HRDUCK.V] PHYSIOLOGICAL AND MEDICAL OBSERVATIONS 127 



the })resent and probably also the former regions inhabited by the 

 Apache being the higher and cooler. 



As to comparisons with whites, we can utilize Dr. J. K. Chadwick's 

 data on a large series (575) of American-born white women living in 

 Boston.^ From these data it appears that the American girl in 

 Boston commences to menstruate in nearly four-fifths of the cases 

 between 13 and 17, which, according to Bowditch's measurements, 

 correspond to heights of 149 and 157 cm., respectively. The maxi- 

 mum frequency of commencement of the periods, as well as the 

 average of the setting in of the function, falls between the fourteenth 

 and fifteenth years, this age corresponding to 155.9 cm. of average 

 stature. In more than 40 per cent of the Boston young women 

 menstruation had not begun until after the fifteenth year or the 155.9 

 cm. stature mark (average) had been passed. If attention is now 

 directed to the table dealing w^ith the Indians, it is seen that in the 

 stature group of from 145.1 to 150 cm., corresponding to about the 

 thirteenth year of life, in one-third of the Apache and in three-fourths 

 of the Pima girls examined menstruation had already become estab- 

 lished; in the next group, statures of from 150.1 to 155 cm., or 

 thirteenth to fourteenth year of age, puberty was fully established in 

 nearly four-fifths of the Apache and in more than nine-tenths of the 

 Pima female pupils; and in subjects above 155.1 cm. in stature, or 

 approximately 14 years of age, only a single girl out of 46 as yet did 

 not menstruate. The figures leave no doubt as to the fact that 

 menstruation in the Apache, and especially in the Pima, commences 

 earlier than it does in the American-born white girls of Boston.^ A 

 more desirable comparison w^ould be that of the Apache and the 

 Pima with white girls born in Arizona, but no suitable observations 

 on w^hite children have been made thus far in that region. Reports 

 on some of the southern races in the Old World, though differing 

 with various authors, indicate an earlier average beginning of men- 

 struation than is encountered in the temperate zone, and especially 

 in the colder regions.*^ 



Once well established, the menstruation in the Indian woman is 

 generally regular. Neither its beginning (puberty) nor its monthly 

 recurrence, with rare exceptions, occasions much difficulty. The 

 periodicity and duration, as well as other characteristics, correspond 

 closely with those commonly met with in healthy white women. 

 The notes on the recurrence of menses which appear in the follow- 

 ing table were taken in 1901 among the Mohave school children by 

 the matron: 



a In H. P. Bowditch's The Growth of Children, Eighth Annual Report of State Board of Health of 

 Massachusetts, Boston, 1877, 12. See also Charles Roberts, The Physical Maturity of Women, The 

 Lancet, July 25, 1885. 



6 Among the Yuma a school girl menstruated at 6 and another at 8 years of age. A menstruating 

 Hopi girl was seen who could not have been more than 9 or at most 10 years old. 



cSee H. Vierordt's Daten and Tabellen, 2d ed., Jena, 1893, 328-329. 



