Ah the waste
of health and strength in the young; the waste, too, of anxiety and
misery in those who love and tend them. How much of it might be saved by
a little rational education in those laws of nature which are the will of
God about the welfare of our bodies, and which, therefore, we are as much
bound to know and to obey, as we are bound to know and obey the spiritual
laws whereon depends the welfare of our souls.

Pardon me, ladies, if I have given a moment's pain to any one here: but I
appeal to every medical man in the room whether I have not spoken the
truth; and having such an opportunity as this, I felt that I must speak
for the sake of children, and of women likewise, or else for ever
hereafter hold my peace.

Let me pass on from this painful subject--for painful it has been to me
for many years--to a question of intellectual thrift--by which I mean
just now thrift of words; thrift of truth; restraint of the tongue;
accuracy and modesty in statement.

Mothers complain to me that girls are apt to be--not intentionally
untruthful--but exaggerative, prejudiced, incorrect, in repeating a
conversation or describing an event; and that from this fault arise, as
is to be expected, misunderstandings, quarrels, rumours, slanders,
scandals, and what not.

Now, for this waste of words there is but one cure: and if I be told that
it is a natural fault of women; that they cannot take the calm judicial
view of matters which men boast, and often boast most wrongly, that they
can take; that under the influence of hope, fear, delicate antipathy,
honest moral indignation, they will let their eyes and ears be governed
by their feelings; and see and hear only what they wish to see and hear:
I answer, that it is not for me as a man to start such a theory; but that
if it be true, it is an additional argument for some education which will
correct this supposed natural defect. And I say deliberately that there
is but one sort of education which will correct it; one which will teach
young women to observe facts accurately, judge them calmly, and describe
them carefully, without adding or distorting: and that is, some training
in natural science.

I beg you not to be startled: but if you are, then test the truth of my
theory by playing to-night at the game called "Russian Scandal;" in which
a story, repeated in secret by one player to the other, comes out at the
end of the game, owing to the inaccurate and--forgive me if I sa