catory manner were replaced by a
joyous buoyancy. In a few weeks the thin neck and awkward body rounded
out into the symmetry which usually precedes the establishment of
puberty, but which was delayed in this case until the unconscious
conflict resolved itself.

=In the Large.= Looked at from any angle, this subject is an important
one. There are involved not only the physical comfort and convenience
of the sufferers themselves, but also the economic prospects of women
as a whole. If women are to demand equal opportunity and equal pay,
they must be able to do equal work without periodic times of illness.
When employers of women tell us that they regularly have to hire extra
help because some of their workers lose time each month, we realize
how great is the aggregate of economic waste, a waste which would
assuredly be justified if the health of the country's womanhood were
really involved, but which is inefficient and unnecessary when caused
merely by ignorant tradition. "Up to standard every day of every
week," is a slogan quite within the range of possibility for all but
the seriously ill. When reduced to their lowest terms, the
inconveniences of this function are not great and are not too dear a
price to pay for the possibilities of motherhood.

THE "CHANGE OF LIFE"

=Another Phantom Peril.= As the young girl is taught to fear the
menstrual period, so the older woman is taught to dread the time when
the periods shall cease. Despite the general enlightenment of this day
and age, the menopause or "change of life" is all too frequently
feared as a "critical period" in a woman's life, a time of distressing
physical sensations and even of danger to mental balance.

As a matter of fact, the menopause is a physiological process which
should be accomplished with as little mental and physical disturbance
as accompanies the establishment of puberty. The same internal
secretion is concerned in both. When the function of ovulation ceases
the body has to find a new way to dispose of the internal secretion of
the ovary. Its presence in the blood is the cause of the sudden
dilatation of the blood-vessels that is known as the "hot flash."

The matter is altogether a problem of chemistry, with the necessity
for a new adjustment among the glands of internal secretion. The body
easily manages this if left to itself, but is greatly interfered with
by the wrong suggestion and emotion. We have already seen how quickly
emotion affe