tion. To sum it all up, she
constantly is miserable. So far as being insane is concerned, she is
not that. She is perfectly conscious of her condition. She feels well
physically and appears to be so mentally, but says there is just a
befogged sensation in her head which gets no better nor worse, yet it is
there. The feeling came upon her very suddenly one morning in the spring
after the abuses had taken place in January and then it all flashed over
her the awful consequences of her innocent practices. Oh! what would she
not have given to be her old self again! If she only had known the awful
result, her mind sacrificed for a practice in which she indulged through
ignorance and for experiment, never dreaming the baneful effect it would
have on her mind. Now, this girl has gone on this way for the past eight
years getting no worse nor any better. Seemingly, she is the same but
she suffers untold miseries when alone, conscious that her mind is hazy
and not capable of enjoying books, society of others or anything that
interests young girls. Yet nobody ever would detect that she is not
feeling well. She told me all this in confidence and as the case puzzles
me, I write you feeling that perhaps you would advise me in some way the
treatment necessary to cure her. She is and has been perfectly moral
since the fateful abuses upon herself and I do not understand why her
mind does not return to its normal condition."

I do! She will not give her mind a chance to get well. She constantly is
abusing it by dwelling on things that should have been forgotten long
ago. No one goes through life without making some mistakes. Everyone has
burned his finger many times. And yet he does not keep worrying about it
and wondering if it will have some dangerous after-effect. Of course, if
he deliberately burned his finger time and time again, it might remain
injured permanently. But if he, ignorantly or accidentally, has burned
it once or several times, he stops his careless ways, allows Nature to
restore the injured portion, and then forgets there ever was an injury.
It is the same with self-abuse, many children do things like this
thoughtlessly. But when a girl learns she is injuring herself, she
should stop the practice and allow Nature to repair the wound. Then
forget all about it. Do not worry, above all things. Go ahead and fill
your mind with work.

There are many women in this world who are abusing themselves by
worrying over something t