means than these should be eschewed. Whichever are used
subsequent to their employment, rest, in a recumbent position, in a
warm room should be secured.

WHEN THE CHANGES ARE PAINFUL.

There are wide individual differences in this respect. Some young women
suffer much from local pains, headache and languor at such epochs,
without apparently losing anything in general health; others experience
no distress whatever.

The causes of painful periods are various. Sometimes they depend on a
tendency to rheumatism or to ague. Over-work, or excessive devotion to
social duties and pleasures, is often their source. Cold and damp are
common incidental causes. Green sickness and general debility are
sometimes to blame.

Of course the treatment must depend on which one of these is present. It
is a good rule, however, always to wear flannel next the skin; also, to
avoid exposure to the weather for several days before the change is
expected. A large, hot, linseed-meal poultice, over which a
dessert-spoonful of laudanum has been sprinkled, or a large
mustard-plaster, spread on the lower abdomen, will afford much relief. A
hot brick or bottle of hot water wrapped in flannel, and applied to the
small of the back, is often of great service. Rest in bed is always to
be recommended. A tea-spoonful of sweet spirits of nitre will sometimes
bring early relief.

But if these simple means are not sufficient, it would be better to
consult a physician.

A common belief is that such troubles are cured by marriage. Sometimes
they are, but we do not approve the remedy. The state of marriage
should be entered upon in perfect health and full vigor. Upon it
depends the health of future generations, and it were better for them
did only those assume its bonds who are able to endow their children
with sound physical frames.

THE AGE OF NUBILITY.

It does not follow, because a girl is capable of marriage, that she is
fit for it. Science teaches us many valid objections to too early
unions. It goes farther, and fixes a certain age at which it is wisest
for woman to marry. This age is between twenty and twenty-five years.

Anatomists have learned that after puberty the bones of a woman's body
undergo important modifications to fit her for child-bearing. This
requires time, and before twenty the process is not completed. Until the
woman is perfect herself, until her full stature and completed form are
attained, she is not properly qualified to a