The Physical Life of Woman: Advice to the Maiden, Wife and Mother

by George H. Napheys

• [PUBLISHERS' NOTICE.]
• [EDITOR'S PREFACE.]
• [PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION]
• [PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION]
• [BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH]
• 
  
• [Introductory.][15-22]
• • Knowledge is safety—The peculiarities of sex—Examples of individuals belonging to both sexes and to neither sex—The sphere of woman
• 
  
• [Part I. THE MAIDEN.]
• [Puberty][22-52]
• • What it means—Age when it arrives—Causes that hasten it—Causes that delay it—Brunettes mature early—The signs of puberty—Its dangers—Spinal disease—Green sickness—Hysterics—Secret bad habits—Hygiene of puberty—Diet—Exercise—Clothing— Precautions during the monthly changes—Between the monthly changes—What to do when the changes are delayed—When they are painful—The age of nubility.
• [Love][52-89]
• • Its power in life—What it is—It is necessary and it is eternal—Of second marriages and of divorce—Courtship—Love at first sight—How to choose a husband—Shall cousins marry?—Marriage between different races and different nations—The proper age of a husband—His temperament—His moral and mental character—Words of warning—Signs of character on the body—The engagement—Concerning long engagements—The right time of year to marry—The right time in the month to marry—The wedding tour.
• 
  
• [Part II. THE WIFE.]
• [Hints To Young Wives][90-132]
• • The wedding night—Should husband and wife sleep together or apart?—The most healthful bed—The dignity and propriety of the sexual instinct—The proper indulgence and the restraint of sexual desire—Marital relations, when they should be suspended—When they are painful—Barrenness, its causes and its cures—Advice to wives who desire children—The limitation of offspring—When it is proper—Justifiable means—Injurious means—The crime of abortion—The nature of conception—Signs of conception—How to retain the affections of a husband.
• [Inheritance][132-166]
• • The varieties of inheritance—The legacy of beauty—The complexion—What physical qualities each parent bestows—The inheritance of fertility and longevity—Even deformities sometimes transmitted—How to have beautiful children—Talent and genius may be transmitted—The physical traits of fathers in daughters, and of mothers in sons—Examples—Influence of education on inherited qualities—Transmission of disease—Of mutilations—How to avoid inherited ill tendencies—The excess of women—How to have boys or girls at will—Twins and triplets.
• [Pregnancy][167-218]
• • Veneration of the pregnant woman—Signs of pregnancy—Quickening—Mental changes—Miscarriage, its causes, symptoms, and prevention—Mother's marks—What makes them?—How to avoid them—Education of the child in the womb—Are double pregnancies possible?—Instances of double children—Can a child cry in the womb?—Is it a son or a daughter?—Are there twins present?—The duration of pregnancy—How to calculate when the confinement will come—Care of health during pregnancy—The food, clothing, exercise, bathing, ventilation, and sleep—Effect on health of body and mind—Relations of husband and wife during pregnancy.
• [The Confinement][219-242]
• • Preparations for childbirth—The signs of approaching labor—The symptoms of actual labor—Attention is required during labor—To the mother—To the child—To have labor without pain—The risks of childbed—Weight and length of new-born children—The duration of labor—Stillborn children—Imprudence after childbirth—To preserve the form after childbirth.
• 
  
• [Part III. THE MOTHER.]
• [Nursing][243-270]
• • The duties and privileges of a mother—Hindrances to nursing, and when it is improper—Rules for nursing—Influence of diet on the mother's milk—Influence of pregnancy on the milk—The mother's mind and her infant—Striking examples—Position of the mother while nursing—Qualities of a good nursing mother—Excess and deficiency of the milk—Wet-nursing by virgins, aged women, and men—Rules for care of health while nursing—Relations of husband and wife at this time—Over-nursing and the signs of it—Directions for mothers who cannot nurse their own children—How to select a wet-nurse.
• 
  
• [Part IV. THE CHILD.]
• [The Care of Infancy][271-324]
• • The causes of infant mortality—Bringing up by hand—Weaning, when and how to do it—Teething—Vaccination and re-vaccination—The food of infants and children—Concerning sleep in early life—The clothing of children, its pattern, amount, and quality—Bathing, ventilation, and exercise in early childhood—On learning to walk—The advantages of games and plays—On training the sight and hearing.
• [The Management of Some Diseases of Childhood][325-350]
• • How to recognize and treat croup—Head colds—Fits—Nose-bleed—Worms— Bed-wetting—Looseness of the bowels—Indigestion—Hints on home government—Is the race physically weaker?
• 
  
• [Part V. HEALTH IN MARRIAGE.]
• [Diseases Incident To Pregnancy][352-360]
• • Morning sickness—Pain in the abdomen—Varicose veins—Piles—Diarrhœa— Constipation—Cough—Wakefulness.
• [Diseases Incident To Childbed and Nursing][361-385]
• • Puerperal mania—White-flowing—Milk-leg—Inward weakness—Various causes of weakness—Tight lacing one of them—Their treatment—Gathered breasts—Cracked nipples.
• 
  
• [Part VI. THE SINGLE LIFE.]
• [Advantages and Drawbacks of][386-388]
• 
  
• [Part VII. THE CHANGE OF LIFE.]
• [Diseases and Hygiene of][389-404]
• • What it is—Age when it comes—Signs and symptoms—Effects on the character—Those who suffer most—Diseases and discomforts attending—Precautions and remedies.
• 
  
• [Notes][405-412]
• [Index][413-426]
• [Testimonials]

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THE PHYSICAL LIFE OF WOMAN.

[Top]

KNOWLEDGE IS SAFETY.

'Knowledge is power,' said the philosopher. The maxim is true; but here is a greater truth: 'Knowledge is safety,'—safety amid the physical ills that beset us,—safety amid the moral pitfalls that environ us.

Filled with this thought, we write this book. It is the Revelation of Science to Woman. It tells her, in language which aims at nothing but simplicity, the results which the study of her nature, as distinct from that of man, has attained. We may call it her physical biography.

It is high time that such a book were written. The most absorbing question of the day is the 'Woman Question.' The social problems of chiefest interest concern her. And nowhere are those problems more zealously studied than in America, which has thrown aside the trammels of tradition, and is training its free muscles with intent to grapple the untried possibilities of social life. Who can guide us in these experiments? What master, speaking as one having authority, can advise us? There is such a guide, such a master. The laws of woman's physical life shape her destiny and reveal her future. Within these laws all things are possible; beyond them, nothing is of avail.

Especially should woman herself understand her own nature. How many women are there, with health, beauty, merriment, ay, morality too, all gone, lost for ever, through ignorance of themselves! What spurious delicacy is this which would hide from woman that which beyond all else it behooves her to know? We repudiate it; and in plain, but decorous language,—truth is always decorous,—we purpose to divulge those secrets hidden hitherto under the technical jargon of science.