fined to persons who had received much intellectual training.

Among these cases, moreover, there is not one in which the period of
suffering is as long as would be indicated by Dr. Clarke. Six, twelve,
forty-eight hours is the outside limit. If extended beyond this, or even
if very severe during this time, there is always reason to suspect
actual disease of the uterus or ovaries, and the cases must be excluded
from considerations only applicable to persons in average health. From
this point of view, the week of rest demanded by Dr. Clarke, is as
excessive as the three weeks' disturbance so imaginatively described by
Michelet.

But it is true that the stand-point in Dr. Clarke's book is somewhat
different from this. He scarcely alludes to the presence of pain in
menstruation, because this is presumed, when existing, to itself
constitute a sufficient warning against over mental exertion, indeed, to
render such exertion impossible. But the warning in question is directed
against a more insidious accident, that may occur without pain, and
which is more easily and imprudently defied. This imminent danger is
haemorrhage, or an increase of the physiological flow to such an extent
that the vitality of the patient is drained as from an open vein. The
constant repetition of such haemorrhage may lead to uterine congestions,
or even to amenorrhea, _i.e._, entire absence of menstruation. But it
originates in functional disturbance, in exhaustion of the nervous
system by intellectual exertion. On account of the imminence of this
danger, the period of real incapacity for mental effort lasts much
longer than conscious discomfort is likely to do--lasts, indeed, as long
as the physiological afflux of blood to the uterus--which, by the means
described, may at any moment become excessive.

Dr. Clarke alleges but one kind of proof of this assertion. He relates a
certain number of cases, interesting in themselves, but whose histories
are lacking in many important details, where healthy girls, whose
menstruation was at first perfectly normal, became, after two or three
years' study at school, liable to monthly haemorrhages, so excessive that
their health was completely undermined. No organic cause for such
disorder could be discovered. By interruption of study, rest, amusement,
travel, the haemorrhages were diminished, the health restored. In several
of these cases, however, resumption of study on the old plan was
followed by the immediate