PUBERTY.

Sexual Development; Age of Puberty; Physical Changes at Puberty; First
Onset of Menstruation; Psychic Changes at Puberty.

"Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control,
These three alone lead life to sovereign power."

-- "OEnone."

Sexual Development.-- Sexual development goes on during all the years
of childhood, but is not complete in the female sex until between the
twenty-second and the twenty-fifth year. If the child has no inherited
taint, and has been properly educated morally, physically, and
intellectually, it must follow that the structural development of the
pelvic organs has been normal; and normal organs always perform their
functions perfectly.

The commencement of the ovarian function does not cause any more
profound change in the system and habits than does dentition. The
various epochs of life are generally spoken of as if they were
paroxysmal-- as though they were separated by some tremendous chasm,
which had to be leapt over or fallen into. Nature makes no such
egregious blunders; preparations for every change in life have been
going on for a very long time before the evidences of such change
become manifest.

In a healthy girl the psychic and physical changes incident to puberty
occur so gradually as to escape the girl's own notice. The first and,
if the girl has not been properly prepared for it, always startling