account of the early and attentive care she incessantly bestows on her offspring, but by her constitutional influence and the materials she furnishes to the development of the human embryo. The destiny of woman is to be a wife and mother; but she does not, like Eve, awake full grown. She has to pass through the phases of growth, the diseases incidental to childhood, and the more or less dangerous period of puberty, ere she is able to fulfil the duties of her ordination.

The natural constitution of woman seldom offers that harmony and health which may be considered as a type of strength. It is the minority, Locke very justly observed, that enjoys a strong organization and general good health; for to the anomalies of birth, already numerous, are added the evils resulting from a bad education, and from our social habits. Even maternal affection, the most noble and disinterested of human feelings, has often a fatal influence on the whole existence; particularly in the higher classes of society, where the sensibility of young girls is too fully developed, and for which the most fashionable systems of education may be compared to hot-houses.

Men of great genius have written on education; considering the art of perfecting the human species as the highest and most worthy of their meditations. Fenelon, Locke, Rousseau, have

left imperishable works; but these writers had not sufficiently studied physical organization. Fenelon in his Telemachus-worthy to be classed with the productions of Homer, wrote but for a prince, and his work was not generally applicable. Locke gave to his thoughts on the education of children too much conciseness. Rousseau made a novel of education,-the first proposition in his finely written production is a paradox, and his work is crowded with errors, that he would not have committed had he brought up his own children or directed those of others.

It is indeed to be regretted that so few medical men should have given special attention to physical education; there are, it is true, some excellent writings on early childhood, but. not a single work destined to fill the space between infancy and puberty;-a few chapters only pass rapidly over those important years of life, from infancy to womanhood. "There appears but little interest," says M. Quetelet, “in the physical development of man at his different ages; hitherto the subject has not been studied; the few researches that have been made are relative, either to the period of birth, or to the period of complete development, but the intermediate age has not been considered.

Before Buffon, the degrees of growth man successively acquires from birth to puberty, had not

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attracted any particular attention; and this celebrated naturalist confined himself to one single example. Since then Chaussier, Villermé, Quetelet, and a few others, have sought to determine the development of human growth; but their works, very useful no doubt, are yet too imperfect to give the mean growth of man at his different ages, particularly during the period preceding puberty.

The physical education of girls was a new subject previous to the first edition of this work. Instead of considering females as merely worthy of one chapter, I have made them the principal subject of my researches, of my observations, and my labours. To bring up à child is to place it in such a state as may best enable it to fulfil its destiny; the destiny of a young girl is to be a wife and mother:-who will say her physical education is less important than that of man?

It is a most common error not to foresee the destiny of children; yet the future is in the present, as the rose is in the bud. We admire, we surround women with our love and adoration, and we forget that health and beauty are inseparable and dependent on the physical education of childhood.

It is not generally understood how noble and arduous is the task of education;-the body, the

mind, movement, and will, must be influenced; good habits must be contracted: it is evident that, for such a task, the continual study of the human organization, and of the human mind, is indispensable.

Physical education must be considered as a preparation to life, an apprenticeship to its labours and troubles. The life of a female is more subject to trials than that of man; she must, therefore, possess at least the same power of re-action, and be enabled to overcome difficulties. More weak, more delicate, and therefore more liable to illness, the physical education of woman requires more care; and instead, of making it an accessory in a treatise on education, it must form the principal subject. Around woman should be drawn all that can shield her from the fatal influence of divers natural and moral causes.

"A good physical education," says Cabanis, strengthens the body, may prevent disease, cures divers maladies, gives to the organs greater aptitude for the execution of the movements commanded by our wants;-hence more power and extent in the faculties of the mind, more equilibrium in the sensations ;-hence more just ideas, and those elevated passions depending on habitual sentiment and the regular exercise of greater strength.

In the actual state of society, physical education is nearly always an education of chance. Whether a child belong to rich or poor parents, enlightened or blinded by parental tenderness, physical education is seldom right; and it is because there is always an accidental education, that its evil effects must be counteracted by one that is premeditated and well directed, Education should prevent evil; it is a species of vaccination, acting not only as a preservative in small-pox, but on the various diseases incidental to childhood. The object of physical education is to develop the physical qualities of woman, so that she may accomplish her noble destiny of wife and mother.

What is most sought in female education, is to encourage those talents that best tend to draw attention; and it is forgotten, that there is often more attraction in beauty of figure, and brilliancy of health, than in any accomplishment.

"We are acquainted," says Claude Ferry, "with bodily advantages, but it is thought that nature must bestow them; the art of acquiring them is totally forgotten, so that if it were not certain that the ancients had carried this art to such a high state of perfection, it might be supposed never to have existed."

The object I have in view is to establish the rules of this art, not only according to the an