Vol. 60, 1909 - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

222 THE CHARLOTTE MEDICAL JOURNAL.
authority to enforce their recommendations, of our schools require) at least an equal
This ought not to be diiScult as parents, time to prepare for these recitations and in
and educators will consent, I believe, to addition, add art, elocution and music as
any change that we can prove is whole- many of our girls have, you will readily see
some, practical and of far reaching conse- that they are over-crowded— exercise is cut
quence in racial progress. In many of the down to '2 hour twice a week and this
cities and in many of our schools we have grudgingly given. The result is that effete
already demonstrated the very great value products accumulate, toxaemsias result, the
of medical inspections. If this is trne any- brain becomes sluggish and inactive, the
where, it is especially true in the South and kidneys are overworked, the nervous system
in our colleges for women. When woman suffers a tremendous shock, physical develloses
the college opportunity for physical opment is interfered with, the most importdevelopment
she loses her final opportunity, ant function in woman's after life becomes
Woman is the greaer factor in heredity, altered, and she suffers from ihe conseqen-
Her ultimate function, and in normal wo- ces of a disordered uterine function—either
man, her greatest desire, is legitimate, menorrhagia, dysmenorrhoea or amenorhealthful
motherhood. If her health fails rhoea. Xo wonder that we reap the whirl- j
her in college, she enters life handicapped, wind: irritable temperaments, flabby mus-
The general changes in the anatomic and cles, infantile uteri and sterility; idiosyn-
j
,
j
1
•
'
|
j
!
1
i
j
j
|
:
physiologic functions of young women are crasies, perversions, hysterias, choreas,
too well known to need reiteration here, but neurasthenias, anaemias, digestive disorin
the South we have been too largely inclined
to accept deductions made in the
ders. and so on through the category of diseased
conditious. The desire of woman
East without regard to the earlier maturity to put herself in an earning capacity and
of our women and the possible effects of an her unwillingness to admit the influence of
efforced
We must
education
make our
at
own
an
observations
earlier period,
and
her menstrual life upon her physical
being is largely responsible for the crowdjwellj
follow
largely
our
accomplished
own deductions.
before the
Education
menstrual
ing in educational work, and
much to lose her the cooperation
it has
she
done j
demolimen
begins, and education forced dur- serves. Very vnfortunately onr women
ing the years of puterbal changes exert a are taught but very little about themselves
vastly different influence on the human and this they are compelled to get as best I
economy. Our girls become sedentary, they may. I have personally known girls
dignified and retiring much earlier than who were in absolute ignorance of the men-
Northern girls. We contend with the en- strual function until its first appearance,
nervating effects of a much warmer climate
and more of our women suffer from obscure
and diverse troubles like the anaemias,
and they were much alarmed thereby until
informed that it was a natural function.
I have known society women to tell girls to
chlorosis, unciniarisis, etc. Our women take cold baths to stop the discharge if fhey
mature so rapidly that it is impossible often- wanted to go to a ball. Amenorrhoea' dys-
|
times for the mental and nervous systems menorrhoea and menorrhagia, in the order I
to meet the rapid changes going on in the named, are much more frequent among col- |
osseous and muscular systems. The result lege women and more unamenable to treat- '
in seen in neuroses and pyschoses. Unfort- ment than in women out of school. My I
unately our women have inherited ihe notion statistics differ here frem investigators in |
that it is unladylike toromp and play; that the East; Dysmenorrhoea seems to be more i
a lad}' should idle and not work. My sta- prevalent there: amenorrhoea, here. Among {
tistics show that puberty occurs in the aver- 1200 girls, 7r>'/c suffered from amenorrhoea, ^
age woman in Alabama at the tender age of while 90% suffered from some trouble of <
13 years and 9 months. The problem with menstrual origin. We have been enabled?
us is to make our girls take the exercise they to reduce this percentage considerably under I
need for full physical and symmetrical de- hygienic measures. Drugs are practically I
velopment and at the same time to distrib- useless, unless the menstrual disturbance is 1
ute the educational effort so as not to over- secondary to some other disturbance. Me- I
crowd them. It must not be forgotten that norrhagia is most difficult to relieve. In
pubertal changes are not accomplished all most of our schools we have cases of men- 1
at once, but are distributed over several orrhagia going on from term to term until 1
years. During this time there is a tremen- the general health is broken down and even i
dous increase in the number of broken down life itself endangered. One of my worst j
cells in the body, consequently there should cases of this nature was a physician's j
be a corresponding increase in the amount daughter. In spite of many letters and my 1!
of exercise. Unfortunately the reverse is urgent advice to remove her from school for |
true. If you add to this indisposition upon purposes of an operation, do you know he |
their part, 6 hours for recitations (as most forced her continuance, and the teachers,*