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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>From: Minden <phminden@arcor.de><BR>>>Menarche, which dropped
from about 17 years to less than 12 during the last 150 years. (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puberty#Historical_shift ) It's difficult to
extrapolate to the time of the gemore, though - it depends on a list of factors
such as ethnic genetics, nutrition and the like.<<</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2><BR>Lipman Phillip Minden<BR><BR>>>>>><BR>AFAIK the
average age of menarche has always been about age 12. It is delayed
in those places and times where malnutrition is widespread. The wikipedia
article doesn't really tell you much because it mentions only a few countries
and starts counting from 1840, beginning of Industrial Revolution, when poverty
and malnutrition initially worsened. <BR></DIV></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT lang=0 face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"><BR><B>--Toby Katz<BR>=============<BR></FONT><FONT lang=0
face=Arial color=#000000 size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"></B>President
Reagan talked with the Soviets while pushing ahead with the deployment of Cruise
and Pershing missiles in Europe. He spoke softly — after getting himself a
bigger stick. --Mark Steyn</FONT><FONT lang=0 face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
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