W. E. Fothergill

“ The use of the corset is to transmit the pressure of the skirt-bands to the hips and the ribs, and so to protect from their pressure the organs in the region of the waist. The conclusion is that so long as skirt-bands are fastened round the waist, corsets should be worn. They should be stiffer than usually made if they are effectively to protect the soft middle portion of the body from the pressure of the waist-band. The front should be quite straight, and the waist measurement should be at least as large as the wearer's waist measured over a single soft garment. ”

“ Most girls fill out rapidly on the advent of puberty, and such subjects would suffer most from a corset fixed in size, to say nothing of the fact that stoutishly inclined young women would be just the ones to entertain most anxiety about the size of their waists, and to take most pains with them. ”

“ As to age, it is commonest in the decade following puberty, It occurs mainly in young women and girls who live by bodily work, and accordingly have, as a rule, good muscular development. Again, chlorotic women are well nourished in general. They belong to a class which feeds well, though not always judiciously, and if starved it is not by want of food, but by inability to digest it—by the dyspepsia which is secondary to the anæmia. ”

“ The injury to the liver is often caused by tight lacing before pregnancy."
... Some forms of anæmia are closely related to hepatic toxæmia. They resist all treatment until the liver is relieved from pressure by loosening the corset, when the addition of calomel to the ordinary treatment is quickly followed by success. Anæmia of this kind is a frequent forerunner of toxæmic troubles during pregnancy." ”

“ For they have not gone to the root of the matter, and have not realised that In the modern dress of woman the corset is an essential factor. From the point of view of dress, the human body consists of three portions. There is an upper part with bony walls—the chest; a lower part with bony walls—the pelvis; and a middle part with soft anterior and lateral walls between the two. Consider the dress of a labouring man! He wears a coat and waist­coat which he removes when at work. ”

“ Innumerable women doubtless alter the out­ward conformation of their bodies, and also the shape size and arrangement of their livers and other viscera, without causing any derangement of health which Can be directly traced to tight lacing. In any variation from health, however, the habit goes against the patient, aggravates alimentary, respiratory and circulatory disturbances, and often prevents complete restora­tion. In short, the fashion weakens the strong;, and may cause positive disease in the weak. Take, for example, this common form of anæmia known as chlorosis. ”

“ Thus the Moorish dancer wears a short jacket covering the shoulders and chest, and a divided skirt whose band rests on the hips below the iliac crests, the middle soft part of the body between thorax and pelvis being left uncovered or protected by a soft garment which exercises no pressure on the waist. Thus the Oriental woman and the western labour­ing man support their lower garments in the same way, namely, on the hip bones. The ordinary civilised man who does not work hard transmits the weight of his lower garments by braces to his shoulders. ”

“ Taking the above questions in the order they come, the only answer forthcoming to the first is, that women are clothed differently to men, and that young women or girls, not having become as yet accustomed to tight lacing, continue to suffer until their shapes are permanently altered, and the abdominal organs have become acclimatised to the change of locality. ”

“ It must be allowed, however, that fashion in corsets has of late made a move in the right direction, which, it is to be hoped, will be per­manent. The modern article with straight, stiff front is certainly much better than its predecessor which had a pronounced curve in the midriff, and lessened the waist by pushing out the ab­domen. ”

“ Many of the cases will not yield to the administration of iron, even if the liver be attacked with calomel and the bone marrow stimulated with arsenic at the same time. A fortnight in bed works wonders in these cases, probably because putting the patient to bed is the only way in which she can be made to take off her corsets. ”

“ During pregnancy this measurement should be gradually increased as the uterus grows and rises. It is clear that so long as women hang their skirts round their waists they must have corsets to protect their waists from their skirts. ”