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.