does open the flood-gates of the system, and, by letting blood out,
lets all sorts of evil in. Let us now look at another phase; for
menorrhagia and its consequences are not the only punishments that
girls receive for being educated and worked just like boys. Nature's
methods of punishing men and women are as numerous as their organs and
functions, and her penalties as infinite in number and gradation as
her blessings.

Amenorrhoea is perhaps more common than menorrhagia. It often happens,
however, during the first critical epoch, which is isochronal with the
technical educational period of a girl, that after a few occasions of
catamenial hemorrhage, moderate perhaps but still hemorrhage, which
are not heeded, the conservative force of Nature steps in, and saves
the blood by arresting the function. In such instances, amenorrhoea is
a result of menorrhagia. In this way, and in others that we need not
stop to inquire into, the regimen of our schools, colleges, and social
life, that requires girls to walk, work, stand, study, recite, and
dance at all times as boys can and should, may shut the uterine
portals of the blood up, and keep poison in, as well as open them, and
let life out. Which of these two evils is worse in itself, and which
leaves the largest legacy of ills behind, it is difficult to say. Let
us examine some illustrations of this sort of arrest.

Miss D---- entered Vassar College at the age of fourteen. Up to that
age, she had been a healthy girl, judged by the standard of American
girls. Her parents were apparently strong enough to yield her a fair
dower of force. The catamenial function first showed signs of activity
in her Sophomore Year, when she was fifteen years old. Its appearance
at this age[13] is confirmatory evidence of the normal state of her
health at that period of her college career. Its commencement was