America who
do not take this care, who are so occupied with other thoughts that they
have no time to attend to their children, we sadly know; but some at
least of us have had mothers who knew and did their duty, and who handed
down to us, unimpaired the "traditions" which are well-known among
women, but of which men generally, even fathers of grown-up daughters,
have little knowledge, and some of them none.

With regard to "the European way," however, I subjoin the following
testimony from a German lady, now a mother, in answer to inquiries. She
says:

"I was two years at school at Stuttgart, as a boarding pupil, at the
close of which I made my examination in the highest class, No. 8, as it
was called. When I entered the school, there were twenty boarding
pupils; when I left, there were twenty-five; more than thirty were never
admitted. Day-scholars were about four hundred. As to the regulations of
the school concerning the pupils during the time to which you refer,
_there was only one general rule, that of being excused from the daily
walk which we took from one to two hours every day_. Only two pupils
during my stay at school were excused from being present in their
classes at that time, and this only because the physician had so ordered
it. They were not kept in bed, but in the so-called sick-room, where
they could read, write, etc., and must only keep very quiet."

This testimony, as showing the regulations in one of the largest girls'
schools in Germany, seems to me valuable, as the course pursued by any
large school is the index of the public demand. As to the health of
English women, I copy the following paragraph from a recently published
book by an English woman,[57] which would seem to indicate that women,
at least in England, are not so much superior to their American sisters:

"Women above actual want seldom suffer from extreme labor or from
excessive indulgence, but they seldom enjoy their full vitality, either
in exertion or in pleasure. Whether from this reason or not, their most
frequent illnesses are those connected with deficient vitality, such as
can keep them in lingering misery for years; affecting chiefly those
organs whose activity is not immediately necessary to life. Not half the
illness of this kind is under the care of a doctor. When he is
consulted, it is, if possible, at second-hand, and he is very likely to
hear only half the symptoms. * * * It is natural to point to the
multitude of wo