The Four Epochs of Woman's Life E-Book

Anna M. Galbraith

• Herausgeber: Seltzer Books
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Seitenzahl: 248

Beschreibung

Vintage women's health book, first published around 1920. Dated information, of interest for historical reasons. "Perfect health is essential to perfect happiness. The greater the knowledge of the laws of nature, and the more closely these laws are lived up to, so much nearer "ideal" will be the health and happiness of the individual. Hence the necessity that these same laws should be as familiar to the adult man and woman as the alphabet. 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."

Leseprobe

THE FOUR EPOCHS OF WOMAN'S LIFE, A STUDY IN HYGIENE BY ANNA M. GALBRAITH, M.D.

Author of "Hygiene and Physical Culture for Women"; Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine ; Ex-President of the Alumnae Association, Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania; Attending Physician, Neorological Department, New York Orthopedic Hospstal and Dispensary.

Published by Seltzer Books

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Women of Early Christiantity by Brittain

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Women of England by James

Great Women by Lord

Women of America by Larus

The Women of Tomorrow by Hard

The Wit of Women by Sanborn

In Defense of Women by Mencken

The Subjection of Women by Mill

The Four Epochs of Woman's Life by Galbraith

WITH AN INTRODUCTORY NOTE BY JOHN H. MUSSER, M.D.

Late Professor of Clinical Medicine, University of Pennsylvania.

 "As in a building

Stone rests on stone, and wanting the foundation

All would be wanting, so in human life

Each action rests on the foregoing event

That made it possible, but is forgotten

And buried in the earth."

-- LONGFELLOW.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

INTRODUCTION. - EDUCATION AS THE CONTROLLING FACTOR IN THE PHYSICAL LIFE OF WOMAN.

PART I.-- MAIDENHOOD.

CHAPTER I. PUBERTY.

CHAPTER II. HYGIENE OF PUBERTY.

CHAPTER III. ANATOMY OF THE GENERATIVE ORGANS.

CHAPTER IV.  PHYSIOLOGY OF THE FEMALE GENERATIVE ORGANS.

CHAPTER V. THE ANOMALIES OF MENSTRUATION.

CHAPTER VI. THE MARRIAGE QUESTION.

PART II.-- MARRIAGE.

CHAPTER VII. THE ETHICS OF MARRIED LIFE.

CHAPTER VIII. SEXUAL INSINCT IN WOMEN.

CHAPTER IX. STERILITY.

PART III.-- MATERNITY.

CHAPTER X. PREGNANCY.

CHAPTER XI. THE CONFINEMENT.

CHAPTER XII. LYING-IN.

CHAPTER XIII. THE NEW-BORN INFANT.

PART IV.-- THE MENOPAUSE.

CHAPTER XIV. THE MENOPAUSE.

CHAPTER XV. HYGIENE OF THE MENOPAUSE.

CHAPTER XVI. HINTS FOR HOME TREATMENT

GLOSSARY.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

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. Observation of the truths, expressed in a modest, pleasing, and conclusive manner, in the essay of Dr. Galbraith contribute to this end. These truths should be known by every woman, and I gladly commend the essay to their thoughtful consideration.

JOHN H. MUSSER, M.D.,

Late Professer of Clinical Medicine

in the University of Pennsylvania.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

 THE author takes this opportunity to thank the medical profession and the laity for the very cordial reception which has been tendered the first edition of this small volume.

The necessity for the use of technical expressions in a book written expressly for the laity must always be a matter of regret. And only those who have attempted to write a similar work can fully appreciate the truth of Herbert Spencer's remark, that "Nothing is so difficult as to write an elementary book on scientific subjects."

The author has added to this edition a section on "The Hygiene of

Puberty," one on "Hemorrhage at the Menopause a Significant Symptom of

Cancer," and one on "The Hygiene of the Menopause."

ANNA M. GALBRAITH.

15 WEST NINETY-FIRST STREET, NEW YORK.

 PREFACE.

 "Ignorance is the curse of God;

Knowledge, the wings wherewith we fly to heaven."

-- "Henry VI."

PERFECT health is essential to perfect happiness. The greater the knowledge of the laws of nature, and the more closely these laws are lived up to, so much nearer "ideal" will be the health and happiness of the individual. Hence the necessity that these same laws should be as familiar to the adult man and woman as the alphabet. 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.

The masses of women have at last awakened to a sense of the awful penalties which they have paid for their ignorance of all those laws of nature which govern their physical being, and to feel keenly the necessity for instruction at least in the fundamental principles which underlie the various epochs of their lives; and it is in response to a widespread demand that this small volume has been written.

This is preeminently the day of preventive medicine; and the physician who can prevent the origin of disease is a greater benefactor than the one who can lessen the mortality or suffering after the disease has occurred.

ANNA M. GALBRAITH.

 15 WEST NINETY-FIRST STREET, NEW YORK.

INTRODUCTION. - EDUCATION AS THE CONTROLLING FACTOR IN THE PHYSICAL LIFE OF WOMAN.

 Huxley's Definition of Education; the Correlation of Mind and Body; the Emotional Nature; Age for Going to School; the Effect of the Study of tuse Scientific Branches; Industrial Education.

"What is man,

If his chief good, and market of his time,

Be but to sleep and feed? A beast; no more.

Sure, He that made us with such large discourse,

Looking before and after, gave us not

That capability and godlike reason

To fust in us unused."

-- "Hamlet."

THE word education is here used in its broadest sense, and is meant to include the physical, mental, intellectual, and industrial. Huxley's definition is as follows: "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. That man, I think, has had a liberal education who has been so trained in his youth that his body is the ready servant of his will, and does with ease and pleasure all the work that, as a mechanism, it is capable of; whose intellect is a clear, cold, logic engine, to be turned to any kind of work, to spin the gossamers as well as to forge the anchors of the mind; whose mind is stored with the great and fundamental truths of nature and the laws of her operations; one whose passions are trained to come to heel by a vigorous will, the servant of a tender conscience; one who has learned to love all beauty, whether of nature or of art, to hate all vileness, and to respect others as himself."

The Correlation of Mind and Body.-- It is of the utmost importance that the mutual reaction of mind and body upon each other should be thoroughly understood. This reaction is so constant, so intricate, and so complex that it is at times difficult to say which is cause and which effect. Does the depressed state of the mind cause the indigestion, or is a torpid liver the real seat of the melancholia?

The brain is the most delicately constructed organ in the entire body. 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.

A most interesting psychologic study is found in the case of cerebral paralysis of young children, where there is mental defect amounting to stupidity or imbecility, accompanied by extensive paralysis of the body, so that the child is not able to sit up. With the gradual improvement of the physical condition, so that the muscles become firm and the child can sit, stand, and even walk, there is a corresponding mental development; from being stupid and dull, the expression of the face brightens and becomes intelligent; the child talks quite as well as other children of its age, and sometimes becomes really intellectually precocious. Here we see the development of the brain as a direct result of the improved physical condition. In certain cases of insanity, on the contrary, we find that the wasting away of the body results from the disease of the brain, i. e., the disease of the brain has wrought the wreck of the body.

From these pathologic studies, or studies of how the diseased state of the brain and body may be overcome by physical development, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, how the healthy body may be wrecked by disease of the brain, we will turn to a consideration of the effect of the development of the mind and intellect upon the physical health.

On a girl's entering Vassar College an exact and detailed physical examination is made by the resident physician, a health record is kept during her stay there, and at the time of her graduation a final physical examination is made. As a result of these statistics Dr. Thelberg says: "These statistics, now covering a number of years, show that not only can girls profitably take a college education, that is accomplished; but will prove that grave physical imperfections can be corrected in the period between eighteen and twenty-two years of age, coincidently with the development of the mind along the lines of college work; the college work, if not excessive in amount, being a real and most important factor in the physical development."

But a still more striking proof can be cited of the beneficial result of mental and intellectual occupation upon the bodily health. At Vassar a great deal of attention is very properly paid to general hygiene and the physical development, in addition to the natural advantages of outdoor life in the country.

Take, for example, a woman's medical college located in the city: the four years' course places the greatest strain on both mind and body; practically no time is left for recreation, and very much too little time is spent in sleep; the amount of exercise taken is the minimum. Yet in spite of all these disadvantages under which the young women labor, a great many of them who enter far below par in health, or, indeed, on the fair road to become chronic invalids, graduate very greatly improved in health.

The Emotional Nature.-- Formerly much more than now, owing to the defective methods of her education and mode of life, the emotional nature of woman was allowed to run riot. The child was coddled; the girl was allowed to grow up without any of the discipline which young men receive in their college and business life, and little or no attention was paid to her physical development. The woman naturally became a bundle of nerves, highly irritable, unreasonable, and hysterical. All this reacted in the most detrimental manner upon her physical health.

The seed for much of this emotional hyperesthesia is sown in childhood. From birth until the end of the eighth year should be one grand holiday. During this time the child develops very rapidly, especially during the first two years of life. And at the end of the eighth year the brain has attained to within a few ounces of its full weight. The muscular system has been developed together with the coordination of motion. The child has learned to use a language fairly well; she has developed an excellent memory and is most inquisitive and acquisitive.

Another method for undermining the healthy tone of the nervous system is the intricate dances taught very young children and then placing them on public exhibition, where they are wrought up to the highest pitch. From a purely medical standpoint, children under eight years of age should not be allowed to take dancing lessons. After this age a moderate amount of dancing in a well-ventilated room is good exercise.

Children's parties belong in the same category, and, on account of the injurious effects on the nervous system, should be tabooed. They are too exciting, and cause an overstimulation of the nervous system and a precocious childhood and puberty.

Instead of rearing an oversensitive hot - house plant that must be fragile in the extreme, strive to rear a sturdy plant that can hold its own amid the storms. The child should spend as much of its life as possible in the open air, and in the warm months live out-of-doors. City children should be taken to the seashore or country to spend several months every summer. Together with outdoor sports, gymnastics adapted to the age of the child should be begun early and continued throughout life. Good muscular development is attended with good digestion and a well-balanced nervous system.

Until after the twelfth year there should be absolutely no difference between the physical, mental, or industrial education of girls and boys. And, still further, they should be encouraged to have their sports together; this will improve the girls physically and broaden them mentally, and will do a great deal to take the rough edges off the boys. After this age it will be wise to allow slight barriers to grow up, without calling the attention of any one to the fact, that will cause the companionship to be less free and unrestrained.

Age for Going to School.-- Although the child may be allowed to go to kindergarten long before this time, it should not be allowed to enter the school-room before eight years of age. And from eight to twelve years, not more than four hours a day should be spent in study. After this time it may be put down more closely to intellectual work; but no more mental work should be required than will enable the girl to enter college at eighteen. And eighteen years of age is as young as any girl should be allowed to go to college; after this age the mind is more matured and acquires knowledge more easily than before, while the development of the body is less rapid. The physical system has become more stable. The literature indulged in by girls under eighteen years of age should be most carefully selected.

The Effect of the Study of the Scientific Branches.-- A knowledge of the laws of nature is essential to health; hence the necessity for the study of the natural sciences-- anatomy, physiology, chemistry, physics, and zoology. Aside from the intrinsic value of this knowledge, it is almost universally conceded that these studies develop the judgment; and no one will have the temerity to deny that a lack of judgment must undermine the health as well as the success and happiness of the individual.

Industrial Education.-- When it is considered how intimate are the relations between the physical and the psychic states, and how often the psychic condition leads to actual disease, and that often of the most incurable type, it needs no demonstration that a mental occupation which will take the woman out of herself is a physical necessity. Therefore when the girl has reached the subjective limit of her intellectual education,-- that is, when she has reached the limit of her capacity or taste,-- it is essential to her physical well-being that she should turn her attention to some industrial occupation. This may be housekeeping or any other occupation for which she has taste or talent. A healthy mental occupation is an absolute necessity to prevent the individual from becoming self-centered. And to become self-centered is the first step on the certain road to chronic invalidism.

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.

With this broad view of an education, as a means to procure the best physique possible; a mind disciplined to meet to the greatest advantage all the vicissitudes of life; an intellect developed along the lines of its greatest possibilities; and an occupation chosen in accordance with the tastes and talents of the individual; it becomes an incontrovertible fact that the education is the controlling factor in the physical life of every woman.

"Be not simply good; be good for something."

THOREAU.

* By Anna M. Galbraith, M. D.; published by Dodd, Mead & Co.

PART I.-- MAIDENHOOD.

CHAPTER I. PUBERTY.

 Sexual Development; Age of Puberty; Physical Changes at Puberty; First Onset of Menstruation; Psychic Changes at Puberty.

"Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control,

These three alone lead life to sovereign power."

-- "OEnone."

Sexual Development.-- Sexual development goes on during all the years of childhood, but is not complete in the female sex until between the twenty-second and the twenty-fifth year. If the child has no inherited taint, and has been properly educated morally, physically, and intellectually, it must follow that the structural development of the pelvic organs has been normal; and normal organs always perform their functions perfectly.

The commencement of the ovarian function does not cause any more profound change in the system and habits than does dentition. The various epochs of life are generally spoken of as if they were paroxysmal-- as though they were separated by some tremendous chasm, which had to be leapt over or fallen into. 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; it is no uncommon occurrence for girls who know nothing of this function to get into a tub of cold water to stop the flow; and if they stay in long enough, it generally does stop, and the girl's health may be ruined for life.

The opinion of Dr. Ely van de Warker is that "if healthy ovulation is the outcome of healthy childhood, the function will obey the law of periodicity year by year, and all this time the young woman will be able to sustain uninterrupted physical and intellectual work as well as the young man. Not that the laws of health may be violated with impunity at puberty or any other time of a woman's life; but a law of health is no more binding upon a young woman than it is upon a young man; and there really is no such thing as one law for women and another for men."

Age of Puberty.-- In the temperate regions the age of puberty is reached between the ages of twelve and fourteen years. The girl is then said to be nubile; that is, as soon as menstruation appears it is possible for her to bear children; but she is by no means sufficiently developed to do so, as she herself will not be completely developed physically or mentally before the age of twenty-two or twenty-five years.

Physical Changes at Puberty.-- The physical changes that gradually take place, beginning at the time of puberty, are: the breasts, pelvis, and neck enlarge; hair develops over the pubis and in the arm-pits; the voice alters. As a rule, women continue to grow in stature until the twenty-fifth year. It is said that brunettes develop sooner than blondes, and that large women develop more slowly than women of small stature; city girls develop younger than girls brought up in the country. Whatever stimulates the emotions causes a premature development of the sexual organs; as children's parties, late hours, sensational novels, loose stories, the drama and the ball-room, talk of beaux, of love and marriage, and children being surrounded with the atmosphere of riper years. It is generally believed that early stimulation of the sexual instincts leads to the premature establishment of puberty, as do also spiced foods and alcoholic beverages.

First Onset of Menstruation.-- Sometimes the first menstrual discharge appears suddenly, lasts for a few days, and then stops; it may appear after an interval of two or three weeks, or not for several months. If for several months the flow appears at the regular time, and the quantity is about the same as the first, the menstrual habit may be said to be established. The mode of onset varies considerably within the limits of health. So long as the general health remains good, no anxiety need be felt in regard to the establishment of the menstrual function.

In other cases there may be a discharge of blood at the first period, and none afterward for several months; in other words, menstruation may be established suddenly, intermittently, or gradually. It must be remembered that certain pathologic conditions cause many disturbances connected with the onset of puberty.

Psychic Changes at Puberty.-- The angular, gawky feeling gradually disappears; the girl becomes self-conscious; new impulses arise, and she gives up many of the hoydenish ways of childhood. The girl's imagination is more lively, and just at this time mathematics form an excellent subject for mental occupation. The girl now begins to question the whys and wherefores, and demands reasons for the course that is laid out for her, and is full of ideas of her own; so that while as a child she had accepted almost unquestioningly the commands of her parents, she can be managed now only through the power of reason. And this is just as it should be, for the girl has reached the years of discretion, and now is the time when her reason and judgment are capable of rapid cultivation.

  CHAPTER II. HYGIENE OF PUBERTY.

 Home Life; Corsets; Shoes; Underwear; Nutrition; Diet; Water; Constipation; School Life; Spinal Curvature; Exercise; Walking; Running.

"Every man is the architect of his own fortune."

PSEUDO-SALLUST.

Home Life.-- With beginning menstruation the equilibrium of the body is very easily disturbed, so that even in the case of the healthy girl some precautions should be taken and a rational regime should be adhered to; while in the case of the delicate girl a still more careful attention will have to be directed toward her weak points, in order that she may develop into a healthy woman.

For every girl at this time of life home is preeminently the place; so that she may not only have the benefit of a mother's watchful care, but also lead a life as free from conventionalities and as much in the open air as possible. No girl should be sent away to school at this period of rapid growth and development; nor should girls of the working classes, when it can possibly be avoided, be sent out to fill positions as clerks in illy ventilated stores, in factories, or as domestics. If a girl can be kept at home until she is eighteen years old, she will be a much stronger, healthier woman than would otherwise be possible.

Corsets.-- At this period of life it is particularly necessary that the clothing should be warm and at the same time sufficiently loose to prevent the constriction of any part of the body. And whatever the adult woman may elect to do in the matter of wearing corsets herself, she does her young daughter an irreparable injury by constricting and moulding her growing body in these corset-splints. Corsets placed on the young girl interfere with the functions of circulation, respiration, digestion, and of the pelvic organs, also with muscular development. In addition to all this, the girl is handicapped in taking all outdoor exercises and athletic sports.

The lungs, heart, and great blood-vessels are placed in and completely fill an air-tight, distensiblecage, which is most distensible at its base.

The least chest girth of the adult woman-- that is, the under-arm girth around the chest-- that is consistent with health is twenty-eight inches; and this girth must be enlarged three inches in forced inspiration. In ordinary respiration the waist expansion should be one-half to one inch, while during great muscular activity it should be from one and a half to three or four inches. One-third of the lungs lie below the point of beginning corset pressure, so that with tight corsets this amount of lung substance must be more or less useless.

It is self-evident that any restriction placed about the waist, by preventing the full expansion of the ribs and the descent of the diaphragm, will further embarrass the heart's action by diminishing the amount of room it has to work in, at the same time that it diminishes the amount of oxygen which is inspired. Fresh air is by far the most important part of the daily food. It is in the lungs that the blood throws off its carbonic acid and other impurities; but it is able to do this only when the lungs are supplied with an abundance of oxygen. Every inch which a woman adds to her chest measure adds to the measure of her days.

Great physical injury has followed women playing lawn-tennis while tightly corseted. And although dancing is a much milder exercise, since it frequently takes place in an overheated and poorly ventilated room, fatal results occasionally occur from the same cause.

Standing erect calls into action almost all the muscles of the trunk, neck, and lower extremities. So long as the line of gravity falls within the area of the feet, the muscular effort required is so slight that it is little more than the tonicity contained in all living muscle. The greater the displacement of the line of gravity, the greater the muscular effort required to maintain the equilibrium of the body. Up to a certain extent, exercising the muscle develops the strength and size of the muscle. On the other hand, when a muscle within the body is unused, it wastes; when used within certain limits, it grows. But when the corset splint is applied to the body of the young girl, it supplants the functions of the abdominal and back muscles, which is to hold the trunk erect, and these muscles gradually grow weak and waste. And so the liability to the various spinal curvatures is increased.

The original object of the corset was to give greater prominence to the hips and abdomen. But fashions change! In "the French figure" or straight-front corset now in vogue the pelvis is tilted forward, producing a sinking in of the abdomen and a marked prominence of the hips and sacrum, necessitating a compensatory curve of the spine which increases the curvature forward at the small of the back-- a deformity which, a few years ago, women were going to orthopedic surgeons to have corrected. In this attitude the line passing through the centre of gravity strikes the heels, the knees are hyper-extended, and the muscles of the calves and thighs are rendered tense.

By interfering with the muscular development and digestion, the girl is very apt to become angular, flat-chested, anemic, and to have a muddy complexion. And so the corset really defeats the object for which it was put on-- that of giving the girl a good figure and enhancing her beauty.

There is no objection to girls wearing any of the various forms of hygienic waists now on the market.

Shoes.-- The feet are the part of the body to come in contact with the greatest degree of cold, whether on the floor of the house or the pavement of the street. Hence it is a matter of prime importance to the entire body that the feet should be properly clad.

The thick-soled, flat-heeled shoes which became popular with bicycling and golf are most hygienic, and it is highly desirable that this style of shoe should be adhered to for outdoor exercise.

Underwear.-- In our cold and changeable climate the most suitable undergarment is the "combination" woolen undersuit, which reaches from neck to ankles and has long sleeves. Much greater warmth is afforded when the undersuit is moderately tight fitting. Such a suit should be worn the entire year, the grade of weight being adapted to the season.