things is vastly better than that was, yet, as one has endeavoured to
insist, this also has its risks. Apart from the question as to the
particular game or form of exercise, we must be guided in each case by
the first signs of anything approaching undue strain. We must look out
for lack of energy, for a lessening of joy in the exercise and of
spontaneous desire therefor. Fatigue that interferes with appetite,
digestion, or sleep is utterly to be condemned.

_The Specific Criterion._--Such criteria apply, of course, equally to
either sex, though it is more important to be on the look-out for them
in the case of the developing girl. But in her case there is another
criterion, which is of special importance, because it concerns not only
her development as an individual, but her development as a woman. That
criterion is furnished us by the menstrual function. It may safely be
said that that exercise is excessive and must be immediately curtailed
which leads to the diminution of this function, much more to its
disappearance. I would, indeed, urge this as a test of the highest
importance, always applicable to whatever circumstances. Defect in this
respect should never be looked upon lightly; it may, indeed, be a
conservative process, as in cases of anaemia, but the cause which
produces such an effect is always to be combated.

_The Kinds of Exercise._--Given, then, this most important test as to
the quantity of exercise of whatever kind--a test which indeed applies
no less to mental exercise--we may pass on to consider the kinds of
exercise best suited for the girl, it being premised that any one of
them, however good in itself and in moderation, is capable of being
pursued to excess, and that the danger of this is specially noticeable
in the case of the girl, because, as we have seen, the effects of excess
are more serious in her case, and also because girls are very apt to
take things up with immense keenness, and sometimes, in even greater
degree than their brothers, to devote themselves too much to the
competitive aspect of things. The girl should certainly be content to
play a game for the joy of it, and be scarcely less happy to lose than
to win if her side has played the game and made a good fight of it. The
competitive element is excessive in almost all sports to-day, and it is
especially to be deplored in the games of girls, who are so liable to
overstrain and so apt to take trifles to heart.

In what has been alre