ù 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;
áKnowledge, the wings wherewith we fly to heaven."

ù "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.

The masses of women have at last awakened to a sense of the awful penalties which they have paid for their ignorance of all those laws of nature which govern their physical being, and to feel keenly the necessity for instruction at least in the fundamental principles which underlie the various epochs of their lives; and it is in response to a widespread demand that this small volume has been written.

This is preeminently the day of preventive medicine; and the physician who can prevent the origin of disease is a greater benefactor than the one who can lessen the mortality or suffering after the disease has occurred.
ááááááááááááááááá --ANNA M. GALBRAITH. 15 WEST NINETY-FIRST STREET, NEW YORK

FOUR EPOCHS OF WOMAN'S LIFE (A Study in Hygiene)

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