At least, such is the case where
metamorphosis is permitted to go on normally. The result is growth and
development. This growing period or formative epoch extends from birth
to the age of twenty or twenty-five years. Its duration is shorter for
a girl than for a boy. She ripens quicker than he. In the four years
from fourteen to eighteen, she accomplishes an amount of physiological
cell change and growth which Nature does not require of a boy in less
than twice that number of years. It is obvious, that to secure the
best kind of growth during this period, and the best development at
the end of it, the waste of tissue produced by study, work, and
fashion must not be so great that repair will only equal it. It is
equally obvious that a girl upon whom Nature, for a limited period and
for a definite purpose, imposes so great a physiological task, will
not have as much power left for the tasks of the school, as the boy of
whom Nature requires less at the corresponding epoch. A margin must
be allowed for growth. The repair must be greater and better than the
waste.
During middle age, life's active period, there is an equilibrium
between the body's waste and repair: one equals the other.
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