Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 28.djvu/626

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608
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
Colleges. Average Age.
At begin-
ning study.
At begln-
ning of men-
strual period.
At entering
college.
At gradu-
ating from
college.
At present
time.
Boston 5·25 13·89 19·61 23·36 26·72
Cornell 5·31 19·94 19·43 23·09 26·66
Kansas 5·25 13·65 16·32 21·75 26·35
Mass. Inst. of Tech. 6·00 13·67 21·00 24·00 25·67
Michigan 5·38 13·49 19·26 23·22 29·00
Oberlin 4·95 13·58 19·69 24·10 41·74
Smith 5·64 13·48 19·19 22·69 25·02
Syracuse 5·69 13·76 19·65 23·47 28·24
Vassar 5·91 13·61 17·81 21·96 28·95
Wellesley 5·51 13·56 18·34 22·24 24·90
Wesleyan 4·50 13·60 20·00 24·00 29·00
Wisconsin 5·49 13·57 17·98 21·69 27·24
All colleges 5·64 13·62 18·35 22·39 28·58

The influence upon health may be summed up very generally as follows: The maximum per cent of good health, 78·1, is reported at the time of entering college; during college-life this falls off to 74·9 per cent, to be followed by a rise to 77·9 per cent since graduation; fair health shows a gain from 2 to 8 per cent during college-life, followed by a decrease to 5 per cent since that time; while there was an actual decrease of 2 per cent during college-life of those having poor health, the figures being respectively 19·8 and 17·3 per cent, no appreciable change being shown for the years since graduation.

From the comparison tables it is further shown that 138, or 19·6 per cent, report a deterioration in health during college-life; 418, 59·3 per cent, no change; 149, 21·1 per cent, show an improvement. This result may be compared with the returns of the inquiries instituted by the Massachusetts Board among the working-girls of Boston, as follows: Of the 705 female college graduates, 138, or 19·58 per cent, show a deterioration in health during college-life, and of the 1,032 working-girls, 166, or 16·09 per cent, show a deterioration in health, during working-time, these figures indicating a greater loss of health, of 3·49 per cent, reported by the college graduates. For the 166 working-girls, whose health deteriorated, four had quite good health at the time of the investigation, 128 were in fair health, and 34 in poor health. Of the 138 college graduates whose health deteriorated, however, 42 report a decline in health from excellent to good, or a slight change only. Making allowances for this, there is a greater loss of health of 2·47 per cent reported by the working-girls of Boston.

Of the 705 reporting, 417, or 59 per cent, mention some disorder, and the total number of disorders reported is 865. The returns regarding the causation of disease, while not technical nor detailed enough for scientific value, are suggestive.

Of the 417 reporting disorders, 276 give the cause or causes of dis-