It is clear, however, that young mothers do remarkably well, while there is no doubt whatever that they bear unusually fine infants.  Kleinwaechter, indeed, found that the younger the mother, the bigger the child.  It is not only physically that the children of young mothers are superior.  Marro has found (Puberta, p. 257) that the children of mothers under 21 are superior to those of older mothers both in conduct and intelligence, provided the fathers are not too old or too young.  The detailed records of individual cases confirm these results, both as regards mother and child.  Thus, Milner (Lancet, June 7, 1902) records a case of pregnancy in a girl of fourteen; the labor pains were very mild, and delivery was easy.  E.B.  Wales, of New Jersey, has recorded the history (reproduced in Medical Reprints, Sept. 15, 1890) of a colored girl who became pregnant at the age of eleven.  She was of medium size, rather tall and slender, but well developed, and began to menstruate at the age of ten.  She was in good health and spirits during pregnancy, and able to work.  Delivery was easy and natural, not notably prolonged, and apparently not unduly painful, for there were no moans or agitation.  The child was a fine, healthy boy, weighing not less than eleven pounds.  Mother and child both did well, and there was a great flow of milk.  Whiteside Robertson (British Medical Journal, Jan. 18, 1902) has recorded a case of pregnancy at the age of thirteen, in a Colonial girl of British origin in Cape Colony, which is notable from other points of view.  During pregnancy, she was anaemic, and appeared to be of poor development and doubtfully normal pelvic conformation.  Yet delivery took place naturally, at full term, without difficulty or injury, and the lying-in period was in every way satisfactory.  The baby was well-proportioned, and weighed 71/2 pounds.  “I have rarely seen a primipara enjoy easier labor,” concluded Robertson, “and I have never seen one look forward to the happy realization of motherhood with greater satisfaction.”

The facts brought forward by obstetricians concerning the good results of early pregnancy, as regards both mother and child, have not yet received the attention they deserve.  They are, however, confirmed by many general tendencies which are now fairly well recognized.  The significant fact is known, for instance, that in mothers over thirty, the proportion of abortions and miscarriages is twice as great as in mothers between the ages of fifteen and twenty, who also are superior in this respect to mothers between the ages of twenty and thirty (Statistischer Jahrbuch, Budapest, 1905).  It was, again, proved by Matthews Duncan, in his Goulstonian lecture, that the chances of sterility in a woman increase with increase of age.  It has, further, been shown (Kisch, Sexual Life of Woman,