The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1881-02-17
Feeble Girls and Women,

Feeble Girls and Women.
Much is said in foreign lands as we'll
- in our own about the delicacy of our
women. II we compare them with
those amonst US, who have come from
beyond the sea, German. Swiss, En-
glish, etc., we may see wonderful diff
ference in their form and aspect. And
then the early departure Of youthful
ness and beauty of our own women is
much less enduring, and strength and
elasticity of muscles have so much di-
minished in these later years. that some
medical men and others, interested in
the subject, fear that the puritan blood
will soon die out. In former DAYS, ten
to fifteen children graced the table, but
now one is enough and two is great
abundance.
The causes of this sad deterioration
in human beings are numerous; our
daughters in too many instances have
been kept so long and constantly in
courses of mental training and have
done 50 little to promote proper growth
of body, that they cont act some serious
maladies, that unfit them for nearly all
the necessary duties of active life. It
is said that very many have q greater
or less curvature Of the spine-a fright
full source of inability and disease.
We saw, the other day, an English
lady of forty who looked as fresh and
beautiful as her daughters. Indeed she
was taken by all who were present at q
party to be their sister and not their
mother.
The idea that q decay of female
health and beauty was plainly seen in
all sections of our land, has alarmed
many thoughtful men, because it was
bringing with it the fact that it was
introducing with it much domestic and
social suffering. Those, who have in
quired for the per cent. of healthy
women, have found it very small. This
state Of things, we should expect to
find and have found in our large towns
and cities. but it is nearly equally as
serious in our sparse rural districts.
Investigation shows clearly. that even
in our rural towns, women are feeble
and unable to discharge their domestic
duties with any kind Of ease and COM
fort, that they are not as strong and
healthy as are the men in the same
sections of the country. We may ex-
cept the women who were born and
educated in other lands; usually they
are as stout and elastic as their hus-
bands, and are we'll able to contend
with them in the labors of the field.
What causes this difference of health
and strength? 1t cannot be climate,
for both sexes are equally exposed to
the good or bad influences of heat and
cold; to rapid changes of temperature.
The early mental and physical training
of our girls must have influence in in
ducing it; whatever this training be, it
is something that does not affect the
boys, for the women are deteriorating
much more rapidly than the men.
Indeed, We think the men keep their
own.
The Swedish women have coarse
clothing, but it is healthy and substan-
tial. Their feet and necks are well pro-
tected from the deteriorating influences
of damp and cold. They have less love
of ornament than of comfort. They
prefer the nutritious part of food to the
agreeable, coarse wheat flour, to fine;
oatmeal mush, to delicate cakes; oat-
meal porridge to tea or coffee. We wish
we had the ability to point out all the
causes of the present weakness, suffer-
ings and diseases that now afflict the
native women of our land. Some evil
habits or customs must exist among
them of strength sufficient to seriously
impair their own constitutions, and the
integrity and vigor of their families.
Can anyone tell US. why so many native
women are so SICILY and so unable to
discharge their social and domestic du-
ties. Our women, especially in our ru-
raj districts, are not guilty of inaction.
or Incidence. They are usually COM
PEELED to lead life of great activity and
hard work. They do not spurn light and
air. They are exposed to both nearly
all the time. They do not expose their
feet and neck to excessive colds and
damps, for they are usually we'll and
warmly clad. One thing they may not
do. they may not dress as loosely as the
men. They may not have had the sane
amount and kind of exercise, in their
growing years, as did their brothers.
We are more and more inclined to
think that the great cause of the degen-
eracy of our women is innutritious food
on which they lived in the growing
period of their lives, and the small
amount of exercise they took. Body
growth in strength and bulk needs
something more than food. It needs
exercise of the bones, muscles and
other tissues, that the food may be
converted into blood, flesh and bones.
No doubt many girls are injured in the
course of their training by over-excited
brains, by want of proper food and an
amount of physical exercise sufficient to
create health and strength.
We hardly dare to introduce another
cause of feebleness and disease. For it
is subject of discussion and is not.
by the women of our land, practically
understood. We mean tight dress
ing - COMPRISING the chest and
waist. It may be said that this
cruel and destructive habit has
been expelled. or is out of fash
ion; but it still exists. Why should
women more tightly dress than
menp Fashion still demands "a good,
snug fit" SO we see at the present day
growing girls walking our streets with
dresses that fit as snugly as they can be
made. A constant pressure is extended
upon the capillary blood tubes of the
skin, great enough to stop the free cir
culation of the blood. These capilla-
ries conduct blood from the arteries to
the veins. 80 that any pressure on the
veins that fill the skin must stop the
full current Of the vital fluid in its
wonted rounds. And if the blood is
checked in its wonted course tho vari-
Gus tissues do not receive nourishment
that they need to promote their growth
and strength. Give our growing girls
q proper kind and amount of physical
exercise, and nutritious food and drink
constantly during all the time from
their early to their mature years and
they will have goodly form and health,
unknown to most young women of the
present day.-Rairie Farmer.
The Cold Weather In Europe.
When we read in the press dispatch
90 from London that the thermometer
(Eahrenhaitl markod thera fro,m tvo IN