The Four Epochs of Womans Life

The Four Epochs of Woman's
Life

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Title: The Four Epochs of Woman's Life
Author: Anna M. Galbraith
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THE FOUR EPOCHS OF WOMAN'S LIFE
A Study in Hygiene
BY
ANNA M. GALBRAITH, M.D.
Author of "Hygiene and Physical Culture for Women"; Fellow of the
New York Academy of Medicine ; Ex-President of the Alumnae
Association, Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania; Attending
Physician, Neorological Department, New York Orthopedic Hospstal
and Dispensary.
_________________________________________________________
________
WITH AN
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
by
JOHN H. MUSSER, M.D.
Late Professor of Clinical Medicine, University of Pennsylvania.
"As in a building Stone rests on stone, and wanting the foundation All
would be wanting, so in human life Each action rests on the foregoing
event That made it possible, but is forgotten And buried in the earth."
-- LONGFELLOW.
_________________________________________________________
________
INTRODUCTORY NOTE _________________
IT has been well said that the bulwarks of a nation are the mothers. Any
contribution to the physical, and hence the mental, perfection of woman

should be welcomed alike by her own sex, by the thoughtful citizen, by
the political economist, and by the hygienist. Observation of the truths,
expressed in a modest, pleasing, and conclusive manner, in the essay of
Dr. Galbraith contribute to this end. These truths should be known by
every woman, and I gladly commend the essay to their thoughtful
consideration.
JOHN H. MUSSER, M.D.,
Late Professer of Clinical Medicine in the University of Pennsylvania.
_________________________________________________________
________
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. _________________
THE author takes this opportunity to thank the medical profession and
the laity for the very cordial reception which has been tendered the first
edition of this small volume.
The necessity for the use of technical expressions in a book written
expressly for the laity must always be a matter of regret. And only
those who have attempted to write a similar work can fully appreciate
the truth of Herbert Spencer's remark, that "Nothing is so difficult as to
write an elementary book on scientific subjects."
The author has added to this edition a section on "The Hygiene of
Puberty," one on "Hemorrhage at the Menopause a Significant
Symptom of Cancer," and one on "The Hygiene of the Menopause."
ANNA M. GALBRAITH.
15 WEST NINETY-FIRST STREET, NEW YORK.
_________________________________________________________
________
PREFACE. _________________
"Ignorance is the curse of God; Knowledge, the wings wherewith we
fly to heaven."
-- "Henry VI."
PERFECT health is essential to perfect happiness. The greater the
knowledge of the laws of nature, and the more closely these laws are
lived up to, so much nearer "ideal" will be the health and happiness of
the individual. Hence the necessity that these same laws should be as
familiar to the adult man and woman as the alphabet. Further, with our
present knowledge of the certain suffering, disease, and death that are
bred by ignorance of all these subjects, it is little less than criminal to

allow girls to reach the age of puberty without the slightest knowledge
of the menstrual function; young women to be married in total
ignorance of the ethics of married life; women to become mothers
without any conception of the duties of motherhood; other women, as
the time approaches, to live in dread apprehension of "the change of
life;" and many women unnecessarily to succumb to disease at this
time.
The masses of women have at last awakened to a sense of the awful
penalties which they have paid for their ignorance of all those laws of
nature which govern their physical being, and to feel keenly the
necessity for instruction at least in