"Woman's enervating mode of life, the continued introspection, coupled with the peculiar changes in the nutrition of the body at this time, render the nervous system peculiarly impressionable and liable to the manifold forms of diseases. 'The woman is told that she must be calm and patient, and in time the tomb-builder will alleviate all her sufferings.' This critical period may be dangerous to those who are always ailing, for habitiual sufferers at the menstrual periods, and for those affected with uterine diseases. If, on the first indication of the change of life, women who are in fair health carefully followed a regimen and pursued a line of life in harmony with the physiologic processes on which this change depends, disease would be prevented. But as the change concerns a natural function, it is left to nature; no additional precautions are taken, and advice is sought only when the mischief is done." It is not wise to marry during this period. On the first appearance of the irregularities of the menopause the amount of food and stimulants to which women have been accustomed should be curtailed rather than augmented. The system requires supporting by medicine and regimen-- as, baths, mental and moral hygiene, and occupation-- rather than stimulating by spirits. We have seen that, in accordance with the plethric theory, which prevailed until 1835, and with the nerve theory, which is based on the latest anatomic and physiologic researches, menstruation is a physiologic process to get rid of effete material, and is therefore an excretion. At the end of perhaps thirty years, by a conservative process of nature, the child-bearing period ceases and the organism is readjusted to the end that the woman's vitality may all be conserved for her own individual life. Each metamorphic or developmental period of life-- dentition, puberty, and the menopause-- throws a special strain on the nervous system, and the recent studies of the sympathetic nervous system at the time of the menopause show that very extensive anatomic changes occur at this time. That being the case, the woman must lead such a life as will insure her having on hand a large reserve force necessary to meet these heavy demands. Tilt's observations show that women who have experienced no suffering at puberty or, at the menstrual periods do not suffer at the menopause. It is therefore evident that the time to begin this preparation is in childhood. That single women suffer less than married women would suggest that excessive coitus and the occurrence of abortions, frequent child-bearing, and lesions as the result of pregnancies, many of which lesions could have been prevented or cured by the timely aid of the physician, are the combined sources of much of the suffering at the time of the menopause.