The Four Epochs of Woman's Life, by Anna M. Galbraith

Published: 2nd Edition, Philadelphia and London, W. B. Saunders Co., 1915

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                      THE FOUR EPOCHS OF WOMAN'S LIFE

                                   BY

                            ANNA M. GALBRAITH


                  SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED
                         PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON
                          W.B. SAUNDERS COMPANY
                                  1915 



  Copyright, 1901, by W. B. Saunders and Company. Revised, electrotyped,
   reprinted, and recopyrighted August, 1903. Reprinted October, 1904,
              January, 1907, January, 1911, and April, 1913


              Copyright, 1903, by W. B. Saunders & Company. 

            Registered at Stationers' Hall, London, England. 

                       Reprinted February, 1915


                          PRINTED IN AMERICA

                               PRESS OF
                         S. SAUNDERS COMPANY
                             PHILADELPHIA 


"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. 




CONTENTS:

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
PREFACE. 
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 VIII. SEXUAL INSINCT IN WOMEN. 
CHAPTER IX. STERILITY. 
PART III. -- MATERNITY. 
CHAPTER XI. THE CONFINEMENT. 
CHAPTER XII. LYING-IN. 
CHAPTER XIII. THE NEW-BORN INFANT. 
PART IV. -- 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.)