nth. Its duration and amount vary
within wide limits, but in each girl it should remain true to her
individual type, and it ought not to be accompanied by pain or
distress. As a rule the period starts quite normally, and it is not
until the girl's health has been spoiled by over-exertion of body or
mind, by unwise exertion during the period, or by continued exposure
to damp or cold, that it becomes painful and abnormal in time or in
amount.

One of the earliest signs of approaching illness--such as consumption,
anaemia, and mental disorder--is to be found in the more or less sudden
cessation of the period. This should always be taken as a
danger-signal, and as indicating the need of special medical advice.

Another point that should enter into intimate talk with girls is to
make them understand the co-relation of their own functions to the
great destiny that is in store. A girl is apt to be both shocked and
humiliated when she first hears of menstruation and its phenomena.
Should this function commence before she is told about it, she will
necessarily look upon it with disgust and perhaps with fear. It is
indeed a most alarming incident in the case of a girl who knows
nothing about it, but if, before the advent of menstruation, it be
explained to her that it is a sign of changes within her body that
will gradually, after the lapse of some years, fit her also to take
her place amongst the mothers of the land, her shame and fear will be
converted into modest gladness, and she will readily understand why
she is under certain restrictions, and has at times to give up work or
pleasure in order that her development may be without pain, healthy,
and complete.

CHAPTER IV.

MENTAL AND MORAL TRAINING.

The years of adolescence, during which rapid growth and development
inevitably cause so much stress and frequently give rise to danger,
are the very years in which the weight of school education necessarily
falls most heavily. The children of the poor leave school at fourteen
years of age, just the time when the children of the wealthier classes
are beginning to understand the necessity of education and to work
with a clearer realisation of the value and aim of lessons. The whole
system of education has altered of late years, and school work is now
conducted far more intelligently and with a greater appreciation of
the needs and capacities of the pupils than it was some fifty years
ago. Work is made more interesting