This delineation is by far more fanciful than true; and it oftener happens that, in consequence of the pernicious habits of civic and civilized life, changes as great, and often greater than these, occur at a much earlier date than this critical period, so called. Were the laws of life and health reasonably observed, there could no sudden or considerable change take place at _any_ one time in life. As middle age merges into the more advanced, so, gradually and imperceptibly, comes on the riper and more mature state, before which woman does not arrive at the full time of her dignity, and the full period of the magnitude of her moral power. But it must be admitted that there are in some cases reasons why the time of cessation of the menstrual function should be called the “critical period,” or the “turn of life.” Thus, with the beginning of suppression, or cessation, there may occur swelling of the abdomen, nausea, sickness, and loathing of food, as in pregnancy. The imagination, too, may have something to do with this matter, for it is doubtless true, that some women “have such a dislike to age, that they would rather persuade themselves that they are with child, than suppose they are feeling any of the consequences of growing old.” I ought here to mention, that in those cases where pregnancy does not exist, the abdomen is softer and more equally enlarged, and swells more speedily after the obstruction than it does from real pregnancy. Some persons are, at this period, so imaginative, as even to believe that they actually experience motions of the child, whereas there is only wind or flatulency in the bowels, which, by rumbling, or shifting from place to place, causes a sensation analogous to that of the motions of a real child. Some persons have even gone so far in this matter as to believe that they had passed through the entire period of pregnancy, and have called physicians and attendants, believing that labor had actually began. And some physicians, even, have remained many hours with these patients, when at last it has been discovered, to the great mortification of all concerned, that one important feature was yet wanting, in order for labor to take place, namely, the presence in the mother’s womb of an actual child.