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Hygiene of Puberty.A more common and more serious error is either positive disinclination for nourishing food, or the rejection of all except particular articles of diet-and these frequently cakes, pastry and sweatmeats. It is not necessary to prescribe nor insist upon any special regimen nor line of diet, but simply to remember that the girl should have an abundance of nourishing food at regular hours ; that she should, and probably will, display a marked increase of appetite, for which she should not be teased ; to which, indeed, she should be encouraged ; for during these few years the demands on her system for nourishment are unusually great. And it is a most unfortunate and mistaken delicacy which would restrict the gratification of nature's demands at this time. Meat, especially fat meat, the usual garden vegetables, fruits, and especially milk, may constitute the bulk of her diet. Tea, coffee, wines and condiments - which are at no period of life especially advantageous as a regular diet - maybe positively injurious during this stage. The next most important factor in the building of body and brain alike is sleep. Early to bed and late to rise may be a judicious modification of the old saw at this time. The hours that the girl may apparently lose by lying in bed at this period of her life will be redeemed a hundredfold in her more mature and valuable years. Exercise, too, is an indispensable aid in the development of the girl during puberty. Nor can any rules be laid down for the execution of this condition. That activity of body only may be regarded as exercise which gives the child pleasure. The line at which exercise ends and work begins must be determined by the individual tastes, strength and surroundings in each case. Yet this is, of course, a matter which can be judiciously regulated by the parents in every instance. One fact only should be borne in mind - that exercise, to be beneficial, must be taken in fresh air, whether indoors or out; and that the human animal, like other creatures, plants and animals, attains its best development when bathed in the life-giving rays of the sun. The girl has no heed of a complexion as yet : she should have have her sun-bath daily without a parasol, even though she become as brown as the tradi tional Indian. Not the least of the advantages of physical exercise, undertaken, as it naturally is, with companions of the same age, is that it diverts the girl's attention from the changes going on in her own nature, prevents her from brooding upon mysteries of which she has, and as yet can have, no comprehension - in short, assists her in remaining a child until childhood has passed. In this way, too, exercise constitutes one of the best safeguards against the vicious habits to which girls, as well as boys, frequently become addicted during these years of life. It is a matter of general observation that such habits acquire particularly strong hold upon those who, from lack either of opportunity or inclination, have not enjoyed the outdoor exercise so natural to children of both sexes at this time of life. Clothing, too, is a matter of extreme importance, and one which cannot be passed over in silence, in discussing the hygiene of puberty. So long as the girl remains but a child, so long will she suffer only immediate and direct effects from the present curious fashion of dressing girls. It has doubtless puzzled every one who has stopped to consider the question, to conjecture by what law of nature or art the clothing of a girl previous to 12 years of age should be bunched around her waist, while her neck, arms and legs are nearly or quite unprotected. Her brother - certainly as vigorous and able to withstand the weather as she - is clothed from the neck to the wrists and to the ankles. The girl's costume is adopted, with slight variations, by the ballet-dancer with a purpose - that of exhibiting her physical charms ; yet that cannot be the object in thus clothing the girl of ten years, since she has no charms to exhibit, other than could be displayed to the same advantage by her youthful brother. Yet we will not stop to remonstrate upon this prevalent fashion of clothing children before puberty, since the ill effects - the imperfect protection against the weather - are perfectly apparent. With the commencement of puberty the girl's dress is changed ; yet oftentimes not to the same extent as the interests of her body demand, for it cannot be too earnestly insisted upon that her entire body should be at all times, but especially during the menstrual week, thoroughly and warmly clothed. Thick shoes and woolen stockings may not be so esthetic, but are certainly, in the long run, more profitable. Neck, shoulders, and the figure generally, will be more attractive in after years if carefully and completely and warmly clothed now. At this time, too, the girl is ordinarily inducted into that peculiarly feminine garment, the corset. Now, it is not our purpose to indulge in a tirade of abuse of this most useful article of feminine apparel. Every medical man, as well as every woman, can understand the advantages resulting from the use of the corset; indeed it is not the use but the abuse of the article which has been the subject of so many attacks upon it. A corset suspended by shoulder-straps so that the weight of the skirts attached to it should be borne by the shoulders and not by the hips and abdomen; a corset which permitted a perfectly free expansion of the chest in breathing would certainly be devoid of all objections as well as eminently useful. Just so far, however, as the weight of clothing suspended from the corset is borne at the waist, just so far as the expansion of the chest is restricted by the corset, in just so far is the garment objectionable and injurious. At present the corset suspended from the shoulders is the rare exception, and within the last few years it has had to sustain not only the weight of the manifold skirts, but has been continuously dragged downward by two elastic bands fastened to the stocking. Then again, though no woman was ever known to admit that the corset impeded her breathing in the least; though every woman can prove most conclusively, by inserting her hand within the corset, that her person has ample room in the garment, yet it is equally true that no dress habitually worn over the corset can be made to meet if that garment be removed-except, indeed, by especial effort and adaptation of form on the part of the wearer. It is not maintained that no pressure can be borne without injury by the mature woman; but it is certain that the position of the womb and ovaries in the body may be modified by unnatural pressure of clothing during the period of sexual development; for these organs rapidly acquire additional size and weight at this time, and if in addition they be forced downward by the intestines and other organs contained in the abdomen-as they certainly will be by a tight corset and heavy clothing - they will be found, at the end of puberty, not in the postion and in the condition natural to them, but much lower in the pelvis, and often unnaturally crowded with blood. This is the condition commonly known as falling of the womb, so often accompanied by derangement of the menstrual function and by discharges - a condition which may be detected not infrequently before marriage, but which is naturally more apt to be observed in the wife and mother. When properly used, therefore, the corset is perfectly unobjectionable, and is indeed at times a most valuable article in supporting the person ; yet it must be admitted, that during at least the first years of puberty, the girl has no need for such support, and that her appearance is not improved by the article whose chief use appears to be to hold in position certain artificial substitutes for natural organs not yet developed. To the use of these pads there is, from the physical standpoint, only one objection-that they but too often defeat their own object; that by pressure they prevent the breast from acquiring the size, shape and firmness natural to it. It would *be perfectly proper and yet entirely useless to insist that the girl during the period of puberty has no need for a corset; that if she be allowed to wear one, custom and her own mistaken idea as to what constitutes a beautiful figure will almost certainly induce her to abuse the corset and still more fatally abuse her own body For so long as women believe that physical beauty increases as the size of the waist diminishes ; 01 so long as they labor under the mistaken impression that men admire small waists ; just so long will the corset be employed as a straight-jacket - health, hygiene, advice, remonstrance and doctors to the contrary notwithstanding. The doctor has, it is true, a certain though not very noble satisfaction in this matter-he knows that the woman who persistently, perhaps even contemptuously, disregards his advice in the matter, will be in future years a valuable patient, needing long, expensive, often futile treatment at his hands. If the feminine portion of the community could be convinced not only that the compression of the body by a tight corset is as barbaric as the compression of the China woman's toes by a tight shoe ; not only that the fashionable figure of the modern woman is a wide departure from the ideal of nature and art alike - for these facts are known to all; but also that the figure of the average fashionable woman is not the ideal form desired and admired by the average man, there might be hopes that the corset would be loosened ; that the growing girl would have an opportunity for unrestricted physical expansion. Another important consideration in the care of the girl during puberty is the regular evacuation of the bowels and bladder. If either the rectum or the bladder be habitually distended, there is apt to occur a change either in the shape or position of the womb. In treating diseases of the womb, the physician is called upon in almost every case to secure proper action of the bowels ; and in the majority of instances it is found that torpidity of the bowels has endured since puberty-that the habit of constipation was formed at that period of life. We have used the word habit intentionally ; for it may be safely affirmed that, except in those exceptional cases in which there is disease of the part, habitual constipation cannot exist if proper care and attention be exercised. There should be no false delicacy in the matter; these functions may not be regarded, as they sometimes are, as relics of the primitive and barbarous state of man, to be slighted and neglected, and performed only when further neglect becomes impossible. In childhood and youth, but especially in the girl at puberty, it should be impressed upon the mind that the regular evacuation of the bowels and the bladder is a part of the daily duties to one's self. Medicines are rarely necessary if this plan be followed ; if at a certain hour of the day-usually best and most convenient in the morning - the attention be fully and conscientiously devoted to that purpose. Care During the Monthly Changes [- Periods].If it be borne in mind that puberty means the rapid development of those most important functions whereby the girl is transformed into the woman, and that the monthly changes are the periodical crises of this epoch, marking the successive steps of her pilgrimage from childhood to womanhood, it becomes evident that during these monthly periods everything should be subordinated to the performance of this function. Other organs, therefore - body and mind, brain and muscle - should be rested. The first law of the menstrual period is, therefore, rest. By this we do not mean that absolute repose is demanded, but merely that nothing should be required or permitted to which the girl's strength is inadequate or her mind indisposed. It is best to say in general terms that she should do less than the usual work, that she should take less than the usual exercise, whether for pleasure or profit, whether in walking, riding, dancing, or domestic employment. Not less important is freedom from mental effort and anxiety. Hence it will be found, as a rule, desirable to keep the girl out of school one or more days during each period, particularly if she be ambitious and studious. In many cases it becomes absolutely necessary, as already indicated in previous pages, to withdraw the child from school during the earlier months or years of puberty.The warmth of the body should be carefully and evenly maintained. At no period of life may so much damage follow the wetting of the feet, sitting in a draught, etc. Yet, while a moderate and uniform temperature is so eminently desirable, it must not be assumed that the girl should be kept in a close, hot room. Fresh air is always necessary at this as well as at other times. Nor is it true that the customary baths should be omitted during this period. If care be taken to avoid extremes of temperature, there is no occasion for deviation from the usual custom. The bath should have a temperature of 75° to 85° F. It is scarcely necessary to remark that extreme emotional excitement of whatever kind should be avoided at these times, whether those emotions be awakened by actual occurrences or merely called into action by the pages of a novel. For no part of the human nature is so intimately associated with the sexual organs as the emotions The emotional existence is indeed largely founded upon the sexual power and function, and no part of the animal organism is so easily and seriously deranged by the exercise of the emotions. It is a fact familiar to most women that the menstrual flow, even in the mature woman, can be diminished, arrested or increased by various emotional excitements during the monthly period. Between the monthly changes no other precautions are necessary than have been already indicated, and these are suggested and directed by the one dominant fact that at this period of life the rest of the girl's body should be employed in building up proper sexual organs. But first, if you want to come back to this web site again, just add it to your bookmarks or favorites now! Then you'll find it easy! Also, please consider sharing our helpful website with your online friends.
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