100

SEX IN INDUSTRY.

lishes the fact, always , in the larger offices, that menstruation occurs more frequently than it ought.

When it is known, that, in the average business of a large city office, a lady opera­tor often receives a string of messages with the ear, writes them as they come with her right hand, counts them with her eye, checks them with her left hand, and answers her O. K. to the sender, it will be readily understood that the interplay of nervous iniluences must be of the most rapid and ex­haustive character ; because, however expert the operator may become, she can never be­come purely automatic: mental concentration must be drawn upon to the full. A lady operator, many years in the business, said to me,

I have broken down several times, completely worn out, suffering from sheer nervous debility. I had turned of age safely, and was well in this and every other particular when I entered the office : since I broke down the first time, I have never been right, though much improved when out on my va-