PUBERTY (Pubertas), the age at which the period of boyhood or girlhood ends, and that of adolescence begins. [Aoz.] The word is derived from pubes, which in its primary signification means the down or soft hair that generally begins to grow on young people about that time. Puberty appears at various ages, according to the climate, the circumstances connected with education, and the constitution of the individual. The usual period in this country is from the twelfth to the fourteenth year for females, and from the fourteenth to the six teenth for males. In the northern parts of the island it is often a year or two later in both sexes. Women iu all countries reach the period of puberty one or two years before men ; and the inhabitants of warm before those of cold climates. In the hottest regions of Africa, Asia, and America, girls arrive at puberty at ten, or even at nine years of age ; in Franco not till thirteen, fourteen, or fifteen ; whilst in Sweden, Russia, and Denmark this period is not attained till from two to throe years later.
Occasionally however an extraordinary precocity exhibits itself in the development of both males and females. It is not necessary to dwell at any great length upon instances of exemplification, which may be traced in great numbers in the writings of physiologists who have been curious upon this subject. Those who are desirous of doing
so may turn to the 'Journal des Sovans' for 1638, and the Philo sophical Transactions' for 1745; and other instances in Dr. Good's Practice of Medicine.' , The period which commences with puberty is, both as regards the mind and the body, one of the most important epochs of human existence; for, says Dr. Copland (` Dictionary of Practical Medicine'), during it the natural development of the sexual organs imparts a health and tonic excitement throughout the economy, bringing to their state of full perfection all the organs of the body, and all the manifestations of mind, excepting those that are derived from ex perience. It is chiefly during this period of life that the mind becomes stored with ideas, derived both from the learning of the ancients, the science of the moderns, and the arta and accomplishments of highly civilised life ; and is more particularly and more ardently engaged in decomposing the information thus acquired, and recombining it in new and useful attractive forms.