The New York herald., 1922-12-31

female relatives. women of As or so, and
they require the same treatment, which is
dieting and some kind of a rest cure.
Now, if / tell you how 1 diagnose these
cases and how l cure them will you give
me your word not to use my name? I
have a right to ask this because in
in professional ethics.
Here goes. then,' the promise having
been given: These cases of premature
physical decay are not due entirely to
the life of amusement seeking my patients
lead, but to extreme lengths our young
girls will go to keep themselves thin.
There is scarcely any process too danger
Gus for them to essay. They'd rather be
dead than be fat, and after a long course
of starvation most of them are half dead.
Thousands upon thousands of takers in
New York are making fortunes by means
of formulas to keep young women thin.
THE girls. without consultation with
physician an older member of the
family, go on a diet from which every
particle of anything nourishing has been
extracted. They never touch bread or
potato and they restrict their Indulgence
in vegetable to spinach and carrots, the
latter because they have been told they are
good for the complexion and the former
because it has iron in it, which produces
muscle and not fatty tissue Milk is. of
course, avoided by these foolish virgins.
''The weakening that follows so many
of these diets and other dangerous means,
including noxious drugs that are taken
for the one purpose l have mentioned, lays
liable the poor. little innocent to every
ailment that blows. Colds are frequent.
headaches are constant and nervous ex-
haustion is constant attendant If 1
had a daughter who wanted to dance all
night and run about all day I would say
to her: Do these silly things if you must.
but while doing them keep yourself well
nourished
Extreme cases are very difficult to
cure, but I am happy to say that in most
instances an alarm is taken by the girls
mother in time. She brings the daughter
to me and / have little earnest chat
with her. 1 tell her that there are ways
to keep up ones normal energy of body
without emaciating the body / try to
on her bones she will have a better time
in her own game-the society game
than she can ever have after she has made
a freak skeleton of her frame and a list
less, empty receptacle of her brain This
isn't much of an argument. but it generally
serves.
Let the girls dance all night dane
ing is good exercise Let them run about
all day; even getting in and out of an
auto is a form of exercise. Let them amuse
themselves in frivolous ways; l don't ad-
NIT this is dangerous so long as they will
eat nourishing food and, so to speak,
keep the home fires burning"
That the public is deeply interested in
the health of its young people is some
thing that needs no exposition; it goes
without saying that if the generation Of
girls who came OUT in society this
winter looked like patients from a hospital.
pale, worn and feeble, there would be
started a crusade to change conditions
that caused this kind of debutante All
of us like to read books about how to
keep the girls healthy if not taken too
ponderously and many of us know that
feverish, excited, amusement seeking
life is not the best for anybody But to
say that the prematurely old girl is the
rule to-day is an exaggeration that every
one by looking about him can take the
sting out Of
II