THE GENESIS OF WOMAN, 273 



bearing era. Were changes of structure really as rapid at this period, 

 it would imply vital depression, just as we see it in plants and animals 

 taking on rapid growth, and just as we see impaired mental and bodily 

 energy follow sudden and excessive exercise of any organ in a mem- 

 ber of the human family. Yet at puberty the opposite occurs. Wom- 

 en are never so hopeful, buoyant, and strong, as at the beginning of 

 healthy ovulation. 



Analogy furnishes strong arguments in favor of the early and 

 gradual preparation of the system generally for the ovarian function. 

 Mammary enlargement antedates functional activity by months in 

 cases of gestation. Here is a comparatively simple act, that of glan- 

 dular secretion, preceded by elaborate structural preparation. In the 

 sexual cycle of organs the mammae act a subordinate part ; yet in this 

 region, in the two sexes during childhood, the first sexual characteris- 

 tics may be detected in the well-developed. This is an interesting 

 and most significant fact, and one that renders it highly improbable 

 that pelvic enlargement is postponed to the puberic age, and coincides 

 with many other facts which show that sexual evolution is a simulta- 

 neous movement toward completion by all the organs involved. 



The commencement of the ovarian function is not the only crisis 

 through which woman has to pass. There are two dentitions, each of 

 which is a critical period. It is, I think, safe to say that the diseases 

 incident to dentition destroy more human lives three to one than the 

 diseases of ovarian function. Dentition is a process preceded by elab- 

 orate anatomical preparation, and furnishes the strongest analogous 

 proof of gradual and persistent sexual development. Teeth which 

 appear at the fifth to the sixth months of life, are preceded by ana- 

 tomical changes begun as early as the sixth week of fcetal life. Teeth 

 which are to make their appearance ^t the fifth to the ninth years of 

 life are in a preparatory state at the seventh month after birth ; and 

 teeth which make their eruption between the seventeenth and twentj^- 

 first years are in a recognizable state of growth at the sixth year of 

 age. Here is a most elaborate preparation for function, a slow and 

 ceaseless building up, with — in a state of health — no paroxysmal out- 

 break, either in the growth or completion of function. It is equally 

 true tiiat the organs within the pelvis which characterize sex can be 

 traced to a foetal origin, and, during the months of infancy and years 

 of childhood, they exhibit the same process of structural evolution. 

 Paroxysm in the process of dentition is a disease, and it is equally a 

 morbid act in the development of sexual maturity. Ovulation does 

 not induce a greater change in the system and habits than does den- 

 tition. This may appear at the first glance to be an unwarranted 

 assertion. But observe the change in the life and habits of the little 

 human animal at the eruption of the deciduous teeth. After subsist- 

 ing upon a single article of diet it becomes omnivorous : from entire 

 dependence upon others, it has reached a certain amount of indepen- 

 TOL. v.— 18 



