Sex in Education; or, A Fair Chance for GirlsClarke, Edward H. (Edward Hammond)
Science
Sex in Education; or, A Fair Chance for Girls
Clarke, Edward H. (Edward Hammond)
Women -- Education; Women -- Health and hygiene
The arrest of development of the reproductive system is most obvious
to the superficial observer in that part of it which the milliner is
called upon to cover up with pads, and which was alluded to in the
case of Miss D----. This, however, is too important a matter to be
dismissed with a bare allusion. A recent writer has pointed out the
fact and its significance with great clearness. "There is another
marked change," says Dr. Nathan Allen, "going on in the female
organization at the present day, which is very significant of
something wrong. In the normal state, Nature has made ample provision
in the structure of the female for nursing her offspring. In order to
furnish this nourishment, pure in quality and abundant in quantity,
she must possess a good development of the sanguine and lymphatic
temperament, together with vigorous and healthy digestive organs.
Formerly such an organization was very generally possessed by American
women, and they found but little difficulty in nursing their infants.
It was only occasionally, in case of some defect in the organization,
or where sickness of some kind had overtaken the mother, that it
became necessary to resort to the wet-nurse or to feeding by hand. And
the English, the Scotch, the German, the Canadian French, and the
Irish women now living in this country, generally nurse their
children: the exceptions are rare. But how is it with our American
women who become mothers? To those who have never considered this
subject, and even to medical men who have never carefully looked into
it, the facts, when correctly and fully presented, will be surprising.
It has been supposed by some that all, or nearly all, our American
women could nurse their offspring just as well as not; that the
disposition only was wanting, and that they did not care about having
the trouble or confinement necessarily attending it. But this is a
great mistake. This very indifference or aversion shows something
wrong in the organization as well as in the disposition: if the
physical system were all right, the mind and natural instincts would
generally be right also. While there may be here and there cases of
this kind, such an indisposition is not always found. It is a fact,
that large numbers of our women are anxious to nurse their offspring,
and make the attempt: they persevere for a while,--perhaps for weeks
or months,--and then fail.... There is still another class that cannot
nurse at all, _having neither the organs nor nourishment_ requisite
even to make a beginning.... Why should there be such a difference
between the women of our times and their mothers or grandmothers? Why
should there be such a difference between our American women and those
of foreign origin residing in the same locality, and surrounded by the
same external influences? The explanation is simple: they have not the
right kind of organization; there is a want of proper development of
the lymphatic and sanguine temperaments,--a marked deficiency in the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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