Up to that
age, she had been a healthy girl, judged by the standard of American
girls. Her parents were apparently strong enough to yield her a fair
dower of force. The catamenial function first showed signs of activity
in her Sophomore Year, when she was fifteen years old. Its appearance
at this age[13] is confirmatory evidence of the normal state of her
health at that period of her college career. Its commencement was
normal, without pain or excess. She performed all her college duties
regularly and steadily. She studied, recited, stood at the blackboard,
walked, and went through her gymnastic exercises, from the beginning
to the end of the term, just as boys do. Her account of her regimen
there was so nearly that of a boy's regimen, that it would puzzle a
physiologist to determine, from the account alone, whether the subject
of it was male or female. She was an average scholar, who maintained a
fair position in her class, not one of the anxious sort, that are
ambitious of leading all the rest. Her first warning was fainting
away, while exercising in the gymnasium, at a time when she should
have been comparatively quiet, both mentally and physically.
Pages:
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75