ter and pass the portals of what is called
death.

During the first of these critical periods, when the divergence of the
sexes becomes obvious to the most careless observer, the complicated
apparatus peculiar to the female enters upon a condition of functional
activity. "The ovaries, which constitute," says Dr. Dalton, "the
'essential parts'[3] of this apparatus, and certain accessory organs,
are now rapidly developed." Previously they were inactive. During
infancy and childhood all of them existed, or rather all the germs of
them existed; but they were incapable of function. At this period they
take on a process of rapid growth and development. Coincident with
this process, indicating it, and essential to it, are the periodical
phenomena which characterize woman's physique till she attains the
third division of her tripartite life. The growth of this peculiar and
marvellous apparatus, in the perfect development of which humanity has
so large an interest, occurs during the few years of a girl's
educational life. No such extraordinary task, calling for such rapid
expenditure of force, building up such a delicate and extensive
mechanism within the organism,--a house within a house, an engine
within an engine,--is imposed upon the male physique at the same
epoch.[4] The organization of the male grows steadily, gradually, and
equally, from birth to maturity. The importance of having our methods
of female education recognize this peculiar demand for growth, and of
so adjusting themselves to it, as to allow a sufficient opportunity
for the healthy development of the ovaries and their accessory organs,
and for the establishment of their periodical functions, cannot be
overestimated. Moreover, unless the work is accomplished at that
period, unless the reproductive mechanism is built and put in good
working order at that time, it is never perfectly accomplished
afterwards. "It is not enough," says Dr. Charles West, the
accomplished London physician, and lecturer on diseases of women, "it
is not enough to take precautions till menstruation has for the first
time occurred: the period for its return should, even in the
healthiest girl, be watched for, and all previous precautions should
be once more repeated; and this should be done again and again, until
at length the _habit_ of regular, healthy menstruation is established.
If this be not accomplished during the first few years of womanhood,
it will, in all probability, never be