain during their monthly illness.

This may arise from many different causes, such as, congestion, inflammation, malformation, or a wrong position of the parts, or over-sensitive nerves. They can only be successfully treated when the cause is known; and they may rest a.s.sured that this suffering, in nearly every case, can be removed.

Sometimes a girl grows to the age of eighteen or twenty without having her periodical changes. We have already said that this is not unusual in some climates and in some families; so, as long as the general health is good and the spirits cheerful,--always an important point,--it need cause no anxiety. But if the health grow poor, and especially if there be pains and weakness recurring monthly without discharge, then something is wrong, and the doctor should be consulted.

HYSTERICS.

There is a disease of the nerves to which girls about the age of p.u.b.erty are very subject, particularly in the higher circles of society, where their emotions are over-educated and their organization delicate. It is called hysteria, and more commonly _hysterics_. Frequently it deceives both doctor and friends, and is supposed to be some dangerous complaint.

Often it puts on the symptoms of epilepsy, or heart disease, or consumption. We have witnessed the most frightful convulsions in girls of fourteen or fifteen, which were brought on by this complaint.

Sometimes it injures the mind; and it should always receive prompt and efficient attention, as it is always curable.

This disease is apt to produce a similar affection in other girls of the same age who see the attacks. For this reason, hysterical girls should not be sent to large schools, but cured at home. Often a strong mental impression restores them. The anecdote is told of a celebrated surgeon (Boerhaave) who was called to a female seminary where there was a number of hysterical girls. He summoned them together, heated a number of iron instruments before their eyes, and told them that the first one who had a fit should be cauterized down the spine. They all recovered immediately.

SECRET BAD HABITS.

We now approach a part of our subject which we would gladly omit, did not constant experience admonish us of our duty to speak of it in no uncertain tone. We refer to the disastrous consequences on soul and body to which young girls expose themselves by exciting and indulging morbid pa.s.sions. Years ago, Miss Catherine E. Beecher sounded a note of warning to the mothers of America on this secret vice, which leads their daughters to the grave, the madhouse, or, worse yet, the brothel.

Gladly would we believe that her timely admonition had done away with the necessity for its repet.i.tion. But though we believe such a habit is more rare than many physicians suppose, it certainly exists to a degree that demands attention. Surgeons have recently been forced to devise painful operations to hinder young girls from thus ruining themselves; and we must confess that, in its worst form, it is absolutely incurable.

The results of the constant nervous excitement which this habit produces are bodily weakness, loss of memory, low spirits, distressing nervousness, a capricious appet.i.te, dislike of company and of study, and finally, paralysis, imbecility, or insanity. Let it not be supposed that there are many who suffer thus severely; but, on the other hand, let it be clearly understood that any indulgence whatever in these evil courses is attended with bad effects, especially because they create impure desires and thoughts, which will prepare the girl to be a willing victim to the arts of profligacy. There is no more solemn duty resting on those who have the charge of young females than to protect them against this vice.

But, it is exclaimed, is it not dangerous to tell them anything about it? Such a course is unnecessary. Teach them that any handling of the parts, any indecent language, any impure thought, is degrading and hurtful. See that the servants, nurses, and companions with whom they a.s.sociate are not debased; and recommend scrupulous cleanliness.

If the habit is discovered, do not scold nor whip the child. It is _often_ a result of disease, and induced by a disagreeable local itching. Sometimes this is connected with a disorder of the womb, and very frequently with worms in the bowels. Let the case be submitted to a judicious, skilful medical adviser, and the girl will yet be saved. But do not shut your eyes, and refuse to see this fact when it exists.

Mothers are too often unwilling to entertain for a moment the thought that their daughters are addicted to such a vice, when it is only too plain to the physician.

THE HYGIENE OF p.u.b.eRTY.

Concerning the maladies of p.u.b.erty, we may broadly say, that if we are obliged to have recourse to medicine, it is because we have neglected hygiene. That the period requires a.s.siduous care, we grant; but given that care, drugs will be needless.

In a general way, we have already emphasized the danger of indolence and the benefits of exercise or labor; the perils of exciting the emotions, and the advantages of a placid disposition; the impropriety of premature development, and the wisdom of simplicity and moderation. This is an old story--a thrice-told tale. Let us go more into minutiae.

One of the most frequent causes of disease, about the age of p.u.b.erty, is _starvation_. Many a girl is starved to death. Food is given her, but not of the right quality, or in insufficient quant.i.ty, or at improper hours. The system is not nourished, and, becoming feeble, it is laid open to the attacks of disease, and to no form of disease more readily than to consumption.

To correct this, let the food be varied, simply prepared, and abundant.

Good fresh milk should be used daily, while tea and coffee should be withheld. Fat meats and vegetable oils, generally disliked by girls at this age, are exactly what they need; and were they partaken of more freely, there would be less inquiry at the druggists for cod-liver oil.

A modern writer of eminence lays it down as one of the most common causes of consumption in young people, that just at the age when their physical system is undergoing such important changes, that invaluable article of diet, _milk_, is generally dropped, and nothing equally rich in nitrogen subst.i.tuted in its place.

_Exercise_, whether as games, the skipping rope, croquet, walking, dancing, riding, and calisthenics, or as regular labor, is highly beneficial, especially when it leads one into the fresh air, the suns.h.i.+ne, and the country. A particular kind of exercise is to be recommended for those whose chests are narrow, whose shoulders stoop, and who have a hereditary predisposition to consumption. If it is systematically practised along with other means of health, we would guarantee any child, no matter how many relatives have died of this disease, against its invasion. It is voluntary inspiration. Nothing is more simple. Let her stand erect, throw the shoulders well back, and the hands behind; then let her slowly inhale pure air to the full capacity of the lungs, and retain it a few seconds _by an increased effort_; then it may be slowly exhaled. After one or two natural inspirations, let her repeat the act, and so on for ten or fifteen minutes, twice daily. Not only is this simple procedure a safeguard against consumption, but, in the opinion of some learned physicians, it can even cure it when it has already commenced.

At first the monthly loss of blood exhausts the system. Therefore, plenty of food, plenty of rest, plenty of sleep, are required. That ancient prejudice in favour of early rising should be discarded now, and the girl should retire early, and if she will, should sleep late. Hard study, care, or anxiety should be spared her. This is not the time for rigid discipline.

_Clothing_ is a matter of importance, and, if we were at all sure of attention, there is much we would say of it. The thought seriously troubles us, that so long as women consent to deform themselves and sacrifice their health to false ideas of beauty, it is almost hopeless to urge their fitness for, and their right to a higher life than they now enjoy. No educated painter or sculptor is ignorant of what the model of female beauty is; no fas.h.i.+onable woman is content unless she departs from it as far as possible.

Now beauty implies health, and ugliness of form is attained not only at the expense of aesthetics, but of comfort. The custom of fastening growing girls in tight corsets, of flattening their b.r.e.a.s.t.s with pads, of distorting their feet in small high-heeled shoes, and of teaching them to stoop and mince in gait, is calculated to disgust every observer of good sense and taste, and, what is of more consequence, to render these girls, when they become women, more liable to every species of suffering connected with child-bearing.

The monthly change is the prelude to maternity. On its healthful recurrence depends present comfort and future health; and not these alone, but also happiness in marriage, easy child-beds, and the const.i.tution of children to a degree the thoughtless girl and even the mature woman rarely understand. She, therefore, who neglects the due care of her own condition, violates a duty owed to others as well as herself. We would have mothers impress this on their daughters. Let no mistaken modesty prevent them.

Especially at their commencement should the monthly changes be carefully watched. The mother should prepare her daughter's mind betimes for such an expected incident in her life, thus preventing a useless fright, or the employment of injurious means to stop what the child may look upon as an accident.

Nor should the maternal care cease here. Such tender sympathy should exist on the one side, such trusting confidence on the other, that the mother should acquaint herself with every detail of each recurring period until the function is thoroughly established. She should inquire into the duration of each epoch, the abundance of the discharge, the presence of pain, and its effects on the general health. She should convince herself that all these do not vary from the standards of health we have previously laid down. Or should they do so, she should not delay to use the proper means to bring them to that standard.

Long observation proves that if, during the first two or three years which follow the attainment of p.u.b.erty, the health of the girl is successfully guarded, and this, her most important physical distinction, meets with no derangement, her life-long health is well-nigh secured; but, on the contrary, if she commences her s.e.xual life with pain and disorder, she is likely to be a life-long sufferer.

We are about to approach a topic of vital importance, therefore, in summing up as briefly as may be, the precautions necessary to attain this end. They can most conveniently be divided into those to be observed during the monthly changes, and those more general rules of health to be obeyed in the intervals of the periods.

PRECAUTIONS DURING THE MONTHLY CHANGES.

At the head of all cautions and warnings which we could give about the care of the health at these monthly periods, we put _rest_, _rest_, bodily and mental. _Do less than usual_, we say to all, whether the necessity for it is manifest or not. Over-exertion is a most fruitful cause of disease. Long walks, shopping, dancing, riding, hard work whether for pleasure or profit, should be avoided to the utmost.

The advantages of rest cannot be over-estimated. A striking example of it occurs to our mind. Most readers are aware how toilsome are the lives of the Indian women among our Western tribes, and also how singularly easy and almost painless is their child-bearing. The pangs of travail are almost unknown to them. The cause of this has puzzled even physicians. We can tell them. It is because it is an inviolable, a sacred rule among all those tribes, for the woman, when having her monthly sickness, to drop all work, absent herself from the lodge, and remain in perfect rest as long as the discharge continues.

Traces of this wide-spread custom among primitive people, extended themselves, are discoverable among civilized lands. The famous general council of the Christian Church held at Nice in the fourth century, pa.s.sed a rule disapproving of women coming to church at the times of their menstrual sickness. The cold and dampness of large edifices, the mental excitement and its unfavourable effects and the exertion requisite for long walks to and fro, would justify this rule on purely hygienic grounds, and such may have caused its adoption.

A moderate and uniform temperature favors health at such epochs; while exposure to heat or cold, and the drinking freely of iced water or stimulants should be shunned.

The popular belief that bathing is hurtful, is correct so far as either cold or hot baths are concerned; but it is well to know, in the interests of comfort and cleanliness, that a moderately warm-bath, about 80 Fahr., _will do no injury_. Such a bath can be taken without any hesitation.

We sanction, also, another well-known rule, and that is, that no purgative medicine should be taken immediately before or during the change. If called for by some other disorder, a mild laxative is all that should be administered, unless by the direction of a physician.

PRECAUTIONS IN THE INTERVALS OF THE MONTHLY CHANGES.

If girls suffer from irregularities in this respect, the causes can generally be found either in some affection threatening the general health, such as scrofula, consumption, green sickness, etc., or else in their mode of life. For the former, the family physician must be consulted; but if it is the latter which is at fault, the remedy is in the hands of the parents.

Boarding-school life, city life, mental troubles--these are the three fertile sources of disturbances in the s.e.xual functions of girlhood.

No one rates at higher value than ourselves the training of the mind; but we do not hesitate a moment to urge that if perturbations of the functions become at all marked in a girl at school, she should be _taken away_. Better live at home in seeming idleness a year at that time of life, than become a dead-weight, through constant ill health, on her husband in after life.

So of the unwholesome excitement of a city life. There is a poison in crowds, and it acts in a thousand unseen ways. With the ceaseless noise, the broken sleep, the late hours, the impure air, and the nervous tension which all these produce, it requires no strength of imagination to perceive that the city is not the best place for the delicate girl.

We have mentioned _mental troubles_. Perhaps there are, among those who read this, some superficial enough to smile at the possibility of serious mental troubles in girlhood. There are, we know, many unfeeling enough to give them no attention when they do see them. But we have an unfailing witness in the sympathetic heart of the mother. She has not forgotten how bitter were the crosses of her own younger years; she knows that the sensitive soul of woman wakes early to the keenest appreciation of grief as well as joy. If anything, years blunt us, and the sorrows of youth are often the bitterest of our lives.

Let the mother, therefore, read with her wondrous maternal instinct the trials of her daughter; let her become her most intimate confidant, and pour upon the wounded spirit that balm which none but a woman, and that woman a mother, knows how to apply. Such a relations.h.i.+p of mother and daughter is no less natural and wholesome than it is beautiful.

WHEN THE CHANGES ARE DELAYED.

In health an equal interval, or one nearly equal, elapses between the monthly illnesses. Often in the spring, however, their appearance antic.i.p.ates the expected date of their occurrence, and in the autumn they are frequently a day or two late. These variations are owing to the temperature, heat accelerating and cold r.e.t.a.r.ding the process of ovulation.

Such slight irregularities need not give rise to anxiety; but if there is an unwonted delay, combined with other symptoms of ill-health, as headache, pain in the side and back, a sense of languor and exhaustion, loss of appet.i.te, and nausea, and fitful sleep, then it is important that some steps be taken to bring on the courses. For this purpose, soaking the feet in hot-mustard water, a tumbler of hot ginger or camomile-tea, a brisk walk, or a gentle laxative will generally be found sufficient. Gently kneading the lower abdomen and loins is a familiar, and if intelligently done, a safe means for the same purpose.

More violent means than these should be eschewed. Whichever are used subsequent to their employment, rest, in a rec.u.mbent position, in a warm room should be secured.