the  fourteenth  year,  or  as  much  later  than  the  sixteenth^  is  not
sufficiently  uncommon  to  justify  medical  interference  when  the
health  is  otherwise  good.  Menstruation  commences  earlier  in
cities  and  large  towns  than  in  the  country.  It  also  occurs  in  the
daughters  of  the  rich — who  have  every  comfort  and  Inxnij,
everything  which  enervates  and  relaxes,  or  excites — at  least  nine
months  before  it  does  in  those  of  the  industrious  classes  of  the
community  in  the  most  comfortable  circumstances;  and  full  four-
teen months,  on  the  average,  before  it  appears  in  the  poorest
classes.  Its  earlier  occurrence  among  the  well-to-do  classes,  and
later  among  the  poorest,  its  scantiness  among  women  in  the  sav-
age state,  and  its  entire  absence  among  the  lower  mammals,  seem
to  indicate  that  the  function  may  be  due  to  enervation  incident  to
civic  life  and  a  highly  artificial  state  of  society,  and  not  to  any
actual  necessity  of  the  organism.
It  is  satisfactorily  established,  that  in  every  country  and  climate
the  period  of  the  first  menstruation  may  be  retarded,  in  voy
many  cases,  much  beyond  the  average  age,  often  without  produc-
ing ill-health  or  other  inconvenience.  Indeed,  the  longer  it  can
be  postponed  the  less  will  be  the  draught  on  the  vascular  and
nervous  energy  which  are  essential  to  the  oonsolidati<Hi  of  the
functions  of  nutrition  and  growth.  And  it  should  be  borne  in
mind  that  the  premature  accession  of  menstruation  is  almost  ob-
tain to  be  followed  by  the  early  disappearance  of  the  functioD.
