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MENSTRUATION.

1.  ITS IMPORTANCE.—­Menstruation plays a momentous part in the female economy; indeed, unless it be in every way properly and duly performed, it is neither possible that a lady can be well, nor is it at all probable that she will conceive.  The large number of barren, of delicate, and of hysterical women there are in America arises mainly from menstruation not being duly and properly performed.

2.  THE BOUNDARY-LINE.—­Menstruation—­“the periods”—­the appearance of the catamenia or the menses—­is then one of the most important epochs in a girl’s life.  It is the boundary-line, the landmark between childhood and womanhood; it is the threshold, so to speak, of a woman’s life.  Her body now develops and expands, and her mental capacity enlarges and improves.

3.  THE COMMENCEMENT OF MENSTRUATION.—­A good beginning at this time is peculiarly necessary, or a girl’s health is sure to suffer and different organs of the body—­her lungs, for instance, may become imperiled.  A healthy continuation, at regular periods, is also much needed, or conception, when she is married, may not occur.  Great attention and skillful management is required to ward off many formidable diseases, which at the close of menstruation—­at “the change of life”—­are more likely than at any time to be developed.  If she marry when very young, marriage weakens her system, and prevents a full development of her body.  Moreover, such an one is, during the progress of her labor, prone to convulsions—­which is a very serious childbed complication.

4.  EARLY MARRIAGES.—­Statistics prove that twenty per cent—­20 in every 100—­of females who marry are under age, and that such early marriages are often followed by serious, and sometimes even by fatal consequences to mother, to progeny, or to both.  Parents ought, therefore, to persuade their daughters not to marry until they are of age—­twenty-one; they should point out to them the risk and danger likely to ensue if their advice be not followed; they should Impress upon their minds the old adage: 

  “Early wed,
  Early dead.”

5.  TIME TO MARRY.—­Parents who have the real interest and happiness of their daughters at heart, ought, in consonance with the laws of physiology, to discountenance marriage before twenty; and the nearer the girls arrive at the age of twenty-five before the consummation of this important rite, the greater the probability that, physically and morally, they will be protected against those risks which precocious marriages bring in their train.

6.  FEEBLE PARENTS.—­Feeble parents have generally feeble children; diseased parents, diseased children; nervous parents, nervous children;—­“like begets like.”  It is sad to reflect, that the innocent have to suffer, not only for the guilty, but for the thoughtless and inconsiderate.  Disease and debility are thus propagated from one generation to another and the American race becomes woefully deteriorated.