m. A squaw will turn aside for an hour or
two when on the march, bear a child, wash it in some stream, bind it on
the top of her load, and shouldering both, quietly rejoin the vagrant
troop. Our artificial life seems indeed, in this respect, to be to
blame; but if we look closer, we can learn that these wild women often
perish alone, that they are rarely fertile, that unnatural labors are
not unknown, and that the average duration of their life is decidedly
less than among the females in civilised States.

HEALTH IN MARRIAGE.

_THE PERILS OF MATERNITY._

In the early part of this work we quoted some authorities to show that
those women who choose single life as their portion do not escape the
ills of existence, nor do they protract their days, but, on the
contrary, as shown by extensive statistics, are more prone to affections
of the mind, and die earlier. While, therefore, nature thus rewards
those who fulfil the functions of their being, by taking part in the
mysterious processes of reproduction, and perpetuating the drama of
existence, it is true also that she associates these privileges with
certain deprivations and suffering. We do not wish to throw around the
married state any charms which are not its own. Rather is it our aim to
portray with absolute, and therefore instructive, fidelity all that this
condition offers of unfavorable as well as favorable aspects.

Let us say at once, maternity has its perils,--perils as peculiar and as
inevitable as those which pertain to single life. Our present purpose is
to mention these, and by stating their nature and what are their causes,
so far as known, to put married women on their guard against them. Some
are almost trifling, at least not involving danger to life; others most
harassing to the sufferer and to her friends.

We shall now consider the principal diseases to which married women are
exposed from pregnancy, from childbirth, and from nursing.

DISEASES OF PREGNANCY.

In treating of pregnancy we have pointed out that it was a healthy and
happy condition to most women. The exceptional cases are mainly those in
which the health is injured by mental trouble or anxiety. Thus the young
and delicate girl newly married is full of vague alarms in regard to the
pains and dangers of her untried path to maternity. She frets herself
and embitters her life during those months in which tranquility is of
the utmost importance. Is it surprising, then, that her he