120 PLAIN FACTS FOR OLD AND YOUNG 



is no doubt that many young ladies have induced con- 

 ditions of serious disease by actual starvation of the 

 system. A young woman who attempts to live on 

 strong tea or coffee, fine-flour bread, and sweet cake, 

 is as certainly starving herself as though she were pur- 

 posely attempting to commit suicide by starvation, and 

 with as much certainty of the same result. 



Brunettes Precocious.— It has been observed that 

 in girls the occurrence of puberty is earlier in brunettes 

 than in blondes; and in general, it makes its appear- 

 ance earlier in persons of a nervous or nervo-bilious 

 temperament than in persons of a lymphatic tempera- 

 ment or phlegmatic nature. 



Certain nationalities and families are marked by 

 the earlier occurrence of puberty than others. In Jews, 

 the change is commonly a year or two in advance of 

 other nationalities in this country. It also occurs some- 

 what sooner in negroes or Creoles than in white per- 

 sons, the African race seeming to retain something of 

 the precocity occasioned by the tropical influence of 

 its native clime. 



Remarkable Precocity.— Cases occasionally occur 

 in which puberty makes its appearance at the age of 

 three or four years. Indeed, a case has been reported 

 in this country in which a female child possessed at 

 birth all the characteristics which are usually devel- 

 oped at puberty. In this case the regular periodical 

 changes began at birth. 



Premature Development Occasions Early Decay. 

 —A fact which is of too great importance to be al- 

 lowed to pass unnoticed, is that whatever occasions 

 early or premature sexual development, also occasions 

 premature decay. Females in whom puberty occurs 

 at the age of ten or twelve, by the time their age is 



