Femina, A Work for Every Woman

by John A. Miller

They are entirely within the control of the average sensible person, and for that reason should be known and understood by everyone. These causes superinduce inflammatory diseases, which are not confined to the womb alone but take in the entire pelvic appendages, the Fallopian tubes and ovaries. They are the greatest source of revenue to the doctors, and vary in symptoms in different persons, from a slight casual reminder of something wrong to harassing pains and physical suffering; and that these all are brought about through ignorance, wanton carelessness, or sinful disrespect of nature’s or God’s law, is the characteristic feature of the causes under investigation.

Exercise in the open air is so essential in strengthening the nervous and muscular systems that where this is neglected it predisposes to womb disease. I consider the differently-devised indoor or room calisthenics or exercises as totally inadequate and no substitute whatever for healthful outdoor movement, and for the following reason: that while it irritates the muscular and nerve fibers, it lacks the stimulating and tonic influence of pure oxygen-laden air, so that the blood becomes still more deteriorated and overloaded by excessive waste material, which is not thrown off. If a person exercise at all with a view of deriving physical benefits, let it always be in the open air. Like walking, riding, rowing, to which bicycling should be added as one of the very best of outdoor exercises, the mind can then be engaged at the same time, though it must not be overstrained. The great obstacle nowadays arises from a fashionable and morbid desire to cultivate an appearance of delicacy; if, instead, recreations which required muscular exertions were more fashionable, the results in developing strong and hardy women would be astonishing.

No exercise can be profitable which is not interesting to the person who practices it.

It is not the bodily exertion alone which can profit a person, but the happy associations, the abandonment of self thought, the mental relaxation, and the pleasure which accompanies it. With one or two companions we can have a jolly time, while taking a swimming bath or floundering in the surf, but alone it soon becomes tiresome. If we take a stroll with an agreeable companion, we can walk a distance which, when undertaken alone, would fatigue and tire us completely out, while, when with an associate or friend, we cover the same distance refreshed and invigorated, because the mind is entertained while the body is exercised. This must have been the experience of everyone, and if it teaches anything worth remembering, it teaches that monotonous exercises should be avoided and entertaining ones sought and practiced. Walks over hills in small, friendly groups is one of the best modes of exercise I know of. And then there remain the many outdoor games. The pernicious systems of training which are observed in some female seminaries often plant the seeds for future disease. All the school hours are employed in reading, drawing, music, and other brain work, while the evenings are devoted to preparing lessons for the following day. This is very injurious, and should never be permitted.

After school hours the mind should have complete respite from study, so that the forces can recuperate themselves for the next day.

Nervousness or neurasthenia is often a result of this excessive mental application. Where the mind is constantly engaged in intellectual pursuits, the result often is a too rapid development of the brain and nervous system.

When the thoughts and memory of girls of tender age are too long and too laboriously engaged, there will be an abnormal development of the nervous centers; they will grow or develop beyond the muscular or physical strength, and a morbid impressibility, great feebleness of the muscular system, and a marked tendency to disease of the pelvic organs, is established. Parents may refer with pride to the precocious talents, the refined and cultivated tastes, of their daughters, as qualities to be admired and appreciated, but without a physical substratum it is a dreamy delusion. It would be much better for the children if their parents took more pride in rotund figures and robust constitutions, for these would ever be a source of joy, while the cultivated talents, especially at the expense of their health, will not only be of little practical value to them in after years, but often incapacitate them for wives and mothers, by making them restless, discontented, and physically unfit for maternal functions.

There is entirely too much scholastic education imparted to our girls, and not enough domestic education. I believe that the most favored should not have too much of one and not enough of the other, because if parents do not prepare girls for household duties in early life, they run desperate chances of laying the foundation for a failure in the remote future.

Children must be constantly reminded that they are in this world to serve a useful purpose, and that co-equal with every accomplishment is a utilitarian training.

We take a pride if our boys trade pocketknives, especially when our own gets the better one of the two, because we appreciate the natural business trait. He will be no less a good candidate for some of the learned professions, and, indeed, it has come to this, that material success in the professions depends as much on shrewd business tact as it does upon proficiency in professional attainments.