ldren than the married of the same age; and
are they more likely to prolong their child-bearing period by their
deferred nuptials? To both these inquiries we answer No. On the
contrary, the woman who marries a few years only before her change of
life, is almost sure to have no children who will survive. She is
decidedly less apt to have any than the woman of the same age who
married young. If, therefore, love of children and a desire for
offspring form, as they rightly should, one of the inducements to marry,
let not the act be postponed too long, or it will probably fail of any
such result.

THE CHANGE OF LIFE.

After a certain number of years, woman lays aside those functions with
which she had been endowed for the perpetuation of the species, and
resumes once more that exclusively individual life which had been hers
when a child. The evening of her days approaches; and if she has
observed the precepts of wisdom, she may look forward to a long and
placid period of rest, blessed with health,--honored, yes, loved with a
purer flame than any which she inspired in the bloom of youth and
beauty. Those who are familiar with the delightful memoirs of Madame
Swetchine or Madame Recamier will not dispute even so bold an assertion
as this.

But ere this haven of rest is reached, there is a crisis to pass which
is ever the subject of anxious solicitude. Unscientific people, in their
vivid language, call it _the change of life_; physicians know it as the
_menopause_--the period of the cessation of the monthly flow. It is the
epoch when the ovaries cease producing any more ova, and the woman
becomes therefore incapable of bearing any more children.

The age at which it occurs is very variable. In this country from
forty-five to fifty is the most common. Instances are not at all
unusual when it does not appear until the half century has been turned;
and we have known instances where women past sixty still continued to
have their periodical illnesses.

Examples of very early cessation are more rare. We do not remember to
have met any, in our experience, earlier than thirty years, but others
have observed healthy women as young as twenty-eight in whom the flow
had ceased.

The physical change which is most apparent at this time is the tendency
to grow stout. The fat increases as the power of reproduction decreases.
And here a curious observation comes in. We have said that when the girl
changes to a woman, a similar d