JEANNETTE WINTER HALE GIRLHOOD AND 
ITS PROBLEMS 
The Sex Life of Woman • 
By WINFIELD SCOTT HALL, Ph.D., M.D. 
Member Medical Faculty Northwestern University, Chicago ; 
Member Volunteer Medical Service Corps, U.S.A.; Fellow of the 
American Medical Association ; Fellow of the American Academy 
of Medicine; Fellow of the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science. 
AUTHOR OF 
“Youth and Its Problems,” “Text-Book of Physiology," “ Man- 
ual of Experimental Physiology," “ Nutrition and Dietetics," 
“Reproduction and Sexual Hygiene," “From Youth into Man- 
hood,”" Sexual Knowledge," etc., etc. 
IN CO-OPERATION WITH 
JEANNETTE WINTER HALL 
AUTHOR OF 
" Life's Story,” “ First Five Hundred Days of a Child's Life," 
"Primer of Physiology,” in New Century Series; "A Marvelous 
Community," in " Pictured Knowledge," etc., etc. 
Philadelphia 
THE JOHN C. WINSTON COMPANY 
Publishers Copyright 1919, by 
The John C. Winston Co. DEDICATION 
That the Young Woman may find 
here an Answer to her unexpressed 
Questions; the Wife be guided safely 
THROUGH THE NEW PATHS OF MARRIED Life; 
and the Mother be helped to realize 
the joys of Happy Maternity is the 
hope OF 
THE AUTHORS. 
Berwyn, Illinois, 
March, 1919. PREFACE 
Our young men are returning from military 
service well instructed regarding most life 
problems. A large proportion of them are 
planning to establish homes at an early date. 
Hundreds of thousands of homes will be 
started during the first year of peace. Our 
young women have worked as loyally as have 
our young men to win the war and they have 
waited as patiently as have the young men 
the return and the taking up of normal peace- 
time activities. 
Every normal young woman wishes to be a 
home-builder,—a wife and mother. By the 
time a girl has reached her middle teens her 
mind is filled with questions about life. 
Many of these questions are never answered. 
Perhaps through diffidence they were never 
really asked of anyone who possessed the 
information to give a satisfactory answer. 
Every girl should be fully instructed by a 
loving, sympathetic, wise mother. Girls who 
are so fortunate as to be thus led into the 
joys of ideal womanhood are thrice happy. PREFACE 
Girls not so instructed may grope their 
way blindfolded into womanhood, stumbling 
where their steps should be secure and 
wandering into byways when they should 
keep to the narrow path. Such experiences 
are due to innocence and ignorance,—the 
poor child “didn’t know.” 
This book is prepared by a teacher-mother 
and a physician-father as a guide for girls, 
young women, young wives and young 
mothers; answering their questions and giving 
instruction which should guide the young 
woman into healthy, happy wifehood and 
proud, efficient motherhood. 
Berwyn, Illinois, 
March, 1919. CONTENTS 
PART 1 
SOCIAL ETHICS 
Chapter I. The Meaning of Social Ethics 
The Right and Wrong of Social Relationships—The Personal 
Plane—The Social Plane—Ignorance Responsible for the 
Vast Preponderance of Social Ills—Instruction on the Plane 
of the Ideal—Teaching Social Ethics in the Schools ... 15 
Chapter II. Instruction in the Home 
The Three Great Sex Lessons that Every Girl Must be 
Taught—The Mother’s Duty in This Respect—Telling the 
True Story, Instead of the “Stork” Story—The Secret of 
W omanhood—The Great Laws of Life for Boys and Girls . 28 
PART II 
LIFE PHENOMENA 
Chapter I. Animal Instincts 
The Two Great Groups of Instincts Defined and Described— 
The Instinct and the Powers of Self-Preservation—The 
Instinct and the Powers of Reproduction—The First 
Instinct for Self; the Second for the Race—The First 
Instinct Egoistic; the Second Altruistic 49 
Chapter II. The Beginnings of All Life 
Seeds, Eggs and Their Development—The Springtime of 
Life—The Secret of Life—Life’s Beginnings—Sex Life in 
Nature; in Plants as in Animals—The Beginnings and 
Development of Frog-Life, Fish-Life, Turtle-Life, etc.— 
The Beginnings and Development of Kitten-Life, Puppy- CONTENTS 
Life, Calf-Life, Colt-Life, Baby-Life, etc.—The Growing-Up 
Period Divided Into Three Stages: Infancy, Childhood 
and Adolescence, the Other Two Stages of Life Being 
Adulthood and Old Age 67 
PART III 
GIRLHOOD AND ITS PROBLEMS 
Chapter I. The Evolution of Life 
General Biology—Self-Defense and Self-Maintenance— 
The Protection and Support of the Young and the Weaker 
Members of Society—The Law of Compensation—Sacrifice 
and Compensation 89 
Chapter II. Adolescence 
Physical Changes: Bone; Muscle; Gland; Reproductive 
Organs—Psychical Changes: Ancestral Traits; Doubt; 
Religion; Society 105 
Chapter III. Anatomy and Physiology of the Pelvic Organs 
The Pelvic Arch—The Ovaries—The Uterus—The Vagina— 
External Secretions—Internal Secretions 115 
Chapter IV. Menstruation 
Menstrual Stages—The Theory of Menstruation—Men- 
strual Symptoms—The Relation of Lactation to Menstrua- 
tion—The Hygiene of Menstruation—Exercise for an 
Adolescent Girl—Mental Hygiene—The Menopause ... 128 
Chapter V. The Unmarried Woman 
Woman’s Work—Sense and Soul—Mental Growth . . . 142 
Chapter VI. The Wife 
The Choice—Preparation for Marriage—The Marriage 
Relation—The First Quarrel 147 CONTENTS 
Chapter VII. The Mother 
The Story of Life—Preparation for Motherhood—The 
Kingdom of Love—Embryology—Hygiene of Pregnancy— 
Clothing—Air—Food—Sleep and Exercise—Mental Hygi- 
ene 155 
Chapter VIII. The Baby 
Hygiene for the Infant—The Bath—The Clothing—Air— 
Sleep—Food 173 
PART IV 
PERSONAL HYGIENE 
Chapter I. Diet 
A Few Simple Rules Which Will Develop the Highest 
State of Physical Well-Being and Robust Good Health— 
Choice of Food—Narcotics—Alcohol—Dietetic Control of 
the Bowels—Constipation Among Tea Drinkers—Dietetic 
Control of Sleep—Dietetic Control of the Kidneys—How to 
Acquire a Clear Skin—Dietetic Method of Curing a Cold . 187 
Chapter II. Baths 
The Bath for Cleanliness—The Tonic Bath—The Cold 
Plunge—The Shower—The Sponge Bath 197 
Chapter III. Exercise 
The Pre-Breakfast Morning Walk—Tennis, Swimming and 
Other Sports—Increasing Weight Through Muscle Growth— 
How to Avoid Laying on Fat 201 
Chapter IV. The Hygienic Requirements of Sleep 
The Amount of Sleep Necessary—Advantages of a Hard 
Bed—Keeping the Feet WTarm—The Sleeping Posture— 
Ventilation of Bedroom 204 CONTENTS 
Chapter V. The Control of the Thoughts 
Preventing the Imagination from Running Riot—The 
Influence of Idleness—Diverting the Mind from Imaginary 
Evils 208 
PART V 
EUGENICS 
Chapter I. Outline of Eugenics 
General Considerations—The Laws of Heredity the Same 
for Man as for the Animal—Education and Restrictive 
Laws the Two Influences Most Effective in the Progress of 
the Human Race—Where the State Might Interfere . . . 213 
Chapter II. Heredity 
The Begetting of a New Life—The Part Played by Heredity 
—The Influence of the Parent, Grandparent and Great 
Grandparent—The Laws of Heredity—Family Traits— 
The Mendelian Theory of Heredity 218 
Chapter III. Environment 
Pre-Natal Conditions—The Part Played by Environment— 
Sheltering the Young Life—Associations of Childhood— 
Overcoming Hereditary Weaknesses Through Environment. 223 
Chapter IV. Positive Eugenics 
Two Phases of Positive Eugenics—The Hereditary and the 
Environmental Phases—The Importance of Education— 
The Attraction of Sex—Psychic Inhibition 225 
Chapter V. Negative Eugenics 
Certain Impairments, Physical or Mental, to be Avoided in 
the Mating of Human Individuals—Knowledge that will 
Protect Young People—Transmission of Defects to Off- 
spring—Building Lives on the Plane of the Ideal—Last 
Words 227 
Appendix 232 PART ONE 
SOCIAL ETHICS 
CHAPTER I 
The Meaning of Social Ethics 
The term Social Ethics is a comparatively 
new one. Its significance is so evident on its 
face that it hardly needs definition. One 
assumes that it refers to the right and wrong 
of social relations, and that is just what it 
does signify. While Sociology is the science 
of human society, and ethics the science of 
the right and wrong of human activities, 
Social Ethics may be defined as the ground 
common to ethics and sociology. In short, it 
deals with the right and wrong of social rela- 
tions in human society. 
In order systematically to present this 
matter, it may be stated that Social Ethics 
concerns three planes of human activities 
and relationships. First, the personal plane, 16 
SOCIAL ETHICS 
which deals with and sets forth personal con- 
ditions, personal attitudes and personal habits, 
wxiich form the basis of, and give the trend 
to, the social relations. While the activities 
in this plane might seem not to be social, as 
a matter of fact, they are basic in their rela- 
tion to the social, and must be considered in 
this connection. Second, the family plane, 
which deals with and sets forth family rela- 
tionships in so far as they concern ethics and 
society. Third, the social plane, which deals 
with the right and wrong of social relation- 
ships in human society outside of the family. 
Social and domestic happiness and well- 
being are so indissolubly linked with ethical 
standards, ideals and practices, that it be- 
comes absolutely essential that all those con- 
structive forces of society pledged to conserve 
and protect society be marshalled against 
social wrongs and reinforce social good. 
Expressions which have been frequently 
heard in the last decade, as the “social evil,” 
“venereal peril,” etc., indicate the prepon- 
derant social wrong from which society suffers, 
and the predominant retribution which Nature 
seems to mete out against this wrrong. As a SOCIAL ETHICS 
17 
matter of fact, a very large part of ethical u. mg 
living has to do with the sex life, usually mani- 
fested in all the three planes mentioned above, 
namely, personal, domestic and social. While 
it is true that the venereal peril menaces the 
innocent, as well as the vicious it is also true 
that if all people would live absolutely clean 
and correct sex lives for two generations, 
venereal disease would become as rare as 
smallpox or cholera, while now it probably 
affects in smaller or greater degree, at least fifty 
per cent, of the whole population. These 
millions suffer, either innocently or other- 
wise, for the sins of others or for their own 
shortcomings, the saddest cases of all being 
those who suffer the results of inherited taint. 
If we may rely upon statistics, the social 
evil is getting worse rather than better. Even 
the optimist must admit this, and while he 
sees commercial, industrial and political condi- 
tions improving step by step, he is forced to 
admit that social conditions are getting worse. 
We do not have to look far for the cause. 
Our population is increasing most rapidly 
in the great urban manufacturing centers; 
large regions of our rural districts barely 18 
SOCIAL ETHICS 
holding their own in population during the 
last generation, some actually decreasing. If 
this centering of the people in great cities and 
rapidly growing towns could have been con- 
trolled, the ills and wrongs might have been 
largely avoided, but they were not controlled; 
in fact, we are only now discovering the un- 
fortunate tendencies which have been at work. 
People have crowded together in such close 
proximity that vegetation is crowded out and 
breathing spaces contracted. Furthermore, 
in large districts of our larger cities, the hous- 
ing of the people is shockingly bohemian. 
Where a whole family—parents, grown chil- 
dren, adolescents and younger children are 
housed in one room, which one room must 
serve as kitchen, laundry, dining room, parlor 
and sleeping room, it goes without saying that 
young people growing up under such condi- 
tions are likely to lose, or rather never experi- 
ence, the sentiments and feelings associated 
with modesty and refinement. 
Young people in our great industrial and 
commercial centers are crowded together in 
the department stores, shops and factories 
under conditions that are not only unsanitary SOCIAL ETHICS 
19 
and unhygienic in many cases, but at the 
same time may be unwholesome from a social 
standpoint. After their eight or nine-hour 
day under these undesirable conditions, we 
can easily understand why the young people 
should be led to seek entertainment and 
recreation from their mechanical and un- 
stimulating shop work at the same time they 
seek escape from the wretched home condi- 
tions. We are, therefore, not surprised to 
see them flocking to the cheap vaudevilles 
and moving picture shows, and to the public 
dance halls, where they are likely to be sub- 
jected to destructive suggestion that will tend 
to rob them of what little of right standards 
remain after the effects of their home and 
shop influences have done their work. Sum- 
marizing then, we find that the destructive 
influences of urban conditions in the housing 
of the people, in the employment of the 
people, and in their recreative activities are 
tending more and more to lower social stand- 
ards. If conditions are not changed, social 
dissolution will surely follow in a few gen- 
erations. 
These unfortunate conditions mentioned 20 
SOCIAL ETHICS 
above menace the home. Now, the home is 
the foundation of human society. There could 
be no Church; there could be no State; 
there could be no Educational System with- 
out the home. If the home,—the foundation 
of human society,—crumbles, the whole super- 
structure would come down in ruins, and we 
would have social anarchy. 
But this is not to happen. There is a 
general awakening. We have been analyzing 
conditions, diagnosing the social disease. We 
have determined its etiology. Having found 
its cause, the rational treatment has already 
been begun. 
A study of the social conditions makes it 
evident that a vast preponderance of social ills 
are visited upon the people because of ignorance. 
Little children fall into error because they 
have not had the benefit of wise counsel and 
guidance. Young people make blunders be- 
cause they are ignorant of personal physiology 
and hygiene. Older people through ignor- 
ance or indifference need education and 
awakening. The writer believes that the only 
rational cure for present social conditions is to 
be found in education. Wise laws, justly and SOCIAL ETHICS, 
21 
firmly administered, will help. Public insti- 
tutions for the reclaiming of the fallen will 
also help. These twTo measures last named 
alleviate in a superficial way only. What we 
must seek to accomplish is to remove the 
cause, so that these ills will not exist, and 
therefore not need alleviation. In the social 
evil as well as in the drink evil, it is necessary 
that the education,—the rational prophylaxis 
of the evil,—he begun in youth. It is very 
much easier to keep a young life straight 
than it is to make it straight once it has be- 
come bent and distorted. Let us then em- 
phasize again the paramount importance of 
education as the great prophylactic agent to 
protect society from the ills that follow 
wrong living. 
Inasmuch as the difficulties to which we 
have referred begin in childhood and youth 
through innocence and ignorance, it must be 
evident that the education must begin in 
youth. Those who have given this prob- 
lem extended study and thought all agree 
that education in social ethics is a home 
problem. Parents must teach their children the 
great truths of life. Coming from parent to 22 
SOCIAL ETHICS 
child this teaching will be certain to have its 
two great essentials, namely, sincerity and 
sympathy. However, we find that a very 
small proportion of the present generation of 
parents possess either the requisite information 
or the necessary inclination to give this 
instruction. 
There must be a transitional period, dur- 
ing which educators, social workers and all 
the constructive forces of society work to- 
gether to produce a generation of parents 
who will possess both the information and 
the inclination. That means that we must 
go into the schools and teach the great truths 
of life to these children and youths. In this 
great work for society, let us never lose sight 
of the fact that we are doing this work in our 
relation of vicarious parenthood. We must 
school ourselves to feel toward these young 
people as a parent feels toward his child. 
The instruction must be given in all serious- 
ness, candor and simplicity. It must be put 
on the plane of the ideal. There should be an 
attitude of sympathy toward the pupil. Those 
who have not had experience in this teaching 
can hardly conceive how beautifully the SOCIAL ETHICS 
23 
young people respond in their intense atten- 
tion, and in the seriousness with which they 
receive the instruction. 
The education of youth in this transitional 
period should begin in colleges and universi- 
ties. It may be said in passing that a con- 
siderable number of our institutions of higher 
learning have already made a good start in 
this teaching. We may look forward with 
assurance to a time in the near future when 
all these institutions will recognize their obli- 
gation in this direction and will have this 
instruction given systematically. 
Instruction in social ethics and sexual 
hygiene must also be introduced into the 
high schools. Most high school pupils are in 
the earlier period of adolescence. The need 
for instruction is at no period of life greater 
than at the threshold of adolescence. The 
response of the pupil is at no period of life 
more ready or wdiolesome. It is, therefore, 
a matter of the greatest importance that 
instruction in social ethics and sexual hygiene 
be introduced into all the high schools of the 
land at the earliest possible day. 
Pupils in the grammar schools need certain 24 
SOCIAL ETHICS 
facts brought to their attention, and this need 
is hardly less imperative than is the need in 
the high schools. The girls of the seventh 
and eighth grade are, as a rule, coming into 
adolescence. Probably a large majority of 
eighth grade girls in general are in their first 
or second year of puberty. Their mind is 
filled with questions about life, and they in- 
stinctively show a sort of hypersensitiveness 
on sex matters. Their mothers have, as a 
rule, not instructed them. The schools must 
do it. The problem of the grammar school 
boy, while less a sex problem than one of 
inherent barbaric vulgarity, is still one that 
requires great tact, patience and skill on the 
part of the teachers. The seventh and eighth 
grade boy is still in his pre-adolescent period, 
still in his period of barbarism. He has not 
felt the primordial urge in his red blood, but 
he does show the barbaric tendency to crude- 
ness, rudeness and vulgarity. While we are 
not going to lose our patience with this boy, 
nor are we going to become discouraged about 
him, we are going to extend to him from our 
elevated position of twentieth-century chiv- 
alry a sympathetic helping hand that will SOCIAL ETHICS 
25 
guide him quickly through his storm and 
stress period and help him early to step up 
out of barbarism into his period of dawning 
chivalry. 
This teaching in the grammar school re- 
quires incomparably greater tact and peda- 
gogic skill than the teaching in colleges. It 
must be done by trained teachers. Profes- 
sional people, either physicians or social 
workers called in from the outside, cannot 
do this work for the simple reason that the 
number of physicians and social workers who 
possess the pedagogic skill, and knowledge of, 
and sympathy with, child life is wholly inade- 
quate to meet the requirement, even if they 
were to devote their whole time and energy 
to it. Besides that, the psychic effect on the 
pupils of calling in somebody from the out- 
side is unwholesome and studiously to be 
avoided. It enshrouds the whole matter in a 
mist of mysticism and excites the curiosity 
and a tendency to talk among themselves 
with great danger of unwholesome results. 
This teaching of the great truths of life con- 
cerning reproduction and sex must be done 
by the teachers of the grammar school. But 26 
SOCIAL ETHICS 
the teachers of the grammar school are not 
prepared, either in their own mental atti- 
tude, the information they possess, or in their 
pedagogic training. The whole field of sex is 
to a vast majority of teachers a terra incognita. 
For a period of four or five years before we 
require sex instruction in the grammar schools, 
the subject of social ethics, social hygiene and 
sexual hygiene should be taught in the Nor- 
mal schools. 
The Normal school course in social ethics 
should accomplish three very clearly defined 
objects. First, to give the pupil teacher a 
wholesome viewpoint concerning social ethics 
in all its bearings, displacing false modesty 
with real modesty and leading the student 
from the dimly-lighted valley of prudish 
ignorance to the high sun-bathed mountain 
tops of idealistic virtue. Such a change of 
mental attitude is wholly and solely a matter 
of education and is the first thing to accom- 
plish for the pupil teacher. Second, to give 
the pupil teacher adequate information con- 
cerning the biology of reproduction, the 
physiology and hygiene of the sex apparatus 
and sex life, also the sociological and ethical SOCIAL ETHICS 
27 
principles involved in sex hygiene and social 
ethics. Third, to train the pupil teacher in 
the principles of pedagogy of this particular 
subject. It may be stated in passing that 
the teaching of no subject requires greater 
pedagogic skill and tact than this one. In 
the presentation of no subject does the teacher 
require a greater knowledge and insight into 
the psychology of youth than is required in 
the teaching of sex hygiene. 
After all of the Normal schools of a State 
have had a course in sex hygiene and social 
ethics presented to every student in the 
school for a period of four or five years, it 
may be wise, and the time may be ripe, to 
require this teaching in the grammar schools, 
because by that time there will be many 
hundreds of teachers in the State who will 
have been trained for this teaching, and the 
probabilities are strong that almost every 
village and city school will have on its corps 
of teachers, from one to a half dozen who will 
have had the benefit of this instruction in 
the Normal school, and who will be prepared 
to give this instruction in an acceptable 
manner. CHAPTER II 
Instruction in the Home 
Answering the question when and how 
shall this instruction be given in the ideal 
case, let us repeat what was stated above 
that this is a home 'problem. Fortunately, 
Nature points the way with a great shining 
index. Nature has implanted in the heart 
of every child the instinct of asking questions. 
The mother and teacher have only to answer 
these questions when they are asked; answer- 
ing briefly and simply, and always in a spirit 
of sympathy and love, to rest assured that 
they are following the plan of Nature, and 
if the plan of Nature, then the plan of the 
God of Nature. 
The first question asked by the child is 
almost certain to concern its origin. The 
little five-year-old girl creeps into mama’s 
lap at eventide, and nestles her head on 
mama’s breast, and asks: “Mama, where 
did you get me?” Then she waits for mama’s SOCIAL ETHICS 
29 
answer. No real mother, under such circum- 
stances, could bring herself to the point of 
telling the “stork story” to the child. Such 
a response to such a question would be un- 
worthy the twentieth-century mother. You 
may be interested to know what one twenti- 
eth-century mother told her child in response 
to a similar question. Her little six-year-old 
boy was brought to his mama’s bedside and 
introduced to his two-day-old baby sister for 
whom he had watched and prayed for several 
months. He was very happy; God had an- 
swered his prayer; presently he asked: 
“Mama, where did the baby come from?” 
This was the mother’s answer: “Baby sister 
came out of mama’s body; she was formed 
from materials drawn out of mama’s blood, 
and that is the reason why mama’s cheeks 
are so pale and mama’s hands so thin and 
white.” The little boy’s eyes opened wide 
with wonder. This story was to him incom- 
parably more wonderful than the stork story 
would have been. He looked thoughtfully 
from mama’s pale face to the little baby 
sister, back and forth several times. Then 
he asked this question: “Mama, was I 30 
SOCIAL ETHICS 
formed within your body, too?” The mother 
answered, “Yes, my boy, you were. You 
were formed within mama’s body, you were 
formed out of mama’s blood, and that is 
the reason why mama loves her boy so, be- 
cause she gave her own life’s blood for him.” 
The little boy’s eyes now took on a far away 
look, and he seemed to be trying to grasp the 
great thought of mother sacrifice. He evi- 
dently did catch at least a glimmer of the 
great truth, because after a few moments his 
eyes welled full of tears, and turning to his 
mama, he threw his arms about her neck 
and said, “Oh, mama, mama, I never loved 
you so much before,” and the little boy 
meant it, too, because from that day forth 
for many weeks he seemed to think of little 
else during his waking hours than what he 
could do to help the mother who had been so 
ready to sacrifice for him. This happened 
several years ago. The boy of six has now 
grown into the young man of twenty,—stal- 
wart, broad-shouldered, deep-chested, hard- 
muscled, clear of eye, clean of life and chival- 
rous. He must be the pride of his father’s 
heart, and the joy of his mother’s heart. He SOCIAL ETHICS 
31 
is a neighbor of mine, and I have watched 
his development with great satisfaction. His 
attitude towards all womankind seems to be 
inspired by instincts of chivalry and honor. 
That this attitude has been developed by 
the teaching which his mother has given him 
from boyhood up, supplemented perhaps by 
some instruction and example on the part of 
his father, no one can doubt. Can there be 
any question, that when the time shall come, 
that all boys and young men will have been 
led into chivalrous young manhood in a 
similar way, and when all girls and young 
women will have received from their parents 
a training which will give them a reciprocal 
attitude towards menkind, then the social 
problem will have been solved. Its solution 
is a matter of education, pure and simple, and 
this education must begin in early childhood. 
The next question which the child asks, 
as a rule, concerns the physical differences 
between the sexes. Your little six or seven- 
year-old girl may come with the question as 
to how the mother knows whether her new- 
born baby is a boy or a girl. This is a fair 
question and must be answered; otherwise, 32 
SOCIAL ETHICS 
a suspicion of mystery is at once aroused and 
a gnawing curiosity is developed. The wise 
mothers in all generations have adopted a 
very simple method of forestalling this ques- 
tion, and presenting in the family, conditions 
which answer the question in the most natural 
and simple way. I refer to the custom 
adopted by the wise mothers in all genera- 
tions of having the little children of the 
family meet in the nursery at bedtime at least 
one evening in the week in what some mothers 
call an “undress parade.” Other mothers 
call it a “bath night frolic.” The little boys 
and girls of the family ranging in age between 
two and seven or eight, enter into these frolics 
with the keenest and most unalloyed pleasure. 
Never so free of movement, never so happy, 
and it may be said in passing, never more 
modest than when freed from the hampering 
habiliments with which civilization has clothed 
us. As recently as four thousand years ago, 
our ancestors were practically nude savages 
living in the forests of Southeastern Europe 
and Western Asia. They were children of 
Nature, and like these babies of our twentieth- 
century Aryans, so far from being immodest SOCIAL ETHICS 
33 
in their nudeness, possess what the sociologist 
recognizes as absolute modesty, that is, mod- 
esty so perfect that in the nude they are 
unconscious of their nakedness. 
Incidentally, little six-year-old Margaret is 
almost certain to note a difference between 
herself and little Mary, on the one hand, 
and Jimmie on the other, and will remark in 
her childlike innocence to her mama, “Little 
Jimmie isn’t made the same as Mary and I, is 
he, mama?” And the mama will answer in a 
perfectly matter-of-fact tone, “No, little Jim- 
mie is made like all boys and men, while you 
and Mary are made like all girls and women.” 
This answers the question for all time, so far 
as Margaret is concerned. In their turn each 
of the other children will ask similar ques- 
tions or make similar remarks to be answered 
in the same matter-of-fact way, and so grow 
up without morbid curiosity regarding struc- 
tural differences between the sexes. If some 
of you are worrying about Margaret’s mod- 
esty, let the writer assure you from the uniform 
experience of hundreds of mothers with whom 
he has conferred, that when Margaret reaches 
the age when impulses and instincts of mod- 34 
SOCIAL ETHICS 
esty usually appear in a girl, they will dawn 
in the soul of Margaret as naturally as the 
rose in the garden blooms in June. If a girl 
grows up in the atmophere of modesty and 
consideration, the atmosphere being deter- 
mined by the mental attitude and the habits 
of the older people of the family, rest assured 
that when she approaches puberty, the in- 
stincts and feelings of modesty come into her 
experience as a natural and inherent heritage 
of our race. 
When the children approach puberty, there 
should be a parting of the ways for the girls 
and the boys of the family, the girls coming 
into a closer comradeship with the mother, 
while the boys are led and inspired by the 
father. It is the inherent right of every girl to 
be led into beautiful exultant womanhood by 
a loving mother, as it is equally the inherent 
right of the boy to be led into clean, aggres- 
sive, triumphant manhood by a fond father. 
As the mother sees her daughter growing 
rapidly in stature at the age of twelve to 
fourteen, and recognizing that this sudden 
growth in stature heralds the approach of 
womanhood, the mother seeks an oppor- SOCIAL ETHICS 
35 
tunity to instruct her daughter in the ideals 
of womanhood, giving her the facts that she 
needs to know to guide her through the many 
problems, personal and social, that confront 
the adolescent. There are three important 
lessons that the wise mother teaches her 
daughter. 
The first lesson for the girl to learn is the 
“Story of Womanhood” The mother may 
picture the typical twelve-year-old girl in all 
her lean and lank, awkward and gawky 
clumsiness, self-conscious, ungainly and un- 
prepossessing in the highest degree. This 
preadolescent girl is in her “ugly duckling” 
stage of development. Now let the mother 
picture what the girl is to be in four or five 
short years. Graceful in figure, graceful in 
every movement of her body, possessed of 
poise and repose, her rosy cheeks glowing with 
the red blood of good health, her lustrous 
eyes luminous with the light of radiant young 
womanhood. Then the mother reveals to 
the daughter the secret of this remarkable 
change and tells her how, when the little girl 
was about thirteen years of age, her ovaries 
began to prepare a wonderful substance that 36 
SOCIAL ETHICS 
was absorbed into the blood, and through the 
blood distributed all over the body where 
tissues were growing and changing, and that 
this wonderful substance—this magical stim- 
ulus—formed in the body for that purpose, 
caused the remarkable transformation in the 
girl’s body, and no less remarkable a change 
in her soul, possessed as it is, first, of 'purity; 
that matchless quality that runs like a golden 
thread through the whole fabric of her life; 
second, of altruism or unselfishness; that 
second great quality of the soul of woman, 
also of other hardly less beautiful qualities 
that make her soul so beautiful that, when 
once it is really seen, one is after that hardly 
conscious of her body, however perfect that 
may be. The mother explains to her daughter, 
that this great change, which is the first step 
of developing womanhood, is due to a sub- 
stance formed in her ovaries,—formed in her 
sex apparatus. 
When the girl knows this great truth, from 
that day forth she naturally looks upon her 
sex apparatus as sacred to her womanhood, and 
a few words of counsel from the mother will 
guard the daughter against ever permitting SOCIAL ETHICS 
37 
or indulging anything that will irritate or 
excite this part of her body, being assured 
that such irritation and excitation will dis- 
turb the great work, which, in the plan of 
the Creator, her sex apparatus must do for 
her womanhood. 
The second lesson which the mother teaches 
her daughter is a simple, clear explanation of 
the monthly period which is soon to be a 
part of the daughter’s experience. She fore- 
stalls fears and forebodings by explaining to 
the daughter that this experience, which may 
be difficult at first to adjust herself to, is, in 
the. plan of the Creator, her preparation for 
future motherhood. As this healthy-minded, 
perfectly normal, twentieth-century girl is 
looking forward to future motherhood, as a 
natural and much-to-be-desired experience, 
her mother’s explanation is accepted in the 
right spirit and the girl looks forward with 
confidence and serenity toward her approach- 
ing estate of womanhood. When it comes, 
all its experiences are accepted as a matter 
of course, and in a spirit of pride and confi- 
dence. 
The third lesson which the mother teaches 38 
SOCIAL ETHICS 
her daughter concerns her relation to her 
young gentlemen friends. Even though a 
girl may not formally enter society until she 
graduates from high school, she is in reality in 
society as soon as she enters high school. 
Adolescent high school young people are 
experiencing the social impulse and yielding 
to the social instinct. The relations of young 
people in the high school are in all serious- 
ness social relationships, and should be so 
viewed by all who have any relation to sec- 
ondary education. So the girl’s mother pre- 
pares her early for this new relationship by 
explaining to her the ideal social relations 
between young women and young men of 
her circle. The information that the mother 
has given her daughter in the first two lessons 
makes it very evident to this budding woman 
that, her person being sacred to her woman- 
hood, she should not permit any familiarities 
on the part of her young men friends. Parents 
and teachers, perhaps through the organized 
agency of a Parent-Teachers’ Association, 
will cordially co-operate in the bringing about 
of ideal social conditions in the high school. 
All gatherings of high school young people will SOCIAL ETHICS 
39 
be chaperoned. This chaperonage should be 
as wise and tactful as it is constant. 
It is the inherent right of every boy, par- 
ticularly between the ages of ten and fourteen, 
to have the guidance and the inspiration of 
his father. During this stage of a boy’s 
development, the pre-adolescent stage, the 
boy is living over again, in his psychic and 
social development, that period of his race 
when his ancestors were in a barbaric stage 
of civilization. So the boy of ten to fourteen 
is in a way a barbarian. He may be cruel 
and vulgar, he is sure to be blundering and 
blustering, especially if he is a really, healthy, 
normal boy. His mother and his woman 
teacher are taxed to the limit of patience with 
this young barbarian. It is the time of his 
life when he needs the firm, kind hand, per- 
haps the strong arm, of a man to guide, in- 
spire and control him. Boys of this age 
should have the benefit, not only of a father’s 
influence, but also of the influence of a man 
teacher, and perhaps in addition to this the 
help of boy leaders in Y. M. C. A. or Boy 40 
SOCIAL ETHICS 
Scout work. The boy is in his age of hero 
worship. The robust, the sturdy, the daring, 
the belligerent experiences and exploits of 
men appeal to him. He quickly scans the 
pages of history and picks out his heroes. 
All of his heroes are fighters, war and the 
chase are in his blood. Those qualities of 
his father that appeal to him and lead him to 
put his father’s name on his list of heroes, are 
not the qualities that appealed, and still 
appeal, to his mother to inspire her love and 
confidence, but they are the qualities of bar- 
baric heroism,—those qualities of physical 
agility and endurance which helped his father 
to win athletic victories and break athletic 
records. They are the qualities that were 
developed and fostered in war and the chase. 
So the wise father, the twentieth-century 
father, becomes a chum of his boy not later 
than his tenth year. He cultivates a real 
live interest in his boy’s activities and aspira- 
tions. He attends the track meet between 
his boy’s school and the neighboring schools, 
acting as referee, umpire or judge on the 
occasion. He takes half holidays during the 
summer vacations to join the boys in their SOCIAL ETHICS 
41 
ball game in a vacant cow pasture. He goes 
on short camping trips with his boy and on 
many a long tramp. In these ways he and 
his boy become chums, comrades in war and 
the chase. It makes the boy more mature 
and thoughtful, more self-reliant and con- 
fident, while it rejuvenates and rests the 
father. Once the boy’s confidence and love 
are inspired, the father sets about system- 
atically to give him three great lessons in 
life; beginning his instruction where the 
mother left it off. 
The first lesson which the father teaches 
his son is the story of manhood and the secret 
of virility. He describes what it means for a 
boy to grow into a man, and how, after a 
brief period of lank, awkward, self-conscious 
clumsiness, the boy develops masses of mus- 
cles on shoulders and chest, upper arms, 
forearms, back, hips, thighs, legs. When 
these muscles come under the control of his 
will, as they should in his later teens, he will 
have received from mother Nature “the three 
B’s” of young manhood, namely, Bone, 
Brawn, Brain, so that at eighteen years of 
age, the young man should be able to stand 42 
SOCIAL ETHICS 
out before the world, broad-shouldered, deep- 
chested, erect, supple, hard-muscled, fiery- 
eyed and resourceful, full of initiative and 
will power, ready to get into the world’s 
work. Thus the father tells him the “Secret 
of Manhood,” and explains about the internal 
secretion that is prepared in the boy’s tes- 
ticles from his fifteenth year on, and that 
this internal secretion absorbed into the 
blood and distributed throughout the body, 
causes the development in the youth, of all 
these qualities distinctive of virile manhood. 
Deprived of these sex glands, the boy would 
develop, first, into a sissy, and finally at 
twenty-five he would be a slope-shouldered, 
narrow-chested, flabby-muscled, beardless, 
squeaky-voiced molly-coddle, absolutely lack- 
ing in every instinct and attribute of man- 
hood. When the boy hears this from his 
father, he readily understands that his sex 
apparatus is sacred to his manhood, and that 
he should never do anything to irritate or 
excite that part of his body for fear of dis- 
turbing Nature’s plan for his development of 
all the matchless qualities of manhood. 
The second lesson, which the father teaches SOCIAL ETHICS 
43 
his son, is a simple, clear explanation of the 
nocturnal emissions or so-called “wet dreams.” 
The father explains that every two to four 
weeks a liquid will flow away from the boy’s 
sex apparatus. This usually happens when 
the boy is sound asleep. He suddenly awakens 
to find that he has had a “wet dream.” 
What has happened is a very simple little 
physiological phenomenon that is perfectly 
natural and simply means a relieving of local 
tension. All the boy needs to do about it is 
to forget it and pay no attention to it. How- 
ever, it is very important that the boy under- 
stands about this experience, which will be 
periodical and may last for many years; 
otherwise, he is likely to worry about it, and 
think that he is subject to a sexual weakness. 
Not only do young men frequently misunder- 
stand this matter, but it is frequently mis- 
understood and misinterpreted by others. It 
is just as right and proper for the young man’s 
mother to understand this phenomenon in 
the sex life of her son as it is for the father 
to understand about the monthly period of 
his daughter. 
The third lesson, which the father teaches 44 
SOCIAL ETHICS 
his son, concerns social relationships with his 
girl friends. Helped by a little wise guidance 
and instruction from his parents, the boy 
readily adapts himself to the impulses of 
chivalry, which are stirring in his breast. 
While these impulses are of inestimable value 
in developing the highest social qualities, they 
need guidance. It is the unguided and un- 
schooled social instinct that leads the young 
men to make advances toward familiarity in 
his relation with his girl friends. The im- 
pulse to protection when unguided would 
prompt him to put his arm about his girl 
friend. The same impulse under guidance 
inspires in him the attitude and the daring 
of the chivalrous sixteenth-century knight 
doing homage to a lady of the court, ready 
to endanger his life to protect her, and ready 
to fight to the death in defense of her name 
and honor. 
Where parents and teachers co-operate to 
teach the youth these great lessons of life, 
we insure the conservation in the child, of 
those qualities that make for the fullest man- 
hood and womanhood. Physical health is SOCIAL ETHICS 
45 
preserved, and physical stamina developed. 
Physical poise is maintained, and the highest 
ambitions inspired in the fullest and best 
sense of the term. The youth of the race is 
conserved through this early and tactful 
teaching of the great laws of life. LIFE PHENOMENA PART TWO 
LIFE PHENOMENA 
CHAPTER I 
Animal Instincts 
Every animal is endowed by nature with 
several, perhaps many, instincts. One of 
the most universal instincts is the instinct 
for getting something to eat. The young of 
all higher animals begin to seek food within 
a few hours after birth. The young of birds 
will open their beaks for food within a few 
minutes after they have broken the shell 
that imprisoned them, and launch upon their 
new life. 
This instinct that impels the young animal 
to seek food is only one of the several in- 
stincts, all directed toward self-preservation. 
The young of most animals have the instinct 
of secretiveness. Young partridges, on the 
'49: 50 
LIFE PHENOMENA 
approach of any danger, will instinctively 
secrete themselves in the grass and leaves so 
effectively that one could look long and care- 
fully at the very place where they are hidden 
without being able to see them. The young 
calf or the young fawn will drop into the 
grass, when warned by the mother, draw its 
ears close to its head, lie close to the ground, 
and remain effectively hidden from the ob- 
server, unless he stand almost directly over it. 
One form of self-defense makes itself shown 
in the instinct to flee danger. Many young 
animals are equipped from their earliest hours 
of life with the powrer of flight. Even young 
fawms, within a few hours after birth, can 
run with prodigious speed and endurance. 
Presently, as an animal gains experience and 
gains in age and strength, the instinct of 
standing his ground and fighting becomes 
evident; and many animals will manifest 
this instinct comparatively young in life. 
In these several instincts of hiding, fleeing 
and fighting, we have cited sufficient examples 
of the instincts of self-preservation and de- 
fense. The instinct of procuring nourishment, 
mentioned at first, is one which urges the LIFE PHENOMENA 
51 
animal all through life to seek food. In the 
case of many animals, the food supply in 
the early days, weeks, or even years of life 
may be furnished by the mother or the par- 
ents. For example, the mammal mother, as 
the cow or horse or the human mother, 
furnishes her young with milk prepared in 
her own milk glands. The bird mother brings 
tender morsels as seeds and worms to her 
nestlings. 
But after the first stages, the young must 
begin to seek its own food; the parents begin 
to withdraw their support, and the young 
must, either from prowess or strength, secure 
its own sustenance. The young bird must 
scratch for itself; the kitten must learn to 
catch its own mice; the young dog must 
learn to track and capture its own rabbits; 
the young lion must overtake and overcome 
its own prey; the young man must earn his 
own bread. This scratching for himself, this 
overtaking his own prey, this earning his own 
bread, is the best thing that can happen a 
young animal, whether that animal is a bird, 
a beast or a man, because this fight for ex- 
istence makes his eyes keener, his muscles 52 
LIFE PHENOMENA 
more alert, and his teeth or claws or other 
weapons of war sharper and more effective. 
Now, all these instincts discussed above, 
instincts common to all animals, if we con- 
sider them in their broadest relationships, are, 
without exception, directed to self-preserva- 
tion. So the instincts of self-preservation 
are, first, those that have to do with the 
procuring of nourishment, and, second, those 
that have to do with defense against danger. 
All these instincts, however, that we have 
named, are devoted wholly to self. They 
are the selfish instincts. They are the in- 
stincts of individualism. The scientist calls 
them the egoistic instincts. In all these 
instincts of the animal, no provision is made 
for others; it is all self-centered. We can 
readily understand, as we consider the matter, 
that no animal is in a position to help others 
until he has first insured his own safety. A 
mother cannot give suck to her young until 
she has herself procured the material in the 
form of nourishment. 
But a study of animal instincts in the 
broadest sense shows that there is another 
group of instincts just as deeply implanted, LIFE PHENOMENA 
53 
and, while somewhat less important for the 
individual, are incomparably more important 
for the race than those already discussed. 
Reference is made to the instinct of procrea- 
tion, the instinct of bringing young into being: 
On the part of female animals, the instinct of 
giving birth to young and caring for their 
young; on the part of male animals, the 
instinct of seeking to procreate or seeking 
alliance with a female animal, to mate with 
her, and of copulating with this female animal 
with a view to procreation,—with a view to 
bringing forth young. In the lowest animals, 
as well as in the plants, reproduction, and, to 
a certain rather limited extent also, nutrition 
and defense are more or less automatic; but 
the automatic phase of these instincts be- 
comes less and less marked the higher we go 
in the scale of animal life. In the fish, for 
example, the instinct of the female, as she 
feels her body swell with the growing eggs 
within, is almost an automatic or a mechanical 
one, as she seeks a quiet little pool in a creek 
or a cozy little nook in a pond, and noses the 
bright pebbles together into a sort of little 
nest, where she deposits the eggs from her 54 
LIFE PHENOMENA 
ovaries. Similarly, it seems to be largely 
an automatic act, purely instinctive, and 
hardly with any show of forethought or de- 
sire on the part of the male fish, as he comes 
to this nest of a female of his species as thus 
prepared, and just filled with eggs, to spread 
over this nest and empty upon the just- 
deposited eggs the contents of his spermaries. 
These parent fish, having deposited eggs and 
spermatozoa,—eggs by the thousands and 
spermatozoa by the millions,—pass on to 
give no attention whatsoever to the young 
that hatch out a few hours or days later. 
These young, numbering into the thousands, 
must seek their own food, after the small 
egg yolk is consumed, and they live a more 
or less unprotected life, a prey to other fish, 
so that the chances are that not more than 
four to six of the thousands of young ever 
come to full adult maturity, thousands having 
been preyed upon by other and stronger 
predacious water animals. 
When we advance in the animal scale to 
the birds we find evidences of conscious 
mating, as a rule, though in some species of 
birds that live in flocks, gregariously, rather LIFE PHENOMENA 
55 
than in pairs, the mating is less evident. In 
the case of these gregarious birds that live in 
large flocks, as we study their habits, we 
note the tendency for the larger, stronger 
and better equipped males to monopolize 
several or even many females, while the weaker 
animals are fought away and kept from mat- 
ing with the females. And this is advanta- 
geous, of course, for the race, because it insures 
this great advantage, that every young animal 
coming into life has a physically perfect 
male ancestor. This, of course, is a matter 
of no small importance to the species, and 
tends to maintain in the species all their 
finest qualities. 
Among those birds that mate, it is interest- 
ing to note what is known among biologists 
as sex attraction. For example, the male 
birds, as a rule, possess certain striking 
qualities, either in beautiful plumage or in 
beautiful song, perhaps both. The females, 
as a rule, are less beautiful singers, and less 
gaudy in plumage. The males are active, 
actually courting the females. The females 
are modest, retiring little bodies who wait to 
be courted. They are strongly attracted to 56 
LIFE PHENOMENA 
those males that possess the finest qualities. 
During the mating period of a few weeks in 
the spring, the pairing off of mates is accom- 
plished, and each pair seeks some secluded 
place to build its nest, and male and female 
birds work with great industry for days in 
the preparation of their season’s home. The 
days devoted to the building of the nest are 
not wholly given up to the work-a-day life. 
They are courting continuously, and not 
infrequently during these days they are 
seen billing and cooing as they work. Once 
the nest is finished, the female bird begins 
daily to deposit an egg within it, and daily 
the male copulates with her, fertilizing these 
eggs as they pass from the ovary into the 
ovaduct. During these days of egg laying, 
the male bird is likely to devote himself to 
song, if they belong to species which possess 
this gift. The male bird sits near the nest 
where the female is depositing her eggs, and 
entertains her by the hour with bursts of 
song. If it is fine feathers and beautiful 
plumage that has commended him to his 
mate, he delights to parade these before her 
eyes as she sits demurely on her nest. He LIFE PHENOMENA 
57 
may bring her occasionally, as a mark of his 
devotion, tender morsels that he has gotten 
from a neighboring garden. Once the full 
quota of eggs has been deposited in the nest, 
the mother bird enters upon the trying 
ordeal of incubating or hatching these eggs. 
This necessitates, upon her part, a great 
sacrifice. She must sit hour after hour, and 
day after day, upon these eggs for two or 
three weeks, and never must they be allowed 
to cool. Every day the eggs must be turned 
over. This she does very carefully with 
her beak. As a rule, the devotion of the male 
bird reaches its highest point during these 
days. He brings his mate, many times a 
day, nourishing and tender bits of food 
which he has procured in his foraging. Some- 
times he may even condescend himself to 
keep the eggs warm for a half hour or so 
while his mate is off morning consti- 
tutional and to seek for herself some seeds 
and grubs in a neighboring field. 
After the little birds are hatched, the 
parent birds devote themselves to the pro- 
tection and the feeding of their ravenous little 
flock of nestlings for several weeks, until 58 
LIFE PHENOMENA 
these birds are able to leave the parent nest, 
when they are pushed out to look after them- 
selves. Once the nestlings are out in the world 
independent of the parents, the mating in- 
stinct, the solicitude and devotion and sacri- 
fice of self for the other, so touchingly and 
beautifully shown by the parent birds during 
the height of the mating and nesting season, 
begins to wane, and later in the season they 
may join in a general flock and almost, 
apparently, forget each other, as the birds 
wing their way in large gregarious flocks to 
the Southland to spend the winter. In the 
remating of the following season, they may 
choose other mates, though some birds ap- 
parently are mated for life. 
When we study mammals, those hairy - 
coated animals that suckle the young, we 
find very similar conditions; that is, some of 
these animals are gregarious and live in large 
flocks or herds, the mating of the breeding 
season apparently being determined wholly 
by the aggressiveness and masterful fighting 
qualities of the males. Take a herd of range 
cattle, for example; the strongest bulls of 
the herd will fight away the weaker ones from LIFE PHENOMENA 
59 
the cows that come in heat or rut, and copulate 
with these cows, mating with them for the 
day only, and on successive days with differ- 
ent cows as these come into the condition of 
heat. In that way, one great masterful bull, 
out of twenty bulls in a herd of a hundred 
cows, may easily sire twenty or thirty calves; 
and, of these twenty bulls, probably five will 
sire most of the calves, the weaker bulls 
having no access whatsoever to the females 
that are in rut, or at most serving only one 
or two cows out of a hundred. 
The bulls are equipped by nature with 
admirable and awe-inspiring fighting qualities. 
In the wild state, these animals, and par- 
ticularly the strongest bulls that have been 
most active in the breeding season and have 
sired the largest number of calves, will be 
the ones whose instinct impels them to 
protect the herd in case of danger. They will 
instinctively protect the cows and calves 
from an onslaught of wolves or other rapacious 
animals whose instincts lead them to stam- 
pede the herd in order to throttle the weaker 
members, as for example, the calves. On his 
part, the bull instinctively protects the herd 60 
LIFE PHENOMENA 
from such animals; and his natural equip- 
ment of sharp, strong horns fits him for 
meeting the pack of wolves, and, catching a 
wolf on his horns, he will disembowel it. It 
is the wolves, perhaps, that are stampeded, 
instead of the herd, the herd being protected 
by these splendidly equipped fighting animals, 
which are the natural defenders of the herd. 
The buck deer, or elk, or the bull moose 
chooses a mate for life. This mate is pro- 
tected against danger, and her favor is courted 
by her beautiful and splendidly equipped 
fighting mate. This family may be, and 
frequently is, increased by the addition of 
another, perhaps several does, whose mates 
have been killed by the hunters. This instinct 
of the doe to join herself to another male 
when her mate is killed,—a thing which hap- 
pens not at all infrequently in the North 
woods,—accounts for the fact that many of 
the bucks are polygamists, having two or 
three mates. 
While we do not see in these animals the 
poetic and beautiful traits of courtship and 
chivalrous gallantry that are so beautiful 
and attractive in some of the bird mates, we LIFE PHENOMENA 
61 
cannot watch their traits without being con- 
scious that there is a fidelity and devotion 
between these animal mates that may well 
serve not only to arouse our admiration, but 
compel our respect for the instinct which 
joins these mates together and holds them 
in a sort of family circle, each contributing 
his or her share to the well-being of their 
little group. The young are protected and 
cared for with a devotion and singleness of 
purpose that is beautiful and poetic, though 
we recognize it to be instinctive. 
When we come to a consideration of these 
instincts of mating and procreation in the 
human species, we see it is only an extension 
of a deep, well-defined instinct that has come 
to man from the remote past. In man this 
instinct differs from that of the lower animals 
only in intensity. While in the lower orders 
of animals, as already set forth above, there 
is a certain degree of the automatic in all 
these adjustments; the higher we go in the 
scale, we can easily note a greater degree of 
independence of action, a greater degree of 
choice in mating, a greater degree of indi- 
vidual judgment, decision and reason in all 62 
LIFE PHENOMENA 
of the complex adjustments and adaptations 
of the animal life. When we come to the 
human species, we find the element of choice 
and the play of reason, judgment, and of 
individual temperament reaching its highest 
manifestation. But still, with all that, we 
notice the instinct of mating, the instinct of 
home-building, the instinct of reproduction or 
of bringing of young into being, the instinct 
on the part of the man to protect the woman, 
the instinct on the part of both parents to 
protect the young. The extent to which the 
man will sacrifice his personal comfort for 
the comfort and safety of the woman goes 
far beyond any limits reached by the lower 
animals. The limit to which father and 
mother will sacrifice themselves for their 
children, in the human species, is far be- 
yond that reached by any of the lower 
animals. 
Far back in human history, there is no 
question but that the human species was 
gregarious, and that the strongest men of a 
tribe, the greatest fighters of the clan, fathered 
the children, while the weaker men were 
pushed aside and perhaps even castrated and LIFE PHENOMENA 
63 
made hewers of wood and carriers of water,— 
practically enslaved. 
During later millenniums of human devel- 
opment, even in the most advanced nations, 
say during the last three or four thousand 
years, there has been a distinct advance in 
development from the gregarious and polyga- 
mous to monogamous mating, where one 
man courts and wins one woman for his 
wife, and becomes mated to her for life in 
the relation of marriage or matrimony. 
This monogamous mating, or mating of one 
man to one woman for life, has been gen- 
erally recognized as of so important a 
nature for man’s highest development that 
it has received not only the sanction 
and blessing of religious leaders of those 
advanced races, but it has become interwoven 
in the very fabric of religious rite and cere- 
mony, of political law and order, of social 
custom and sanction, so that, to overstep this 
law of advanced society, brings down upon 
the offending member the heavy hand of the 
law, the ostracism of society, and the anath- 
ema of the church. This being so recent a 
condition in human society easily accounts 64 
LIFE PHENOMENA 
for the fact that now and then men and 
women, from some unbalancing of tempera- 
ment, revert to the instincts of long ago; and 
so we find a tendency on the part of some to 
transgress this law of society and fail to live 
in fidelity to the monogamous union. 
Summarizing these facts regarding animal 
instincts, we may say that they are clearly 
divided into two distinct groups; first, those 
instincts directed toward self-preservation; 
second, those instincts directed toward the 
preservation of the race. 
The first group are called the egoistic 
instincts, and the activities which result from 
these instincts are called the egoistic activities 
of life. 
The second group, those directed toward 
the maintenance of a species, being activities 
for others rather than for self, are called the 
altruistic (from altera, others), and the activi- 
ties which grow out of the altruistic instincts 
are called the altruistic activities. 
As we study these wonderful instincts and 
natural impulses that have been implanted LIFE PHENOMENA 
65 
in the lives, not only of men, but of all animals, 
we are conscious of the infinite wisdom of the 
Creator of all life. But for this instinct of 
reproduction, we can easily understand that 
those lower animals, in whom there seems to 
be no particular deep-seated affection be- 
tween mates, and no consciousness of the 
sex act, would cease to engage in this act of 
reproduction, and their species would become 
extinct. It becomes evident, then, that the 
whole preservation of the species, in all the 
lower animals at any rate, depends upon this 
indelibly-plan ted instinct of reproduction. 
In recent times, as men have studied these 
problems of society, they have become con- 
vinced that the race is more important than 
the individual. In fact, it is even stronger 
than that, in a statement of modern science. 
The individual is important only in so far as 
he influences the race and assists in the main- 
taining of the race. After all, it is the race 
that is the important thing; and we find that 
the individual is now accounted as having 
not more than secondary importance at the 
best. 
When we consider that far-reaching im- 66 
LIFEj PHENOMENA 
portance to the race of this instinct of repro- 
duction and all production of young, we are 
prepared to find that Mother Nature very 
jealously guards this reproductive power, 
and lays a heavy hand of retribution upon 
any animal that, feeling some perverted ten- 
dency, departs from Nature’s law and fails 
to regard as sacred these instincts and activi- 
ties which are concerned in the maintenance 
of the race. CHAPTER II 
The Beginnings of All Life 
Seeds and Eggs.—The mind of the child is 
full of questions about life. The questions 
should be answered truthfully. If the child 
cannot personally see the things described 
below, let his parents and teachers describe 
them in the following way: 
In the early spring, as early as the first of 
April, let us go to the country and see the 
farm life. On the trees the leaf buds have 
swollen, the lilac buds have burst, showing 
their fresh green leaves; the fruit trees are 
already spotted with the color of the partially- 
opened blossoms and will soon be clothed in 
snowy white. The frogs croak a welcome from 
the pond, the birds cease their busy home- 
building long enough to thrill us with their 
song. What do all these spring signs mean? 
All things are growing, multiplying and re- 
plenishing. Every form of all this teeming 
life, plant and animal, is developed from eggs. 68 
LIFE PHENOMENA 
The seed of the corn, or the seed of the tree, 
is in reality the egg from which the new plant 
develops, just as truly an egg as the hen’s 
egg, which we all recognize as such. It will 
repay us while on the farm to watch a mother 
hen. She gets up early, gets her breakfast 
by scratching busily in the scattered litter, 
and then quietly disappears. Let us quietly 
follow and we will find her cosily settled in a 
secret corner of an unused manger. The 
next day we go to the barn early enough to 
look into her nest while Mother Biddy is 
getting breakfast, and find she has already a 
round dozen of her beautiful white treasures. 
Each day she adds another until she has six- 
teen, and then she no longer leaves her nest 
except for a short time each day, but begins 
the long period of incubation. The farmer 
says the hen is “setting,” and we know that 
she is keeping the eggs warm while they 
develop into chicks. 
Just where the eggs come from is somewhat 
of a mystery unless we are so fortunate as to 
see the farmer’s wife prepare a chicken for 
dinner. When she opens the body of the 
hen to remove the intestines and other internal LIFE PHENOMENA 
69 
organs, she finds an ovary with eggs in all 
stages of development, from the little yellow 
balls, the size of a pin-head, to the full-sized 
egg yolk. Every female bird has an ovary, 
and within this ovary the eggs grow. The 
little yellow dots grow; no two are the same 
size, each larger than the other up to the 
largest one which is nearly the size of the 
yolk of an egg, in fact, it is the yolk of an 
egg. During the laying season, one of these 
egg yolks leaves the ovary each day and 
passes along the egg tube or ovaduct to the 
cloaca (an enlargement just inside the body), 
from which the egg is finally expelled when 
the hen “lays” it. But something very 
important must happen to it before it is 
“layed,” if it is ever to develop into a chick. 
The egg must be fertilized. Every day the 
rooster deposits in the cloaca of the hen the 
fertilizing fluid which is made up of many 
minute, rapidly-moving bodies. These bodies 
wriggle up through the ovaduct and fertilize 
the egg yolk soon after it enters that tube. 
After being fertilized in the ovaduct, the egg- 
yolk receives the white portion and becomes 
enclosed within a membrane, and the whole 70 
LIFE PHENOMENA 
is further enclosed within a shell, which is 
first soft, but becomes hard as the shell 
reaches the cloaca. Each morning one of 
these eggs becomes complete, and the hen 
goes to her nest and leaves it there, con- 
tinuing this until she has a nestful—from 
12 to 16—when she stops laying and “sets” 
over them while they incubate. Shall we 
examine a hen’s egg? It seems too bad to 
take the eggs which the hen mother has 
patiently laid, one after the other, in the nest, 
but if we are careful and take only half of 
them, she may not miss them. Let us wait 
until she has been setting on her nest one whole 
day, and then remove one egg and compare 
it with a fresh unincubated one. Hold the 
fresh egg in the hollow of the hand, crack the 
shell on the side with the handle of a pen 
knife, lift off the broken bits of shell with 
the point of the knife blade until a spot about 
an inch in diameter has been exposed; care- 
fully remove the membrane and look at the 
egg yolk, plainly to be seen under the trans- 
parent white. Note the little circle about a 
fifth of an inch in diameter. This circle, 
called a germinal vesicle, is the germ of a LIFE PHENOMENA 
71 
chick whose development was checked by 
the cooling of the egg when the mother hen 
left it in the nest. Lay the fresh egg down 
and take up the egg which the hen has kept 
warm for twenty-four hours. When the germ- 
inal vesicle is exposed, a marked change is 
noted. The area is no longer circular, but 
has become an oblong, two or three times 
longer than it is wide, and wider at one end 
than at the other. Two little ridges lie, side 
by side, down through the middle of the oval. 
These ridges mark the beginning of a new life 
—a young chick. After a second day’s incu- 
bation, open another egg in the same way, 
and note that the oval area has doubled in 
size, the ridges have become more prominent, 
and have grown together in front, and closed 
over to form the head of the chick. 
The third-day chick rests in a very greatly 
enlarged area, which covers most of the 
upper surface of the yolk, and shows little 
blood-vessels branching out from the lower 
surface of the chick. Just back of the head, 
on the under side, the heart may be seen 
beating regularly. Nature works so fast 
that on this third day from the first division 72 
LIFE PHENOMENA 
of the germ spot, one may actually count 
the heart-beats. A few drops of warm 
water dropped upon the embryo will increase 
the rapidity of the heart-beat, or a little ice 
water will decrease its rapidity. 
On the fourth day, the egg you take from 
the nest shows a greater development of the 
circulation and shows the beginning of eyes, 
wdngs and legs. The eggs of all birds and of 
animals higher than birds, develop in just 
the same way up to this point, but on the 
fifth day a change takes place; the skin 
shows where the feathers are to be, and we 
know that without a doubt Nature is making 
one of the bird kind. 
On the next succeeding days, we notice the 
decreased amount of bulk in the egg yolk. 
One would naturally wonder how the young 
chick eats and breathes during its three weeks 
of incubation. All it has to eat is the yolk 
and white of the egg. All it has to breathe 
is the air which passes through the pores of 
the egg-shell. These pores may be seen upon 
close examination. If they were closed with 
vaseline or varnish, the chick would die from 
lack of air. LIFE PHENOMENA 
73 
The blood vessels which spread over the 
surface of the yolk absorb the yolk substance 
and carry it into the body of the chick. The 
white is absorbed in the same way. 
On the twenty-first day, when all the 
stored-up food has disappeared, the chick 
picks a hole in the shell, breaks it open and 
walks out into a new world, and we say the 
egg has “hatched.” The chick is wet and 
forlorn looking at first, but it soon dries off 
and the chick becomes fluffy and beautiful. 
The mother protects her chicks under her 
wings and shows them how to find their food. 
Frogs, Fish and Turtles.—Having listened 
to the noisy croaking of the frogs for two or 
three we determine to find out what 
it is all about, and make our first entrance 
into frog society. Rubber boots being the 
proper thing for a frog reception, we are able 
to wade out into the pond. As we pass 
quietly along the edges, we hear frequent 
splashes as a frog jumps out into the pond 
from some unseen spot and disappears among 
the weeds that grow on the bottom of the 
pond. He emerges a few minutes later to 
take a breath of air, for frogs breathe by 74 
LIFE PHENOMENA 
means of lungs and can not stay long under 
water, even though they can stay ten times 
as long as a boy can. In a cool, secluded 
pool, shaded by willow trees, we see a group 
of big frogs with rounded bodies. These are 
mother frogs whose bodies are full of eggs. 
As we watch we see another mother frog whose 
eggs are pouring from the cloaca into the 
water, and as they pass out from the cloaca, 
they are being fertilized by a fluid from the 
body of a male frog. Now let us go to a 
warmer pool in the sunshine and look into 
one of the little nooks where a mother frog 
laid her eggs a week ago. It is swarming 
with tadpoles. Hundreds of these little 
wrigglers are swimming about, some as long 
as a pin, some half as long, and some of them 
still a jelly-like mass of eggs in which the 
tadpoles are just beginning to show their 
shape through the transparent egg. The 
mother is nowhere to be seen. She simply 
laid her eggs and left them to hatch and 
care for themselves. Without a mother’s 
care, many of them become food for fishes, 
but even so a goodly number of them escape, 
grow in size, develop four strong legs, lose LIFE PHENOMENA 
75 
their tails, and become frogs to repeat the 
history of their parents. 
The creek which carries the water away 
from this pond is fed by springs and has 
many a pebbly shallow where fishes make 
their nests. Let us follow its course until 
we find a fish nest. Not having at hand 
twigs and wool, the fish mother uses what she 
has and builds her nest of pebbles. She 
selects a spot, collects pebbles by nosing 
them out of the ooze and mud, and gets 
them into a circle. If we approach quietly 
enough, we may see her resting just over 
her nest, pouring thousands of little orange- 
colored eggs from her cloaca. These eggs 
sink down until they rest among the pebbles. 
Hardly has she deposited the eggs, which 
pour from her ovaduct and her ovaries, 
before the male fish appears on the scene. 
He recognizes the nest of his own species— 
perhaps he helped to make it—and sees that 
the eggs have been deposited there, so he 
rests above the nest and pours his fertilizing 
fluid upon the eggs. This fluid sinks down 
into the nest and fertilizes the eggs, which 
begin at once to develop. Within a few days, 76 
LIFE PHENOMENA 
little fish will swim out from among the 
pebbles in flocks or schools, each hunting his 
own food from among the living plants and 
animals floating in the water, and many of 
them being sacrificed as food for larger 
animals. A very large proportion of all the 
little fish that are hatched become food for 
larger fish, only a few out of the thousands 
grow to maturity and take their place in 
the fish world. 
Walking along watching the fishes and tad- 
poles, notice a little clear place in the sand 
somewhat back from the shore. Our eyes 
are directed to it by the clumsy turtle which 
is emerging from it. As she disappears, we 
see lying in the warm sand, almost covered 
by it, a white egg as large as a pigeon’s egg, 
but alike at both ends. In picking it up we 
break the tender shell and find in the egg- 
yolk a young developing turtle. Having 
clumsily spoiled this egg, we search again in 
the nest and find under the sun-warmed 
sand several eggs which the mother has laid 
and left for the sun’s warmth to hatch. If 
we wish to watch the turtles after they hatch, 
we must now fence them in with a frame LIFE PHENOMENA 
77 
work partly embedded in the sand and 
covered with mosquito netting. This netting 
permits the sun’s rays to continue to warm 
the eggs, but prevents the escape of the 
young turtles. At the end of a week or more 
of daily watching, we find a tiny little turtle 
crawling about in the sand. The next day 
there are two, the next day there are no more, 
but the day following two or three more 
appear. During the whole of the next wreek, 
there are no additions, so we lift the box and 
watch events. The little turtles, with un- 
erring instinct, all shortly find their way to 
the water which they seem to recognize as 
home. 
On the way back from our last visit to the 
turtle nest, we pass the big walnut tree. 
Under the tree we find a walnut. The walnut 
is similar to an animal egg, for it has its shell, 
which is filled with food material for the 
young thing which will grow within if the 
nut is placed where it has warmth and 
moisture. Real plant eggs called ovules are 
developed within the ovary of the plant very 
much as the eggs of the hen, the fish and 
the frog are developed in their ovaries. The 78 
LIFE PHENOMENA 
little seed ovule, sometimes no bigger than a 
pin-head, becomes fertilized by the fertilizing 
substance or pollen from the male flower 
and develops into the seed. Plant seeds 
differ from bird eggs in the extent to which 
this development has been carried. The nut 
represents a real plant whose thick leaves 
(the nut meat) are full of nourishment. The 
corn seed contains a little plant with root, 
stem and leaves surrounded by food for its 
growth. The bean consists of a plant with 
all its parts and the fleshy, seed leaves con- 
taining enough nourishment to last the plant 
during germination. 
Kittens and Puppies—Calves and Colts— 
Babies.—The statement that all life comes 
from an egg is as true of higher animals as 
it is of lower animals and plants. Cats and 
dogs, sheep and goats, cattle and horses, 
and even babies, begin their lives as eggs, 
but such tiny, delicate eggs that if they were 
deposited anywhere outside of the body, 
they would surely be lost or destroyed. To 
prevent this loss, Nature provides a nest for 
such eggs within the body of the mother. 
This nest is called the womb. The tiny eggs LIFE PHENOMENA 
79 
are prepared in the ovary, but instead of 
passing along the ovaduct into the cloaca 
and being “laid” like the bird’s eggs, they 
pass into the womb, and are either expelled 
and lost or are fertilized and retained in the 
womb during all the incubating period. In 
the womb the egg is protected from all harm, 
and is kept warm and moist. 
The fertilization of the eggs is accomplished 
while they are in the womb (or uterus), and 
no growth of the egg will take place without 
this fertilization. As soon, however, as it 
has been accomplished, the egg begins to 
develop. The time required to develop a 
perfect individual of any of these higher 
forms of animal life differs from two to eleven 
months. The kitten requires three months, 
the calf nine months, the colt eleven months 
for complete development. On every side, 
as we wander over the farm, we see the 
processes of life-formation and earing for the 
young. We see the mother cat lying con- 
tentedly in her cozy bed in the barn, purring 
while the little blind babies tug at her breast 
for their dinner. The farmer laughs at your 
distress over their blindness, and tells you 80 
LIFE PHENOMENA 
that they will see all right when they are nine 
days old. We see the wobbly-legged calf, 
poking his nose around his mother to find 
the full “dinner pail” which she has wait- 
ing for him. Perhaps the milk you drank 
for your own breakfast came from this same 
udder. 
Some morning when you go to the orchard 
for apple blossoms to decorate the house, 
you will be delighted to find old Jess, the 
family horse, standing between you and the 
tall grass, where lies her little colt, which she 
is watching. You gain a better viewpoint by 
offering Jess some lumps of sugar, and she 
allows you to kneel beside her baby, and even 
to stroke its soft neck. Presently it gets up 
and walks with uncertain step to its mother, 
where it proceeds to get its dinner from her 
milk supply as the little calf did from his 
mother. 
The farm is a veritable mine of knowledge. 
You begin to think over the wonderful things 
you have seen. Did you notice that all these 
animals, whose young develops within the 
body, are protected by a coat of hair, fur or 
wool, and are fed from the milk glands of the LIFE PHENOMENA 
81 
mother’s body? Such animals are called 
mammals. 
After three delightful months of the free and 
happy out-door life of the farm, you go back 
to your city home, and what is your surprise 
when a nurse introduces you to a little baby 
sister only two weeks old. When baby cries, 
nurse, saying baby is hungry, carries her to 
your mother, who gives her a dinner from her 
own breast and you are overwhelmed with the 
greatness of the thought which comes to you 
that we, too, belong to the great animal king- 
dom and that baby sister, the little lambs 
and colts, and the kittens all come the same 
way. You ask your mother, “Was little baby 
sister formed from an egg, and did she grow 
within your body?” “Yes,” says mother, 
“baby grew within mother’s body, and for 
nine months mother was giving her life-blood 
to build up the little baby body, and now 
mother has milk in her breasts for baby to feed 
upon.” You marveled at the loving sacrifice 
of a mother, and your heart filled with love 
for your mother, and in that moment you 
resolved that you will always love and protect 
your mother in every way you can. 82 
UFE PHENOMENA 
Growing up.—The man, the horse, the ox, 
the dog, the robin, the turtle, the frog and 
the fish all start life in exactly the same way. 
That is, they all start from a tiny mass of 
living matter which is formed in the ovary 
of the mother. This mass of living matter 
is called an egg. The egg is fertilized or started 
on its development through the influence of 
another tiny mass of living matter which the 
father or male parent furnishes. After fer- 
tilization, the process from egg to maturity 
is a process of “growing up.” The fish egg 
grows up into a mature fish with its scaly 
sides; the turtle egg grows up into a mature 
turtle inside of a hard shell; the robin’s egg 
produces the red-breasted favorite of spring- 
time, which builds his nest in our shade trees 
and rears his young before our very eyes; 
while the egg of the horse develops for nearly 
a year, hidden within the mother’s body, 
after which it comes out into the world alert 
and active, able to walk and to run though 
only a few hours old. 
The young of the human race, after three- 
quarters of a year spent within the mother’s 
body, comes into the light of/day, a seeing, LIFE PHENOMENA 
83 
hearing, fieeling baby, resembling its parents, 
but a very helpless little object, unable for 
many months to feed itself. In fact, for 
years the child requires the patient, watchful 
care of father and mother. First, to feed it 
and clothe it, while it is helpless; next, to 
feed and clothe it, during its inexperienced 
growth; and lastly, to furnish it both cloth- 
ing and shelter, while it is learning to provide 
for itself, and before it has sufficient experi- 
ence to warrant it in providing itself a home. 
These three stages of life are called Infancy, 
Childhood and Adolescence. There are only 
two more stages of life, Adulthood and Old 
Age. Infancy extends. over the first three 
years; Childhood over the next ten or twelve 
years; Adolescence covers the next seven to 
ten years. Adulthood or Middle Life extends 
over about forty years, and the rest of life 
belongs to Old Age. 
Only the first three periods of life belong 
to the “growing up” time of life. During 
infancy the baby learns to feed itself, to walk 
and to avoid certain dangers, such as touching 
hot objects or tasting unknown or forbidden 
things. These lessons the baby learns from 84 
LIFE PHENOMENA 
experience. One after another these experi- 
ences are met and learned till baby is safe 
from every-day dangers, and has learned by 
experience, also, the meaning of many words, 
and uses from three to five hundred words 
with which to express his simple ideas. 
During the first six years of childhood, the 
child learns to dress itself, accumulates some 
experience of the wrorld and learns his place 
not only in the family among his brothers and 
sisters, but in the neighborhood among other 
children, and in the last six or eight years he 
accumulates much physical strength and agil- 
ity; such knowledge and mental power as 
wdll enable him to enter into the games of his 
fellowTs or to earn his living if it is necessary. 
Adolescence is that period during which 
the boy develops into a man or the girl into 
a woman. An average American boy begins 
his adolescence about the fifteenth year. 
Puberty, a period of two or three years, is 
the first stage of adolescence. During this 
time, the youth grows rapidly, first in height 
and muscular development, and then in 
brain control of his physical being. Between 
eighteen and twenty-four or five, very im- LIFE PHENOMENA 
85 
portant changes of mind and personality take 
place. The boy has already acquired most of 
his height and growth, but there is a wonderful 
development of brain power. His reason be- 
comes logical, his judgment sound, his mental 
vision clear. During these years he chooses 
his life work, prepares himself for it, and 
makes his start in business or profession. 
The average American girl begins her adoles- 
cence about the fourteenth year. During 
her years of puberty, she acquires the rounded 
form of womanhood, the abundant hair and 
the rosy cheeks of maidenhood. Her mind, 
too, undergoes a great change. She acquires 
certain motherly and home-making qualities 
before unnoticed. Her interest in music and 
art increases, and she takes delight in decor- 
ating the home and ornamenting herself. 
Later in the period, she, like the young man, 
chooses her life work and begins her home- 
building. A side view, with the organs cut in half showing the shape and position of the 
womb in its relations to the other organs. 
THE LOWER ABDOMEN IN A WOMAN 
1. Uterus (or womb). 
2. Cavity of womb. 
3. Neck of womb (or cervix). 
4. Cervical canal. 
5. External os (or mouth) of the cervix. 
6. Vagina. 
7. 19 and 20. Vulva (or external parts). 
8. The bladder. 
10. Wall between bladder and vagina. 
11. The rectum, outer wall. 
12. The same, cut open. 
13. The Anus. 
15. The perineum. 
19. Labium minor. 
20. Labium major. GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS PART THREE 
GIRLHOOD AND ITS PROBLEMS 
CHAPTER I 
The Evolution of Life 
General Biology.—When animal life first 
appeared upon the earth in its simple one- 
celled form, it gave as little indication of the 
perfection of form which we see in animal life 
today, as the ovum of a human individual of 
the present time gives of the perfect child 
which at birth is launched upon life’s journey. 
Yet this simple life-form of the early ages 
carried on all the activities of life—eating, 
digesting, assimilating, excreting and moving 
—protecting itself, and lastly reproducing 
itself without the possession of a single organ, 
and progressed in its development with un- 
erring instinct toward a definite end. 
All of these activities, excepting one, are 90 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
for the benefit of the individual who exercises 
them, and may be called egoistic activities, 
but the last and crowning effort, reproduc- 
tion, is a personal sacrifice of the organism, 
but serves a higher purpose, the good of 
others, the perpetuation of the race. This 
activity may, therefore, be called altruistic 
(for others) or phyletic (for the race). 
Egoistic Activities.—As the term implies, 
egoistic efforts are directed toward the self 
(or ego), and include all those activities for 
the support, protection, defense and develop- 
ment of one’s self. As illustrated in the plant 
organism, the taking of nourishment from 
the air and soil, the development of the stem, 
branches, roots and leaves are egoistic activi- 
ties. In the lower animals, the eating, sleep- 
ing, fighting and building of shelter are all 
egoistic activities, while in man egoistic 
activities include the first act of taking 
nourishment from the mother; all the play 
activities by which Nature develops the 
nerves, muscles and special senses; a large 
part of the earning and preparing of food, 
clothing and shelter; the activities of school 
and college, which develop the points of GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
91 
youth, and even the pursuit of pleasure and 
recreation; the desire for the preservation of 
life is also instinctive. But there is one in- 
stinct as fundamental as these and still 
stronger, and that is the desire for the per- 
petuation of the race. For an individual will 
perpetuate the race even at the sacrifice of 
life. 
Altruistic Activities.—As the etymology of 
this term suggests, these activities are de- 
voted to the good of others. Herbert Spencer 
says, “If we define altruism as being all 
actions which in the normal course of things 
benefit others instead of benefiting self, then 
from the dawn of life, altruism has been no 
less essential than egoism.” It is evident 
that altruistic activities include all activities 
devoted to the propagation, maintenance and 
protection of the race. 
The most fundamental of these activities is 
reproduction. Every normal living organism, 
whether plant or animal, possesses the power 
to reproduce its kind. Some plants produce 
spores and some produce seeds. The flower 
represents the reproductive organ of the 
plant, and its real object is to produce seed. 92 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
Animals produce eggs from which the young 
develop either through a process of incubation 
outside of the maternal body or analogous 
process within the maternal body. In the 
latter case, the young are brought forth as 
living organisms. 
Whether we consider the plant-seed, the 
animal-egg, or the new-born individual, in 
any case the parental organism must provide 
for the support and protection of the offspring 
during those stages of development when it 
is unable to support and protect itself. 
The mother plant deposits in or about the 
seed, sufficient nourishment to supply all the 
needs of the young plant during the germin- 
ating period and until it is able to gain its 
own support from the soil and air. Consider 
the amount of food contained in a bean, or a 
pea, or a grain of corn, and remember how 
large a plant may grow from a seed planted 
in moist sawdust from which it gains no 
nourishment. Furthermore, plants protect 
their seeds by means of various seed envel- 
opes (thick skin, husks, shells, burrs, etc.) 
against the cold and moisture of winter. 
In a similar way, the young animal is sup- GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
93 
plied by its parents with nourishment. The 
young bird is incubated within the egg where 
a supply of nourishment is provided sufficient 
to develop the bones, muscles, nervous system, 
blood, glands and covering. This develop- 
ment is carried to a point that makes the bird 
able to take from the mother during the early 
weeks after its release from the shell, such 
nourishment as the mother may provide. In 
the meantime, the birdling must be brooded 
and protected in the parental nest until it is 
able to provide for its own protection. 
The young animal is in a similar way de- 
veloped within the body of the maternal 
organism to a point where it is able to per- 
form the principal functions of life. For 
weeks or months, or even years, according 
to the class of the animal, it must be sup- 
ported and protected by its parents. The 
human young receives milk from its mother’s 
breast and protection in its mother’s arms 
during the first year, after which it continues 
to receive nourishment, clothing and protec- 
tion under the parental roof for a period 
varying from eighteen to twenty years, or 
even longer. 94 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
Young animals are supported and protected 
because they are unable to support and pro- 
tect themselves. If they were not thus cared 
for, the race would become extinct. Now 
there are some individuals, orphans, for 
example, who have, through some accident, 
been deprived of their natural support and 
protection. If these weaker members of 
society, not yet able to support and protect 
themselves, were not provided for, they would 
perish and thus become lost to the race. 
From the time of primeval man to the present, 
these weaker individuals of society, who have 
been deprived of their natural protectors, 
have been cared for by the stronger members 
of society, and afforded such support and 
protection as they may need to make them 
independent. In a similar way, the sick and 
defective members of society are cared for 
by the strong. Thus we see that the building 
and maintenance of orphanages, hospitals, 
asylums and homes are activities that belong 
clearly to the altruistic group. The mother, 
the nurse, the doctor and the teacher are 
following altruistic professions. For, although 
they derive a support from the work, unless GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
95 
they keep before them the good of the 
individual served, and subordinate the idea 
of financial remuneration, they fail in the 
work. 
The law of compensation.—Why does man 
till the fields, fell the forest trees, or delve 
in the earth for minerals? Why does he 
cultivate domestic animals or build ships? 
These are all sacrifices that he makes, and 
apparently with willingness. If we study 
the problem closely, we see that he tills the 
fields and cultivates domestic animals for 
food; that he fells trees to make shelter; 
that he cultivates certain plants and animals 
to procure for himself clothing; that he 
delves in the earth to secure mineral products 
to use in various industries; and that he 
builds ships to widen the scope of his activi- 
ties. It is evident then that the egoistic 
activities of an organism represent sacrifice 
followed by compensation. The individual 
sacrifices in order that he may reap his re- 
ward or receive his compensation. It may be 
stated as a general biological truth, that 
Nature demands sacrifice or work on the 
part of all living organisms; and, under 96 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
normal conditions, metqs out a compensa- 
tion commensurate with the sacrifice made. 
Sacrifice and Compensation in Altruistic 
Activities.—If one watches an amoeba under 
the microscope, he may see it move about 
the field, creeping along the surface of the 
glass plate, throwing out a pseudopodium or 
foot, here; drawing in the protoplasm to 
form a mouth or a stomach, there; taking in 
and digesting minute plant-organisms; trans- 
porting itself across the field of the microscope 
through the aid of improvised locomotory 
organs. These activities are all egoistic. The 
amoeba is putting forth effort to gain sus- 
tenance; it is sacrificing energy to receive 
compensation in the form of support. 
If we continue to watch this one-celled 
organism, we will find that sooner or later it 
goes into a short resting stage, followed by 
important internal changes. These changes 
make themselves manifest, first, at the nu- 
cleus, which slowly divides into two equal 
portions, separating each and carrying with 
it about half of the protoplasm of the parent. 
As these two young amoebae lie side by side 
under the microscope, one naturally asks, GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
97 
“What has become of the parent organism?’* 
Whereas at first there was one adult amoeba, 
there are now two young amoebae of the next 
succeeding generation. The parent organism 
has sacrificed its substance and its individual 
life absolutely and completely for this next 
generation. 
It may be said in general that reproduction 
always involves a division of the parent 
organism. In the case of the amoeba, the 
division is into two equal portions. In the 
case of some of the lower plants and animals, 
the substance of the parent organism is di- 
vided into many equal minute spores or eggs, 
each of which develops a new organism. 
The higher organisms also suffer a division 
of their body protoplasm. However, instead 
of dividing into twro or more equal parts, 
and merging their individuality immediately 
into the next generation, the higher organisms 
divide off a very small proportion of their 
protoplasm to make an egg or seed, wdiile the 
parent organism lives on to produce eggs or 
seeds on subsequent occasions. While the 
parental sacrifice in eggs or spermatozoa is 
minute and inconsiderable in the higher 98 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
animals, the sacrifices subsequent to this 
initial division are incalculably greater in 
higher animals than in the lower forms. 
We can cite no better example than the 
human subject. The human ovum divided 
off from the maternal organism is a minute 
globule of protoplasm, almost microscopic 
in size. The sacrifice of the mother in pro- 
ducing the ovum is inconsiderable, but the 
production of the ovum is simply the 
first step in the sacrifice which the mother 
makes. 
The fertilized egg makes a lodgment on 
the inner surface of the uterus or womb, and 
begins immediately to absorb its nourishment 
from the mother. It soon develops heart 
and blood vessels so related to the blood 
vessels of the mother that throughout its 
prenatal life the mother’s blood supplies to 
the growing child all the substance that is 
built up into bone, muscle, brain and glands, 
preparing the young child to come into the 
world, a living, breathing, sentient organism. 
These draughts upon the vitality of the 
mother are so great that they frequently 
result in a very noticeable depletion of the GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
99 
mother’s physical power, noticeable particu- 
larly in the depletion of the blood. 
During the period when the young child 
is developing within the body of the mother, 
she must make other sacrifices: The with- 
drawal from a society into the seclusion of 
the home where she spends many days in 
the preparation of the wTardrobe for the 
expected child; the sacrifice of appearance 
and bodily comfort; and later the sacrifice 
of pain at the childbirth. During the first 
year of the child’s life (if it has its birth- 
right), it drawrs nourishment from the mother’s 
breast,—nourishment which the milk glands 
make from the mother’s blood at a sacrifice 
of her strength. 
During its childhood and youth, the mother 
prepares the food, clothing and shelter of her 
child at no small expense of her time and 
strength. For years, the mother holds her- 
self ready to watch at the bedside of her child 
should it fall sick, and there is hardly a 
mother in the land who has not spent many 
nights in such vigils by the bedside of her 
child. 
All this is maternal sacrifice. Is there any 100 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
sacrifice on the father’s part? The father’s 
first sacrifice in the division of a portion of 
his body is too small to be considered, but 
in his case, as in the case of the mother, the 
sacrifice continues through a period of fifteen, 
twenty or even thirty years sometimes, pro- 
gressively increasing to the last. The sacri- 
fices on the part of the father consist in the 
support and protection of the offspring, and 
should begin soon after conception on the 
part of the mother, when the prospective 
father, by abstaining from the conjugal rela- 
tions, and by showing greater care and solici- 
tude toward the mother, protects the coming 
child and promotes its welfare. The father 
feels with the mother the anxiety for the sick 
child and shares her vigils. 
We have noted that egoistic sacrifices 
receive their compensation. Do the sacrifices 
which are made for others receive an ade- 
quate compensation? The compensation for 
the sacrifice of time, labor and rest is the 
pleasure of seeing a well-dressed, well-fed 
child in which the parents take pride, or in 
removing pain and restoring health to the 
child, and in the reciprocal love of the child. GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
101 
Let any young woman ask her parents if 
they have been compensated for all the 
sacrifices they have made for her. If the 
daughter is one who brings pride and satis- 
faction, whose presence adds sunshine, and 
whose hand is helpful, the unhesitating reply 
would be, “Yes, compensated many times 
over.” Ask a mother with little children 
clinging to her hands, if she is repaid for all 
the work. Straining the child to her bosom, 
she answers, “Oh, many times repaid,” and 
yet the child can do nothing but love, and in 
this one thing lies the secret of adequate 
compensation. Love is the fulfilling of the 
Law of Compensation. This principle of 
love of offspring seems to be a more or 
less general one in the whole realm of con- 
scious, living Nature. That a tree could 
love its young, no one would suggest. That 
a star-fish could possess such a feeling, no 
one would be likely to contend. These 
organisms, while making both egoistic and 
altruistic sacrifices, are not conscious of them, 
and therefore receive no conscious compen- 
sation. 
It seems probable that, if an animal is 102 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
conscious of sacrifice, it is capable of being 
conscious of this compensation which we 
term love of offspring. For organisms, too 
low in the scale of life to be conscious of 
either sacrifice or love of offspring, Nature 
seems to have arranged another scale of 
sacrifices and compensations, the sacrifice 
taking the form of contention for possession 
of the mate, and sacrifice in her support and 
protection, the recompense being the physical 
gratification. 
Physical gratification may enter to a cer- 
tain extent, as a factor among higher animals, 
but the higher we get in the scale of animal 
life, the less the part played by the physical 
gratification, and the greater the part played 
by love of offspring. Where the family 
circle is maintained, or where the community 
life is highly developed, there may be another 
consideration at work, which may play a 
large part in compensating the sacrifices of 
reproduction. This consideration is the hope 
on the part of the parents that the offspring 
will provide support and protection to them 
when old age renders them unable longer to 
support and protect themselves. GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
103 
It is not probable that this consideration 
plays any great part in determining the 
procreation in the first place, but that it later 
becomes a matter of importance, is not to 
be doubted. 
These last-named considerations, however, 
belong to the egoistic, whereas that of love 
belongs solely to the realm of the altruistic. 
What compensation does the lower form 
of animals unconscious of sacrifice receive? 
The conscious sacrifice of higher animals 
receives a conscious recompense; similarly 
the unconscious sacrifice of lower organisms 
receives an unconscious compensation. 
It will be remembered that the amoeba 
did not die, but that it renewed its youth in 
its offspring. In the next, and in every suc- 
ceeding generation, there is no death, but a 
rejuvenation; in other words, immortality. 
These lower forms receive, in compensation 
for sacrifice of individual life, an immortality 
of their protoplasm. This principle of biology 
was first discovered and formulated by the 
great German biologist, Weissman. 
The support of the weak and friendless, by 
strong members of society, is the most altru- 104 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
istic form of sacrifice, and has the highest 
form of reward, namely, the betterment of 
the society of which one forms a part, and 
the deep happiness which follows a consciously 
altruistic sacrifice. 
Summary 
(a) The propagation of offspring, and the 
protection and support of the young and 
defenseless, always involve sacrifice on the 
part of the parents and the stronger mem- 
bers of the race. 
(b) Sacrifice made consciously for the race 
is, in the natural order of things, compensated. CHAPTER II 
Adolescence 
From a biological point of view, reproduc- 
tion is the most important function of life. 
Were it not so, Nature would never accept 
the supreme sacrifice of life for the sake of 
the offspring. 
It would seem probable that a function so 
far-reaching in its results, so important to 
the individual, and so vital to the race, 
would require time for the development, and 
would be most carefully guarded by Nature. 
Such is the case. There is an initial period 
called puberty, extending usually from the 
age of thirteen to the age of fifteen, during 
which time great changes take place in the 
whole being of the girl, all with a view to 
the making and perfecting of reproductive 
organs. 
This period of puberty differs with race 
and climate, and varies among individuals of 
the sany? race and in the same climate. It 106 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
can be unduly hastened by social excitement, 
the early reading of love stories and by 
highly seasoned foods. 
The first menstruation does not mark the 
beginning of puberty, nor does it indicate 
that the girl is ready to fulfil her destiny in 
the reproductive act. At least a year, and 
often longer, before the first menstruation, 
the reproductive organs are growing, the 
child-form is modifying and the mental atti- 
tude is undergoing a definite change. 
These pre-pubertal and pubertal years mark 
a crisis in girl life, and are the introduction to 
the period of adolescence, which extends to 
about the twenty-first year. These adolescent 
years are said to be “the grand court of appeal 
by which weak children are weeded out and 
only those who have sufficient vitality for 
life’s battles renew their strength and con- 
tinue their development.” This quotation 
emphasizes the necessity for special care, 
wisdom and infinite patience toward the 
adolescent girl, who, with all the physical 
demands upon her, is also finding her real 
self and trying to adjust herself to the new 
point of view. GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
107 
The first great sacrifice to the good of the 
race is offered when the girl, during her 
menstruation period, refrains from those 
amusements and occupations that interfere 
with this function. She feels the sacrifice 
much less if she understands the great plan 
of Nature and anticipates the compensation. 
If a girl looks upon this vital function as a 
disgrace and an annoyance, she will not guard 
it as she would a sacred gift which might some 
day place upon her head the crown of woman- 
hood. 
Physical changes.—The human being be- 
longs to mammals, and as a member of that 
class, he has, covering his surface, except on 
the palms of the hands and soles of the feet, 
hair follicles which produce the hairy cover- 
ing of mammals. The distribution of hair 
upon the human being is the same as that 
upon an anthropoid ape. Every child comes 
into the world with a coat of rudimentary 
hair which is shed at once. At the age of 
puberty, however, the growth of hair is 
increased over the whole surface, but especi- 
ally in the arm pits and over the pubic region. 
This is a law of biology, that at the pubertal 108 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
age, this hairy character of mammals becomes 
prominent, hence the name puberty. 
Bone, Muscle and Gland.—Of far greater 
importance than the last-named indication, 
is the rapid growth in height that begins 
about the thirteenth year, and is usually 
completed by the fifteenth year. This in- 
crease in height is largely due to a lengthen- 
ing of the thigh and leg bones. There is a 
corresponding lengthening of arms, and we 
find the girl is outgrowing her clothes and 
reaching the stage when her most prominent 
characteristic is length of leg. The muscles, 
unable to keep pace with the bone growth, 
become flabby. It is difficult for the girl to 
hold her back straight and her shoulders up. 
She becomes awTkward and easily fatigued 
because of this muscle condition. But the 
rapidly developing muscles soon regain their 
volume and tone, filling out the form and 
giving the roundness of figure indicative of 
womanhood. The breasts develop glandular 
tissues, increase gradually in size, and be- 
come tender to the touch. Nature is building 
an apparatus for supplying the future off- 
spring with food. GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
109 
This increase in muscle and glands can be 
accomplished only by increased activity of 
the nutritive processes. The normal girl’s 
appetite is practically insatiable. To accom- 
plish the digestion and absorption of this 
food material, the alimentary tract, particu- 
larly the stomach, is greatly increased in size. 
To distribute this increased amount of food 
(blood), the heart also is increased in size and 
strength. With greater bulk of muscle and 
increased quantity of food, we have increased 
oxidation in the tissues. This requires in- 
creased respiration, a demand which is satis- 
fied by the rapid growth and development of 
the respiratory system. The thorax increases 
in all directions, becoming deeper, broader 
and longer; the abdominal cavity becomes 
greater by the broadening of the pelvic arch. 
Nature is preparing the girl for an im- 
portant event; building a room in which a 
new life may later pass through all the 
changes from the one-celled egg (ovum) to 
the perfect child, and receive its nourishment 
from the mother’s body. 
The Reproductive Organs.—The ovaries, up 
to the age of puberty, consist of a smoothly- 110 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
lined, oval-shaped organ without any func- 
tion. At this age, these organs increase in 
size, then develop and eject eggs. The uterus 
increases greatly in size, and becomes able to 
carry on the construction of a new individual. 
While the girl of thirteen, who has men- 
struated, is capable of becoming impregnated 
and of bearing a child, she is by no means 
physically ready to perform this function 
for five years to come, and better for her 
and the child, if it be seven. The organs 
have not yet matured, either in size or in 
strength. 
Psychical Changes.—The period of adoles- 
cence brings psychical changes as marked as 
the physical ones. It is a time of mental 
awakening; of the birth of new emotions, 
hopes, doubts, fears and passions; a time of 
impulse and independence, and therefore the 
time when most of the great things in liter- 
ature, art and music have been accomplished, 
when the greatest religious zeal is shown, and 
the most altruistic views are advanced. If 
these powers are perverted, they result in 
such lives as we have all seen,—self-conscious, 
vain, imaginative, dreamy, love-sick and im- GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
111 
petuous by turn, in fact, unbalanced lives 
that are sometimes sacrificed at an early age. 
Ancestral Traits develop at this time— 
psychical perhaps as much as physical—and 
new mental and moral peculiarities become 
evident. “It is the final struggle and oppor- 
tunity to establish the type.” The traits of 
both parents seem to be warring together 
for ascendancy, and the girl is torn with con- 
flicting emotions which she does not recognize 
as belonging to her. 
Doubt comes in as one of the strongest 
emotions of the early adolescent period. 
Doubt regarding things that have up to this 
time been taken for granted; doubt regarding 
the soundness of their elders’ advice; doubt 
regarding religious matters. This doubt serves 
a wonderful purpose, for it drives the young 
woman to study, to investigate and to prove 
truth for herself. 
Parents would do well to regard this doubt- 
ing leniently, and to remember, “Doubt need 
not be sin; doubt is only faith finding its 
way.” It is a time for parent and child to 
reason together, but not a time for sarcasm 
or superiority. 112 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
The adolescent is not content to accept 
statements until they have been proven. 
This is, as Dr. Burnham puts it, “a natural 
healthy form of intellectual activity.” 
Religion.—As intimated above, the girl 
at thirteen, first perceives her relation to 
society and feels the necessity of proving all 
things and holding fast only to that which 
she deems good. She feels inefficient, feels 
doubtful of the future, is reticent toward 
those nearest to her. All of these things 
drive her to find other companions and to 
look for some superior being who is all 
powerfull, all wise, and can be counselor in 
secret. She worships the beautiful. This 
is naturally the time of religious awaken- 
ing, the time when a girl, feeling the birth 
of a new physical nature and the expansion 
of mental power, feels too the reverence 
for Nature and Nature’s God, feels the 
soul’s awakening and divines her relation to 
a future life. 
Fortunate that girl who can freely discuss 
these important questions with some wise 
person who will patiently answer her ques- 
tions, give respect to her doubts, and help her GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
113 
to find the light which always shines on truth. 
It is pre-eminently the time for a religious 
experience. For here one reaches the parting 
of the ways. 
The proportion of people who become pro- 
fessing Christians after the twenty-fifth year 
is comparatively small. 
Society.—The girl who has always looked 
upon her boy friends as unemotionally, as 
upon her girl friends, and who, up to the 
twelfth or thirteenth year, has been careless 
of her appearance, now begins to be ill at 
ease and conscious in the presence of the 
opposite sex, and seeks to adorn her person 
that she may be attractive. Her interest in 
reading matter changes. She now wants 
stories of young people who are treading the 
path she is following, but who are farther 
along. She devours love stories, and imagines 
herself the heroine. If these books be chosen 
by an older person who sympathizes with this 
normal longing for life in its relation to society, 
and if the books have literary value and be 
high in moral tone, they will do much to 
establish high ideals and form fine character. 
What could be more unfortunate than the 114 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
forming of low or mean ideals at this im- 
portant juncture? 
Every girl should have one inviolable rule 
of relation to men—“Hands off!” No girl 
should allow boy or man, other than her 
brother, father or fianc6, to kiss or embrace 
her in any way. For a girl to allow a boy or 
man to put his arm about her is worse than 
foolish; it is letting down the bars and leads 
to all sorts of license. A man may have 
ungovernable passions aroused by such license, 
and may under such stimulus do that which 
would never occur to him otherwise, and which 
both may regret for a lifetime. “Hands off” 
is the only safe rule of action for both sexes. 
Even engaged couples should indulge in few 
caresses and allow no liberties. It is the only 
safe way. The greatest objection to the 
round dance lies in the close proximity it 
permits two individuals of opposite sex whose 
passions are excitable. It is a sad fact that 
many a young man goes from the social 
dance, which he has enjoyed with his innocent 
girl friend, to her unfortunate sister whom 
she does not recognize, but who satisfies 
the passion which she has aroused. CHAPTER III 
Anatomy and Physiology of the Pelvic 
Organs 
The pelvic arch, or the pelvic girdle, as it is 
called, is the bony framework of the lower 
part of the body, and corresponds to the 
shoulder girdle of the upper part of the body. 
The pelvic girdle is composed of three bones, 
the two innominate bones and the sacrum. 
The sacrum is a wedge-shaped bone made up 
of five vertebrae fused together, and being a 
part of the vertebral column, is naturally 
located in the back of the body and in the 
middle line. The innominate bones are 
articulated with the sacrum on either side in 
an immovable joint. These innominate bones, 
—also called hip bones,—present two broad 
surfaces at each side of the hip, to which are 
attached on the outside the heavy gluteal 
muscles which form the seat. The upper 
edge of the hip bones present a bony ridge, 
more or less prominent, which may be felt Tare n t' Qrnoaba* 
VFtrst Staqe 
Reproduction^ 
Second 
Repvodu.cti or»* 
Tvu o *d a u <f h t«. T * 
Qmoeboeu 
Reproduction inJ’he^Qmocba* GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
117 
through the skin and subcutaneous tissues. 
The inner surface of the innominate bones 
spreading from below upward, make, along 
with the sacrum, a basin-shaped and nearly 
circular bony foundation for the structures 
which rest upon it. 
The two innominate bones meet in the 
middle linep in front, in an inmovable articu- 
lation (the symphysis pubis). 
Articulated with the lower end of the Sttv,- 
rum is the coccyx. This is simply a chain of 
three rudimentary vertebrae, the last trace, 
in the human subject, of a very important 
organ in lower animals,—the tail. 
THE OVARIES 
The ovaries of the female correspond to 
the testicles of the male, and are the sexual 
glands, that is, the glands which form the 
sexual cells or ova. The ovaries, like the 
testicles, are formed in the abdominal cavity 
in a position considerably higher up in the 
embryo than they are located in the adult. 
At about the time of birth, the ovaries pass 
down to a position in the upper part of the 
pelvis, which they are to occupy throughout 118 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
life. The ovary is about the size of a pigeon’s 
egg, in the adult woman, and is glandular in 
its structure. It differs, however, very greatly 
from the glands with which we are most 
familiar. The salivary glands, for example, 
are made up of numerous tubules, and the 
secretion of these glands is poured out into 
the mouth cavity. The ovary, on the other 
hand, has no tubules in its structure. Its 
secretion may be subdivided into two general 
parts, namely, the external and the internal, 
whose nature will be described in the follow- 
ing sections under “Physiology.” 
When the ovaries take their normal posi- 
tion in the pelvis, they are more or less en- 
closed within the fringed extremities of the 
Fallopian tubes. These tubes, first described 
by the anatomist, Fallopius, extend from the 
uterus, one on either side, out to and enclos- 
ing the ovary of that side. 
THE UTERUS 
The uterus or womb is located in the 
middle line, and consists of the body and the 
two Fallopian tubes mentioned above. The 
body of the uterus is two and a half to three GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
119 
inches in length, and an inch and a half to 
an inch and three-quarters in width, seven- 
eighths to an inch in thickness, and in a 
general way pear-shaped, with the smaller 
end down. The uterus is a muscular organ 
with heavy muscular walls. The cavity of 
the uterus is in a general way triangular, the 
base of the triangle being in the fundus of 
the uterus, and the apex at the neck. From 
each upper angle of the cavity is an opening 
which leads into the Fallopian tube of that 
side. From the lower angle is an opening 
which leads through the neck of the uterus 
to its mouth or os. The whole cavity of the 
uterus, also the Fallopian tubes and the 
neck, are lined with mucous membrane which 
is very velvety in its texture. 
The broad ligaments hold the uterus in 
position, in the middle of the pelvis between 
the bladder and the rectum. As this liga- 
ment is a thin fold of tissue, it may become 
stretched, and thus permit the uterus to be 
thrown out of its normal position; as the 
stretching of the ligaments takes place sym- 
metrically as a rule, the displacing of the 
uterus naturally can either be forward or 120 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
backward in the middle line. It may also be 
displaced downward toward the opening of 
the cavity. This latter displacement is called 
a “prolapse.” The reason for these displace- 
ments is that this organ is in position to receive 
the weight of the organs of the abdominal 
cavity. Because of this, if the tissues for 
any reason lose tonicity, they become stretched 
and permit the displacement. 
THE VAGINA 
This term, meaning sheath, is applied to 
the channel or wide canal which passes from 
the mouth of the womb to the external 
organs. While this canal seems to be open, 
it is not really open, but is unsymmetrical 
in shape,—the front and back walls coming 
together. This organ is more capacious at 
the upper end where it surrounds the uterus 
than at its external opening. The folds into 
which its walls are thrown are called rugae, 
and are Nature’s provision to permit a ready 
stretching of the vagina to an extent sufficient 
to allow the passage of the child’s body at 
birth. The external end of the vagina is 
somewhat contracted, and in the virgin is GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
121 
partly closed by a fold of membrane called 
the hymen or “maiden head,” which extends 
forward from the posterior wall of the open- 
ing. This thin membrane is usually ruptured 
at the time of the first sexual intercourse. 
For that reason, it was looked upon as a 
mark of virginity by our grandparents. How- 
ever, we know now that it is not a mark of 
virginity nor its absence a mark of lost 
virginity. It may be stretched and pushed 
aside instead of being pushed aside at the first 
intercourse. 
Immediately in front of the opening of the 
vagina is the exit from the bladder, or in 
other words, the opening of the urethra. 
Just in front of this opening of the urethra 
is the organ which corresponds to the male 
copulative organ. It is called the clitoris. 
This organ is partly enclosed by the prepuce 
which merges backward into the thin inner 
lips (the labia minora). Outside of these thin 
inner lips are the thick outer lips (the labia 
majora). At the age of puberty, the outer lips 
and the prominence above and in front (the 
mons veneris) become covered with a growth 
of hair. 122 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
Ovulation is a term applied to the process 
of forming and maturing eggs. In the human 
female, this process begins at the beginning 
of puberty and continues at more or less 
regular intervals until the menopause, which 
occurs in the middle or latter forties. The 
period of ovulation and menstruation occurs 
in the perfectly normal case about once every 
twenty-eight days, so that during a calendar 
year there are thirteen periods during which 
ovulation and menstruation occur. (See the 
chapter on menstruation). 
In this process of ovulation, an ovum 
matures on the surface of each ovary within 
a follicle called the Graafian follicle. This 
follicle bursts when it matures and permits 
the escape of the ovum from the ovary. 
This ovum, almost too minute to be seen by 
the unaided eye, usually passes into the 
Fallopian tubes along which it is carried by 
minute cilia or hairlike projections of the 
cells, which by a wavelike motion carry it 
along the tube toward the uterus, into which 
it gradually makes its way and through 
which it is usually carried along with secre- 
EXTERNAL SECRETION GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
123 
tions from the mucous membrane of the 
uterus. 
The term menstruation is applied to the 
monthly flow of blood and mucus from the 
uterus. Menstruation and ovulation usually 
occur at practically the same time, though 
this is not necessarily always true. 
If there has been a deposit of male germ 
cells or spermatozoa in the vagina just before 
or during the passage of the ovum or egg 
through the uterus, these spermatozoa are 
likely to find the egg in the uterus and fertilize 
it. This fertilization of the egg in the uterus 
is the beginning of a condition which is called 
pregnancy, which condition after about nine 
calendar months, or to be more exact, ten 
menstrual months, leads to the birth of a 
child. 
Inasmuch as a detailed account of this 
process is to appear in the next chapter, we 
will here consider especially the internal 
secretion from the ovaries. 
(b) INTERNAL SECRETION 
Reference has been made above to the 
formation of ova or eggs within the Graafian 124 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
follicles and their passage outward through 
the uterus. This function of the ovary is 
called the external secretion, but the ovary 
possesses another most important function, 
namely, the formation of an internal secre- 
tion. The external secretion from the ovary 
begins at about the thirteenth year in the 
girl, as explained above under adolescence. 
At the same time that the ovary begins to 
prepare eggs and to expel them periodically, 
it begins to prepare the internal secretion. 
This substance is so called because it is 
taken up by the blood, and therefore passes 
into the body instead of out of the body. 
It is only in recent years that the medical 
profession has known anything about internal 
secretions. We have known for ages that 
the castration of male animals profoundly 
influenced their development, but it is only 
recently that we have known the cause of 
this profound modification of the develop- 
ment. Researches made in several of the 
laboratories of Europe have demonstrated 
that the testicles of the male and the ovaries 
of the female form a substance which, getting 
into the blood, is carried by that fluid to all GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
125 
parts of the body, where it exerts a magical 
influence on the development of the adolescent 
individual. 
If, of two males of the cattle kind, one 
were castrated at the age of twelve to thir- 
teen months, the natural one would grow 
into a great, strong, hard-muscled, fiery-eyed, 
alert, belligerent bull, while the castrated 
one would grow into a patient, meek, beast 
of burden,—an ox. 
If, of two females of the cattle kind, one 
were to be subjected to a surgical operation 
in which the ovaries were removed, that one 
would grow up into a patient, meek, beast of 
burden—an ox,—while the natural one would 
grow up into the typical female of its kind, 
the cow, possessed of all the fine qualities 
which mark typical femininity. 
In order that a female of any kind shall 
develop those splendid qualities of femininity 
which all the world admires, it is necessary 
that she receive from her ovaries, during all 
the years of her development, this magical 
something,—the internal secretion which passes 
from the ovaries through the blood to the 
developing tissues of the body. 126 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
Even without the removal of the ovaries, 
a girl of thirteen or fourteen may produce an 
unfortunate modification of her development. 
Nature’s plan for the development of her 
splendid qualities of radiant young woman- 
hood may be defeated, if she habitually plays 
with these organs. This act is usually called 
“self-abuse,” because it is universally recog- 
nized as an abuse of the organs and a diver- 
sion of their function from the normal. 
This destructive and loathsome habit of 
self-abuse is occasionally acquired by girls 
quite accidentally, induced by a local irrita- 
tion of their organ through irritating secre- 
tions. Occasionally it is learned from older, 
low-minded, vulgar girls who seem to delight 
in teaching their own bad habits to younger 
girls. 
Whether this habit is learned accidentally 
or through evil associations, it is in every 
case not only subversive of Nature’s plan for 
the development of the girl into beautiful 
womanhood, but it also serves as a serious 
shock to her nervous system, and if persisted 
in, will cause a wreck of that system. 
Fortunately, the number of girls who learn GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
127 
this habit, make up a very small proportion 
of girls in general. As a rule, girls are pure 
and high-minded. 
If a girl has been so unfortunate as to have 
acquired this habit, she will be encouraged 
to know that all that Nature requires of her 
is to quit the habit absolutely. Nature will 
then come to her rescue, and within a few 
months, or at most two or three years, will 
completely rehabilitate her radiant young 
womanhood. CHAPTER IV 
Menstruation 
Ovulation.—Upon the approach of pu- 
berty, the smooth lining of the ovaries takes 
on a different appearance, and instead of 
growing uniformly as before, some vesicles 
of this lining make a more rapid growth than 
others, and finally, one more active than the 
rest develops to the size of a hazelnut, and 
forces its way through the layer of which it 
forms a part, to the surface lining. By this 
time, this very active vesicle has grown so 
large that its walls burst and liberate 
the tiny egg, ejecting it into the Fallopian 
tube. It is carried in the tube to the uterus 
by a current of fluid, the fluid being kept in 
motion by tiny hairs, or cilia, which line the 
tube, and by the contraction of the tube 
itself. If, by chance, the egg (ovum), when 
expelled, does not enter the Fallopian tube, 
it becomes lost in the abdominal cavity. 
The journey of the egg from the ovary to the GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
129 
uterus occupies from seven to fifteen days. 
Ovulation, or the discharge of an egg, may 
or may not be coincident with menstruation. 
However, ovulation begins writh menstrua- 
tion and ends when individuals cease to 
menstruate (the menopause). The two ova- 
ries supply the eggs alternately. 
Menstruation Proper.—Menstruation is 
a periodic discharge of blood from the uterus 
and the Fallopian tubes. It occurs every 
days, continues through three 
to six days and lasts during a woman’s child- 
bearing period or about thirty years. 
Menstrual Stages: 
Each menstruation seems to present four 
stages which follow each other in regular 
order. Marshall names them, constructive, 
destructive, reparative and quiescent. 
1.—The Constructive Stage. This is the 
preparatory period during which time the 
uterus is made ready for the reception of the 
ovum by a swelling of the inner mucous 
membrane caused by the filling up of the veins 
and capillaries with blood. Just why this 
happens nobody knows, but the swelling is 130 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
so marked that the membrane becomes two 
or three times its usual thickness. The 
mucous membrane becomes thick, swollen, 
dark in color and very soft. Some of the 
blood passes through the walls of the blood 
vessels and some escapes by the bursting of 
capillaries; this passes out together with 
epithelial cells and continues about a week. 
2. —The Destructive Stage. The active part 
of the constructive stage merges directly into 
this second or destructive stage, during which 
time the degenerated material is carried off 
and brings about the menstrual flow contin- 
uing five days and merging into the third 
stage. 
3. —The Reparative Stage sets in to repair 
the tissue broken down by the previous 
stages. This is done by a process of growth 
from below and continues for about four days 
followed by the fourth or last stage. 
4. —The Quiescent Stage. This is the name 
given to the period of rest which occupies 
the remaining twelve or fourteen days of the 
monthly cycle. 
The Theory of Menstruation.—Just 
what causes this flow is not definitely decided, GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
131 
but it seems certain that there is a relation 
between ovulation and menstruation; indeed 
Jewett considers ovulation the direct cause of 
menstruation, while Pfluger considers that 
ovulation and menstruation are both brought 
about by the same cause (the congestion 
above described), yet independent of each 
other. Certainly, the thickening of the uterus 
wall is a preparation for the reception of the 
fertilized ovum. And when the egg becomes 
fertilized, pregnancy follows, and the flow 
does not occur. 
Inasmuch as the uterus during the con- 
structive stage is best prepared to receive the 
egg, it must be for the egg of a previous dis- 
charge, for it requires a week or more for the 
egg to pass from the ovary to the uterus. 
The First Appearance of Menstrua- 
tion.—The menses do not usually make a 
sudden appearance, but are prefaced by a 
time of monthly swelling and tenderness of 
the breasts, a feeling of lassitude often ac- 
companied by a white mucus discharge. It 
may be several months after the first symp- 
toms before there is an actual flow, which 
may even then be irregular, appearing one 132 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
month and failing for several, then reappear- 
ing. After the thorough establishment of 
the function, however, its failure to appear 
marks either pregnancy or ill health. The 
preliminary symptoms may occur as early 
as the tenth year, and the menses proper 
appear between the ages of twelve and six- 
teen. Although there are cases of earlier 
menses, and of menses delayed even as late 
as the twentieth year. 
Menstrual Symptoms: Menstruation is ac- 
companied by certain local and reflex symp- 
toms. For one or two days before the 
menstruation, the individual feels a special 
sensitiveness and nervous excitation accom- 
panied by a feeling of fullness in the abdo- 
men. These symptoms are all relieved by 
the beginning of the flow. 
During the first few days of the period, girls, 
and women too, are likely to be over-sensitive 
to slights as well as to work and worry, and 
are somewhat mentally depressed. The skin 
shows a tendency to discoloration, and may 
break out into pimples or fever sores. Owing 
to the increased weight of the uterus, a feeling 
of weight may be experienced in the abdomen. GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
133 
Character of Discharge: The first discharge 
is composed of blood, mixed with mucus 
(which gives it a slimy consistency), epithelial 
cells and a granular discharge possessing a 
strong odor. During the second stage, the 
blood is ahnost pure and bright in color, while 
the third stage is marked by a smaller amount 
of pure blood, a re-appearance of mucus, but 
no epithelial cells. Menstrual blood should 
not clot. 
Quantity of Discharge: It is estimated that 
the discharge amounts to from five to seven 
ounces. The more common way of measuring 
is, however, by the number of napkins used; 
physicians considering more than three nap- 
kins a day, excessive. The discharge usually 
lasts from three to six days, varying with the 
individual, but the greatest amount of blood 
is lost during the first three days. 
The relation of Menstruation to Lactation: 
During the congestive period of menstruation 
(just before the flow begins), a change is 
sometimes noticed in the breast glands of 
women who have not borne children. The 
nipple becomes erected and congested, se- 
creting a yellowish discharge, the area sur- 134 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
rounding the aureole darkens and the veins 
become prominent. Frequently the condition 
is scarcely to be distinguished from the breasts 
of a pregnant woman during the first three 
months. About the sixth month after the 
first child-birth, menstruation is usually re- 
established, eight or twelve months after the 
second child-birth, and seldom occurs during 
the nursing period of the third child. 
Hygiene of Menstruation: 
(a) Physical: This function of menstrua- 
tion is a perfectly normal one and should be 
performed with little disturbance to the 
individual. The organs are, however, gorged 
with blood, producing a feeling of pressure 
and the nervous system is sensitive. But a 
state of nervousness is not natural, and when 
a girl becomes so affected, it shows that her 
nervous system is being either overtaxed or 
irritated, or it may be that her body is in- 
efficiently nourished. 
For thirty or more years of a woman’s life, 
her health depends largely upon the proper 
functioning of the reproductive organs. It 
is, therefore, of the greatest importance to GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
135 
allow them free growth and to keep them in 
perfect health. 
Habits: From their earliest years, children 
should be taught to avoid touching these 
tender parts of the body. If a child shows a 
tendency to manipulate the organs, have an 
examination made to see if there is an adhe- 
sion, for either boys or girls may need the 
help of a surgeon to relieve this condition. 
If this is not the case, but the condition still 
obtains, wash the parts frequently and care- 
fully, to remove any collection of secretions, 
and then try to break the habit before the 
age of puberty. The mother and daughter 
should have many plain talks on purity of 
living. It is not necessary yet to disclose to 
the girl, sin and its consequences, beyond the 
fact that these delicate organs are injured by 
handling; that they should never be exposed 
nor used for any but Nature’s excretory 
process. 
Little children, like other little animals, 
have all the primordial instincts of the race 
and will sometimes quite innocently be led 
into bad habits by suggestion of some “know- 
ing” child. Because of this, children need 136 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
oversight in their play; need to play in the 
open, and would better play principally with 
children of their own sex, excepting in the 
family where little boys and girls may not 
only play together, but may see each other 
undressed for the bath and so overcome a 
natural tendency to curiosity. 
Keep the girl’s body and mind pure and 
innocent until the pubertal period, and then 
give her the high and noble view of woman- 
hood; tell her of her destiny, and the sacred- 
ness of these developing functions, and the 
necessity of keeping them sacred to their 
destined use. Never allow any frivolous 
references to be made to this function, nor 
any light remarks to be made regarding 
maternity, for all the teaching that can be 
given regarding its sacredness will not eradi- 
cate the impression of one ridiculing or 
slighting remark. 
Exercise for an Adolescent Girl: All heavy 
exercise should be omitted during the men- 
strual week. Gymnasium and tennis dropped 
entirely, work should be lightened, heavy 
sweeping and machine sewing should be avoid- 
ed, and the daily walk shortened. The feet GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
137 
should be well protected from cold or damp- 
ness. Sleigh rides, skating and dancing parties 
should be relegated to some other period. Nor 
should whole baths be indulged in. Local 
application of water sufficient for daily cleans- 
ing is far more hygienic than a bath during 
the period. An abundance of fresh air is fre- 
quently a panacea for the headache and 
depression. 
Sleep and Rest: An extra amount of sleep 
seems to be demanded by Nature during 
menstruation, and a girl should not only 
retire earlier at this time, but ought to stay 
out of school from one to three days as the 
case may be, resting the mind and taking 
extra hours of rest and sleep. The time lost 
will be compensated by the added vigor 
acquired through the hygienic treatment of 
the menses. 
Educators attribute the breaking down of 
high school girls, not to the amount of work 
done, but to the strain upon a girl’s system 
caused by carrying full w*ork during the 
menstrual period. Girls should be allowed 
to be absent two days of every month without 
making up hours. It is possible for a girl to 138 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
study hard right through this period, and show 
no immediate ill effects from it, but it is likely 
to show later. For if the nourishment is all 
called off from the reproductive organs to 
furnish brain supply and general systemic 
needs, there sometimes (indeed often) results 
an atrophied condition of the reproductive 
organs, and we have a woman who bears 
few or no children and cannot nurse them, or 
one who has delicate health through life. 
For “if the reproductive machinery is not 
manufactured during adolescence, it will not 
be later.” 
Clothing: The feet and lower limbs should 
be warmly clad; slippers and thin-soled shoes 
should be replaced by warm boots and all 
clothing should be loose and free from drag- 
ging on the pelvis. 
(b) Mental Hygiene: The irritability 
which accompanies the period should go 
unnoticed by other members of the family, 
and any specially irritating circumstances or 
conversation should be eliminated. The mind 
might well be kept upon happy topics and 
enjoyable reading. The girl should be taught 
that the condition is not one of sickness hut of GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
139 
health. The thought that, when setting aside 
the strenuous life for a time, she rests for 
future good, will be of great value to a girl. 
The Menopause: The period of menstru- 
ation extends over about thirty years, the 
menopause occurring between forty-five and 
fifty. Women who menstruate early, reach 
the menopause late, while those who begin 
to menstruate late, are likely to cease early. 
The cessation, like the beginning of menstru- 
ation, is in general a gradual change. The 
first symptom of the menopause is irregularity. 
The flow may cease for a few months, and be 
followed by months of regularity and another 
cessation. This irregularity may extend over 
a few months or even as long as two years. 
Sometimes there is an excessive flow for 
months previous to the closing. 
The most marked symptoms of the meno- 
pause are the accompanying congestions of 
other than the genital organs, namely, the 
head, liver and lungs. Women complain of 
dizziness, flashes of heat and mental de- 
pression. 
When menstruation was first established, 
the girl became self-centered, she looked upon 140 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
everything in all Nature with regard to its 
relation to herself (the center); with the meno- 
pause, this prominence of the ego is again 
manifest. If a woman for the first time in 
her married life begins to doubt her husband’s 
affection, or to suspect her friends, let her 
bear in mind the fact that she is distorting 
things, and that it is probable that her point 
of view is to blame, and that there is really 
no change in her friends or her husband. 
Married people who have lived happily to- 
gether for years, sometimes become estranged 
during this time when the woman is abnormal 
and the man does not understand. 
It seems a pity that men cannot know 
how much forbearance a woman needs while 
passing through this Valley of Depression, 
and that women cannot realize that their 
suspicions are unfounded, and their viewpoint 
distorted. Here again, a great faith in God 
that all is well, will remove mountains of 
distrust and anxiety, and submerge them in 
the sea of oblivion. As the preponderance of 
the ego or self idea causes so much of one’s 
mental discomfort, the antidote is to keep 
the mind actively employed for others. Take GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
141 
up some project which is absorbing in inter- 
est, but not overtaxing to the body, and 
whenever self intrudes, set aside the thought 
with a will, and then forget. 
The tendency to accumulate fat after the 
menopause is marked, but it may in most 
cases be prevented by restricting the amount 
of food. Lessen the quantity of food at 
each meal, or the number of meals, and 
decrease the amount of sugar and starch, 
for the system seems to require less food 
when there is no longer a monthly drain 
upon the system, and to be less able to use 
up the fuel foods. Two or three years of self 
denial in the matter of food, will leave a 
woman light of weight and young in mind 
and body, able to engage in years of useful 
activity. 
With the cessation of the flow, there is an 
atrophy of the genital organs. First, the 
ovaries, then the uterus, shrivel, and some- 
times disappear altogether, the breasts de- 
crease in size, and the individual loses those 
physical characteristics which are essentially 
feminine and maternal. CHAPTER V 
The Unmarried Woman 
There are girls who plan a “career,” and 
do not look forward to marriage, but most 
girls hope that they will form an alliance 
with the man of their choice and enter upon 
wifehood. 
For one reason or another, however, many 
do not marry, and must plan another voca- 
tion in life. This course, while it does relieve 
a woman of the duties of motherhood, has 
also many difficult phases and problems not 
easy to solve. 
Woman's Work: In almost every feminine 
heart there lies the germ of mother-love, 
and association with children has the power 
to keep hearts young. To really live with 
children and enter into their interests is to 
partake of their nature. 
An occupation, therefore, which associates 
an unmarried woman with children (house- 
keeper, teacher, nurse, matron, aunt in the GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
143 
family, governess or mother’s helper), de- 
velops her maternal side, satisfies in a measure 
her love for children, and enables her to carry 
out her destiny in part as she impresses her 
characteristics upon the young of the next 
generation. 
In exchange for this gain, she must sacrifice 
a part of her leisure, and often her rest, but 
she receives in return, the best of all com- 
pensations, reciprocated love. 
Unmarried women almost universally regret 
their inability to have children of their own, 
or even to have children by adoption, because 
of home conditions, or question of support. 
There are, however, many children who 
may be enjoyed and who will give love in 
return, if the unmarried woman is willing 
to make the sacrifice of time, of convenience, 
of plans, of habits. Children, being alive, 
make noise; being happy, play and dis- 
arrange things; being thoughtless, forget to 
put things away; but the extra work which 
children entail is well spent for it keeps one 
young and sympathetic. 
To those who cannot take up these lines of 
work, there is the Sunday School class, and 144 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
the sewing school class, or the opportunity 
may lie with the children of a neighbor, a 
friend or a relative. Tired mothers would 
forever bless the woman who occasionally 
relieved them of their responsibility for an 
hour or an afternoon, and children are the 
sworn friends of any one who gives them a 
good time; moreover it keeps a woman from 
growing cynical and selfish. In thought for 
others lies the hope of health and happiness. 
Sense and Soul: Sex subjects are not good 
things to dwell upon. Desire is more psychical 
than physical, and can be produced or allayed 
by the thoughts. “We are the sum of our 
thoughts.” Sex desires cannot be subdued 
by trying to analyze the sensation, but by 
holding the thought upon some intense sub- 
ject, by reading some absorbing book, or at 
night by fixing the mind upon a text and 
analyzing it. It is of great help to try to grasp 
the idea of omnipresence, omnipotence, omni- 
science in God, and of divinity and immor- 
tality in man. These thoughts expanded and 
worked out in detail are big enough to dispel 
all other thoughts and one is enabled to grasp 
the truth that she is soul, not body, and GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
145 
that every desire of the body may be governed 
by the soul. 
Mental Growth: The unmarried woman 
ought to interest herself in literature, in club 
work or in philanthropy, to broaden her out- 
look and to prevent ever becoming an “old 
maid.” Old maidism is a quality, not a 
condition, and is not confined to unmarried 
women. It is acquired by being opinionated 
in sentiments, absorbed in trivialities and 
centered in self, and is forever banished from 
the woman who, taking hold of her place in life 
with a firm hand, lives with a definite purpose 
to become a part of the life about her. To 
this woman, universal motherhood is possible. 
The menopause is a trying time to the 
unmarried woman. She feels that her youth 
has slipped away, and with it the dreams of 
home and family, and she may be inclined to 
rail at fate for depriving her of a woman’s 
right. It being a time of introspection, she 
is tempted to indulge in thoughts of self and 
loneliness, and succumb to depression, and 
only a stern determination to rise above 
egoism, and attain to altruism will give her 
the poise which she needs. 146 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
To dwell upon the unattainable with regret is 
but to invite unhappiness, while to accept the 
inevitable with philosophy is to secure happi- 
ness. To look for truth and grow up to it; to 
look for opportunity and grasp it; to look for 
love and find it; this is the privilege of the 
unmarried woman. CHAPTER VI 
The Wife 
Girls or young women are by nature drawn 
to the society of young men. It is right that 
they should have this privilege, and any condi- 
tion which robs either sex of the companion- 
ship of the other is abnormal. The choice of 
these companions is a matter for great care. 
If the young woman numbers among her 
acquaintances no young man whose standards 
command her respect, she would better go 
unattended and without escort than to accept 
the attention of unworthy men. 
A girl cannot afford to lower her own self- 
respect or lay herself open to insult. The 
power to enforce the single standard of 
morals—the white life for two—lies in the 
hands of young women who must forever 
lay aside the thought that a young man who 
“has seen life” and “sowed wild oats” is 
safe company, an eligible partner or a desir- 
able husband. As she has kept herself pure 
and unspotted from the world; as she has 148 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
never allowed the caress or the kiss of any 
man, she may well demand the same of him, 
and when she chooses her life companion, 
let her see to it that he is bringing to her 
what he demands of her, namely, purity. 
The girl in her relation to young men must 
so comport herself as to command their 
respect, for while young men will be free with 
girls, if permitted, will take advantage, if 
allowed, and will apparently enjoy the society 
of such girls, no self-respecting girl would 
enjoy the remarks which these same young 
men make regarding them when they are in 
the presence of other young men. 
When the time comes that a man offers a 
woman the highest and best he has to give, 
and chooses her from among all his friends 
to be his mate, it is not a matter to be lightly 
considered nor treated as a joke. It will be 
well to think before the answer is given. 
Will he make a good husband? Will he make 
a good father? Will he be the kind of man 
to whom children may look for a good ex- 
ample? Is he worthy of love? Here, too, 
love is the fulfilling of the law. Marriage is 
Nature’s plan, the family is the foundation GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
149 
of society, but the failure or success of married 
life depends not upon the institution of mar- 
riage, but first upon the choice of companion 
made, and afterward upon the forbearance 
and good sense exercised. That there are 
so many truly happy married people, and so 
many delightful homes, proves the possibility 
of living happily and building many more 
such homes. 
The Choice.—Having made the choice of a 
husband, what is the right deportment be- 
tween an affianced pair? If the engagement 
is to be a long one, the meetings should be 
infrequent. In any case, there should be a 
very limited amount of caressing even after 
the engagement. If it is desired to retain the 
affection, and to receive the most good from 
the relation, self-denial must be exercised. 
Caressing leads to dissatisfaction or danger. 
It does a girl no good, and it makes the man’s 
battle for purity a harder one to fight. Many 
a girl’s downfall has come through this 
avenue of fondling between engaged people, 
and many a man has failed to keep his promise 
of marriage to a girl because she has yielded 
to his importunities. 150 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
Preparation for Marriage.—When the maid- 
en has promised to become a wife and is 
looking forward to home-building, she collects 
her linen, both plain and fine, if she can; she 
makes as dainty personal apparel as her time 
or purse will allow. Let her also go into 
training for the real business before her. 
Marriage is a partnership to which each 
brings a share of the investment. The man 
puts in the earnings of his time and ability, 
and the woman, to be an equal shareholder, 
must put in economy and skill in using the 
funds. A careful buyer gets much more for 
the money expended; a skillful cook gets 
more nourishment from the materials bought, 
and a competent housekeeper prevents waste 
in every part of the house. 
When a man invests in a home, he ought 
to have as well-ordered a home as the money 
expended will provide. It may be ever so 
simple and exceedingly plain, or it may be one 
of wealth and beauty; it still ought to have 
at its head a wife who will see that it is well- 
ordered. 
If a young woman cannot learn practical 
housekeeping at home, she ought to take THE CHILD IN THE WOMB BEGINNING OF LABOR* 
•This is before the birth canal has become dilated. The thick convex or neck of the womb is shown opening at right angles 
into the long vagina. In the front of the vagina is the bladder; behind, the rectum. GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
151 
definite lessons in domestic science and the 
care of children, as a part of her preparation 
for marriage. Many young women are now 
taking lessons at college or in schools of 
Domestic Science and Arts as a part of their 
training for home-making. 
It is unfortunate that custom has placed 
such a burden of preparation upon the 
prospective bride in collecting the elaborate 
trousseau, and in filling the many pre-nuptial 
social engagements. Fewer clothes and better 
health, fewer social functions and longer 
hours of sleep would make the chances of 
happiness greater. 
It is of paramount importance that both 
husband and wife should be in a physical 
condition to be patient and happy. Tired 
people, people with nerves, seldom are patient, 
happy ones. The way in which the first 
difficulties are met often decides the future 
for good or ill. It, therefore, behooves the 
wufe to enter upon the marriage relation with 
everything in her favor as far as planning 
and self-denial will accomplish it. 
The Marriage Relation.—After the marriage 
ceremony a new era begins. The girl who 152 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
has up to this time thought first of self has 
many hard lessons to learn which only a great 
love for her husband can master. The wife’s 
first thought should be for the happiness of 
her husband, and many personal preferences 
and pet idiosyncracies have to be laid aside 
by both parties in this adjustment of two 
people to one life. Without prudery, the 
little delicacies of life should be observed, 
and caresses and words of love between 
husband and wife help to feed the flame of 
love. Every wife owes it to her husband to 
become the willing mother of his children. 
A girl has no right to marry unless she is 
willing to be a mother. A middle-aged 
woman may marry a middle-aged man, if 
she loves him, and be a companion to him and 
a stepmother to his children. But a young 
man has a right to fatherhood. To a girl 
who has been properly taught regarding the 
sacredness of life, and who has thought of 
child-bearing as a matter for pride and joy, 
the wifely relations will be accepted with 
innocence and pleasure, providing the hus- 
band is generous and thoughtful. 
A wife might wTell be free from child-bearing GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
153 
the first year of her married life, while she is 
becoming adjusted to changed conditions. 
The tendency to pregnancy is greater just 
before, during and immediately after the 
menstrual week; therefore, the wedding day 
would better be set for the week in the middle 
of the menstrual month. Even then, one is 
not immune from pregnancy, abstinence being 
the only sure preventive of pregnancy. 
The mental attitude of the mother at the 
time of conception should be one of joy and 
willingness, so as to impress the child with 
nobleness of character. It is impossible to 
tell how many perverted children of upright 
parents are the result of tempestuous, hateful 
thoughts at the time of conception. 
If happiness is to be retained, no one, 
however dear to her, must be allowed to 
come between husband and wife. What 
transpires between them must be a sealed 
book to everyone else. Little difficulties or 
peculiarities cannot be the subject of conversa- 
tion between the wife and anyone else on earth. 
A very small affair when made the subject of 
discussion may grow to large proportions. 
A husband’s little shortcomings ought to be 154 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
protected from other’s eyes as one hopes to 
have her own weaknesses overlooked. A 
thing overlooked is forgotten. A thing dis- 
cussed with an outsider forms a barrier 
between the two vitally concerned. 
The young wife may well avoid the first 
contention and yield a point, or even two 
points, and nine times out of ten a generous 
impulse comes also to the man who wants 
to yield his share. There is no danger of 
strife when the first quarrel is avoided. CHAPTER VII 
The Mother 
The Story of Life.—As soon as the girl 
begins to ask questions as to her origin, so 
soon should the subject of motherhood be 
presented. Children develop so differently 
that no rule of age can be relied upon as a 
guide to the time. One child will ask at four 
years, “How did I come to be here?” while 
another will seem not to have thought of 
his origin before seven or eight. 
Whether he asks or not, the parents should 
place some information in his hands, at six, 
and more at ten years, for invariably the 
average child of ten or eleven will have 
received information from someone by this 
time, and it is of immense importance that 
it should come first from his parents. 
The way in which the subject of Life,—its 
origin, its function, its powers,—is presented 
will determine the child’s whole mental atti- 
tude and affect his entire life. If procreation 156 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
is looked upon as a joke, conception a shame, 
manhood a thing to be wasted, and mother- 
hood a thing to be avoided, the whole warp 
of life becomes distorted and no beautiful 
fabric can be woven upon it. 
The first step toward motherhood should be 
taken when the girl, wondering whence came 
this life, goes to her mother with the query, 
“Where did I come from?” and the mother, 
filled with the spirit of love, tells her the story 
of life. How shall it be told? Always truth- 
fully, always reverently, not all at once, but 
finally something like this: “You came from 
God. He started you as a tiny egg, an egg 
almost too small to be seen, and this egg 
grew in mother’s body. At first mother did 
not know it was there, but one day she felt 
something moving inside, and she knew God 
was making her a baby. It took God almost 
a year to make it, and all this time mother 
ate a little more, and slept a little more, and 
stayed more in the air, so that she might 
feed and rest this little one and give it good 
air to breathe. It grew and grew until she 
could feel its little arms and knees pressing 
against the outside walls of her body. And GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
157 
one day when the little child was perfect, it 
was born.” “Did it hurt?” asks the little 
girl. “Yes, but mother was so glad to have 
a little girl that she forgot all about the hurt 
and was just happy.” 
Circumstances must dictate how much of 
this story shall be told at a time. If the 
child begins to question when very young, 
it may be a year or two before it gets the 
whole story; on the other hand, the occasion 
might be such that it would be well to tell 
it all at once. If a child does not ask ques- 
tions, an opportunity should be made to 
present the subject. The coming of a baby 
into the neighborhood, or into the family, is 
an excellent time for the story, and it should 
be given to boys as well as girls. 
Thus far there is no hint of fatherhood, 
and scarcely need be until the child is ten 
years old. That seems very young, but 
statistics show that the majority of ruined 
boys and girls begin to go wrong before they 
are elevep years of age. One must watch 
for the psychological moment, and wdien it 
comes, the duty must be done without 
flinching. How? The way must be deter- 158 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS! 
mined by the circumstances. For example, 
a mother has always talked freely with her 
boy and girl, and the way is free between 
them. If the daughter comes some day and 
says that the girls talk about those things in 
a mean, vulgar way, the mother need not be 
shocked, but by asking questions enough to 
keep up the interest, she will get some new, 
and it may be, startling information. Then 
is the time to tell the child that those powers 
of which she speaks are for fatherhood and 
motherhood, and for nothing else, and that 
they must be kept sacred to that use, 
and never lowered to any other level. A 
boy may be told that he must wait until 
he has grown to full manhood and 
has chosen a woman to be his wife; must 
wait until she is his wife and must take his 
first best powers to her. As he expects his 
wife to be pure to him, so he must see that 
all other girls are (as far as he is concerned) 
kept pure, and that he gives purity to the one 
of whom purity is asked. The girl may be told 
that the eggs which grow within her can 
never develop until they are fertilized (just as 
the kernels of corn are fertilized by the GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
159 
pollen from the tassels), and that this is done 
by physical contact of the male and female 
sex organs which is allowable and sanctioned 
only between people who love and are married. 
If the girl cites the case of some unfortunate 
girl who has become a mother, she may 
be told that girls sometimes come to sorrow 
by first allowing boys to be free with them 
in an innocent way, which freedom is in- 
creased until sin enters in. She ought to 
know that the only safe way to follow is 
the rule, “Hands off.” 
One should stop reverently when approach- 
ing the holy ground of motherhood, where 
the miracle of creation is being wrought, 
where the forces of Nature are working 
together to build a human body into which 
will pass in some mysterious way a portion 
of the divine spirit which makes it a living 
soul. 
Preparation for Motherhood.—Nature has 
provided for the continuance of the race by 
making the act which results in impregnation 
a pleasurable one when desired by both parties 
to the act. Where love and purity of thought 
are the accompaniment, the offspring may 160 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
say not “in sin” but “in love” did my 
mother conceive me,. and there might be 
many immaculate conceptions and many 
children born into the Kingdom of Love. 
The thing of greatest importance to the 
mother is the welfare of this embryo child, 
and she must consider this embryo a living 
child from its first conception to its birth, 
remembering that anything done purposely 
to kill this germ is the actual taking of a life; 
that any wilful disregard of her own health 
as in late hours, tight clothing, the use of 
alcoholics or narcotics, is taking the risk of 
robbing another individual of his right to 
be well born and unhandicapped in life’s race. 
Embryology.—The development of the 
child within the uterus of the mother repre- 
sents a chapter in the life history of every 
individual so important in its relation to 
maternity and paternity that every young 
woman, yes, and every young man, should 
be acquainted with at least its general 
features. 
As stated in the chapter on Reproduction, 
every living organism begins life as a single 
cell, or globule of protoplasm, called the ovum. GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
161 
When this ovum reaches the finished state, 
which is called “maturity,” it leaves the ovary, 
and is carried along the Fallopian tube into 
the uterus, where, if fertilized, it usually 
finds a lodgment in the upper part or fundus 
of the uterus. The cell from which each child 
begins its development, is formed by the 
fusion of two cells or globules of protoplasm, 
one furnished by the mother and called the 
ovum, or egg; the other furnished by the 
father and called the spermatozoon. The 
egg is very much larger than the spermato- 
zoon, and contains enough yolk material to 
afford nourishment for the embryo for a 
number of days. 
Once the minute ovum has been caught in 
the projections of the velvety inner surface, 
this thick velvety lining of the uterus in the 
neighborhood of the ovum begins a rapid 
growrth, gradually enveloping the rapidly 
expanding ovum. 
Within the ovum there are taking place 
some of the most marvelous changes in the 
whole life history of the individual. The 
nucleus of the fertilized egg, and the proto- 
plasm which surrounds it, divide into two 162 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
cells, then into four, eight, sixteen, etc. 
These divisions follow each other in such 
rapid succession that there are many hun- 
dreds of cells by the end of the first twenty- 
four hours. These cells soon begin to arrange 
themselves into layers and groups which 
step by step develop the different tissues and 
organs of the body. 
By the end of thirty days, the little embryo 
about as large as one inch of the end of a 
lead pencil, would be recognized as the 
embryo of some mammalian animal, but it 
would be quite impossible to say whether it 
would develop into a human being or some 
other animal, if it were seen quite apart from 
its immediate surroundings. By the end of 
another thirty days, however, the little em- 
bryo has multiplied its size several times, 
and reached a form instantly recognizable as 
the young of the human kind. It still, how- 
ever, retains the vestige of a tail, which within 
the next thirty days will have been completely 
absorbed. The little two-month embryo has 
projecting from its abdomen a large structure 
called the umbilical cord, and it is that which 
joins the embryo to the mother. The large GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
163 
stalk of this cord passes upwards from the 
body of the embryo, merging into the struc- 
tures in the top of the uterus, and the little 
branching structures passing from the base 
of the uterus. These are loops of blood 
vessels and they form part of the placenta or 
“after-birth.” Through this cord the em- 
bryo receives its nourishment from the mother. 
The blood of the mother bathes these loops 
of blood-vessels, and the embryo absorbs from 
the mother’s blood the nourishment which 
builds its bones, muscles, brain, spinal cord 
and glands. From the same source the 
embryo receives the oxygen necessary for 
the maintenance of life. 
From the third month on to the end of 
the nine months, the amount of material 
which the mother must provide for the 
development of the child within her uterus 
amounts to no small draft upon her physical 
resources. It is not at all uncommon for a 
mother in the later months of pregnancy to 
become quite pale, her blood having been 
impoverished to provide material for the 
development of the child. 
The date at which to expect the child can 164 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
be found, approximately, by counting nine 
months from date of beginning of last men- 
struation, and adding six days; for example, 
the last menstruation began on the 10th of 
January, the child may be expected on 
October 16th. 
During the period of gestation, the mother 
makes her sacrifice in many ways; the 
father, too, should make a sacrifice—that of 
continence, for one year—the nine months of 
pregnancy and the three months following. 
All other animals observe this period of conti- 
nence, and Nature demands that man observe 
it in common with other animals. Man is 
the only animal that has transgressed this 
fundamental law of Nature, and Nature 
always metes out a retribution for transgression. 
Sexual intercourse may sometimes (but rarely) 
cause an abortion or miscarriage. In any 
case it is an extra drain upon a woman’s 
nervous energy, and is believed by some to 
be the cause of deformities and other abnor- 
malities in the unborn child. 
Hygiene of Pregnancy.—The mother’s 
thought during the months of embryonic 
child-life should be for the child, and no GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
165 
question of appearance of personal grati- 
fication should be allowed to interfere with 
the child’s growth, or any false modesty 
deprive it of its rights to fresh air and good 
health. 
Clothing.—So much depends upon the child 
having room in which to grow, that the 
matter of clothes for the mother may well 
be considered first. The combination under- 
wear does away with the harmful belts and 
bands which constrict the form. Such gar- 
ments might well be worn all the time, but 
especially during pregnancy, this garment, 
together with the chemise or a combination 
under-waist and skirt, would be all that is 
needed under the pretty empire gown. The 
empire gown disguises the form, depends from 
the shoulders, and gives the abdominal cavity 
freedom to expand. 
Corsets should have no place in the pregnant 
woman’s wardrobe. Indeed anything that 
presses dowm upon the abdomen is likely 
to displace the uterus and so interfere with 
the growth of the unborn babe. 
A displaced uterus makes impregnation 
difficult, increases the danger of miscarriage, 166 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
and decreases the chances of the child for a 
good start in life. 
Air.—The unborn child holds much the 
same relation to the mother as the diver in 
his diver’s suit holds to the world, and is as 
dependent upon others for his air supply. 
The child gets his air supply from the 
mother who must secure enough oxygen for 
both, if she would have the child well nour- 
ished. Oxidation of the food which one gets 
is dependent upon the oxygen supply, and 
only that food which goes through the process 
of oxidation can furnish energy for use of 
the organism. There must be oxygen to 
assist in the development of tissue, and oxygen 
to dispose of waste materials. Impure air— 
air lacking in oxygen—clogs the system, just 
as insufficient draft—lack of oxygen—deadens 
a fire. Outdoor air is pure air, rich in oxygen. 
Indoor air that has been breathed is im- 
poverished and vitiated. 
Food.—What shall the mother eat that will 
keep her wTell nourished and at the same time 
build a new organism? 
The mother hen, when preparing for the 
coming of her little ones, places around the GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
167 
embryo, within the egg-shell, all the material 
needed to make a chicken. The shell is 
porous enough to admit a sufficient air supply. 
The egg, when it leaves the mother-body, 
contains the germ, albumen, oil, mineral 
matter, iron, sulphur, etc., and water. After 
three weeks of warmth, the shell breaks 
and out walks a complete and perfect 
chicken, while everything else has disap- 
peared. The food materials have become 
bone and muscle, nerves and blood-vessels, 
hair and feathers. 
The bean or pea-mother, when preparing 
for the coming of her little ones, places about 
the embryo, starch, vegetable albumen and 
mineral matter, sometimes sugar and oil, 
and when heat, wrater and air are added, 
these substances are transformed into a new 
plant of the mother’s species. 
The nut-tree mother puts the food for her 
offspring, oil, protein and mineral matter 
within a shell which, like the egg-shell, must 
burst to allow7 the grow7th of the young tree, 
and w7ithin this shell is placed all the nut- 
plant needs except the air, water and heat. 
The mammal mother secretes milk to 168 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
sustain her young until the offspring is able 
to get food elsewhere. 
These natural foods, which have the power 
to build the tissues of the young of plant and 
animal kind, are the logical foods for the 
woman who is building a new individual 
within her own organism; eggs, milk, nuts, 
beans, peas, peanuts for tissue building; oils, 
fats and starchy foods, for heat and motor 
energy; fruit juices and green vegetables for 
the mineral salts, with great quantities of 
water. The child not only needs wrater for 
its growth, but also water in which to float 
during its prenatal life. The mother, too, 
needs water for her owm digestion and as- 
similation, and water to keep the body 
system flushed. 
Prospective mothers must use an abundance 
of fruit juice and of laxative foods, as well as 
an abundance of water, to keep the body free 
from poisons. No mention has been made 
of meat, wdiich is a tissue builder, because of 
the uric acid which it contains. If one can 
live comfortably without meat, by using the 
above-named tissue builders instead, it will 
avoid many complications. If, however, a GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
169 
woman is pale and anaemic, she would do 
well to use some lean meat for the iron it 
contains. Foods in their simple form are 
best for both mother and child. For example, 
a meal of bread and butter, with a soft boiled 
egg and a glass of milk is far superior to a 
piece of cake made from the same amount of 
flour, egg, milk and sugar, because of the 
greater difficulty in digesting and assimilating 
the cake. 
If the pregnant mother is troubled with 
nausea, her stomach will often retain an egg 
lemonade, or an egg-nog, and keep up her 
strength until the nausea passes away. 
More should be eaten by a woman when 
pregnant than at other times, but care should 
be taken that the work of elimination through 
skin, kidneys and bowels is freely carried on. 
Inasmuch as milk contains no iron, and as 
the baby’s first year’s diet is solely milk, the 
mother must give her baby a year’s supply 
of iron, and if she would avoid impoverishing 
her own system of iron, she should eat abun- 
dant quantities of green vegetables—spinach, 
chard, beet greens, lettuce, celery and green 
onions—whole milk and eggs. 170 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
Sleep and Exercise.—Pregnant women usu- 
ally feel the need of an extra amount of sleep, 
and should yield to the demand; it is Nature’s 
call. Even if one does not feel sleepy, she 
should spend long night hours in bed, and 
should try to find a time for a daily rest. 
This relaxation is of great benefit to the 
nervous system, and helps the mother to 
bear the extra drain upon her strength. 
To ‘Tie around” a good part of the time, 
however, is prejudicial to the good health 
of both mother and child. The mother who 
goes about her daily task, keeping up her 
activity and her interest in things, will keep 
her muscular system toned up and ready for 
the work to be done at childbirth, and will 
give birth to a stronger, more active child, 
other things being equal. Gymnastic exer- 
cises, lifting heavy weights, reaching high 
above the head and jumping, are things to 
be avoided. 
Should there be a discharge of blood, even 
slight, at any time during the pregnancy, the 
prospective mother would be wise to go to 
bed for a time and avoid the danger of losing 
the precious life. Every precaution should GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
171 
be taken to carry the child to maturity. It 
is harder for the mother to have a miscarriage 
than to give birth to a child at full term. 
Any effort to destroy a human embryo is an 
effort to take a life, and is a crime. As for 
any fear of childbirth, that should never be 
entertained for a moment. If one does all 
she knows to be healthy, and keeps a cheerful 
mind, the chances are all in her favor, and 
with a competent doctor and nurse, there is 
no cause for anything but trust. Pain there 
will be; it may be pain that amounts to 
agony, but it will all be forgotten in the 
great joy, the overwhelming love that en- 
velops the mother when she clasps her child 
to her bosom, and she is ready to say ‘‘All 
this, and more, for the sake of the child, the 
husband and the home.” 
Mental Hygiene.—The time-worn theory 
that a mother “marks her” child by thinking 
of dreadful shapes and looking at frightful 
objects, has been discredited by medical 
authorities. Abnormalities of form, and the 
arresting of mental development, are usually 
the direct result of a failure of that particular 
part of the child to receive nourishment. 172 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
The connection is sometimes broken by 
fright or accident, or fits of temper. A calm 
frame of mind, the absence of anger or sulks, 
will be the best preventive. A mother may 
well keep herself in spiritual communion with 
the Creator who has chosen her as a co- 
worker with Himself, and think of this as a 
holy time when she has an unseen child 
whom she can love and serve by being happy 
and sweet, and to whom she may thus give 
a better equipment for life. CHAPTER VIII 
The Baby 
When a woman is honored with the promise 
of motherhood; when there is placed in her 
care a human being to train for usefulness in 
life and fitness for eternity, there is opened 
to her a new world of happiness, a new field 
of usefulness. 
With the first knowledge that the promise 
of seed is to be fulfilled in her, the mother- 
heart sings the universal song of joy. Physical 
reasons often prohibit an exuberant rejoicing, 
but every child must be welcome. It is his 
birth-right. Even though the nest be already 
filled to crowding, and one’s means are taxed 
to provide for one more, there must still be 
a welcome. If a child is not desired, no 
opportunity should be allowed for conception. 
After the child is conceived, the mother must 
rejoice and be glad, for the sake of the child 
upon whom ineradicable impressions are being 
made. 174 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
When baby comes, the question of govern- 
ment begins. Shall the child’s unreasoning 
will guide the household, or shall he be ruled 
by a reasoning mind which will decide ques- 
tions on the basis of merit? 
If baby becomes a tyrant and governs the 
whole household regime, it will soon come 
to be a very uncomfortable household, and 
baby himself will be neither well nor happy. 
The child comes into the world with no 
habits, good or bad; even during the first 
few days, the first habits are acquired, so 
the desired program should be begun early. 
A young baby needs letting alone as much 
as he needs anything. Indeed, that is the 
one thing to which he is accustomed. He 
wants to sleep and eat, and he wants very 
little else. 
The Bath.—After the first cleansing bath, 
the child may be oiled with olive oil, and for 
the first two weeks, instead of a daily soap 
and water bath, the oil baths may be con- 
tinued, using water for such parts only as 
become soiled. From this time on a soap 
and water bath may be given once a week 
with fresh water bath on other days, using GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
175 
soap for soiled parts only. As the child 
grows older, more frequent baths may be 
given, but an infant’s skin does not need 
soap oftener than once a week. 
In hot weather, one or two tepid water 
baths a day are cooling and refreshing. As 
soon as baby comes out of the bath tub, 
wrap him in his canton flannel square while 
he is being wiped or patted dry with soft 
towel. 
Put the band and diaper on then, under 
the shirt, place the other garments together 
and put them all on at once, that the child 
may not be fatigued with much handling. 
The bath is best given in the morning, 
long enough before a feeding time so that 
he may be bathed, dressed, and then fed and 
laid in bed for a three hours’ sleep. This 
arrangement makes the nine o’clock bath 
hour a good one. 
Wash the face with clear water, keeping 
the body covered until ready for it; then 
wash ears and head with soapy water, which 
will prevent the discoloration of the head, 
which is sometimes seen. 
When ready to wash the body, uncover 176 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
and wash it a little at a time, if a sponge 
bath is given; or put the child into the 
warm water supported by one hand while 
the other is used to lave it, if the bath tub is 
used. 
The eyes should be washed with a clean 
bit of old linen dipped into a boracic acid 
solution, using a clean piece for each eye and 
burning them after use. The nose may be 
cleaned in the same way. The baby’s mouth 
should be rinsed with weak boracic acid 
after each feeding, and the mother’s breasts 
before each feeding. 
Clothing.—With what joy the mother fash- 
ions the tiny garments which are to be worn 
by the baby. Into every seam is woven 
loving thoughts of the coming happiness. 
Note the following “Layette” or Baby outfit. 
The little one will not need a great many 
clothes nor very elaborate ones. 
4 Longcloth or Cambric Slips, 
3 White Flannellette Nightgowns, 
3 Pinning Blankets, 
2 Flannel Skirts, 
2 Muslin Skirts, 
2 Soft White Dresses (nainsook, mull, lawn), GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
177 
2 Doz. Large Diapers, 
2 Doz. Smaller Diapers, 
2 Doz. one-foot squares of old muslin or 
linen to fold inside the diapers for the first 
few days, 
2 Flannel or Crochet Sacks, 
2 Pairs Booties, 
3 Pairs Cashmere Stockings, 
2 Flannel Shirts, long sleeves, 
A Knotted Comforter, 1 yard square, 
A large square of canton flannel to wrap 
baby in after the bath, 
Safety Pins, large and small, 
2 Flannel Bands. 
One may add two flannel wrappers and as 
many other things as she desires, but the 
layette described is enough to keep a baby 
comfortable and clean. 
These garments should all be made to 
suspend from the shoulders. The skirts and 
dresses should measure not over three-fourths 
of a yard in length, and should be ample in 
breadth. Then with dainty draw strings at 
neck and sleeves, the child may be allowed 
to grow into “short clothes” instead of being 
put in. 178 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
The flannel band is no longer bound tightly 
around the baby, but is wound loosely and 
worn to keep the abdomen warm. The new- 
born baby needs this and the flannel shirt 
at any season, but as soon as the baby be- 
comes accustomed to its new environment, 
it is unwise to keep a baby swathed in flannel 
in a temperature of 90 degrees or more. If 
a baby continues to fret in hot weather, or 
to have heat rash, it would be wise to lessen 
the amount of clothing. On a very hot day, 
a band, a diaper and a slip are clothing 
enough for any but a new-born baby. One 
need not hesitate to change the clothing 
with the changes of temperature; that is a 
matter of common sense. 
The nightgowns should be very long, and 
secured at the bottom with a draw string so 
that the feet may be protected. A sleeping 
bag made of padded cheese-cloth, tied above 
the shoulders, down the sides and across the 
bottom with tapes, will so securely protect 
the child that he cannot throw off the clothes 
and catch cold. This precaution alone will 
give the mother hours of comfortable sleep. 
Air.—If his serene highness comes into the GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
179 
world in winter time, care must be taken 
to keep his room well aired and free from 
the products of combustion. No oil stove or 
gas stove should be allowed in the room 
unless provision is made to carry in fresh 
air and carry out the products of combustion. 
The windows should be open when baby 
(protected from drafts) takes his naps. If 
he comes in the summer time, he can very 
soon be put out of doors to sleep, and then 
he can perhaps sleep out all winter if the 
weather is not too severe. 
A baby cannot thrive without a good deal 
of fresh air, and it is better if he can have it 
without the motion of the carriage than with 
it. If the conditions are favorable, he can 
lie in the carriage on a porch or by a w indow 
where he can be observed from within by 
his care-taker. 
Sleep.—Twenty hours of sleep out of the 
tw’enty-four are not too many for the new- 
born baby. It is essential that the baby 
should observe night and day and have the 
four waking hours in the day time. If he 
seems inclined to turn night into day, he 
may be kept aw ake during the day for a time, 180 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
so that he will sleep at night, and after that 
he will presumably sleep regularly at night. 
If he takes his last feeding at ten o’clock 
at night, he can easily wait until six in the 
morning for his first morning meal. After a 
feeding, he may sleep another three hours. 
Should he waken and cry, a bottle of hot 
water will warm and comfort him, yet it 
will not induce a habit of eating at night, 
and he ought soon to sleep the whole night 
through. 
Food.—As the little chicken during its pre- 
natal life eats the “egg,” and the new-born 
calf takes the mother milk, so should every 
human offspring have mother’s milk for its 
sustenance. Everything that a baby needs 
in the way of food is contained in this natural 
food. No matter of convenience, or pride, 
on the mother’s part, should rob the baby 
of this inherent right, and love ought to 
make it a pleasure to feed the child from 
the mother body. Mother’s milk has the 
advantage of being always warm, always 
sterilized and nearly always well balanced. 
Nothing else will quite take its place. 
The free use of water and mild fruit juice GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
181 
together with good nourishing food will some- 
times increase the quantity of milk. If the 
milk is too rich in cheese qualities and consti- 
pates the baby, try nursing from both breasts 
at each feeding instead of alternating; that 
will sometimes correct the difficulty. If, on 
the other hand, the milk is not rich enough, 
it may help to nurse only one breast at a 
feeding, allowing the milk of the other breast 
to remain over an extra period. 
The mother’s frame of mind may also 
affect the milk. A fit of anger or violent 
excitement, or of crying, may actually poison 
the milk, while the opposite frame of mind 
conduces to its high quality. 
For the first few days, the child needs no 
real food, but should be given the breast six 
or eight hours after birth, when he will draw 
from them a laxative which carries off the 
substance that fills the bowels. This may 
be repeated every four hours until the milk 
comes. 
On the third day, the milk enters the 
breasts, and then the baby must be fed every 
two and one-half hours. After two months, 
every three hours is often enough. These 182 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
hours should be adhered to with religious 
regularity. 
The hours for nursing may be decided 
upon and nothing should be allowed to inter- 
fere with them. Many doctors advise against 
waking a child to feed it, but others and 
many practical mothers find that if a child 
is wakened for its feeding at a certain time, 
it will form a habit of regular sleeping and 
eating. 
Crying on the part of the child before the 
time for feeding is not always, in fact, not 
often, an indication that the child needs 
food; sometimes it indicates that the last 
feeding did not agree with it, so that even 
crying should not induce a change in feeding 
hours. 
If, after feeding, the baby be held over the 
mother’s or nurse’s shoulder until the “wind” 
comes up, it will usually prevent colic. If 
colic follows the feeding, it may be helped 
by laying the child across the knee, face 
down. 
When the mother’s health will not permit 
the child to take mother’s milk, the best 
substitute is cow’s milk modified. The prin- GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
183 
cipal constituent of cream is oil, which sup- 
plies heat and energy, but does not make 
tissue; the principal constituent of skimmed 
milk is protein, a tissue builder. This makes 
it evident that diluted cream will not take 
the place of whole milk. Constipation can 
sometimes be relieved by adding a greater 
proportion of cream to the milk. 
Cow’s milk is too strong for a young baby, 
and it should be diluted about half and 
gradually increased in strength as the baby 
grows, but this modification of milk is so 
individual a thing that it has often to be 
directed by the physician. One ounce of 
milk per day is enough for a new-born baby 
up to one month; eight oz. feedings may 
be given at 2 months; eight 3 oz. feedings 
may be given at 3 months; six 5 oz. feedings 
may be given at 10 months; six 7 oz. feedings 
may be given at 12 months. 
Most babies at this age can take whole 
milk. Some provision for iron may be made 
at ten months by dividing a yolk of an egg 
among the six feedings for the day. Even as 
early as three months, prune juice may be 
given for constipation, and at six months, 184 
GIRLHOOD—ITS PROBLEMS 
orange juice in small quantities between, not 
with, the feedings. 
If these precautionary methods do not 
prevent constipation, and olive oil given in 
small quantities and rubbed into the abdo- 
men fails to give relief, a regular daily evacu- 
ation of the bowels must be secured by an 
injection of warm water and castile soap, 
given at a regular daily hour until the habit 
is formed. 
Babies can be trained not only to eat 
regularly and to sleep regularly, but to 
evacuate regularly. PERSONAL HYGIENE PART FOUR 
PERSONAL HYGIENE 
CHAPTER I 
Diet 
It is proposed in this chapter to outline, 
very briefly, a few simple rules of hygiene, 
the observance of which will tend to bring 
the young man and the young woman into 
the highest possible state of physical develop- 
ment and robust good health. Assuming 
that one wishes to lead the white life, the 
observance of these rules will make that 
much desired condition more easily attain- 
able. 
Choice of Food.—The young person who is 
boarding at a restaurant, or in a boarding 
club, can modify the diet only wdthin the 
range of the menu provided. Fortunately, 
the most important rule of diet can always 
be observed; that is, to eat abstemiously. 188 
PERSONAL HYGIENE 
Wherever one is boarding, one can eat tem- 
perately, and avoid highly spiced foods, tea 
and coffee. The observance of these simple 
will go a long way towards insuring 
health and happiness. It has been discovered, 
by the study of the influence of diet upon 
se'xual appetite, that the heavy eating of rich 
and highly spiced foods, indulgence in stimu- 
lants and narcotics, all tend to excite the 
sexual desires, in the woman as in the man. 
Narcotics are those drugs which cause 
narcosis, or a dulling of the senses, and a 
decreased activity of both the muscular and 
nervous system. 
One of the most common and typical 
narcotics is opium. Derived from opium is 
morphine. Cocaine belongs also to the nar- 
cotics, as do the anaesthetics, such as chloro- 
form, ether and common alcohol. 
So the young person who would develop a 
clear-thinking brain and a sound body must 
leave alcoholic beverages alone. Further- 
more, the young person who would have 
absolute control of the sexual desires must 
leave alcohol alone, for the first thing that 
alcohol does is to throw down the lines of PERSONAL HYGIENE 
189 
control. It is under the influence of alcohol 
that the young man is almost sure to make 
his first visit to the house of prostitution. If 
a girl lose her virtue, it takes place in a 
majority of cases when she is under the 
influence of alcohol. But for this influence 
lessening her control, she could not be seduced. 
Hence one of the requirements of chastity is 
TOTAL ABSTINENCE. 
In so far as tobacco is a narcotic, in just 
so far does it disarm and put to sleep those 
aesthetic and moral impulses which are so 
helpful in the maintenance of the chaste life. 
The dietetic control of the bowels.—A most 
important hygienic rule is to maintain a 
strict regularity of the bowels. By regularity 
of the bowels, we mean a free, normal passage 
of the bowels at least once in twenty-four 
hours. Two or three passages in twenty-four 
hours are not too many. 
A tendency towards constipation may be 
hereditary". The writer finds that at least 
one case in four of persistent chronic consti- 
pation seems to be due to a hereditary 
tendency. 
Those individuals who have from early 190 
PERSONAL HYGIENE 
infancy and throughout their whole lives 
suffered from a tendency to constipation, and 
perhaps from actual chronic constipation, 
find it exceedingly difficult to produce normal, 
regular daily movements of the bowels. 
Whether constipation is chronic or occasional, 
or whether it is hereditary or acquired, in any 
case it should be corrected, if possible, through 
modification of the diet, and of daily habits. 
First of all, one must remember, in this 
connection, that the lower bowel or rectum 
is subject to education, and not by any 
means the least important factor in over- 
coming a tendency to constipation is the 
regular morning visit to the water closet. 
The author would discourage the habit, 
which some have, of “straining at stool.” 
This act of straining at stool, together with 
the pressure which the hard fecal masses 
make on the blood vessels, increases the 
blood pressure on the veins of the rectum 
to such a high degree that it is likely to cause 
hemorrhoids or piles. But if the position 
favorable to the passage of the bowels be 
taken regularly every morning, and a reason- 
able time spent in that position, and if the PERSONAL HYGIENE 
191 
daily passage is brought about at the time, 
the muscles of the rectum will be educated 
to the point of contracting upon its contents 
at that time and under those conditions 
regularly, and this will be a strong factor 
towards regulating the movements of the 
bowels. 
But the most important thing to consider 
in this condition is the dietetic regulation of 
the bowels. There are some foods that tend 
to constipate, while others act as a laxative. 
Such foods, for example, as contain a con- 
siderable portion of tannin, are always con- 
stipating. Strong teas have a constipating 
effect, particularly such as the bitter English 
breakfast teas, in which there is a very large 
proportion of tannin. This large percentage 
of tannin accounts for the prevalence of 
constipation among female tea drinkers. 
If one then, who is annoyed by a tendency 
to constipation, wishes to correct it, a rational 
change of diet would be to eat freely of cereals 
and coarse bread and of various fruits, par- 
ticularly apples, figs and prunes. 
The most effective way to eat these laxa- 
tive fruits is to eat freely of them just before 192 
PERSONAL HYGIENE 
retiring. The apples and figs may be eaten 
just as they are received from the market. 
Prunes may be soaked in cold water for 
twenty-four hours, and then taken directly 
from the cold water and eaten. 
If this is not effective, a supplementary 
regime may be adopted that is only in part 
dietetic, that is, to rise one hour before 
breakfast, drink two glasses of cold water, 
and take a brisk walk of fifteen to thirty 
minutes. The cold water has a tonic effect 
upon the stomach, preparing it for a rapid 
digestion of the breakfast. It also washes 
out the accumulation of mucus in the stomach, 
which may easily equal a pint in volume. 
This pint of mucus, plus the pint of water, 
making a quart of liquid altogether, pours 
through the pylorus, and during the rapid 
walk works its way rapidly down through the 
alimentary tract, washing the whole tract 
and preparing it to receive and rapidly digest 
the next meal. This slimy water, having 
washed out the stomach and small intestine, 
then passes into the large intestine, moistening 
and lubricating its contents and causing it to 
move gradually toward the rectum, where PERSONAL HYGIENE 
193 
it stimulates a normal free passage of the 
bowels after breakfast. 
Any usual case of constipation will yield 
to this treatment. Such a treatment is in- 
comparably more rational than the taking of 
medicines. 
The Dietetic Control of Sleep.—Most stu- 
dents study evenings. If their heavy meal 
is a dinner at 5.30 or 6 P. M., they are likely 
to feel very drowsy by 7.30 or 8 o’clock. 
This is a perfectly natural experience, all 
animals manifesting a drowsiness after a 
heavy meal. If you could lie down and sleep 
for an hour while your dinner is digesting, 
you could probably rise at 8 o’clock and put 
in two or three hours of good hard work. 
You would find yourself at 11 or 12 o’clock 
so thoroughly awake, however, that you 
might have difficulty in getting to sleep if 
you retired at that hour. If, on the other 
hand, you have dinner in the middle of the 
day, and a light supper at night, you will 
be able to begin studying within an hour 
after supper, and keep it up until ready to 
retire. In this case also, you are likely to be 
so wide awake at the time of retiring that 194 
PERSONAL HYGIENE 
you may have difficulty in getting to sleep. 
In either of these cases, it is altogether proper 
and advisable to take a light lunch before 
retiring. A double purpose can be served 
by this lunch. In the first place, the taking 
of anything into the stomach that requires 
digestion tends to deplete the circulation 
from other organs (brain in this case) to the 
stomach. In the second place, the food may 
be so chosen as to exert a definite somnolent 
effect. Such foods are celery, lettuce, onions, 
warm milk. It may not be convenient to 
get warm milk at midnight, but it would 
hardly be inconvenient to provide one’s self 
with two or three Graham crackers and a 
stalk of celery. These with a drink of water 
ought so far to divert the circulation from 
the brain as to enable one to fall asleep 
quickly. 
The Dietetic Control of the Kidneys and 
Skin.—The stimulation of excretion, through 
the kidneys and skin, may be an exceedingly 
important thing, particularly if one has just 
caught a cold and wishes to establish free 
excretion. The food which has a most clearly 
marked effect upon both kidneys and skin is PERSONAL HYGIENE 
195 
the juice of the citrus fruits. These fruits, 
as they appear in our markets, are lemons, 
oranges and grape fruit. All of these fruits 
are in a high degree wholesome as an addition 
to the dietary. Lemon juice is far more 
wholesome than vinegar in salads. The 
juice of lemons and oranges makes most 
refreshing and deliciously cooling drinks in 
summer, and on occasions where one wishes 
to get a stronger stimulation of the kidneys 
and skin, he has only to drink large quantities 
of hot lemonade. 
The Dietetic Method of Curing a Cold.—A 
whole quart of hot lemonade may be taken 
on retiring after one has caught cold. The 
effect in such a case would be to cause a free 
sweating and copious urination. Both the 
action of the kidneys and the skin would 
tend to carry away from the system the 
materials that have been retained as a result 
of the cold. 
It is hardly necessary to add in this con- 
nection that care should be taken that during 
the sweating or immediately following it, 
the body should not be exposed to catch 
more cold. In this method of treating a 196 
PERSONAL HYGIENE 
cold, one should take a strong cathartic, 
such as two or three teaspoonfuls of castor 
oil, and should remain in bed twenty-four 
hours. During this twenty-four hours, no 
other food than a little light broth should 
be taken. This treatment usually completely 
breaks up a cold, and one is able, in two or 
three days, to make good the loss of the 
twenty-four hours, during which time he 
was confined to his room. 
This dietetic method of caring for an 
acute catarrhal cold is incomparably wiser 
and more economical than to drag around, 
hoping to “wear out the cold” only to be 
worn out by it. CHAPTER II 
Baths 
The Bath for Cleanliness.—Little need be 
said regarding the bath for cleanliness, except 
that it should be taken at least once in a 
week during the colder portion of the year, 
and perhaps as frequently as once a day 
during that portion of the year when there 
is free perspiration. 
Where one is bathing for cleanliness, one 
may well use soap and warm water over the 
whole surface of the body. If you take this 
bath just before retiring, it is not necessary 
to take a cold shower or sponge at the end 
of the bath. If, however, you take a warm 
soap bath in the morning, the relaxing effect 
of the bath upon the skin makes it necessary 
to take a cold shower or a cold sponge after 
the warm bath in order to secure the tonic 
effect upon the skin, and fortify you against 
catching cold. 
During the hot weather, when one may 198 
PERSONAL HYGIENE 
bathe daily for cleanliness, you should guard 
against an excessive use of soap, as a daily 
soap bath may have a tendency to remove 
the oils from the skin so completely as to 
make the skin rough. With the daily bath 
for cleanliness, it is possible that warm water 
and soap need not be used more frequently 
than once or twice a week, and that a laving 
of the whole surface with cold water, followed 
by a vigorous rub down with a coarse towel, 
may serve the double purpose of insuring 
absolute cleanliness, and at the same time 
serving as a skin tonic. 
In this connection, the author would em- 
phasize the importance of insuring absolute 
cleanliness of the sexual apparatus. In prime- 
val conditions, less attention was necessary, 
as these organs wTere more or less exposed, 
but the present method of dress is such as 
to permit the accumulation of the skin 
secretions. While these may in part be 
removed by the friction against the clothing, 
it is advisable to wash the genitals and all 
neighboring surfaces as a regular part of the 
daily toilet. 
The Tonic Bath.—In warm weather, when PERSONAL HYGIENE 
199 
one takes a daily bath to insure cleanliness, 
at least five of these baths each week may be 
in cold water, sufficiently cold to secure the 
tonic effect as described above. In cold 
weather when one takes not more than one 
or two warm soap baths a week, the cold 
tonic bath can be made to serve a most 
important purpose in the hygiene. 
Some have followed the custom of im- 
mersing the body completely in a tub of cold 
water. This method of taking the cold bath 
is not to be recommended, except for those 
who are in the most robust health, and in 
these cases, so vigorous a treatment is not 
necessary nor particularly beneficial. The 
author has seen many people who were 
injured by this method of taking the tonic 
bath. 
There are two methods to be recommended: 
Those who have access to a cold shower may 
stand for a moment, and for a moment only, 
under the cold shower, then step at once upon 
a warm rug and rub the whole surface of the 
body vigorously with a dry crash towel until 
the whole surface of the body glows with 
the warmth of the reaction. If you do not 200 
PERSONAL HYGIENE 
have access to the cold shower, you may 
take a most effective tonic bath in your 
room, using cold water, the coldest obtain- 
able, with sponge, or even a wash cloth, 
dipping the sponge into the cold water, then 
pressing out enough of the so that 
there will be no excess of water to run over 
the surface of the body from the sponge. 
Begin by sponging face, neck, shoulders, arms 
and chest, then wiping these parts dry, sub- 
ject them to vigorous friction with the crash 
towel. While the upper half of the body 
is receiving its bath, the lower half may be 
kept covered, and conversely. 
This tonic bath should be taken immedi- 
ately upon arising in the morning, and as a 
part of the morning toilet. 
If one takes such a tonic bath on arising, 
then dresses hurriedly and takes a brisk 
walk of fifteen or twenty minutes, the regime 
quickly brings the body into the most vigor- 
ous and robust state of health; unless there 
is something wrong with the digestion or 
the excretion, and even moderate derange- 
ments of these will in all probability be 
corrected by the regime just suggested. CHAPTER III 
Exercise 
Incident to the above topic, mention has 
been made of the brisk morning walk before 
breakfast. This has a most salutary tonic 
effect besides the influence that it exerts upon 
the bowel movements. Not the least im- 
portant results of this morning exercise de- 
pends on the fact that the lungs are repeatedly 
and completely inflated with the pure out-of- 
door air. This naturally exerts a most 
valuable influence upon the development of 
the lungs in the youth, or the maintenance of 
their vigor in middle age. 
This increased heart action is also advan- 
tageous as it tends to hasten circulation 
through the muscles, glands and brain. This 
hurrying blood current not only carries nutri- 
ment to these organs, but carries away their 
accumulations of effete material to the excre- 
tory glands. 
The reader must be cautioned not to 202 
PERSONAL HYGIENE 
overdo this early morning exercise. A set of 
tennis, a mile row, or any other strenuous 
exercise, is strongly to be discouraged at this 
time of the day. If one overdoes morning 
exercise, one is likely to feel somewhat de- 
pleted and fatigued throughout the remainder 
of the forenoon, and the ability to do a high 
grade of mental work is decreased rather than 
increased. 
Besides the morning exercise, every person, 
who wishes to live a vigorous physical life, 
should have from one to two hours of heavier 
exercise during the latter part of the day or 
evening. This exercise may take any one 
of many forms. It may be golf, tennis, row- 
ing, swimming, skating, basketball, cycling, 
horse-back riding, cross-country hikes, track or 
gymnasium work. The order in which these 
sports are mentioned is a matter of no impor- 
tance. The immediate results of this exercise 
should be largely to increase lung and heart 
action, and to cause a sufficient fatigue of the 
muscular system so that rest is sought and 
may be followed by dreamless, recuperative 
sleep. 
It might at first seem paradoxical that to PERSONAL HYGIENE 
203 
build up strong muscles, we must first fatigue 
them, but that seems to be Nature’s plan. 
The only way to build up a strong physique 
is to use that physique, and use it to near 
its maximum capacity. 
If one exercises thus, freely, and eats 
abstemiously, one ought not to lay on fat. 
If you do lay on fat, you may know that you 
are eating more than you need, and you 
should make your diet more temperate. The 
young person of eighteen or nineteen, who 
is tall and rather spare, and whose muscular 
system has not reached its full development, 
may increase weight through muscle growth 
or fat deposit. The latter should be avoided, 
and the former encouraged. 
Not by any means the least important 
thing accomplished by physical exercise is 
the association with one’s fellows incident to 
the exercise. The courage, nerve control, 
quick judgment, agility and strength required 
in an athletic game make no small part of 
our equipment to fight the battles of life. 
The conditions of these games give frequent 
opportunities for the young person to cultivate 
the fine spirit of honesty and fair play. CHAPTER IV 
The Hygienic Requirements of Sleep 
The personal hygiene of sleep is by no 
means an unimportant topic, though it may 
be briefly treated. 
The amount of sleep that each individual 
requires and should take, can only be de- 
termined by the individual. Some seem to 
require ten hours, others eight, others six, 
while rarely individuals are found who seem 
to thrive on even so little as five hours of 
sleep out of twenty-four. The average re- 
quirement seems to be about eight hours. 
If one has, by experience or experiment, 
determined the amount of sleep required, one 
should so plan the daily regime that that 
amount of sleep is secured. While a brief 
departure from this regime may be without 
serious results, any prolonged departure from 
it will certainly bring its natural retribution. 
The young person having determined how 
much sleep is needed, should adopt a daily PERSONAL HYGIENE 
205 
program that will provide for just that 
many hours in bed, and should early establish 
the habit of going to sleep at once upon 
retiring, and of arising at once upon awaken- 
ing. Dallying in bed has led many a young 
man or woman to lapse into habits of thought 
and of action that are in a high degree dele- 
terious, morally and physically. 
So far as one may choose the equipment 
of the sleeping apartment, a hard bed should 
be chosen and a cover as light as possible 
and yet be comfortable. 
One should never retire with cold feet. 
A most effective way to warm the feet is to 
dip them for a moment in cold water, and 
then rub them vigorously with a coarse towel 
until they glow with warmth. Furthermore, 
no more effective remedy for habitual cold 
feet could be devised than this nightly tonic 
bath. 
A pair of warm bedroom slippers will add 
greatly to comfort, and decrease largely the 
danger of taking cold. These should always 
be worn during one’s excursions to the bath 
room, and during the tonic sponge bath. 
As to posture in bed, it has been proved 206 
PERSONAL HYGIENE 
by experience that the most comfortable 
posture, and the most hygienic one, is to 
lie upon the side. The right side is to be 
preferred to the left, because, in this posi- 
tion, the heart being on the upper side is 
not embarrassed in its free movement by 
the superincumbent lung tissue. Further- 
more, this position facilitates the passage of 
digesting foods from the stomach. To main- 
tain comfortably this side position, requires 
that the knees be at least moderately drawn 
up. This posture, when asleep, is practically 
identical with that of nearly all higher animals, 
and is unquestionably the most hygienic one 
for man. No animal but man ever lies upon 
its back unless it is dead. Furthermore, the 
dorsal position puts tendons, nerves and 
muscles on a stretch, while the flexed lateral 
position puts these in a more or less relaxed 
position, which is more favorable to rest. 
It goes without saying that sleeping rooms 
should always be thoroughly ventilated. The 
occupant should take care not to lie in a 
direct draught from a window or door, be- 
cause it has been found by experience that 
one is less likely to catch cold, if he sleeps PERSONAL HYGIENE 
207 
out of doors, than he is if he sleeps in a direct 
draught from a window or door. Just why 
this is, has not been satisfactorily accounted 
for, but the fact remains. So, if you must 
sleep in the house, secure perfect ventilation 
without direct draughts. CHAPTER V 
The Control of the Thoughts 
There is no more effective safeguard for 
the person who wishes to lead a clean life, 
than the control of the thoughts. It goes 
without saying that the person who thinks 
about sexual matters, especially the one 
whose imagination runs riot upon all kinds 
of sexually stimulating images, is only in- 
viting temptation to relax one’s standards. 
If one controls the thoughts during those 
times when one is less amenable to tempta- 
tion, one is far more likely to be able to 
control the acts at those times when the 
physical condition makes one most amenable 
to temptation. 
The most effective way to control the 
thoughts is so to plan one’s work as to insure 
the complete occupation of the mind with 
affairs that are wholly independent of sexual 
experiences or considerations. One should 
set a mark for oneself so high above his PERSONAL HYGIENE 
209 
present position that he is compelled to put 
forth strenuous and unremitting efforts in 
order to accomplish his aim. The old say- 
ing, that “Satan finds work for idle hands 
to do,” is all too true. Anyone may observe 
the influence of idleness, or even the influence 
of a partially occupied program, upon the 
habits of children and young people. Beard 
and Rockwell, in their valuable work on this 
subject, say: “Go to work; develop your 
muscles and brain; resolve to become at 
least useful, if not famous. The activity 
which will be necessary in carrying out these 
ambitions will divert the mind from imaginary 
evils, if they are imaginary, and will be one 
of the best means to cure the real ones.” EUGENICS PART FIVE 
EUGENICS 
(Brief Outline Only) 
CHAPTER I 
Outline of Eugenics 
There is no subject about which young 
people contemplating marriage should be 
more sincerely and seriously interested than 
this subject of Eugenics. The word 
“Eugenics” means “well-born.” One’s first 
thought on this subject naturally concerns 
the heredity. However, to be well-born con- 
cerns environment almost as much as it does 
heredity. We will, therefore, consider this 
subject rather systematically; first, as to 
certain general considerations; second, the 
part played by heredity; third, the part played 
by environment; and fourth, laws or rules of 
Eugenics. 
General Considerations.—Biology, now so 214 
EUGENICS 
widely studied, both in colleges and high 
schools, has revealed to the world and im- 
pressed it upon the conviction and conscious- 
ness of the whole thinking and reading 
world, first, that man is an animal; second, 
that this animal, man, obeys the same laws in 
his physical and mental development that other 
animals obey; hence, third, the laws of 
heredity, as carefully worked out for mam- 
mals, hold absolutely for the mammal, man; 
fourth, such conditions of life as food and 
shelter and association with others of his 
kind (environment), profoundly influence the 
development of the human individual as it 
does that of the mammal in general. 
Much attention has been devoted, during 
the last few decades, to the breeding of 
domestic animals, and it has been found that 
every species responds readily to the care 
of the breeder. Horses, cattle, sheep, hogs, 
as well as other domesticated animals, and 
even plants, have been so greatly improved 
within the last generation or two, that their 
value to man has been at least doubled. 
This improvement, through breeding, is 
accomplished through a very careful choice EUGENICS 
215 
of mates; in other words, through a control 
of heredity on the one hand, and careful 
feeding, shelter and association on the other 
hand. The breeders say that they are able, 
in a Jew generations of any species, to empha- 
size any desired quality, simply through the 
influence of these factors named above. For 
example, if the breeder wishes to produce a 
breed of cattle in which the cows are large 
producers of milk, they have only to choose 
for the mothers of the desired breed, the 
best milkers, and for the sires, males begotten 
from the best milkers. Determining thus the 
heredity, and specializing the environment, 
half a dozen or ten generations of such breed- 
ing will produce a strain of Holsteins, for 
example, commercially worth, perhaps thou- 
sands of dollars each for breeding, and the 
cows, commercially worth a hundred dollars 
or more, simply as milk producers. On the 
other hand, Herefords and Durhams may be 
modified by breeding and feeding to produce 
the best grade of beef cattle. 
So in the horse kind, breeders have pro- 
duced draft horses, roadsters and race horses, 
emphasizing any physical or temperamental 216 
EUGENICS 
quality at will, through strict adherence to 
the laws of breeding. 
A few years ago it was simultaneously dis- 
covered, by a number of prominent people of 
the country, that our government and some of 
our States are spending millions of dollars for 
the improvement of domestic animals that possess 
a commercial value, while nothing was being 
expended to improve the human race. A few 
extremists thought that the same measures 
could be adopted for the improvement of the 
human race as have been adopted so effec- 
tively for the domestic animals, but this is 
not the view of the extremist only. Thoughtful, 
conservative people believe that much may 
be done profoundly to influence our race 
without seriously disturbing the social order. 
The two influences which will probably be 
most effective are education and restrictive 
laws. The education will influence young 
people in the choosing of their mates, while 
the restrictive laws will debar certain individ- 
uals from marriage. Statistics show that in 
every State there are many hundreds, if not 
thousands, of imbeciles, degenerates, crimi- 
nals, insane, idiots, etc., begotten in lust and EUGENICS 
217 
squalor while the parents were inebriated or 
semi-imbecile, insane, degenerate or criminal. 
As this generation of human debris becomes 
a charge on the State, seriously complicating 
social, political and economic conditions, it 
is the universal belief that the State has a right 
to interfere in the propagation of such individ- 
uals. The only difference of opinion is just 
how- the State may most wisely exert its 
recognized powers in the matter. CHAPTER II 
Heredity 
The Part Played by Heredity.—Naturally, 
heredity exerts a profound influence upon an 
individual, and while environment exerts 
perhaps an equally profound one, still no 
adequate discussion of Eugenics can be made 
without going into considerable detail re- 
garding heredity. 
In order to explain the operation of the 
laws of heredity, it is necessary to explain 
the begetting of a new life. As you know, a 
new life is begotten through the fertilizing 
of an egg, produced by the maternal organ- 
ism, by a sperm cell produced by the paternal 
organism. While the egg is relatively large 
and non-motile, and the sperm cell is rela- 
tively small and possesses a remarkable 
motility, the essential element in both the 
egg and the sperm cell is the nucleus. The 
nucleus of the egg and the nucleus of the 
sperm cell are the same size, and, separated EUGENICS 
219 
from the accompanying cell substance, can- 
not be differentiated one from the other. 
In the process of fertilization, the sperm 
cell enters the egg yolk through the yolk 
membrane, and the two nuclei, called pro- 
nuclei, gravitate toward each other through 
the yolk substance, finally fusing with each 
other within the yolk substance. Immedi- 
ately after this fusing of the two nuclei, the 
process of development begins, and we say 
a new life has been begotten or conceived. 
Of the essential material, the father fur- 
nishes the same amount as the mother. In 
a wonderful way, which we described in detail 
under Reproduction, the bit of living matter 
which comes from the father is so intimately 
mixed with the egg nucleus, that each fur- 
nishes exactly half of the nuclear material 
which becomes a part of each cell of the body. 
Thus, every organ, tissue and cell of the new 
body, possesses a minute bit of material which 
came from the father, and an equal amount 
which came from germ-plasma of the mother, 
Through this minute bit of matter, the 
development of the organ, tissue or cell is 
determined. 220 
EUGENICS 
As we study the laws of heredity, we find 
that the sum of the hereditary traits possessed 
by individuals came equally from the pa- 
ternal-ancestral line and the maternal-ances- 
tral line. We also find that the two parents 
exert, individually, one-half of all the hereditary 
influence, while all the preceding ancestors 
exert the other one-half of the hereditary 
influence. The four grandparents will, there- 
fore, exert one-fourth of all the hereditary 
influence, while the preceding generations of 
ancestors will exert the other one-fourth. In 
a similar way, the great-grandparents, eight 
in number, will exert one-eighth of the heredi- 
tary influence, and all preceding ancestors 
will exert one-eighth, and so on back through 
the generations. 
If the question arises, how much influence 
does each parent, grandparent and great- 
grandparent exert on one’s heredity, the 
answer is an easy one. If the two parents 
exert one-half of the hereditary influence, 
each parent will exert one-fourth of this 
influence. Further, if the four grandparents 
exert one-fourth of the hereditary influence, 
each grandparent will exert one-sixteenth, EUGENICS 
221 
while each of the eight great-grandparents will 
exert one-sixty-fourth. 
The writer has heard people pluming them- 
selves on being able to trace ancestry back 
to William the Conqueror. This great hero 
of English history lived about thirty genera- 
tions ago. In that generation, each one of us 
possessed over one million converging lines of 
ancestry, each one would, therefore, exert 
about one-billionth part of the hereditary in- 
fluence. 
The parents and grandparents, therefore, 
exert together three-fourths of the hereditary 
influence and a very large part of the environ- 
mental influence, so we don't need to do much 
worrying about what happened previous to the 
great-grandparents. 
However, we must recognize that certain 
family traits are passed down many genera- 
tions in some families. This is probably due 
to the fact that they are valued traits of 
which the possessors are conscious and proud. 
These traits are cultivated in each genera- 
tion, and there is not infrequently a more or 
less conscious determination or choice of 
mates, with some reference to this same trait. 222 
EUGENICS 
Should this mating between families that 
possess certain valued traits take place through 
three or four generations, it goes without say- 
ing that the accentuation of this trait becomes 
very marked. 
According to the Mendelian theory of 
heredity, so carefully worked out by Mendel, 
and now universally accepted, a trait, as for 
example, color, is likely (almost certain) to 
be passed down according to the following 
law: In guinea pigs, when a black male of 
black line of ancestors is mated with a white 
female, from a white line, their progeny will 
be one-fourth black, one-fourth white and one- 
half mixed. 
It is very interesting to note that a trait 
like imbecility, that has been transmitted 
through several generations, and, therefore, 
may be taken as a fixed hereditary character 
in that family, is transmitted, according to 
the Mendelian law, to progeny when the 
imbecile is mated with an individual whose 
family is free from this trait. Out of eight 
children, we would, therefore, expect two im- 
beciles, two normals, and four more or less 
defective ones. CHAPTER III 
Environment 
The Part Played by Environment.—The sur- 
roundings or conditions under which the life 
is developed, begin at the hour of conception, 
within the maternal uterus. Every life is 
profoundly influenced by the conditions to 
which the mother is subjected during her carry- 
ing of the young life. These conditions con- 
cern especially the nutrition of the develop- 
ing life, so if the mother’s nutrition is seri- 
ously interfered with during her pregnancy, 
the child is certain to show some mark of 
this interference with the mother’s nutrition. 
This influence may make itself shown in 
various ways. There may be an impairment 
of physical development, taking the form of 
an arrest or retardation of physical develop- 
ment, or arrest or retardation of mental 
development, or both physical and mental. 
The conditions to which the infant is subjected 
during the first two or three years of life also 224 
EUGENICS 
pr Roundly influence the course of development. 
Tae discipline, training, associations, nutri- 
tion during early childhood, during the pre- 
adolescent period, and even during adoles- 
cence, also profoundly influence the course of 
development of the individual. 
While it would be impossible, through en- 
vironment, to develop mentality in a born 
imbecile, it is altogether possible, through bad 
environment, to develop habits that will wreck 
the life in an individual whose heredity may 
be of a high order. In a similar way, it is 
possible through environment largely to over- 
come hereditary weaknesses, and greatly to 
strengthen hereditary advantages. 
Let no young pair establishing a home, lose 
sight of the importance of environment in the 
development of their childrent CHAPTER IV 
Positive Eugenics 
By the expression “Positive Eugenics,” 
we mean conditions that accentuate desirable 
qualities. There are naturally two phases 
to this, namely, the hereditary and the environ- 
mental phase of Positive Eugenics. Physical 
and mental qualities which are advanta- 
geous and strongly to be desired, may be culti- 
vated and trained environmentally, and may 
be chosen in the mating, and in this way, if 
also cultivated and trained in the offspring, 
become gradually accentuated with each suc- 
cessive generation. 
Education plays a very important part in 
this Positive Eugenics. It plays its part in a 
double way. First, through causing the 
individual to take pride in the desired char- 
acter, and cultivate that character, through 
leading the individual instinctively to be 
drawn and attracted toward mating with an 
individual from a family possessing the same 226 
EUGENICS 
trait; while, on the other hand, there is a 
condition which may be called psychic inhib- 
ition, which tends to cause the individual 
to hesitate, perhaps, later, to say “No,” 
when this much-prized trait is found not to 
exist in the family of a candidate for mating. CHAPTER V 
Negative Eugenics 
By the expression “Negative Eugenics,” 
we mean the avoiding of the disadvantageous 
and unfortunate in the development of the 
individual. There are certain unfortunate 
impairments, physical or mental, that should 
he studiously avoided in the mating of human 
individuals; such, for example, as hereditary 
insanity, syphilis,* imbecility, degeneracy, 
criminality and chronic alcoholism. 
If one of the parents possesses any one of 
these unfortunate impairments, especially if 
this impairment seems, evidently, to be 
inherited, their of spring will certainly he pro- 
foundly influenced hy this impairment, perhaps 
three-fourths of their children being distinctly 
sub-normal. If this fact is known to young 
people, that knowledge will protect them from 
*For brief discussion of syphilis and gonorrhea see 
Appendix. 
227 228 
EUGENICS 
mating with an individual that is the victim of 
any of these impairments. The victim of the 
impairment, however, perhaps because of the 
impairment, is very likely not to experience 
this inhibition, and may be ready to mate, 
either in wedlock or out, and to produce 
offspring. Here is where the State should 
interfere, and every individual who possesses 
these serious impairments should be pro- 
hibited, in some way, from transmitting this 
unfortunate impairment to another generation. 
When we remember that a normal indi- 
vidual, born of a defective parent, may trans- 
mit to some of his children, even though 
married to a normal person, the ancestral 
impairment in small or great degree, this fact 
should lead every young person to inquire care- 
fully into the family history of individuals with 
whom the question of mating may arise, and 
though that individual may himself be free 
from impairment, if he has an imbecile brother 
or sister, and a syphilitic or epileptic father, the 
mating with that individual should not for a 
single moment be considered. If young people 
knew these facts, it would not be necessary 
for the statutes, or for parental authority, to EUGENICS 
229 
interfere in the mating. This important trait 
of psychic inhibition would cause any love that 
may have been awakened in the early meetings 
of two individuals to die out and be wholly 
destroyed as soon as the family history be- 
comes known. 
The authors believe that the only way to 
improve and purify the conditions of today 
is by such a system of sexual education as 
suggested throughout the pages of this book, 
beginning with the little children in the 
homes, telling them the true story concerning 
the great truths of life, rather than fiction, 
such as the “Stork Story,” which, sooner or 
later, will prove false in the minds of the 
children, and will influence them to look 
to others for the knowledge they should get 
from those nearest and dearest to them, those 
vrho, through the plan of Nature, gave them 
life, and wdio should also teach them the great 
truths of life, in order that they may live up 
to the plane of the ideal, and so live up to 
the best that is in them, not only for their own 
welfare and happiness, but that the influence 230 
EUGENICS 
of their lives may be for all that is good and 
holy, through all time and eternity. Surely, 
lives so precious when they are children, should 
be protected by such knowledge of the great 
truths of life as will prove to be the greatest 
safeguard for them all along the journey 
of life. 
This book goes forth to the world, in the 
hope that the great fundamental truths of 
life herein set forth, may be to humanity a 
foundation of truth on which the present and 
future generations shall build such lives of 
true and noble manhood and womanhood as 
were designed by the Creator, when, as the 
Bible tells us, “God created man in his own 
image.” 
It is the hope of the authors that these great 
truths may become universal knowledgei and 
so be a part of the very lives of the young 
children while still at mother’s knee, and while 
under the father’s care and influence, and 
throughout the sojourn of life, helping them 
to fight bravely and heroically the battles of 
life, especially the sexual battles, and winning, 
with the “sword of sexual truth,” those 
victories over self and passion that will help EUGENICS 
231 
wonderfully in doing their part to work out 
their destiny in harmony with the design of 
Nature's Gody through obedience to the laws 
of Nature and the laws of the Creator, 
respecting the highest form of animal crea- 
tion—MAN. APPENDIX 
Venereal Diseases are three in number, chan- 
croid, gonorrhea and syphilis. These diseases 
are contagious and are transmitted from one 
person to another by actual contact, either of 
the person or of some article of clothing or of 
some towel, drinking glass or other utensil 
used in common. These loathsome diseases 
are for the most part caught from prostitutes 
by young men who live unclean lives consort- 
ing with lewd women. If the young man is not 
cured before he is married, he is practically 
sure to transmit the disease to his wife. 
Chancroid is a disease of the sex organs 
which is very loathsome and temporarily dis- 
abling, tho it is not a blood disease and runs a 
short course. 
Gonorrhea is a contagious inflammation of 
the mucous membrane of the sex apparatus, 
—urethra in the man, vagina in the woman, 
—it is caught in sexual intercourse with a 
diseased person. Prostitutes or girls leading 
a life of shame, become diseased and in turn APPENDIX 
233 
spread infection to many others. This disease 
is very difficult to cure. If not promptly cured 
it may cause sterility or rheumatism in either 
man or woman. This disease is the occasion 
of several serious conditions which may require 
surgical operations in the woman. 
Syphilis is a contagious disease in which the 
germ lives in the blood or lymph. The tissues 
which are most affected are the skin and the 
nervous system. Loathsome ulcers appear on 
the skin in the third stage of the disease 
which comes after the first year in cases not 
effectively treated. Degeneration of nerve 
tissue also comes in the third stage. Such 
serious and incurable diseases as locomotor 
ataxia and syphilitic insanity are among these 
conditions. Syphilis is very difficult to cure, 
but may be cured if treated promptly and 
skillfully. Serious impairments known as 
Hereditary Syphilis, may be transmitted from 
parent to child.