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attention to such facts; but since the publication of “New America,” an enquirer here and there has looked at such returns as he could get-always to be disheartened, often to be appalled.
Catharine E. Beecher, an advocate for woman's freedom, has made enquiries into the physical health of American females, and the result is, that among her “ immense circle of friends and acquaintance all over the Union,” she is “unable to recall so many as ten married ladies, in this century and country, who are perfectly sound, healthy, and vigorous.”
Passing beyond her own large circle, Catharine Beecher goes into twenty-six towns, and takes ten average cases in each town.
Of two hundred and sixty ladies, only thirty-eight are found in a fair state of health.
Sixty other towns are tested, with a similar result.
If these returns are good for anything (and they are quoted with approval by government officials) they prove that only one American woman in ten is physically fit for the sacred duties of wife and mother!
Three years ago, the Bureau of Education printed a paper on the Vital Statistics of America, which passed like an ice-bolt through the hearts of
1875.
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