Woman's medical guide : containing essays on the physical, moral and educational development of females, and the homeopathic treatment of their diseases in all periods of life ...

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WOMAN'S

MEDICAL GUIDE;

CONTAINING ESSAYS ON THE

PHYSICAL, MOKAL AND EDUCATIONAL

DEVELOPMENT OF FEMALES,

AND THE

HOMEOPATHIC TREATMENT

OF THEIR ^SSEAS-BS-Bf-ALL-PERiODS OF LIFE, TOGETHER WITH

Directions for the Remedial use of Water and Gymnastics.

By J. H. PULTE, M.D.

l'KOFESSOR OF OBST ETRICS AND DISEASES OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN; EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF CLINICAL MEDICINE IN THE WESTERN COLLEGE OF HOMEO- PATHY; AUTHOR OF "HOMEOPATHIC DOMESTIC PHYSICIAN, ETC.

CINCINNATI:

MOORE, ANDERSON, WILSTACH & KEYS,

28 WEST FOURTH STREET.

NEW-YORK: NEWMAN & IVISON. PHILADELPHIA: MATTHEW & HOUARD. BOSTON: OTIS CLAPP. LONDON : LOW & CO.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, bj J. H.PULTE, M.D.,_ In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the District of Ohio.

H Aim IS & FAIRBANKS,

PRINTERS, STEREOTYPICS & BOOKBINDERS,

10 Bank St., Cleveland, O,

Preface

In offering this work to the Public, the Author deems it appropriate to state some of the reasons which prompted its publication.

The spread of Homoeopathy throughout the country has been very great, beyond even the expectations of its most sanguine advocates, and is daily increasing. Thousands of families depend on its efficacy in the most dangerous diseases, such as Asiatic Cholera, Scarlet and Typhus Fever, etc. ; and thousands of intelligent mothers consider it the greatest blessing which science has yet bestowed upon them. While they have heretofore received their information respecting matters of general interest and usefulness, physical education, hygiene, etc., from Allopathic writers, they now, since their conversion to Homoeopathy, expect the Homoeopathic practitioner to furnish them with similar instruction. This reasonable desire the practicing physician, burdened with toil and care, can satisfy only at a

IV PREFACE.

great sacrifice of time and breath, if lie attempts at all to convey the requisite information personally to each one of his lady patrons. Popular treatises, devised for this purpose, will accomplish the object in every respect more satisfactorily.

No such work, however, has, as yet, appeared in our Homoeopathic literature, at least none especially adapted to the instruction of woman, as to her physical and moral education, her destiny, and the treatment of female diseases.

This want the author intended to supply, by discussing these important topics in a popular and lucid style. Whether or not he has succeeded in his .task, is for the reader to decide : if not, then the failure has been one of judgment, not of motive. As to the latter, the Author is conscious of having spared neither time nor research in endeavoring to make the book indeed, what he intended it to be, a Woman's Medical Guide, forming, as it were, a supplement to his Homceqpathic Domestic Physician.

THE AUTHOB.

Cincinnati, May, 1853.

Contents

Introduction, ---- 13-18

Part I. Woman's Physical And Moral Development

HER SOCIAL POSITION AND DESTINY.

Chapter I. Woman

Anatomical difference between the two sexes, 21 : Difference in the external appearance, internal organs and bony structure, 23: The female has a different sphere of action from the male, 24: Comparison of the female system with the male, 25: The destiny of either based on their physical constitutions, 26: Division of the duties of life, 27: Organs peculiar to the female, 28: Description of their form, position and function, 29: Explanation of the changes in woman's physical economy, 30.

No superiority of either sex in mental or physical endowments, 31: Difference of character based on unalterable laws of nature, 32: Woman physiologically considered, 34: Phrenological

VI CONTENTS.

analysis of the female mind, 35: Moral region, 36: Intellectual region, 37: Reflective and perceptive faculties, 39: Region of the sentiments — imagination, 40: Its importance as one of the faculties which render woman pre-eminently social, 41:

"Woman in every respect man's equal, 43 : Christianity the only true restorer of woman's rights, 45: Emancipation of woman, its true meaning and legitimate object, 46: Duty of legislation, 46: Her destiny, based upon her physical and moral peculiarities, 47 : Woman's true position in the light of the gospel 48: Her position in the family as wife, mother, sister or daughter, 49 : Duties and responsibilities of a christian mother, 50: Her position in society and the state, 52.

Chapter II. Girl

Its Infancy, 63-60

Difference of action between the male and female infant, 53: Swelling of the breasts in female infants, 54: Hygienic rules, bathing, exercise, air, food, clothing, 55: Vaccination, 61.

Its Girlhood, 61-84

Importance of a proper development and early education of the physical system, 62: Danger of the intellectual education if too early commenced, 62: Our present system of education is wrong — the physical must precede the intellectual, 62: Each has separate ends to accomplish, 63: What they are and how they can be reached, 64: Dress of a girl, 66: Exercise, dancing

CONTENTS. VII gymnastics, 68: Danger resulting from infant schools, 72: Bad results from the practice of awarding preferments and premiums in schools, 74: How a system of education should be organized.. 78: Music, vocal and instrumental, 80: Moral and religious training, 80: Boarding-schools inefficient and dangerous. 81.

Chapter III Maiden Or Young Lady

Changes in the system, 85: Menstruation, 86: signs of maidenhood, 87: Moral and physical changes, 88: Puberty, 89: Its causes, 90: Description of the internal organs of generation, 90: Nature and origin of menstruation, 92: Moral development of the maiden, 94: Education at home and abroad, 96: Gymnastic exercises, 97: Early marriages are injurious, 98: Their causes, 99: Their prevention, 100: Eunaway matches, 100: Legitimate time of marriage, 102: Education never finished, 103: Different kinds of education, 106: Dancing, arts and sciences, 107: Extravagance in dress, 109: Duty of parents, 110: Show mania and fashions, 111: Necessity of useful occupations, 112: customs of old times, 116: Study of languages, 118: Moral and religious duties*, 119.

Chapter. IV, Maiden Lady

Law of development, 120: Exceptions, 121: Duty to marry, 122: Duty and worth of maiden ladies, 124: Their occupations, 128: Their joys and pleasures, 130.

VIII CONTENTS.

CHAPTER Y

Civilization of the world by woman, 132: Position of a wife, 133: Affection the real talisman of the marriage union, 135: Other virtues 137: Physical changes during marriage, 142: Conception, 143: Pregnancy, 144: Its signs, ] 45: The fcetus audits development, 147: Rules to be observed during pregnancy, 143: Its disorders, 150: Quickening — its meaning, 150: Duration of pregnancy, 152: Labor, 152: Chloroform and ether — their use, 153: Duties of a mother, 153: In the family, 155: lu society, 158: In the state, 159.

DISEASES OF WOMEN:

THEIR DESCRIPTION AND HOMOEOPATHIC TREATMENT.

Chapter I. Diseases Of Sexual Development

1 . Puberty and its Abnormal Appearance, .... 181-205

Chlorosis — green sickness, 182: Menstruation and its abnormal appearance, 186: Tardy menstruation, 187: Suppressed menstruation, 190: Too copious menstruation — flooding, 193: Menstruation of too long duration, 196: Too late and too scanty, 196: Deviation of menses, 196: Too difficult, 197: Painful, 198: Their cessation or change of life, 199: Abnormal erotic sentiment — nymphomania, 200: Absence of erotic sentiment, 204: Sterility, 204.

Plethora — congestion — fever, 206: Hemorrhages, 209: Hemori rhoids — piles, 210: Varicose veins, 212: Swelling of the feet and lower limbs, 213: tooth-ache, 214: Salivation, 214: De- • rangement of appetite, 215: Nausea and vomiting, 217: Diarrhea, 219: Constipation, 221: Dyspepsia — heart-burn — acid stomach, 222: Difficulty of swallowing, 222: Spasmodic pain and cramps, 223: Colic pains, 224: Disury — strangury — ischury, 224: Incontinence of urine, 225: Jaundice (icterus,) 225: Pain in the right side, 227: Asthma — congestion of the lungs — palpitation of the heart— spitting of blood — pleurisy,

CONTENTS.

228: Hacking cough, 229: Vertigo — congestion of the head, 229: Headache — fainting — sleeplessness — depression of spirits, 230: Neuralgic pains, 230: Spasmodic laughter — crying — sneezing — yawning, 231: Puerperal convulsions (Eclampsia gravidarum,) 232: Miscarriage (abortion.) 234.

3. Parturition, 240-273

Labor, 243: Natural and preternatural, 244: Protracted, 246:

Sudden cessation of, 247: Spurious or false labor-pains, 248: Excessively painful labor, 250: The waters (child's water,) 251: Delivery, 253: Apparent death — asphyxia of the infant, 254: After-birth, 256: Hemorrhage — flooding, 258: After-pains, 260: Confinement, 261 : Lochial discharge, 264: Suppression of, 266: Excessive and protracted, 267: Offensive, sanious, 267: Childbed fever, 268: Milk-leg (Phlegmasia alba dolens,) 270: Mania in childbed, 272.

Milk-fever, 279: Ague in the breast — gathered breast, 280: Deterioration of milk, 283: Suppressed secretion of milk, 287: Excessive secretion of milk, 288: Deficiency of milk, 289: Sore nipples, 290.

Chapter II Diseases Of Generative Organs

Imperforation of the Hymen, 292: Inflammation of external parts, 293: Wounds on the same, 294: Oedematous swelling of the labia, 294: Pruritus— itching of the private parts, 295: Diseases of the vagina, 297: Leucorrhea (fluor albus,) 298: Diseases of the uterus, 302: Prolapsus uteri (falling of the womb,) 303: Its retroversion and anteversion, 308: Inflammation of the womb, 309: Irritable uterus (rheumatism and neuralgia of

CONTENTS. XI the womb,) 310: Polypus of the uterus, 312: Scirrhus and cancer of the womb, 315: Ulceration of the womb, 316: Dropsy of the womb, 317: Inflammation of the ovaries, 319: Ovarian dropsy, 322: Diseases of the breasts, 322: Scirrhus and cancer of the breasts, 324.

Chapter III. Diseases Of Nervous Function

Hysteria or vapors was formerly a fashionable disease, 325: Has become quite obsolete at the present day, 326: Derivation and signification of the word hysteria,326: Its chronic character,327: Description of an hysterical paroxysm {globus hystericus,) 328: Resembling epileptic fits, 329 : Its mental causes, excess of joy, fear, fright, anger, grief, home-sickness, unhappy love, jealousy, mortification, insult, contradiction, chagrin and indignation, 330: Hysterical constitution, its treatment, 331: Hysteria diminishes of late years in intensity and frequency — the probable causes of this singular phenomenon, 332.

NOTICE TO PHARMACEUTISTS.

The medicines prescribed in this work are generally found among those usually contained in the boxes accompanying the books for domestic practice ; it has been the intention that their potency or attenuation should be the same as recommended in the Author's "Homoeopathic Domestic Physician," viz : the medicines taken from the vegetable kingdom in the third attenuation, those from the mineral in the sixth. If separate medicine chests should be made to accompany this book, Pharmaceutists -will please to put them up in accordance with the above rule; containing the following medicines :

Aconite, Arnica, Arsenicum, Belladonna, Bryonia, Calcarea carbon., Cantharides, Capsicum, Carbo vegetabilis, Chamomile, China, Cocculus, Coffea, Colocynth, Conium, Crocus, Cuprum, Drosera, Dulcamara, Ferrum, Graphites, Hepar sulph., Hyoscamus, Ignatia, Iodium, Ipecacuanha, Lachesis, Lycopodium, Mercurius (vivus,) Natrum mur., Nitric acid, Nux vomica, Opium, Phosphorus, Phosphoric acid, Platina, Pulsatilla, Rheum, Rhus toxicodendron, Sabina, Secale, Sepia, Silicea, Spigelia, Stannum, Staphysagria, Stramonium, Sulphur, Tabacum, Tartar emetic, Thuja, Veratrum album; also the tinctures named in the Author's work on Domestic Practice.

Introduction

It would be almost superfluous, at the present day, to preface a treatise like this with an apology for its appearance. Society in modern times, and particularly in our country, has assumed a decided direction towards the diffusion of knowledge amongst all classes and ages; the rich and the poor, the mechanic, merchant and literary devotee ; the child, young man and woman, parents and aged persons — all are provided for in the distribution of intellectual food. The presses are teeming with the various productions, suitable for popular education, diffusing a mass of knowledge, which, in time, will ameliorate the condition of society. The most abstruse sciences, heretofore strictly and carefully hidden from the eyes of the people at large, now make their appearance in crowded halls before popular audiences, being received with applause and eagerly absorbed, when brought before them in language appropriate and easily understood. Thus, Astronomy and Metaphysics have been successfully treated of in popular lectures ; natural sciences, in all their various phases,

B

XIV IITEODUGTIOI.

are familiar and pleasant visitors at the gatherings of the people. It may "be truly said, our lecturerooms continue to do, what the school-rooms have had no time to finish; and an intelligent, welleducated people, like ours, will pursue its studies, in spite of old-fashioned harriers and scientific cliques ; having once imbibed the thirst for knowledge, it cannot be restrained in continuing to satisfy its cravings.

Another question, however, might be raised, as regards the propriety of treating in books of subjects, so delicate and private, that the modesty of the female sex naturally would shrink from their perusal. But it is an old adage, and a very true one: To the pure all tilings are pure / where the heart does not already yearn after the evil, and the imagination is not already perverted, finding her sole delight in the contemplation of impure pictures, a truthful and severe exposition of the laws governing the female system, cannot intoxicate the senses or degrade the moral taste ; on the contrary, must ennoble the impulses of the heart by increasing the knowledge of laws and destinies in connection with the immense responsibilities, thus given to the choice of each one's judgment. Beside, we are convinced that it is possible to treat of the laws of nature within the limits of perfect decorum; and this without suppressing the truth or becoming unintelligible.

INTRODUCTION. XV

No one will deny the propriety of giving to woman all the instruction needed for herself and offspring, and as this knowledge has to be presented to her in some way, that which least offends her finer feelings will be considered the best. Woman is naturally timid, and refrains as long as possible from making inquiries and asking advice from male persons about her own health or that of her daughters, where the subject is a delicate one. And yet she must seek for information, or else irreparable damage might be done. She fears exposure, if it be only in conversation ; her nature instinctively revolts against it. Here it is that a book, containing all the information she wants, frequently comes to her as a great relief; she can receive instruction through it, without exposing her needs to the ear of a male person, be he ever so well known to her. This reluctance and fear of exposure is so deeply rooted in females, that they frequently rather seek advice, if absolutely needed, from the physician, who is a stranger to them, than from their own family-physician. How much easier is it to consult the pages of a book, which written for their especial benefit, will inform them privately about subjects, on which they hesitate to converse in the presence of others.

Again, is it not all important that woman, the mother and guardian of our infants and children,

should possess all the knowledge possible as to b2

XVI INTRODUCTION.

their rational training and education. An ignorant mother will have an excuse for the neglect which her offspring has to suffer ; she can say it is not her fault; if she knew more about the education of children, she would not allow them to fall under the supervision of nurses, or persons still more incompetent. Give to the mother the requisite knowledge in this respect, and thousands of evils will be corrected, under which at present our infant world has to suffer. Inform the mother thoroughly as regards the physical and moral training of the young girl, and soon society will feel the blessing of such beneficent undertaking ; the next generation will already tell of the difference. Instead of sickly and nervous women, whose sole duty seems to consist in cultivating fashionable life, with its soul and body-destroying consequences, you will behold strong and vigorous bodies and enlightened and sprightly minds, whose duty will not be to run constantly after pleasure or external ornaments, but who would rather want to be themselves a pleasure in the family-circle, and an ornament to society. Our present system of female education, its workings in the school and at home, are entirely wrong and deleterious for the physical and moral welfare of the daughters of the land, who soon will have to be its mothers. But the evil does not stop here; it increases in a fearful ratio, as generation follows generation,

INTRODUCTION. XVII

■until society and the state itself is brought to the verge of ruin and destruction. Well rnay the philanthropist shudder at the prospect in the future, on beholding the present mode of female education among the wealthier classes. From over-tasking the young mind with studies for hours and days, interrupting thereby the growth of the physical system, the inevitable result is a morbid -development of the nervous system, a damage, which in most cases is irreparable. An undue degree of ambition is the cause of this growing evil. Each mother wants to see Tier daughter excel above all others, in what? In strength, health, good sound sense, modest behavior, sprightly, cultivated mind, knowledge of house and social duties ? No, not in these qualities; no, but in a display of mental and bodily fineries, called fashionable accomplishments.

Ambition is a noble quality of the soul, when followed within the limits of reason ; but it becomes a scourge and a destroyer of life and happiness, if immoderately indulged in. In the case of education it becomes more than that ; it becomes a crime. How many a naturally strong constitution has been thereby enfeebled for life, and how many a naturally feeble one has been made thereby to depart this life. These are weighty considerations which, we hope, will receive all the attention from

those, for whose benefit they are here introduced. b3

XVIII INTRODUCTION.

Let each mother reflect well and deeply, before she allows her daughter to he thrown into the whirlpool of modern education ; let her consider first, whether the child is physically strong enough, to go through with it ; because it is indeed hard labor, to perform all that modern education proposes to have done. In the following pages we hope to convince parents, that substantial wrong is done to their children by too early and closely pursued studies ; that the body must be allowed to develop itself first, before the mind is taxed so severely, as is the case at present. This relates particularly to the education of girls.

Our plan will be, to present first, in a general review, the character and destiny of woman — ■ physically, morally and socially ; after which we intend to contemplate woman in her different stages of development, as a girl, wife, mother and matron. In each of these periods she will be subject to physical changes, and have to perform different duties. It shall be our especial duty to give a clear and faithful picture of these different periods of development and to show how woman ought to be in each of them, in order to deal out and receive the greatest amount of real happiness in this world, in which she decidedly is the most beautiful as well as the noblest of sojourners.

PART I.

WOMAN'S

PHYSICAL AND MORAL DEVELOPMENT;

HER SOCIAL POSITION AND DESTINY.

— Widow.

VII. — Matron

B4

CHAPTER I.

WOMAN.

In treating on this subject, we pre-suppose that the reader is familiar with the general outlines of human anatomy, and even with such details as have reference to the principal organs and their functions, necessary for the maintenance of life. These the female system shares in common with the male. It is our object here to point out only that, wherein they differ ; and moreover to show that this difference in their physical nature is the cause of their respective destinies and duties.

In comparing the female with the male body, we find at once the former less in stature and weight, but more rounded and graceful in form. It exhibits not so much, strength of the muscles; these being less developed than in the male. But its motions, if less agile and strong, evince more graceful elasticity; in this respect, as also in the weaker but clearer voice, the female has retained more or less the character of the child. We shall have occasion afterwards to remind the reader again on the many analogies between the b5 female constitution and that of the child in general. This is mentioned here at once, in order to draw the attention to a fact, which will have great influence in the better understanding and appreciation of the female character and destiny.

Thus in the outer appearance a great difference is noticed between the two sexes, and this increases as we proceed to a closer examination of the several parts of the system. In doing so, we have to compare the female organization with the male.

The female face is smaller, its front not so high, but the neck is longer ; the chest is not so capacious, but the abdominal region more developed, particularly across the hips, which thus forms in the female the basis -line of a triangle, whose apex rests in the region of the shoulders ; while in the male system the order is reversed, the shoulders forming the basis -line and the hips the apex of the triangle. The female has shorter, but rounder and fatter arms, with softer contours ; the hand also is smaller, whiter and softer, the fingers are finer and more pointed. The lower limbs, on the contrary, although shorter, are stouter, particularly from above downwards to the inner corners of the knee, which are generally rounder; the feet are shorter and smaller. The female skin is finer, softer and more transparent, the veins are easier discernable; on the more delicate parts of the skin, such as the face and neck, the blush appears quicker and easier. The hair grows more abundantly and longer on the head, but less so on other parts of the body; the hair itself is finer, softer, more elastic and glossy, the nails are more transparent and tender. The areolar tissue, which contains the fat, is more abundant and firmer ; the muscles display a lighter color, are softer, thinner and weaker; the single muscles less protruding. The diaphragm is less in size and lies higher up, enlarging thereby the abdominal cavity ; the heart is smaller ; the walls of the whole vascular system are thinner; particularly does the arterial system lack the same density of texture in proportion to the venous, as this is the case in the male, although the female possesses a larger amount of blood in proportion. The lungs are smaller, and the apertures of the nose and the whole wind-pipe narrower. The brain, in proportion to the body, is heavier in the female, than in the male ; the cranial cavity is more elevated as regards the position of the face, and the mass of the brain in proportion to the nervous system and the cranial arteries is larger than in the male. The nerves themselves, however, are finer, more tender and weaker.

The bones are thinner, smoother, less firm, their processes and indentations less distinct; there is less bony matter in general ; the bones of the face are finer, with a more even surface; the cavities in the front part of the head and cheeks are narrower ; the ribs are thinner, flatter, shorter, starting in a more decided curve from the spine; the spinal column therefore reaches deeper in the cavity of the chest, and the spinal processes are less discernable in the back-bone; the breast-bone is shorter; the cavity of the chest generally less capacious ; the spinal column, as a whole, is rather longer in the female. But the greatest differences exist in the region of the hips, the bones of which are broader, although they are thinner and lighter : the cavity of the pelvis inside, formed by the hipbones and the small of the back, is every way longer, wider and more uniformly so, above as well as below.

"We must be convinced by the above comparison, of the female system with the male, that the former was destined to move in a different sphere of action from the latter, and that this cannot be changed without serious danger for its physical welfare. The duties and mode of life seem to be clearly pointed out to the female in her bodily construction, which we now will proceed to consider, before we come to describe those organs, peculiar to the female sex, in which the greatest part of her destiny is fixed.

As a prominent difference, we find the framework of her system less in size and strength ; the muscles, attaching to it, are also smaller and weaker. This fact shows that the female body is less capable than the male of undergoing toil and hardships, which require mostly muscular effort. Neither would it be possible to make her equal in that respect to the male, because her muscles are softer, thinner, not so compact and of lighter color ; this physiological difference precludes them from ever becoming so compact, hard and strong, as the muscles of a man, even if ever so much exercised for that purpose. Besides, it states that the female has a firmer areolar tissue, and in greater abundance than the male ; consequently is more inclined to become fat, and her form rounded, a circumstance which prevents any extraordinary degree of muscular development by exercise. Yet this latter is on that account not the less needed ; enough of it must be taken by the female to develop those changes within her system, which, as we will see hereafter, are a peculiar characteristic of her sex.

Another marked difference consists in the form and capacity of the chest and abdominal cavity, compared with that of the male. The cavity of the chest is smaller, while that of the abdomen is larger. Here we find a wonderful and wise provision made for the respective duties of the two sexes. The male is destined to labor harder; to him is given the large wide chest, attached to which are the powerful muscles of the trunk and arms ; his lungs are of greater expanse, his arterial system, including the heart, is more developed; all this is needed for a more vigorous and prolonged prosecution of his daily manual work ; his system is fitted out for that especial purpose ; the abdominal region is less in size, but nevertheless strong and compact, while his lower limbs principally excel in elasticity and propelling power. How beautifully is his destiny written in the framework of his body and the display of his muscles. On the other hand, the female is larger across the hips, because there nature needed above all other parts room to fitly prepare woman for her destiny. From this is easily seen, how perverse to nature that fashion is, which compresses the female waist and makes of her literally an hour-glass, or a wasp, while, indeed, her form ought to be broad across the hips, gradually, but regularly tapering off upwards; the male form being just the reverse of this.

The nervous system and the brain of the female show another great difference, indicative of her duty and destiny. Her brain is proportionally larger than that of the man, in comparison to the size of the body ; but her nerves are finer, more tender and weaker, making them disproportionate to the size of the brain. The nerves, which are the carriers of the brain-power, ought to be developed, in proportion to the size of the brain, in order to fulfil its demands; they are, however, finer and weaker in the female, hence she lacks power of execntion, which compels her to look for other help to have her designs execnted. By this arrangement she has become pre-eminently the counsellor and constant companion of man, who is well fitted by nature to carry out her designs, together with his own. This is one of the most wonderful arrangements in nature, by which the two sexes are bound indissolubly together, as the intellectual intercourse between them is rendered thereby a natural necessity. He flies to her in time of need for counsel and advice, and she looks to him for action and execution. We can here only slightly touch upon this interesting condition of the two sexes. Hereafter, however, we will treat of it more fully.

Thus, we see, that the domain of action for the female is at the side of man, not ahead of him, nor in his rear. These two have to accomplish together, what it would be impossible for one to perform alone. The hardships of life's duties are thus wisely divided, while the results from their faithful performance are mutually enjoyed, each one receiving a double share of benefits for one share of labor. The female, physically disabled from participating in life's hardest struggles, receives a higher trust in the composition of her moral faculties, by which she is enabled to buoy up the toiling partner, when he seems almost to sink under the too heavy burden.

Her sphere of action will be always more or less the house, with its manifold labors and attractions ; there the daughter, wife or mother finds room and time enough to exercise her physical and moral powers ; and if no morbid craving has taken possession of her mind, she will find real contentment and happiness. Beside, the social circle, the school, lecture-room and church offer sufficient opportunities for the display of her intellectual faculties, in giving or receiving instruction. If inclination or necessity prompts her to devote herself to duties out of the house, society presents thousands of occupations, which she can fill honorably and profitably, without risking her health or exposing her feelings. We will now proceed to call the reader's attention to those physical peculiarities, which belong to woman exclusively, and form her sexual character, determining thereby more than by any thing else her true destiny.

It would be impossible to give an anatomical description of all the organs peculiar to the female system, without illustrations; yet some definite idea must be had about their position and structure, in order to show their harmonious co-operation and complex relation to each other. We prefer, however, not to introduce into this work illustrations, which might be considered objectionable on the score of propriety and good taste. To obviate this difficulty, therefore, we will compare the position, form and size of these organs to familiarly known objects. This glance will suffice to give to the reader a sufficient knowledge of these parts, and if any farther should be desired, every one can easily have access to anatomical works, treating fully on this subject. The region between the hips contains within itself a cavity, called the pelvic, and the bones, which form this cavity, the pelvis; it means literally a bowl or basin. Its wider margin is above, its narrow opening below. The pelvis contains within its cavity all the organs we intend to notice here.