ligent attention.

It used to be supposed that the periods of the monthly sickness were in
some way connected with the phases of the moon. So general is this
belief even yet in France, that a learned Academician not long since
thought it worth while carefully to compare over four thousand
observations, to see whether they did bear any relations to the lunar
phases. It is hardly worth while to add that he found none.

We have known perfectly healthy young women who were ill every sixteen
days, and others in whom a period of thirty-five or thirty-six days
would elapse. The reasons of such differences are not clear. Some
inherited peculiarity of constitution is doubtless at work. Climate is
of primary importance. Travellers in Lapland, and other countries in the
far north, say that the women there are not regulated more frequently
than three or four times a year. Hard labor and a phlegmatic temperament
usually prolong the interval between the periodical illnesses.

An equal diversity prevails in reference to the _length of time_ the
discharge continues. The average of a large number of cases observed in
healthy women, between the ages of fifteen and thirty-five, is four days
and a fraction. In a more general way, we may say from two to six days
is the proper duration. Should it diverge widely from this, then it is
likely some mischief is at work.

In relation to the _amount_ of the discharge, every woman is a law unto
herself. Usually, it is four or five ounces in all. Habits of life are
apt to modify it materially. Here, again, those exposed to prolonged
cold and inured to severe labor escape more easily than their sisters
petted in the lap of luxury. Delicate, feeble, nervous women--those, in
other words, who can least afford the loss of blood--are precisely those
who lose the most. Nature, who is no tender mother, but a stern
step-mother, thus punishes them for disregarding her laws. Soft
couches, indolent ease, highly spiced food; warm rooms, weak
muscles,--these are the infractions of her rules which she revenges with
vigorous, ay, merciless severity.

It is well known, too, that excitement of the emotions, whether of
anger, joy, grief, hatred, or love increases the discharge. Even the
vulgar are aware of this, and, misinterpreting it as half-knowledge
always does, suppose it a sign of stronger animal passions. It bears no
such meaning. But the fact reads us a lesson how important it is to
cultivate a placid mind