GIRLS MUST NOT BECOME MOTHERS.--We have previously stated that girls can become mothers when they have reached the age of puberty. God did not intend, however, that girls at the age of twelve or fourteen should become mothers, because their bodies are not strong enough, nor are they fully grown, nor have they the experience, to undertake the physical task and responsibility of bringing a baby into the world. We know this from experience, because we have seen the sickly babies such girls have, and we have seen how much these girl mothers suffer, and how they ruin their health, by trying to do what God did not intend they should do. Even the trees teach us this lesson. An orange tree will bring out buds, which would develop into oranges, when it is two years old. The experienced farmer, however, will pluck these buds off, and will do so every year, till the tree is five years old. If he allowed the tree to bear fruit during its young years, the oranges would not be good, or sweet, or large; so he waits until the tree has grown and is strong and healthy, when its fruit will be large and sweet. An orange tree of this type will have better fruit, and will continue to produce this good variety for many years. A tree allowed to bear fruit when two years old will never have first class oranges, nor will it continue to have, even poor oranges, as long as the other. CHAPTER XV PREPARING FOR MOTHERHOOD Menstruation--Irregular Menstruation--Changes in the Quantity of the Flow--How the Womb is Held in Place--Symptoms of Menstruation--Menstruation Should Not be Accompanied with Pain--Don't Give Your Daughters Patent Medicines or "Female Regulators"--Take Your Daughter to the Doctor--Leucorrhea in Girls--Bathing when Menstruating--Constipation and Displaced Wombs--Dress and Menstruation--Absence of Menstruation, or Amenorrhea--Treatment of Amenorrhea--Painful Menstruation, or Dysmenorrhea--Causes of Dysmenorrhea--Treatment of Dysmenorrhea--Sterility in the Female--Conditions Which Affect the Fertility of Women--Climate--Station in Life--Season of the Year--Age--The Tendency to Miscarry--Causes of Sterility in the Female--Displacement of Womb--Diseases of Womb, Ovaries, or Tubes--Malformations--Lacerations--Tumors--Leucorrhea--Physical Debility--Obesity--Special Poisons--"Knack of Miscarrying"--Miscarriage--Cause of Miscarriage--The Course and Symptoms of Miscarriage--What to do when a Miscarriage is Threatened--Treatment of Threatened Miscarriage--Treatment of Inevitable Miscarriage--After Treatment of Miscarriage--The Tendency to Miscarriage. MENSTRUATION We have explained in the previous chapter what menstruation is, its frequency, its significance and its origin. There are a number of its common characteristics with which the mother and daughter should be acquainted.