I have not in the following letters spoken particularly of the treatment of spinal disorders. The subject is a most fruitful one, upon which a volume might be written. You are already, many of you, aware of the fact, that almost all of the young ladies who attend boarding-schools nowadays are more or less crooked in the spinal column. The ill hygienic management they receive from birth onward at home, and their too great confinement in schoolrooms, too often badly ventilated, renders the young and growing body of the girl too feeble to maintain itself in its proper position. The brain is likewise too much drawn upon in the mental exercises, which also causes debility of the bodily structures. In after-life, as well, we see among females a great deal of complaining nowadays in regard to the spine. How few of the sex, indeed, do not, sooner or later, suffer with some form of spinal infirmity! True, in many cases the difficulty at the vertebral column is only sympathetic with some other disorder, as of the womb, stomach, bowels, etc. Yet spinal disease, in some of its protean forms, is a very common complaint. In all cases of this kind, the water-treatment will be found an invaluable remedy; not that all can be cured—for that is not possible by any earthly means—but as a remedy for either cure, prevention, or palliation, water is the greatest of all remedies for spinal disease. In multitudes of instances, when the patient cannot walk, the new method proves an effectual one. In other cases, palliation is all that can be hoped for. In multitudes of instances of so-called spinal disease, all that is needed is to establish the general health. Patients have often wondered how it is that by simply pursuing a course of _general_ treatment the _local_ part becomes so much benefited. The reason why a weak spine is often cured without any special applications to the part, appears evident when we consider that the local weakness is merely symptomatic of the general health. J. S. NO. 98 FOURTH AVENUE, NEW YORK, 1852. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION Page v LETTER I. HISTORY OF MIDWIFERY. The Art of Midwifery in Ancient and Modern Times—To what extent may the Perils of Childbirth be Lessened? 19 LETTER II. OF MENSTRUATION. Puberty—The Menstrual Discharge—The Marriageable Age 34 LETTER III. OF MENSTRUATION. The Menses—Names—Source—Commencement—Periodicity—Nature—Quantity of the Menstrual Discharge 40 LETTER IV. OF MENSTRUATION.