On the whole, however, mineral water has no particular advantage over ordinary water except that the well-known brands are sure to be pure, and the carbonization makes it more tasty and so increases the amount consumed. It is much safer and more healthful to drink a well-known mineral water than the so-called soft drinks, many of which are unclean and harmful.
DISEASES OF WOMEN
CHAPTER XXIX
DISEASES OF WOMEN
Importance of Diseases of Women—The Beginning of Female Disease—Ailing Women Are Inefficient—As Home-makers, as Wife, as Mother—Few Ailing Women Become Pregnant—The Chief Cause of Female Disease—The Existence of the Average Mother—Female Diseases Are Avoidable—The Story of the Wife—Women Who Don't Want Children—Abuse of the Procreative Function—What the Woman with Female Disease Should Do—Cancer in Women—Cancer of the Breast—Cancer of the Womb—What Every Woman Should Know About Cancer—Change of Life—The Menopause—The Climacteric—The Average Age at Which the Change of Life Occurs—Symptoms of the Change of Life—Importance of a Correct Diagnosis—Danger Signals of the Change of Life—Conduct During the Change of Life.
No conscientious physician can give thought to this subject without being profoundly stirred. It may justly be said that all types of disease affecting the general health, the happiness, and the efficiency of the people are equally important, and should elicit the same degree and quality of kindly consideration. For many reasons this is not so, as I will endeavor to show. The dominating reason which renders diseases of women an exception to this rule may be mentioned here, however, so that the reader will keep its supreme significance prominently in mind while considering the subject in its various other aspects. "Diseases of women" rank first as a eugenic problem. They have a direct and far-reaching influence on posterity. They affect the environment of the home and thereby the health and the efficiency of all concerned.