[2] Enigmas of Life, p. 34.




PART II.

CHIEFLY PHYSIOLOGICAL.

"She girdeth her loins with strength."--SOLOMON.


Before describing the special forms of ill that exist among our
American, certainly among our New-England girls and women, and that
are often caused and fostered by our methods of education and social
customs, it is important to refer in considerable detail to a few
physiological matters. Physiology serves to disclose the cause, and
explain the _modus operandi_, of these ills, and offers the only
rational clew to their prevention and relief. The order in which the
physiological data are presented that bear upon this discussion is not
essential; their relation to the subject matter of it will be obvious
as we proceed.

The sacred number, three, dominates the human frame. There is a
trinity in our anatomy. Three systems, to which all the organs are
directly or indirectly subsidiary, divide and control the body. First,
there is the nutritive system, composed of stomach, intestines, liver,
pancreas, glands, and vessels, by which food is elaborated, effete
matter removed, the blood manufactured, and the whole organization