40
SEX IN EDUCATION.
The system never does two things well at the same time. The muscles and the brain cannot functionate in their best way at the same moment. One cannot meditate a poem and drive a saw simultaneously, without divid* ing his force. He may poetize fairly, and saw poorly ; or he may saw fairly, and poetize poorly ; or he may both saw and poetize indifferently. Brain-work and stomach-work interfere with each other if attempted together. The digestion of a dinner calls force to the stomach, and temporarily slows the brain. The experiment of trying to digest a hearty supper, and to sleep during the process, has sometimes cost the careless experimenter his life. The physiological principle of doing only one thing at a time, if you would do it well, holds as truly of the growth of the organization as it does of the performance of
their tissue. This want of development of the ovaries is generally, though not invariably, associated with want of development of the uterus and other sexual organs ; and I need not say that women in whom it exists are sterile.” — Lectures on the Diseases of Women, by Charles West, M.D Am. ed., p. 37.