Doctor, Why Do You Make A Division At 10 Or 11 Years Of Age?

"The dietary from 6 to 11 was intended to reach to the age of puberty."

Then You Regard Puberty As A Critical Period?

"For girls it is extremely so, because mistakes at this time not only seriously affect girlhood and womanhood, but it also curses unborn generations."

How Is That?

"The young girl of to-day will soon be the mothers of another generation, and what affects their health will likely affect their progeny."

What Connection Has Food With Such Dreadful Results?

"There can be no growth without suitable food; for nourishment is a vital element of all life. Now, when a girl reaches puberty, there is an increased physical demand, for two reasons: (1) It is a period of more rapid growth, or at least it should be so. (2) The functional development of the sexual organs causes an increased drain on the system, which, if not met by suitable nourishment, results in injury well-nigh immeasurable."

Is That The Reason Why Young Girls Are So Often Anaemic?

"It is the principal reason. A girl cannot grow into healthy womanhood without good blood, and if she has it not, the effect is as obvious as a long drouth on the summer harvest."

Do You Mean To Say, That The Disorders Peculiar To Women, With The Agony They Have To Endure, Are Mainly Due To Lack Of Care During Puberty?

"They are largely due to lack of intelligent care between the ages of 11 and 17. Many girls receive a kind of well-meant care, that is worse than total neglect. They are the children who are fed dainties, over-dressed, restrained, and in winter kept in rooms ten or fifteen degrees too hot; but in summer are dressed in the thinest fabrics, no matter how cool the weather. Woman's physical woes can be described in short terms: Idiotic feeding, and maniacal folly in dress."

"That is strong language."

"But Not Too Strong. An Idiot Is A Person Without Reason.

When We Do Things Without Reason, Things, Too, That Dumb Animals Will Not Do, Are They Not Idiotic? Now, As The Conventional Dress Of Women Is Responsible For A Large Per Cent, Of Their Ills, What Less Can We Call It Than Mania?" "But How Is Dress Related To Feeding?

"In this way: A well-nourished body, to a great extent, protects itself; but if the organs of the body are displaced, or the circulation interfered with by tight clothing, it cannot-do so."

"Be a little more 6pecific, doctor. Name the habits that seem to you the most injurious."

"Eating at all hours of the day. Eating improper food, such as pop-ccrn, cake, candy, pickles, green and over-ripe fruit, fried foods and doughy bread, saturated with butter or gravy. During puberty, girls' appetites seem to crave all sorts of things, because they see others eat them; whereas, the demands of the body require food rich in tissue-forming substances, and not very difficult to digest. Eating between meals is one of the most pernicious habits of school girls, and it can't be cut too short. Pampering children with all sorts of pastry and highly+seasoned dishes, destroys the taste for natural food, and curses them for life. They should be fed on plainly, but well cooked cereals, well-baked bread, from entire grain, milk, meat, eggs, cooked without fat, and sound, ripe fruits. A limited amount of sugar, syrup or candy, may occasionally be eaten at meal time. Pop-corn and nuts are wholesome when finely ground, but must be prohibited as ordinarily eaten."

Young People Should Have Good Digestion, Why So Particular?

"Because the newly-developed functions of sex interfere with digestion for about five days before and after stated periods, so that nearly a half a month is taken up with the excretion of waste and repair, which makes them extremely sensitive to cold and liable to constipation, both of which must be shunned as deadly enemies."

Why Should They Shun Constipation More Than Other People?

"Well, besides the importance of good digestion at this period, accumulation of fecal matter in the bowels, disturbs the circulation in the delicate organs of generation, and may cause a life of suffering."

"Doctor, you seem to favor both freedom and restraint."

"Yes, a girl should be dressed so as to allow the greatest personal activity, and mothers should remember that a daughter's health is far more important than lady-like deportment. As an example of anaemic women, there are none so bad as the French of the upper classes. Restraint, convent life, and folly in dress, make the French women the poorest, physically, that exist in any enlightened country."

How Would You Overcome The Disregard For Warmth, Nourishing Food, Regular Eating, And Lack Of Exercise?

"By teaching girls before they rich puberty, that they are to become women, and that it would be far less injurious for them to cut off an arm or a foot, and less painful, too, than to be badly developed women and have to suffer all their lives."

How About Diet For Boys?

"If fried foods, green and over-ripe fruits, and an excess of food, be kept from boys, they will not be sick."

How Can Over-Eating Be Prevented?

"By taking all the food necessary for one meal on the plate or dishes at one time. Boys should not be allowed to repeatedly help themselves, for no attention is paid to the great quantities of food eaten in this way."

Doctor, You Have Indicated From Your Remarks That You Were A Strong Believer In Pre-Natal Influences, And I Suppose That Diet And The Mental Conditions Of Prospective Mothers Are Very Important Factors In Shaping The Character Of Unborn Children?

"Undoubtedly; the unborn child is mainly dependent upon its mother for its physical life, and to a great extent its mentality, and these, in turn, must have proper nourishment or be undeveloped."