Corsets that embrace the waist with a grip that tightens respirationinto pain, and skirts that weight the hips with heavier than maternalburdens, have often caused grievous maladies, and imposed a needlessinvalidism. Yet, recognizing all this, it must not be forgotten thatbreeches do not make a man, nor the want of them unmake a woman.
Let the statement be emphasized and reiterated until it is heeded,that woman's neglect of her own organization, though not the soleexplanation and cause of her many weaknesses, more than any singlecause, adds to their number, and intensifies their power. It limitsand lowers her action very much, as man is limited and degraded bydissipation. The saddest part of it all is, that this neglect ofherself in girlhood, when her organization is ductile and impressible,breeds the germs of diseases that in later life yield torturing orfatal maladies. Every physician's note-book affords copiousillustrations of these statements. The number of them which the writerhas seen prompted this imperfect essay upon a subject in which thepublic has a most vital interest, and with regard to which it actswith the courage of ignorance.
Two considerations deserve to be mentioned in this connection. One is,that no organ or function in plant, animal, or human kind, can beproperly regarded as a disability or source of weakness. Throughignorance or misdirection, it may limit or enfeeble the animal orbeing that misguides it; but, rightly guided and developed, it iseither in itself a source of power and grace to its parent stock, or anecessary stage in the development of larger grace and power. Thefemale organization is no exception to this law; nor are theparticular set of organs and their functions with which this essay hasto deal an exception to it. The periodical movements whichcharacterize and influence woman's structure for more than half herterrestrial life, and which, in their ebb and flow, sway every fibreand thrill every nerve of her body a dozen times a year, and theoccasional pregnancies which test her material resources, and cradlethe race, are, or are evidently intended to be, fountains of power,not hinderances, to her. They are not infrequently spoken of by womenthemselves with half-smothered anathemas; often endured only as anecessary evil and sign of inferiority; and commonly ignored, tillsome steadily-advancing malady whips the recalcitrant sufferer intoacknowledgment of their power, and respect for their function. Allthis is a sad mistake. It is a foolish and criminal delicacy that haspersuaded woman to be so ashamed of the temple God built for her as toneglect one of its most important services. On account of thisneglect, each succeeding generation, obedient to the law of hereditarytransmission, has become feebler than its predecessor. Ourgreat-grandmothers are pointed at as types of female physicalexcellence; their great-grand-daughters as illustrations of femalephysical degeneracy. There is consolation, however, in the hope, basedon substantial physiological data, that our great-grand-daughters mayrecapture their ancestors' bloom and force. "Three generations ofwholesome life," says Mr. Greg, "might suffice to eliminate theancestral poison, for the _vis medicatrix naturæ_ has wonderfulefficacy when allowed free play; and perhaps the time may come whenthe worst cases shall deem it a plain duty to curse no futuregenerations with the _damnosa hereditas_, which has caused such bitterwretchedness to themselves."[2]
The second consideration is the acknowledged influence of beauty."When one sees a god-like countenance," said Socrates to Phædrus, "orsome bodily form that represents beauty, he reverences it as a god,and would sacrifice to it." From the days of Plato till now, all havefelt the power of woman's beauty, and been more than willing tosacrifice to it. The proper, not exclusive search for it is alegitimate inspiration. The way for a girl to obtain her portion ofthis radiant halo is by the symmetrical development of every part ofher organization, muscle, ovary, stomach and nerve, and by aphysiological management of every function that correlates everyorgan; not by neglecting or trying to stifle or abort any of the vitaland integral parts of her structure, and supplying the deficiency byinvoking the aid of the milliner's stuffing, the colorist's pencil,the druggist's compounds, the doctor's pelvic supporter, and thesurgeon's spinal brace.
When travelling in the East, some years ago, it was my fortune to besummoned as a physician into a harem. With curious and not unwillingstep I obeyed the summons. While examining the patient, nearly a dozenSyrian girls--a grave Turk's wifely crowd, a result and illustrationof Mohammedan female education--pressed around the divan with eyes andears intent to see and hear a Western Hakim's medical examination. AsI looked upon their well-developed forms, their brown skins, richwith the blood and sun of the East, and their unintelligent, sensuousfaces, I thought that if it were possible to marry the Oriental careof woman's organization to the Western liberty and culture of herbrain, there would be a new birth and loftier type of womanly graceand force.
Let the statement be emphasized and reiterated until it is heeded,that woman's neglect of her own organization, though not the soleexplanation and cause of her many weaknesses, more than any singlecause, adds to their number, and intensifies their power. It limitsand lowers her action very much, as man is limited and degraded bydissipation. The saddest part of it all is, that this neglect ofherself in girlhood, when her organization is ductile and impressible,breeds the germs of diseases that in later life yield torturing orfatal maladies. Every physician's note-book affords copiousillustrations of these statements. The number of them which the writerhas seen prompted this imperfect essay upon a subject in which thepublic has a most vital interest, and with regard to which it actswith the courage of ignorance.
Two considerations deserve to be mentioned in this connection. One is,that no organ or function in plant, animal, or human kind, can beproperly regarded as a disability or source of weakness. Throughignorance or misdirection, it may limit or enfeeble the animal orbeing that misguides it; but, rightly guided and developed, it iseither in itself a source of power and grace to its parent stock, or anecessary stage in the development of larger grace and power. Thefemale organization is no exception to this law; nor are theparticular set of organs and their functions with which this essay hasto deal an exception to it. The periodical movements whichcharacterize and influence woman's structure for more than half herterrestrial life, and which, in their ebb and flow, sway every fibreand thrill every nerve of her body a dozen times a year, and theoccasional pregnancies which test her material resources, and cradlethe race, are, or are evidently intended to be, fountains of power,not hinderances, to her. They are not infrequently spoken of by womenthemselves with half-smothered anathemas; often endured only as anecessary evil and sign of inferiority; and commonly ignored, tillsome steadily-advancing malady whips the recalcitrant sufferer intoacknowledgment of their power, and respect for their function. Allthis is a sad mistake. It is a foolish and criminal delicacy that haspersuaded woman to be so ashamed of the temple God built for her as toneglect one of its most important services. On account of thisneglect, each succeeding generation, obedient to the law of hereditarytransmission, has become feebler than its predecessor. Ourgreat-grandmothers are pointed at as types of female physicalexcellence; their great-grand-daughters as illustrations of femalephysical degeneracy. There is consolation, however, in the hope, basedon substantial physiological data, that our great-grand-daughters mayrecapture their ancestors' bloom and force. "Three generations ofwholesome life," says Mr. Greg, "might suffice to eliminate theancestral poison, for the _vis medicatrix naturæ_ has wonderfulefficacy when allowed free play; and perhaps the time may come whenthe worst cases shall deem it a plain duty to curse no futuregenerations with the _damnosa hereditas_, which has caused such bitterwretchedness to themselves."[2]
The second consideration is the acknowledged influence of beauty."When one sees a god-like countenance," said Socrates to Phædrus, "orsome bodily form that represents beauty, he reverences it as a god,and would sacrifice to it." From the days of Plato till now, all havefelt the power of woman's beauty, and been more than willing tosacrifice to it. The proper, not exclusive search for it is alegitimate inspiration. The way for a girl to obtain her portion ofthis radiant halo is by the symmetrical development of every part ofher organization, muscle, ovary, stomach and nerve, and by aphysiological management of every function that correlates everyorgan; not by neglecting or trying to stifle or abort any of the vitaland integral parts of her structure, and supplying the deficiency byinvoking the aid of the milliner's stuffing, the colorist's pencil,the druggist's compounds, the doctor's pelvic supporter, and thesurgeon's spinal brace.
When travelling in the East, some years ago, it was my fortune to besummoned as a physician into a harem. With curious and not unwillingstep I obeyed the summons. While examining the patient, nearly a dozenSyrian girls--a grave Turk's wifely crowd, a result and illustrationof Mohammedan female education--pressed around the divan with eyes andears intent to see and hear a Western Hakim's medical examination. AsI looked upon their well-developed forms, their brown skins, richwith the blood and sun of the East, and their unintelligent, sensuousfaces, I thought that if it were possible to marry the Oriental careof woman's organization to the Western liberty and culture of herbrain, there would be a new birth and loftier type of womanly graceand force.
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