St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-07-18
DELICATE GIRLS.

Reasons why the Modern Young
Woman Lacks Physical RigOr.
An address delivered before the Massa-
chusetts Medical society the other day LAS
to Delicate Girls" says writer in the Gin
cinnati Commercial Gazette, is one full OF
interest to mothers. A justly distinguished
master of the girls high and normal school
in Boston is reported to have said that
principal qualification for the Office he held
should be good medical education. The
first hour of his school day was spent in 60
ing from room to room, at thecall of teach
ers, to see pupils who had tainted, or were
in ''SpaSmS," in Mysteries, or in some other
way had come to pass which alarmed the
inexperienced. These phenomena he clear
ly recognized as due to fatigue, insufficient
sleep. and the want of an adequate break
fast-a meal which these girls were too tired
to eat, or which they did not think worth
wasting time upon when home duties de-
manded their cooperation, morning les
son was to be looked over, or a neglected
task to be made up, and long walk inter-
vened between their homes and the school.
The special provocations on delicate
health' in young women are in great part
social. The deleterious influences of
multiplicity Of engagements, of the exact
ing demands of ambition, fashion and
gayety-not infreQuently of an early be-
trothal-are intensified by the capacity for
endurance which belongs to the so-called
weaker sex. a girl can tire out her part
nerS in the german" one after another,
and feeble wife can carry her baby twice
as long as her athletic husband. The more
strain there is upon the strength of women
the more completely do they forget them
selves and their material wants. They sub
nit and give no signs of their emotions to
the depressing influences of misfortune or
an unhappy home. They suffer and are
silent with what have been called dad
husband headaches" They stiie wounded
pride which is deep in proportion to the
smalness of the family income, and yield
to the aggressive attacks of neurotic infu-
ences 1.-THE least wearing of which may be
the mentaD only wheu the limited energy
their bodies possess is exhausted, and
which, when once lost. they rarely have
the physical capacity or power OF mechan-
ism to replace.
The bodies and brains of girls in the
wealthiest and most luxurious circles of So
ciety constantly reveal their imperfect nu-
triton. Refined emaciatiOn, fair an3mic
compilations, eyes made brilliant by dilated
pupils, decorouS concealment of undevel-
oped busts and slender arms, excitable and
restless temperaments-wan sometimes
in self-control, but oftener sobered b. over
conscientiousness-ar the retributive symp-
toms which betray a lack of food, sleep.
fresh air and repose. Some of those who
embody these conditions delight to think
that Providence has distinguished them
from the common herd by certain peculiar
tiles of constitution, and they cherish with
great dissatisfaction their supposed lido
syncracies in regard to what they eat and
in regard to various habits in life. They
do not know, or are unwilling to admit. that
want of tone" of which they complain, is
only another name for the inertia of ex-
hauStiOn.
What these young women need is out-of
door life. Not exercise in the gym" but
tennis, croquet, rowing horseback riding,
all in lightweight clothes and with loosened
corset strings.