out of place, which some years afterwards may acutely handicap the unfortunate woman. In the name of all the fond and happy mothers that I hope the future may contain, I would urge every one who possibly can to _insist_ on having six weeks of “lying in.” This is not only in the interests of general health but of beauty. Too long have we become tolerant of the hideous formation of the body which is common in older women. We have domesticated some animals[8] solely for our own purposes, and they are hideous indeed. Why should we women permit a comparable standard for ourselves? Why not insist on at least as much care as is devoted to the race-horse? Why not take a period of rest after the great effort of maternity proportionately as long as a she-wolf or tigress takes in her cave, fed by her mate while she lies about and plays with her cubs?[9] The standard of beauty of the racing mare, of the wild tigress or she-wolf is slender and not markedly different from that of its virgin state. Such a standard, and not that of the over-taxed, man-used, domesticated animals should be that on which we women should insist. [8] The sow normally breeding once a year, artificially forced to breed two or three times a year. Its appearance is proverbial. [9] This has been reported to me by travellers and others, but I cannot get an authoritative scientific record for the fact. In this connection should be mentioned one other way in which the following of Nature and obedience to her law works for good. In the next chapter I mention the baby’s right to be fed by nature’s food, and while the infant is nursing from its mother it stimulates contractions in the womb which very much assist in bringing it to its right size and position, and so the act of nursing benefits not only the infant but its mother. A number of researches by various experts have been made, which proves that the womb reacts to the stimulus of suckling by the child. Pfister (_Beit. z. Geb. u. Gyn._, 1901, vol. v, p. 421), for instance, found that very definite contractions took place during the baby’s suckling, particularly for the first eight days after its birth; also Temesváry (_Journ. Obstet. and Gyn. Brit. Emp._, 1903, vol. iii, p. 511) found that the natural involution of the womb after birth was distinctly more rapid in those who nursed their babies than in those who did not. Prolonging the nursing period does undoubtedly not tend to increase the beauty of the woman’s bosom but to deteriorate it, but, for at any rate the first few months, it is _very_ advantageous both to the mother and to the child that she should feed it naturally. If throughout the nursing period she slings her breast properly from above, and if when the nursing period ceases she massages and treats the breast properly, it should not lose its beauty in the way which is alas, to-day, too general.