A CHAPTER FOR YOUNG WOMEN 



THE young women of a generation become the 

 mothers of the next, and it is of vital impor- 

 tance that the individuals to be born into the 

 world come with vigorous constitutions, free from the 

 sad entailments of hereditary disease, and prepared 

 to grow up into vigorous, noble, useful men and women. 

 In order that this shall be the case, it is necessary that 

 our young women become intelligent respecting those 

 functions of the body which are specially liable to be- 

 come deranged, and which are to be instrumental in 

 bringing other beings into life. 



At the period of puberty, the girl passes, within a 

 few months, from girlhood to young womanhood. New 

 vital processes are set up within her body; new func- 

 tions are assumed. It is the duty of every mother to 

 explain to her daughter, in advance, the import of these 

 new processes, and to give her such information as 

 will enable her to so care for herself at this critical 

 period as to prevent the great amount of unnecessary 

 suffering which grows out of the neglect arising from 

 ignorance upon this subject. The failure of mothers 

 to do their duty in this respect, and, more than this, 

 the lamentable ignorance of the mothers themselves, 

 furnish ample reasons for the preparation of this spe- 

 cial chapter in which to impart the information needed, 

 and to make such suggestions as, if carefully followed, 

 will save a vast amount of suffering and wretched use- 

 lessness, or years of invalidism. 



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