The Four Epochs of Woman's Life; a study in hygiene   By: Anna M. (Anna Mary) Galbraith (1859-)

THE FOUR EPOCHS OF WOMAN'S LIFE

A Study in Hygiene

BY

ANNA M. GALBRAITH, M.D.

Author of "Hygiene and Physical Culture for Women"; Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine ; Ex President of the Alumnae Association, Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania; Attending Physician, Neorological Department, New York Orthopedic Hospstal and Dispensary.

WITH AN

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

by

JOHN H. MUSSER, M.D.

Late Professor of Clinical Medicine, University of Pennsylvania.

"As in a building Stone rests on stone, and wanting the foundation All would be wanting, so in human life Each action rests on the foregoing event That made it possible, but is forgotten And buried in the earth."

LONGFELLOW.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

IT has been well said that the bulwarks of a nation are the mothers. Any contribution to the physical, and hence the mental, perfection of woman should be welcomed alike by her own sex, by the thoughtful citizen, by the political economist, and by the hygienist. Observation of the truths, expressed in a modest, pleasing, and conclusive manner, in the essay of Dr. Galbraith contribute to this end. These truths should be known by every woman, and I gladly commend the essay to their thoughtful consideration.

JOHN H. MUSSER, M.D.,

Late Professer of Clinical Medicine in the University of Pennsylvania.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

THE author takes this opportunity to thank the medical profession and the laity for the very cordial reception which has been tendered the first edition of this small volume.

The necessity for the use of technical expressions in a book written expressly for the laity must always be a matter of regret. And only those who have attempted to write a similar work can fully appreciate the truth of Herbert Spencer's remark, that "Nothing is so difficult as to write an elementary book on scientific subjects."

The author has added to this edition a section on "The Hygiene of Puberty," one on "Hemorrhage at the Menopause a Significant Symptom of Cancer," and one on "The Hygiene of the Menopause."

ANNA M. GALBRAITH.

15 WEST NINETY FIRST STREET, NEW YORK.

PREFACE.

"Ignorance is the curse of God; Knowledge, the wings wherewith we fly to heaven."

"Henry VI."

PERFECT health is essential to perfect happiness. The greater the knowledge of the laws of nature, and the more closely these laws are lived up to, so much nearer "ideal" will be the health and happiness of the individual. Hence the necessity that these same laws should be as familiar to the adult man and woman as the alphabet. Further, with our present knowledge of the certain suffering, disease, and death that are bred by ignorance of all these subjects, it is little less than criminal to allow girls to reach the age of puberty without the slightest knowledge of the menstrual function; young women to be married in total ignorance of the ethics of married life; women to become mothers without any conception of the duties of motherhood; other women, as the time approaches, to live in dread apprehension of "the change of life;" and many women unnecessarily to succumb to disease at this time.