they ask that these statistics shall be full in some particulars,
where they always find them deficient.

This girl is sick? We do not want to know simply that she attended
school, and studied and recited regularly; we want to know also the kind
of food she eats, and how cooked, and the regularity of her meals. We
want to know the state of ventilation in the school-room and her home;
we want to know how many hours of sleep she has, how many parties she
has attended, what underclothing she wears, the manner in which that
underclothing is arranged, the weight of her ruffled and double
box-plaited dress skirt, and its mode of support, the thickness of the
shoes habitually worn, the position of the furnace register in the room,
the kind of reading she is allowed to have, and her standing in her
class as to thoroughness or superficiality, mental clearness or chaos.

We want also to know what proportion of the cases come from pampered,
half-educated devotees of fashion, and what proportion from
well-educated, hard-working women. When we have all these statistics,
and not till then, shall we be in a condition to attempt a rational
solution of the question, what it is that makes our American girls sick.
While endeavoring to settle this problem, we shall not, however, forget
the wise saying of Dr. O. W. Holmes, that the Anglo-Saxon race is not
yet fully acclimated on this continent.

But the collection of just these statistics, so all-important, and the
want of which makes all assertion of causes useless, is possible only to
women. And, therefore, we venture to claim that this is a woman's
question--that the women themselves are the only persons capable of
dealing with it.[58] They are the only ones who can and do know the
facts in detail, and the facts being laid before them, can they not,
with help, possibly decide quite intelligently as to causes? They desire
any and all evidence that may be given, but do not they themselves
constitute the only jurors competent to decide on the verdict? From the
medical profession, we get a certain amount of observed statistics,
necessarily questionable from the fact that a large number of women are
not sick, are not good for nothing, are not childless, and, therefore,
do not consult physicians; but the reasoning which shall judge and weigh
the facts presented, assigning to each its proper value, and, discarding
unessential elements, shall draw a just conclusion, is not limited to
any prof