A CHAPTER FOR GIRLS 



WE liave written this chapter especially for 

 girls, and we sincerely hope that many will 

 read it with an earnest desire to be benefited. 

 The subject of which we have to write is a delicate 

 one, and one which we regret exceedingly needs to be 

 written about. But experience as a physician has 

 proved to us again and again that it is of the utmost 

 importance that something be said, that words of warn- 

 ing should be addressed particularly to the girls and 

 maidens just merging into womanhood, on a subject 

 which vitally concerns not only their own future health 

 and happiness, but the prosperity and destiny of the 

 race. Probably no' one can be better fitted to speak on 

 this subject than the physician. A physician who has 

 given careful attention to the health and the causes 

 of ill-health of ladies, and who has had opportunities 

 for observing the baneful influence exerted upon the 

 bodies and minds of girls and young women by the evil 

 practices of which it is our purpose here to speak, can 

 better appreciate than can others the magnitude of the 

 evil, and is better prepared to present the subject 

 understandingly and authoritatively. Gladly would 

 we shun the task long avoided, but which has been 

 pressed upon us by the sense of the urgent need of 

 which our professional experience has thoroughly con- 

 vinced us. We cannot keep our lips closed when our 

 eyes are witnesses to the fact that thousands of the 

 fairest and best of our girls and maidens are being 



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