What Women Should Know

In times past it has been gravely questioned whether women should be allowed to learn the alphabet. That privilege having been conceded them, it becomes possible for one possessed with a strong imagination to look forward to the time when certain knowledge, the absence of which is continually productive of serious physical and moral errors, shall be deemed alike permissible, if not desirable.

Women need a thorough acquaintanceship with the organs and functions of their own bodies, in order that they may guard against disease and suffering in themselves, and that they may bring forth healthy children. They need, too, a thorough knowledge of the good and evil of the world, so that they may guide their children safely through the perils which beset their youth and early manhood and womanhood, even as a skillful pilot needs to know all the rocks and shallows of the stream that he may steer his ship clear of them.

This book tells women simply what they ought to know, and without knowing which they cannot perfectly fulfill their womanly destiny. Its language is plain and direct, yet marked by no impropriety, and is such as one modest woman can use in addressing another. It is in its hygienic and general character quite up to the advanced ideas of the day.

It begins with the physical development of the girl into womanhood, and points out all the dangers which attend it and mistakes which may be committed. It treats of love in its various phases, and fearlessly attacks immorality in every form. It discusses marriage in all its bearings, denounces criminal abortion, attacking it and pointing out its remedy from a standpoint never directly assumed by any other author; it refers to children and to inheritance, and argues at some length the theories concerning the production of the sexes at will. It enumerates the trials of the young wife, and shows how a false state of society and a false system of education have augmented them. It treats of pregnancy and delivery and the management of the new-born babe with a care and minuteness not to be found in any other book of its class-a care and minuteness which will make it invaluable to the young wife and mother. One chapter is devoted to an infant's dress, telling how it should be made, and giving a full list of articles of infants' wardrobe, quantity of material required, estimated cost and accurate directions for making. Another chapter is devoted to diseases of infants, suggesting simple remedies which will usually prove efficacious. The concluding chapter treats of the moral responsibilities of motherhood, and the author tries to impress upon her readers the exalted position of the mother, and that it is second to none in honor or importance.

There are two classes who may take exceptions to this book. The first class is somposed of those who ignore on principle many of the subjects which are treated In its pages, and who seem to believe that by shutting their eyes to the evils in the world they do away with them, or at least shift the responsibility from their own shoulders. This class should be reminded that the evils are, and will continue to be until that day comes when all good women shall take cognizance of them, and bring their influence to bear in every possible direction to lessen them.

The second class embraces the evil-minded and the impure-hearted, who are ready to misconstrue purity itself whenever possible. For the benefit of all such may be applied to this book the famous motto, literally rendered from the French: "Shame shall be to him who thinks evil of it."