Sex in Education | Page 8

it was during the first. At that period, the picture of the
"Lean and slippered pantaloon, With spectacles on nose, and pouch on
side, * * * * * Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans every thing,"
is faithful to either sex. Not as man or woman, but as a sexless being,
does advanced age enter 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
attained."[5] There have been instances, and I have seen such, of
females in whom the special mechanism we are speaking of remained
germinal,--undeveloped. It seemed to have been aborted. They
graduated from school or college excellent scholars, but with
undeveloped ovaries. Later they married, and were sterile.[6]

The system never does two things well at the same time. The muscles
and the brain cannot functionate in their best way at the same moment.
One cannot meditate a poem and drive a saw simultaneously, without
dividing his force. He may poetize fairly, and saw poorly; or he may
saw fairly, and poetize poorly; or he may both saw and poetize
indifferently. Brain-work and stomach-work interfere with each other if
attempted together. The digestion of a dinner calls force to the stomach,
and temporarily slows the brain. The experiment of trying to digest a
hearty supper, and to sleep during the process, has sometimes cost the
careless experimenter his life. The physiological principle of doing
only one thing at a time, if you would do it well, holds as truly of the
growth of the organization as it does of the performance of any of its
special functions. If excessive labor, either mental or physical, is
imposed upon children, male or female, their development will be in
some way checked. If the schoolmaster overworks the brains of his
pupils, he diverts force to the brain that is needed elsewhere. He spends
in the study of geography and arithmetic, of Latin, Greek and chemistry,
in the brain-work of the school room, force that should have been spent
in the manufacture of blood, muscle, and nerve, that is, in growth. The
results are monstrous brains and puny bodies; abnormally active
cerebration, and abnormally weak digestion; flowing thought and
constipated bowels; lofty aspirations and neuralgic sensations;
"A youth of study an old age of nerves."
Nature has reserved the catamenial week for the process of ovulation,
and for the development and perfectation of the reproductive system.
Previously to the age of eighteen or twenty, opportunity must be
periodically allowed for the accomplishment of this task. Both
muscular and brain labor must