_Period of puberty._—When the child has reached the period of puberty, it should learn something about the wonderful phenomenon of menstruation, which by nature is sure to come to every normal female, so that the young girl should not be surprised and frightened by its onset and the boy should not make jokes over it.[BN] The young girl must be told that nature has reserved this catamenial week for the process of ovulation and for the development and perfection of the reproductive system. All the pelvic organs are in a condition of increased nervous irritability and in a natural healthy state of congestion. The attention of the girl must be called upon the participation of the breasts in the genital congestion. They become extended and more sensitive. With the irritability of the genital nerves the entire nervous system becomes impressionate. Especially at puberty, when the first menstruations set in, the nervous susceptibility is increased to the highest degree. The child enters the period of storm and stress. During puberty, says Kiernan, there is normally a struggle between the cerebral and the reproductive systems. The latter tends to obtrude subconscious states upon consciousness. Quite a few of the young boys and girls harbor in their hearts the so-called “Weltschmerz,” which may be defined as the subconscious conviction of the emptiness and worthlessness of existence. Hence the functions of menstruation should be very carefully and minutely explained to the girl and the responsibility of the womanly organism impressed upon her mind, as soon as the mental symptoms herald the approaching change from child to maidenhood. Indefinable yearnings and moods, wishes and fears, the emotions of shame and guilt, of faith and hope, of love and hate, of vanity and repentance, of sensitiveness and ambition, assume a certain domination over the growing child. Sweet inexpressible emotions disturb the thoughts and actions of the awakening consciousness. Mysterious sensations and impulses fill the heart of the ripening individual. The bodings of desires and cravings take possession of the individual’s thoughts and fancy. Other symptoms which appear at the time of the onset of the catamenial period are headaches, restlessness, excitability, irritability of temper and a general hysterical condition. The girl is carried away more easily than at any other time. She often cries without any cause. A certain lassitude seizes her. She has pain and feels heat in the back and breasts, loins and in the internal organs. The appetite is often diminished and capricious, at this period, just as it is not seldom observed at the beginning of pregnancy. The girl is not seldom attacked by sickness and giddiness. If she then goes to bed and remains in a recumbent position, the blood accumulates in the vagina and coagulates there before it leaves the system. This coagula frightens the child.