442 



GENERATION. 



ance of puberty is gradual in both sexes, but, 

 upon the whole, more slow in the male than 

 in the female. The age at which it takes place 

 varies in the same and in different countries 

 according to the mode of life, physical and 

 moral education, and other circumstances. It 

 takes place at an earlier age in woman than in 

 man : in the former most frequently in this 

 country at from the age of thirteen to sixteen 

 years, in the latter from fifteen to eighteen 

 years; but instances are not unfrequent of 

 girls menstruating and of boys passing into 

 manhood one or two or even more years sooner 

 or later than the above-mentioned periods, as 

 from ten or eleven to twenty or twenty-two 

 years.* 



These variations are to be considered as 

 dependent on constitution in the greater num- 

 ber of instances; but in respect to their 

 occasional causes, it may be stated that all 

 those circumstances which produce a determi- 

 nation of blood to the sexual organs or pelvic 

 viscera, which relax the body generally, or 

 turn the attention of the young to the sexual 

 function, tend to bring on sooner than natural 

 the local changes of puberty. Warm rooms, 

 a sedentary mode of life, particular kinds of 

 reading, and some bad habits are all hurtful in 

 this respect. 



According to the observations of many tra- 

 vellers, puberty arrives sooner in warm than 

 in temperate climates ; and some have hence 

 too hastily concluded that the warmth of the 

 tropical country has been the cause of the more 

 precocious appearance of menstruation in wo- 

 men and puberty in men, an opinion the error 

 of which is shewn by the fact that instances of 

 very early puberty are not unfrequently met 

 with in high northern latitudes .f The occur- 



* Accord'ng to Mr. Roberton's observations pre- 

 viously quoted, the following are the ages at which 

 450 women began to menstruate : 



In their llth year 10 women. 



12th 

 13th 

 14th 

 15th 

 16th 

 17th 

 18th 

 19th 

 20th 



19 

 53 

 85 

 97 

 76 

 57 

 26 

 23 

 4 



This table shews that the age of puberty of females 

 in this country extends over a considerable number 

 of years, and is more equally distributed than is 

 commonly alleged. 



t The opinion that menstruation happens at an 

 earlier age in warmer climates is very generally enter- 

 tained, as may be seen by a reference to the works 

 of Haller, Boerhaave, Denman, Burns, Dewees, 

 and others. Mr. Roberton has successfully shewn 

 its inaccuracy by an appeal to the facts stated by 

 modern travellers, as Hearne, Franklin, Richard- 

 son, and Back with regard to the Northern Cana- 

 dian Indians; by Lyon and Parry with respect to 

 the Esquimaux ; by Clarke in reference to the 

 Laplanders ; and by Tooke in relation to the 

 Northern Russians; all of whifh shew that puberty 

 is attained in the arctic regions at least as early 

 as in more temperate climates. On the other hand, 

 from the evidence of Crawford and Raffles relative 

 to the inhabitants of the Indian Archipelago, of 

 Messrs. Ellis and Browne (missionaries) in regard 



rences of marriages, therefore, or sexual union 

 at the early age of six or seven years in the 

 South Sea Islands and elsewhere is to be looked 

 upon rather as a proof of the barbarous and 

 debased state of civilization of these people, 

 than taken as an evidence of their being fitted 

 by nature for the functions of propagation at 

 the period of life now mentioned. 



There do sometimes occur, however, in all 

 nations unfortunate examples of precocity in 

 the development of the sexual organs and 

 activity of their functions. Thus in male or 

 female children of four and even of only three 

 years old all the changes of the sexual organs, 

 and some of those of the body generally, which 

 belong to puberty of a more advanced and natural 

 age, take place. The attention of such children 

 is soon called by their local feelings to the 

 condition of the sexual organs, and vicious 

 habits are induced, which, from the misery 

 they carry along with them, it becomes the 

 duty of the medical man to counteract by all 

 the resources of his art. 



Period of' life during which the generative 

 function is exercised. The length of time du- 

 ring which the male and female of the human 

 species retain the power of propagation is sub- 

 ject to the same variations which attend the 

 arrival of the age of puberty. The most healthy 

 women are in general capable of bearing chil- 

 dren between the ages of fifteen and forty-five, 

 or for a period of thirty years. Men retain the 

 powers of their sex for a longer time, as from 

 the age of seventeen to sixty or seventy, that is, 

 for forty-five or fifty years. There are, however, 

 on record instances of both sexes, but more 

 especially the male sex, having retained their 

 respective powers for a longer period than that 

 just stated ; of women menstruating a second 

 time (after the cessation of this function at the 

 usual period) at the age of sixty or seventy,* 

 and in one or two instances bearing a child at 

 that advanced age; of propagation in the male 

 sex to the age of seventy, eighty, and ninety, 

 and in the celebrated case of old Parr even to 

 that of one hundred and thirty years. f 



Among the lower animals the variations in this 

 respect are so numerous as to preclude the pos- 

 sibility of our mentioning even the more im- 



to those of Polynesia ; of Dr. Winterbottom on 

 the native Africans round Sierra Leone; of the 

 laws of the Koran in regard to the Arabs ; and of 

 the observations by Russel on the Egyptians, Mr. 

 Roberton endeavours to prove that though early 

 marriages are common in warm and equinoctial 

 countries, yet the period of puberty and of the 

 capability of procreating is nearly the same as in 

 temperate and northern latitudes. Mr. Roberton 

 is therefore induced to form the conclusion that the 

 variations from the standard or more common 

 period of puberty in different nations are not greater 

 than the individual differences to be observed in 

 our own country, and that the opinion above 

 referred to ought to be looked upon as a vulgar 

 error. 



* These instances are very rare indeed. Mr. 

 Roberton states that of 3000 women delivered in the 

 Manchester Lying-in Hospital, only one was above 

 fifty years of age. 



t See Haller's Elementa for an enumeration of 

 such examples. 



