Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 28.djvu/629

Rh figures for those of twenty and over show an almost exact reversal of these percentages, being 18 per cent loss and 28·5 per cent gain. The problem of age is thus seen to be an exceedingly important one.

The fact that, of the disorders reported, 7 per cent are brain troubles, 26 per cent of reproductive organs, and 33 per cent nervousness (also 15 per cent of neuralgia), shows that the problem of health has yet to find its adequate solution. The following percentages tell the same story: During the period of development, 53 per cent were troubled during the menstrual period (with simple irregularities, uterine or reflex pain, one or all). During college-life the per cent was 66; since graduation, 64. If we isolate simple irregularities, the result is more significant still; for these show a constant decrease, while the organic troubles show as marked an increase, the figures being, respectively, for irregularities, 16 per cent, 9 per cent, 7 per cent; for uterine and reflex pain, 24 per cent, 30 per cent, 36 per cent, for the three periods of development, college, and graduate life. Such percentages show along what line effort should be directed.

Leaving this question, we turn to the phenomena of college-life, so far as regards exercise, study, and worry, in their effects upon health. The tables here cease to have reference, in their bearing, to women alone, and point a moral for all educators to heed. The importance of exercise is shown by the fact that those reporting over two hours per day return 84 per cent in good or fair health, while those below two hours can show but 75 per cent. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that, upon the whole, the tables show that worry is the most potent of all predisposing causes of disease. Those who had no worries of account report 92 per cent in fair or good health; those worrying over both personal affairs and studies state that but 68 per cent of their number were in the same condition. Worry over personal matters seems to be more harmful to health than overstudies, 75 and 80 per cent being the proportion of good health respectively. This showing goes far in substantiating the opinion of those who hold that study per se is never a cause of failure of health. However, of those who studied severely, 21 per cent report poor health, against 15 per cent of those studying moderately. Again, of the latter, 54 per cent report disorders as against 70 per cent of those who studied more; the figures for nervousness also are 15 and 26 per cent respectively. It is fair to suppose, however, that the largest per cent of those worrying over their studies was found among those studying severely.

In the tables, the distinction is made between those reporting from female colleges only and those of the co-educational. It is an easy matter, however, to separate them, which I have done, with the following results: Of the whole number (705), 458 are from female colleges; 247 co-educational. For graduate life, the figures for health are exactly the same for both: 83 per cent in good health, and 17 per cent in poor. During college-life 10 per cent of the