It is equally foolish to submit the finest flowers of girlhood to a strain which is admittedly too severe.
It seems to be clear that the main factor in the common sexual and general invalidism of girls and young women is bad hygiene, in the first place consisting in neglect of the menstrual functions and in the second place in faulty habits generally.

In all the more essential matters that concern the hygiene of the body the traditions of girls--and this seems to be more especially the case in the Anglo-Saxon countries--are inferior to those of youths.

Women are much more inclined than men to subordinate these things to what seems to them some more urgent interest or fancy of the moment; they are trained to wear awkward and constricting garments, they are indifferent to regular and substantial meals, preferring innutritious and indigestible foods and drinks; they are apt to disregard the demands of the bowels and the bladder out of laziness or modesty; they are even indifferent to physical cleanliness.[29] In a great number of minor ways, which separately may seem to be of little importance, they play into the hands of an environment which, not always having been adequately adjusted to their special needs, would exert a considerable stress and strain even if they carefully sought to guard themselves against it.

It has been found in an American Women's College in which about half the scholars wore corsets and half not, that nearly all the honors and prizes went to the non-corset-wearers.

McBride, in bringing forward this fact, pertinently remarks, "If the wearing of a single style of dress will make this difference in the lives of young women, and that, too, in their most vigorous and resistive period, how much difference will a score of unhealthy habits make, if persisted in for a life-time ?"[30] "It seems evident," A.E.Giles concludes ("Some Points of Preventive Treatment in the Diseases of Women," _The Hospital_, April 10, 1897) "that dysmenorrhoea might be to a large extent prevented by attention to general health and education.