Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 5.djvu/220

208 epilepsy, insanity, are often connected with irregularities or suppresionsuppression [sic] of these important functions.

In addition to the ill effects upon the bodily health which are produced directly by an excessive mental application, and a consequent development of the nervous system at the expense of the nutritive functions, it is alleged that remoter effects of an injurious character are produced upon the entire nature, mental and bodily. The arrest of development of the reproductive system discovers itself in the physical form and in the mental character. There is an imperfect development of the structure which Nature has provided in the female for nursing her offspring.

Why should there be such a difference between American women and those of foreign origin residing in the same locality, or between them and their grandmothers? Dr. Allen goes on to ask. The answer he finds in the undue demands made upon the brain and nervous system, to the detriment of the organs of nutrition and secretion:

To the same effect writes Dr. Weir Mitchell, an eminent American physiologist: