ir
valuable and impartial work, _Mutterschaft und Geistige Arbeit_
(p. 312), failed to find, in their inquiries among women of
distinguished ability, that menstruation was regarded as
seriously disturbing to work.

Of late the suggestion that adolescent girls shall not only rest
from work during two days of the menstrual period, but have an
entire holiday from school during the first year of sexual life,
has frequently been put forward, both from the medical and the
educational side. At the meeting of the Association of Registered
Medical Women, already referred to, Miss Sturge spoke of the good
results obtained in a school where, during the first two years
after puberty, the girls were kept in bed for the first two days
of each menstrual period. Some years ago Dr. G.W. Cook ("Some
Disorders of Menstruation," _American Journal of Obstetrics_,
April, 1896), after giving cases in point, wrote: "It is my
deliberate conviction that no girl should be confined at study
during the year of her puberty, but she should live an outdoor
life." In an article on "Alumna's Children," by "An Alumna"
(_Popular Science Monthly_, May, 1904), dealing with the sexual
invalidism of American women and the severe strain of motherhood
upon them, the author, though she is by no means hostile to
education, which is not, she declares, at fault, pleads for rest
for the pubertal girl. "If the brain claims her whole vitality,
how can there be any proper development? Just as very young
children should give all their strength for some years solely to
physical growth before the brain is allowed to make any
considerable demands, so at this critical period in the life of
the woman nothing should obstruct the right of way of this
important system. A year at the least should be made especially
easy for her, with neither mental nor nervous strain; and
throughout the rest of her school days she should have her
periodical day of rest, free from any study or overexertion." In
another article on the same subject in the same journal ("The
Health of American Girls," Sept., 1907), Nellie Comins Whitaker
advocates a similar course. "I am coming to be convinced,
somewhat against my wish, that there are many cases when the girl
ought to be taken out of school entirely for some months or for a
year _at the period of p