Introductory Note: By 1856 Catharine
Beecher was well known for her campaign to open the teaching profession to
women, which had achieved a good deal of success by then, and for her best-selling
Treatise
on Domestic Economy, a work which detailed the "correct"
way to do virtually everything connected with running a household. The Treatise
not only contained instructions on how to wash and iron clothes, make candles
and soap, and perform other chores but also recipes for home remedies for
a variety of common ailments. It also contained floorplans for model kitchens,
bedrooms, and parlors. Beecher, in short, was well-established in the trade
of giving advice.
Her Letters to the People holds several claims
on the historian's interest. First, it strikingly illustrates the widely-held
conviction among middle-class Northerners at mid-century that they were not
as physically robust as their ancestors. Many shared Beecher's fear that the
decline was so sharp, especially the female half of the population, that Americans
of British ancestry faced extinction unless drastic measures were taken. One
way to see this is to explore the claims
made on behalf of the innumerable water cure spas and other health establishments.
Beecher also intended the Letters to sound a different
sort of warning -- to women about the dangers of sexual exploitation by their
physicians. This was a delicate as well as an inflamatory issue, and Beecher
sought the advice, she wrote in an introductory note, of a number of "ladies"
noted for their discretion. All assured her that her book met the highest
standards of propriety. What they meant was that women could safely read the
book without fear that its sensational subject matter might itself undermine
their morals or affront their sensibilities.
Beecher also sought the assistance of a female physician,
the co-proprietor with her husband of a "water cure" spa in Elmira,
New York. Mrs. Dr. Gleason -- and Beecher invariably used both titles in referring
to her -- assured their readers in a "Note"
that the "treatments" which exploitative doctors claimed to be providing
had no medical validity. She also took up a second, equally controversial
issue -- the "secret vice" practiced by too many children and youths.
This, she and Beecher were both convinced, was increasing dramatically. Gleason
blamed servants and students at boarding schools for teaching innocents this
vice, but she also admitted that some children "accidentally" discovered
it on their own.
Letters to the American People on Health and Happiness,
in short, is a valuable guide to popular ideas about health, particularly
among women, and to popular fears about sexual exploitation of women and about
the seeming sexual precocity of the rising generation.
Catharine E. Beecher, Letters to The People on Health
and Happiness (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1856)
P. 7: LETTER FIRST.
My Friends:
Will you let me come to you in your work-shop, or office,
or store, or study? And you, my female friends, may I enter your nursery,
your parlor, or your kitchen? I have matters of interest to present in which
every one of you has a deep personal concern.
I have facts to communicate, that will prove that the
American people are pursuing a course, in their own habits and practices,
which is destroying health and happiness to an extent that is perfectly appalling.
Nay more, I think I shall be able to show, that the majority of parents in
this nation are systematically educating the rising generation to be feeble,
deformed, homely, sickly, and miserable; as much so as if it were their express
aim to commit so monstrous a folly.
I think I can show also, that if a plan for destroying
female health, in all the ways in which it could be most effectively done,
were drawn up, it would be exactly the course which is now pursued by a large
portion of this nation, especially in the more wealthy classes.
. . . . . . . . . .
Letter fourteenth
Pp. 88-89: . . .A large majority of the mothers and daughters
of the nation adopt a style of [p. 89] dress that is exactly calculated to
produce disease and deformity.
In the first place, they dress the upper portion of the
body so thin [sic], that the spine and chest are exposed to sudden and severe
changes of temperature in passing from warm to cold rooms, and this tends
to weaken that portion. Then they accumulate such loads of clothing around
the lower parts of the body, as debililtates the spine and pelvic organs by
excess of heat. At the same time, they bind the ribs so tight, that there
is constant lateral pressure against one side of the spine, tending to produce
a curvature that distorts one shoulder and one hip. At the same time the weight
of clothing on the hips and abdomen presses down on the most delicate and
important organs of life to move them from their proper positions, while pointed
bodices, with whalebone pressure, co-operate as a lever in front, to accomplish
the same shocking operation. The efforts of the Chinese mother in binding
up her child's foot to distortion, is wisdom compared with the murderous folly
thus perpetrated or tolerated by thousands of mothers and daughters in this
Christian and enlightened age and nation. And the most terrible feature of
this monstrous course is, that the evil thus achieved by a mother is often
transmitted to her deformed offspring.
P. 90 [after discussing the importance of exercise] There
is one mode of exercise that is very common, and is earnestly defended
on the ground of its healthful tendencies, and that is the dance. There
is no doubt that the Creator, when he implanted that strong love of measured
exercise to the sound of music, intended that it should be gratified. . .
.But how is the dance usually conducted?
In the first place, it is commonly in the night season,
when quiet is better than exercise. Next, it is in rooms where the air is
vitiated by many lights and many breaths, and where quiet is far better than
a quickened circulation. Next, the clothing of the female portion of the performers
is usually the very worst that could be selected for such an occasion -- too
thin about the chest and too heavy below it. Then, before the night is passed,
the stomach, which should rest when the muscles are exercised, is loaded with
the most unhealthful of all kinds of foods, condiments, and drinks.
Pp. 90-91: When another generation has been trained to
understand and obey [p. 91] the laws of health, the beautiful and health-giving
dance will be rescued from its profanation and abuse. But in its present state
of degradation, entire abstinence is probably the safest rule; for those who
venture only a few steps will probably soon be drawn far beyond their first
intentions, while their views of right and expediency will gradually sink
. . . .
Pp. 93-94 [after discussing the impurity of the air in
workplaces and elsewhere]: To add to the mischief of vitiated air, young women
are generally girt so tight around the body, that the lower part of the lungs,
where the air-cells most abound, are rarely used. Abdominal breathing
has ceased among probably a majority of American women. The ribs are
also girt so tight, in many cases, that even the full inspiration at
the top of the lungs is impossible. And this custom has operated so,
from parent to child, that a large portion of the female children now born
have a deformed thorax, that has [p. 94] room only for imperfectly formed
lungs. The full round chest of perfect womanhood is a specimen rarely seen,
and every day diminishing in frequency.
. . . . .
LETTER SIXTEENTH.
P. 106: . . .The man of study or of business sleeps all
night in bad air; then he goes to his office, store, or shop, with uncleansed
skin to breathe bad air all day; then at his meals he takes meat, which is
the most stimulating food, and condiments to stimulate appetite. These make
him eat more than he needs, or he has such a variety as tempts to an overloaded
stomach. Then he drinks tea, coffee, and perhaps alcohol, to stimulate the
brain and nerves to increased action. Then he keeps tobacco in his mouth,
to stimulate another portion of his brain. Then he stimulates the brain with
anxiety, or business cares, or study, or deep thought all day long, without
the relaxation of amusement or the refreshment of muscular exercise. And then
at night he returns, exhausted, to sleep again in bad air, and next day renews
the same exhausting process. Thus it is stimulate, stimulate, stimulate
the brain, from year's end to year's end, till disease interrupts or death
ends the career. Or, in other cases, the man becomes a pale, delicate, infirm
being, every function and organ ministering feebly to a half-living man. Thus
it is that an active, vigorous, well-formed, healthy manhood is so rarely
seen in this nation.
At the same time, a vast portion of the women of our
nation are pursuing a course equally abusive of the brain and nervous system.
As a general rule, woman originally is organized more delicately than the
other sex, have a constitution that can not bear either labor or long or strong
mental excitement as can the more vigorous sex. Then all her physical training
is less invigorating that that of man. Then her pursuits, as a wife, mother,
and housekeeper, are more complicated, less systematized, and less provided
with well-trained assistants than the professions of men. American women have
inherited from the English nation the notions [p. 107] of thrift, economy,
industry, system, thoroughness, and comfort, which show strongly in contrast
to the habits of the lower classes of the Irish, German, and African races.
And yet all their plans and efforts must be carried out mainly by poorly-trained
menials of these nations.
P. 108: The great majority of American women have their
brain and nervous system exhausted by too much care and too much mental excitement
in their daily duties; while another class, who lilve to be waited on and
amused, are as great sufferers for want of some worthy object in life, or
from excesses in seeking amusement.
P. 109: Little girls are especial sufferers in all that
appertains to health. They must be housed most of the time in heated and impure
air, and then when allowed to go abroad, they must wear thin slippers, and
must not romp and run like the boys. And then, as they come to the most trying
and critical period of life, the stimulation of the brain increases, the exercise
diminishes, and the onstrous fashions that bring distortion and disease are
assumed.
LETTER EIGHTEENTH.
Statistics of Female Health.
P. 121: During my extensive tours in all portions of
the Free States, I was brought into most intimate communion, not only with
my widely-diffused circle of relatives, but with very many of my former pupils
who had become wives and mothers. From such, I learned the secret domestic
history . . . . And oh! What heartaches were the result of these years of
quiet observation of the experiences of my sex in domestic life. How many
young hearts have revealed the fact, that what they had been trained to imagine
the highest earthly felicity, was but the beginning of care, disappointment,
and sorrow, and often led to the extremity of mental and physical suffering.
Why was it that I was so often told that "young girls little imagined
what was before them when they entered married life?" Why did I so often
find those united to the most congenial and most devoted husbands expressing
the hope that their daughters would never marry?
P. 121: . . .the more I traveled, and the more I resided
in health establishments, the more the conviction pressed on my attention
that there was a terrible decay of female health all over the land, and that
this evil was bringing with it an incredible amount of individual, domestic,
and social suffering that was increasing in a most alarming ratio.
P. 122 [so Beecher determined to take a survey of female
health]: I requested each lady first to write the initals of ten
of the married ladies with whom she was best acquainted in her place of residence.
Then she was requested to write at each name, her impressions as to the health
of each lady. In this way, during the past year, I obtained statistics from
about two hundred different places in almost all the Free States.
Before giving any of these, I will state some facts to
show how far they are reliable: In the first plalce, the standard of health
among American women is so low that few have a correct idea of what a healthy
woman is. . . .A woman who has tolerable health finds herself so much
above the great mass of her friends in this respect, that she feels herself
prodigy of good health.
In the next place, I have found that women who enjoy
universal health are seldom well informed as to the infirmities of their friends.
Repeatedly I have taken accounts from such persons, that seemed singularly
favorable, when, on more particular inquiry, it was found that the greater
part, who were set down as perfectly healthy women, were habitual sufferers
from serious ailments. The delicate and infirm go for sympathy, not to the
well and bouyant, but to those who have suffered like themselves.
P. 123: It must be remembered, that in regard to those
marked as "sickly," "delicate," or "feeble,"
there can be no mistke, the knowledge being in all cases positive,
while those marked as "well" may have ailments that are not known.
For multitudes of American women, with their strict notions of propriety,
and their patient and energetic spirit, often are performing every duty entirely
silent as to any suffering or infirmities they may be enduring.
. . . . . . .
A "perfectly healthy" or "a vigorous and
healthy woman" is one of whom there are specimens remaining in
almost every place; such as used to abound when all worked,
and worked in pure air.
Such a woman is one who can through the whole day be
actively employed on her feet in all kinds of domestic duties without injury,
and constantly and habitually has a feeling of perfect health and perfect
freedom from pain. Not that she never has a fit of sicknesss, or takes a cold
that interrupts the feeling of health, but that these are out of her ordinary
experience.
A woman is marked "well" who usually has good
health, but can not bear exposures, or long and great fatigue, without consequent
illness.
A woman is marked "delicate" who, though she
may be about and attend to most of her domestic employments, has a frail constitution
that either has been undermined by ill health, or which easily and frequently
yields to fatigue, or exposure, or excitement.
P. 129: I will now add my personal observation. First,
in my own family connection: I have nine married sisters and sisters-in-law,
all of them either delicate or invalids, except two. I have fourteen married
cousins, and not one of them but is either delicate, often ailing, or an invalid.
In my wide circle of friends and acquaintance all over the land out of my
family circle, the same impression is made. In Boston I can not remember but
one married female who is perfectly healthy. . . .I am not able to recall,
in my immense circle of friends and acquaintance all over the Union, so many
as ten married ladies born in this century and country, who are perfectly
sound, healthy, and vigorous.
Pp. 132-133: Let these considerations now be taken into
account. The generation represented in these statistics, by universal consent,
is a feebler one than that which immediately preceded. Knowing the changes
in habits of living, in habits of activity, and in respect to pure air,
we properly infer that it must be so, while universal testimony corroborates
the inference.
The present generation of parents, then, have given their
children, so far as the mother has hereditary influence,1
feebler constitutions than the former generation received, so that most of
our young girls have started in life with a more delicate organization than
their mothers. Add to this the sad picture given in a former letter of all
the abuses of [p. 133] health suffered by the young during their early education,
and what are the present prospects of the young women who are now entering
married life?
This view of the case, in connection with some dreadful
developments which will soon be indicated, proved so oppressive and exciting
that it has been too painful and exhausting to attempt any investigation as
to the state of health among young girls.
LETTER NINETEENTH.
Abuses of Medical Treatment.
P. 136: In my travels I have met persons of both sexes,
of the highest cultivation and refinement, whose conduct was every way reputable,
and whose morals were never in any way impeached, who freely advocated the
doctrine that there was no true marriage but the union of persons who were
in love; that such union needed not legal or religious rites, and that it
was only held together by such restraints, who, having ceased to love each
other, were guilty of adultry in the only proper sense of the word. I have
seen books and papers freely circulated that advocate the same view by the
most plausible arguments.
Then, again, there are articles on physiology circulated
freely, that maintain that the exercise of all the functions of body and mind
is necessary to health, and that no perfectly-developed man or woman
is possible, so long as any of the functions and propensities are held in
habitual constraint. With these creeds is usually combined an entire want
of reverence for the Bible as authoritative in teaching truth or regulating
morals.
Let us now suppose the case of a physician, neither better
nor worse than the majority of that honorable profession. He has read the
writings of the semi-infidel school, till he has lost all reverence for the
Bible as authoritative in faith or practice. Of course he has no guide
left but his own feelings and notions. Then he gradually adopts the above
views in physiology and social life, and really believes them to be founded
on the nature of things, and the intuitive teachings of his own mind.
Next he has patients of interesting person and character put under his care,
and he very naturally takes the means, which these books and papers in his
reach afford, to lead them to adopt his views of truth and right on
these subjects. Then he daily has all the opportunities indicated [to prey
sexually upon his patients]. Does any one need more than to hear these facts
to know what the not infrequent results must be?
P. 137: So numerous and unsought, and from so
many different and unsuspected directions, and these cases involved so many
guilty perpetrators, not only of those connected with health establishments
but in private practice, that a most difficult and painful responsibility
became apparent.
After extensive consultation as to what should be done,
it has been decided that these intimations and an article from a medical source
prepared for the purpose [Note I. Communication From Mrs. Dr. R. B. Gleason, pp.
1*-16*], would furnish sufficient warning without any details.
A terrific feature of these developments has been the
entire helplessness of my sex, amidst present customs and feelings,
as to any redress for such wrongs, and the reckless and conscious impunity
felt by the wrong-doers on this ac-[p. 138]count. What can a refined, delicate,
sensitive woman do when thus insulted? The dreadful fear of publicity
shuts her lips and restrains every friend.
P. 138: Another alarming feature has been the character
of several of the physicians implicated. After intimate acquaintance with
several of them, I was impressed with the belief that they were, at least,
men of benevolence and professional honor, while in some cases their conversation
and deportment led to the hope they were persons of consistent piety.
Some initial reflections:
Despite the inadequacy of Beecher's survey, her "findings"
reflect the common perception of the day that middle- and upper-class women
were less healthy than their mothers and grandmothers. A quick way of seeing
how pervasive this view was is to look at some of the advertisements of the
period. Here
are several from Frederick Douglass' North Star. This belief, reinforced
by the new sentimentality about death, especially the death of young women,
helped create a cultural ambiance in which Cora Hatch could flourish.
Beecher also sought to raise the alarm about doctors
who sexually exploited female patients. Her explanation centered, perhaps
surprisingly, not on the character of the doctors, but on more general developments
in medicine and in religion. Indeed she concluded:
After intimate acquaintance with several of them, I
was impressed with the belief that they were, at least, men of benevolence
and professional honor, while in some cases their conversation and deportment
led to the hope they were persons of consistent piety.
A few pages earlier she wrote:
Let us now suppose the case of a physician, neither
better nor worse than the majority of that honorable profession. He has
read the writings of the semi-infidel school, till he has lost all reverence
for the Bible as authoritative in faith or practice. Of course he
has no guide left but his own feelings and notions. Then he gradually adopts
the above views in physiology and social life, and really believes them
to be founded on the nature of things, and the intuitive teachings
of his own mind. Next he has patients of interesting person and character
put under his care, and he very naturally takes the means, which these books
and papers in his reach afford, to lead them to adopt his views of truth
and right on these subjects. Then he daily has all the opportunities
indicated [to prey sexually upon his patients]. Does any one need more than
to hear these facts to know what the not infrequent results must be?
However exaggerated her view of female health, Beecher's
notion that the sexual exploitation of women by their doctors was "not
infrequent" was well-founded. The view of physiology she pointed to,
that every bodily function required exercise to maintain overall health, was
wide-spread. It is our stereotyped view of Victorian America which leads us
to believe, against the available evidence, that contemporaries did not discuss
sex or sexuality. Spiritualism, as the Hatch Divorce Case illustrates, achieved
significant notoreity precisely because its adherents allegedly practiced
"Free Love."
There was a good deal of sexual experimentation during
the period, ranging from John Humphrey Noyes' Oneida community (which practiced
a kind of controlled polygamy called "sexual communion") to the
celibate Shaker Villages to the Mormons. As a result, while the supposed licentiousness
of spiritualists undoubtedly frigthened and horrified many, it attracted others.