A Healthy, Bright, Intelligent Girl - Entered A Female School

The following case illustrates one of the ways in which our presentschool methods of teaching girls generate a menorrhagia and itsconsequent evils. Miss A----, a healthy, bright, intelligent girl,entered a female school, an institution that is commonly but oddlycalled a _seminary_ for girls, in the State of New York, at the age offifteen. She was then sufficiently well-developed, and had a goodcolor; all the functions appeared to act normally, and the catameniawere fairly established. She was ambitious as well as capable, andaimed to be among the first in the school. Her temperament was whatphysiologists call nervous,--an expression that does not denote afidgety make, but refers to a relative activity of the nervous system.She was always anxious about her recitations. No matter how carefullyshe prepared for them, she was ever fearful lest she should trip alittle, and appear to less advantage than she hoped. She went toschool regularly every week, and every day of the school year, just asboys do. She paid no more attention to the periodical tides of herorganization than her companions; and that was none at all. Sherecited standing at all times, or at least whenever a standingrecitation was the order of the hour. She soon found, and this historyis taken from her own lips, that for a few days during every fourthweek, the effort of reciting produced an extraordinary physicalresult. The attendant anxiety and excitement relaxed the sluices ofthe system that were already physiologically open, and determined ahemorrhage as the concomitant of a recitation. Subjected to theinflexible rules of the school, unwilling to seek advice from any one,almost ashamed of her own physique, she ingeniously protected herselfagainst exposure, and went on intellectually leading her companions,and physically defying nature. At the end of a year, she went homewith a gratifying report from her teachers, and pale cheeks and avariety of aches. Her parents were pleased, and perhaps a littleanxious. She is a good scholar, said her father; somewhat over-workedpossibly; and so he gave her a trip among the mountains, and a week ortwo at the seashore. After her vacation she returned to school, andrepeated the previous year's experience,--constant, sustained work,recitation and study for all days alike, a hemorrhage once a monththat would make the stroke oar of the University crew falter, and abrilliant scholar. Before the expiration of the second year, Naturebegan to assert her authority. The paleness of Miss A's complexionincreased. An unaccountable and uncontrollable twitching of arhythmical sort got into the muscles of her face, and made her handsgo and feet jump. She was sent home, and her physician called, who atonce diagnosticated chorea (St. Vitus' dance), and said she hadstudied too hard, and wisely prescribed no study and a long vacation.Her parents took her to Europe. A year of the sea and the Alps, ofEngland and the Continent, the Rhine and Italy, worked like a charm.The sluiceways were controlled, the blood saved, and color and healthreturned. She came back seemingly well, and at the age of eighteenwent to her old school once more. During all this time not a word hadbeen said to her by her parents, her physician, or her teachers, aboutany periodical care of herself; and the rules of the school did notacknowledge the catamenia. The labor and regimen of the school soonbrought on the old menorrhagic trouble in the old way, with theaddition of occasional faintings to emphasize Nature's warnings. Shepersisted in getting her education, however, and graduated atnineteen, the first scholar, and an invalid. Again her parents weregratified and anxious. She is overworked, said they, and wondered whygirls break down so. To insure her recovery, a second and longertravel was undertaken. Egypt and Asia were added to Europe, and nearlytwo years were allotted to the cure. With change of air and scene herhealth improved, but not so rapidly as with the previous journey. Shereturned to America better than she went away, and married at the ageof twenty-two. Soon after that time she consulted the writer onaccount of prolonged dyspepsia, neuralgia, and dysmenorrhoea, whichhad replaced menorrhagia. Then I learned the long history of hereducation, and of her efforts to study just as boys do. Her attentionhad never been called before to the danger she had incurred while atschool. She is now what is called getting better, but has the delicacyand weaknesses of American women, and, so far, is without children.
It is not difficult, in this case, either to discern the cause of thetrouble, or to trace its influence, through the varying phases ofdisease, from Miss A----'s school-days, to her matronly life. She waswell, and would have been called robust, up to her first criticalperiod. She then had two tasks imposed upon her at once, both of whichrequired for their perfect accomplishment a few years of time and alarge share of vital force: one was the education of the brain, theother of the reproductive system. The schoolmaster superintended thefirst, and Nature the second. The school, with puritanicinflexibility, demanded every day of the month; Nature, kinder thanthe school, demanded less than a fourth of the time,--a seventh or aneighth of it would have probably answered. The schoolmaster might haveyielded somewhat, but would not; Nature could not. The pupil,therefore, was compelled to undertake both tasks at the same time.Ambitious, earnest, and conscientious, she obeyed the visible powerand authority of the school, and disobeyed, or rather ignorantlysought to evade, the invisible power and authority of herorganization. She put her will into the education of her brain, andwithdrew it from elsewhere. The system does not do two things well atthe same time. One or the other suffers from neglect, when the attemptis made. Miss A---- made her brain and muscles work actively, anddiverted blood and force to them when her organization demandedactive work, with blood and force for evolution in another region. Atfirst the schoolmaster seemed to be successful. He not only made hispupil's brain manipulate Latin, chemistry, philosophy, geography,grammar, arithmetic, music, French, German, and the wholeextraordinary catalogue of an American young lady's school curriculum,with acrobatic skill; but he made her do this irrespective of theperiodical tides of her organism, and made her perform herintellectual and muscular calisthenics, obliging her to stand, walk,and recite, at the seasons of highest tide. For a while she got onnicely. Presently, however, the strength of the loins, that evenSolomon put in as a part of his ideal woman, changed to weakness.Periodical hemorrhages were the first warning of this. As soon as lossof blood occurred regularly and largely, the way to imperfectdevelopment and invalidism was open, and the progress easy and rapid.The nerves and their centres lacked nourishment. There was more wastethan repair,--no margin for growth. St. Vitus' dance was a warning notto be neglected, and the schoolmaster resigned to the doctor. A longvacation enabled the system to retrace its steps, and recover forcefor evolution. Then the school resumed its sway, and physiologicallaws were again defied. Fortunately graduation soon occurred, andunintermitted, sustained labor was no longer enforced. The menorrhagiaceased, but persistent dysmenorrhoea now indicates the neuralgicfriction of an imperfectly developed reproductive apparatus. Doubtlessthe evil of her education will infect her whole life.