TIGHT LACING.

580 of energy, is confident that materialistic theories are alli orm of different parts is familiar to all as an effect of disease; open to one final and fundamental objection-namely, that nd many a man or woman, after an attack of pleurisy they presuppose mental attributes in the very matter out of 1 ;erminating in empyema and adhesions, possesses an unwhich they construct the theoretical mind. The objection, i ,ymmetrical thorax, which nevertheless serves him or her if objection it be, undoubtedly lies against that theory veil throughout a long and active life. The body, in other which the preacher had especially in mind, and is even its vords, permits considerable liberties to be taken with it salient feature. Indeed, it may with equal truth be said without serious impairment of health ; and if pressure of the that the tendency of modern thought is to materialise our ’best were commenced in early childhood, and steadily views of mind, or that it is to enlarge and spiritualise our persisted in, no doubt still greater deviation than is com. views of matter. The crude notion of something gross and monly seen could be induced. As a matter of fact, how. inert no longer satisfies the most sceptical of scientists as a wer, in this country such pressure is not applied ; the definition of the material part of the universe. He discerns ;tays given to girls by sensible mothers up to the age of vehement molecular action under the surface of its massive ’ourteen or fifteen are soft, and exert little more pressure repose: there is heat in its polar ice, tension in its most :;han the waistcoat of a boy. At that age, when the figure mobile fluids, elasticity in its toughest solids, and an inter- naturally changes, the firmer support is taken into use, and penetrating ether in the recesses of its most compact and :;he amount of harm it occasions is dependent on the degree coherent masses. Would it be surprising if the crowning to which support becomes compression. There are no doubt discovery were still further to modify our opinion of many girls who, desirous of making themselves conspicuous this strange and ill-comprehended entity, and were to and, as they foolishly believe, attractive, tighten their reveal in what we, " in our ignorance of its latent waists to such an extent as to incapacitate them for taking powers, and notwithstanding our professed reverence exercise and for the necessary ingestion of food ; they con. for its Creator, have hitherto covered with opprobrium," a equently become weak, pallid, and chlorotic. These evils capacity, barely suspected heretofore, of unfolding the are, moreover, intensified by the rapidity with which the highest manifestations of life and thought? Are there not compression has been applied, and all who are interested in heaven and earth more things than are " dreamt of in in their welfare should exert themselves to point out the our philosophy"? From such materialism-if, indeed, egregious folly of such a practice. Upon the aesthetic side materialism be an apt term by which to describe it-the of the question there is little to be said; here, as in so Christian moralist has nothing to fear. For our own part, many other controversial questions, de gustibus non est indeed, we hold that the authority of morals and the disputandum. Amongst the Greeks, for ages the arbiters truths of- religion are not in any case contingent upon the of taste, the women wore an apology for stays, and we regnant physical philosophy. The inward needs which they are told that at a very early period the girdle was satisfy, the outward facts which they serve to generalise, strengthened by metal, and long before the Christian era and the profound emotions to which they give expression, a broad band or belt was worn next the skin to support Their language may the breasts. According to Planche, the practice of tight are as permanent as humanity itself. undergo modification, their sanctions may be subject from lacing appears to have been introduced by the Normans as time to time to change, but the unquenchable thirst for early as the twelfth century, and has been in use ever since. truth, the inexpugnable reverence for right, will continue in We apprehend the ordinary Englishman, though he may the future, as in the past, to make morality something wonder at, does not really admire, a wasp-like figure. Both hygienically and aesthetically, tight lacing is a more than a way of reconciling opposing interests, and religion nothing less than the highest devotion of the mistake. Yet it must be remembered that, partly as a result of climatic conditions, partly from abundance of food noblest spirits among the sons of men. and absence of severe work, and partly perhaps from the hereditary effect of sexual selection, a large proportion of TIGHT LACING. the young women of England, of the middle classes at AMONGST the various subjects to which the members ot least, are disposed to the accumulation of fat in the breasts, the British Association directed their attention at the late and though from the age of seventeen to twenty-four the meeting at Bath, and upon which the ladies attending the breasts may be firm and prominent, yet after that period Biological Section may fairly be regarded as competent to they are apt, without artificial support, to become flaccid express an opinion, was the custom of women to wear stays. and pendulous. The advantage of support, however, is no The discussion might have been considered a mere playful argument for the employment of compression. Dr. Hoyle interlude introduced by Professor Roy and Mr. Adami to made a good hit in saying that no woman regarded herself enliven the proceedings, were it not that trivial subjects- as properly dressed unless she felt a little uncomfortable. trivial, that is, from the Association’s point of view- He might have added that the proportion of discomfort are most likely to excite the bitterest feelings. The experienced may be pretty safely taken as the measure of of corsets has two which deserve wearing really aspects, mischief being effected in the willing victim of tight lacing. separate consideration-the hygienic and the aesthetic. From the hygienic point of view, the question resolves itself THERAPEUTIC METHODS. into one of the degree to which the compression, or, as women say, the support, of the chest is carried, and the WE take the following passage from a clever, if somewhat rapidity with which that degree is attained. The body as satirical, paper entitled " Therapeutic Nihilism," by Dr. Maurice Clarke, which was read before the Massachusetts a whole, and the several organs composing it, have a wonderful power of accommodation to surrounding circumstances, Medical Society.1 " Some men are naturally disposed to permitting changes of form and even of position that appear look at disease from the standpoint of preventive medicine; at first sight incredible, without material impairment of some from that of hygiene ; some with a reverence for the function. If the form of so unyielding a part as the head vis medicatrix natur6c; some with a belief in active medication. The latter position is certainly the most attraccan be greatly altered, with preservation of ordinary brain tive to the average medical man, and, in the presence of as occurs power, amongst many savage tribes, by pressure it is the most acceptable to the laity, in serious begun early and steadily continued, we may be sure that any of theillness, of that therapeutic opera popularity spite much more might be accomplished if similar pressure were homoeopathy. Again, some men incline to run after new as the chest without to so mobile a

bouffe,

applied

part

impeding the function of respiration.

greatly

Such moulding of the

1

Boston Medical and

Surgical Journal, Aug. 30th.