t novel-reading engenders false and unreal ideas of
life, but the descriptions of love-scenes, of thrilling, romantic
episodes, find an echo in the girl's physical system and tend to
create an abnormal excitement of her organs of sex, which she
recognizes only as a pleasurable mental emotion, with no comprehension
of the physical origin or the evil effects.

Romance-reading by young girls will, by this excitement of the bodily
organs, tend to create their premature development, and the child
becomes physically a woman months, or even years, before she should.

In one case it became my duty to warn a girl of eleven, who was an
omnivorous reader of romances, that such reading was in all
probability hastening her development, and she would become a woman in
bodily functions while she ought yet to be a child. Her indications of
approaching womanhood were very apparent. By becoming impressed by my
words she gave up romance-reading, devoted herself to outdoor sports,
to nature studies, and the vital forces diverted from the reproductive
system were employed in building up her physical energy, her health
improved, her nervousness disappeared, and three years later her
function of menstruation was painlessly established.

A frequent cause of painful menstruation is found in habitual neglect
of the bowels. The evils of constipation are common to the majority of
women and girls, and the foundation is laid in childhood. Mothers are
not careful enough in instructing children in the need of care in this
respect, and so the habit is formed early in life, and the results are
felt later.

If the bowels are not evacuated regularly the matter to be cast out of
the body accumulates in the rectum and large bowel, and by pressure
the circulation of the blood is impeded and congestion ensues. This
extends to all the pelvic organs; the uterus and ovaries thus
congested will soon manifest disease, and painful menstruation be the
result.

One of the most frequent causes of pain is congestion produced by
displacements. People are very apt to think that the displacement of
the uterus is the main factor, but in my opinion it is a secondary
condition, and not the one to be first considered. The uterus is a
small organ, not vital to the individual, is very movable, and not
sensitive, so that its displacement alone could hardly be considered
sufficient to cause so great a train of evils as is frequently
manifest. But the liver, stomach and bowe