Neckline

“ She sought out a black necktie and pinned it about her waist, and then, with a protesting frown, she deliberately tore a strip from the edge of one of the fine hem-stitched handkerchiefs, and folded it in about her neck in a turn-over collar. ”

“ The headsman handled it with the caressing hand of an artist, poised it lightly in the air, and brought it down with a swish upon my niece's swanlike neck. I had a swanlike neck when younger.
"Huzza!" cried the hireling crowd. But they had shouted too soon. As the keen edge neared her golden ringlets, the ax-head left the handle and becoming a garland of flowers encircled her neck in a really effective manner. I could not but admire the esthetic value of the colors against her fair skin. Old men are somewhat forgetful, and I do not distinctly recall whether I have mentioned my niece's beauty. ”

“ Another way of making the neck look trim with a low neck dress is to wear an inch wide piece of black velvet around the neck. Make the ribbon to fit the neck and fasten it with snaps in the back or with small gold pins.
Coats of soft velour made with long shawl collar or revers and finished with a narrow belt are usually becoming to the mature woman. The older woman will do well to avoid the extreme fads of fashion, for to be really becoming, her clothes must have a certain dignity. ”

“ I don't like your fad for cutting down the bust. The neck is nothing but a connecting link between the head and the bust. Now here you have a charming and youthful head and face—let the neck at least suggest the woman below. ”

“ Sweep by the front shoulder measure less the back neck from F. Add 1 inch to this quantity, and sweep again from 201⁄2, and where these segments cross locate the neck point. Sweep from F by the over-shoulder measure less to C to J of the back, and make G K a trifle lens than the corresponding width of the back. G to X at H 1⁄6, neck. H to J is 1⁄6 neck plus 1⁄4 inch. The average neck for the 36-inch breast is 153⁄4. Square down from 201⁄2, and drop the waist line in front 3⁄4 inch. Reduce the waist by a fish under the arms of 1 inch, and another in the front of 3⁄4 inch. ”

“ The poking of the head is remedied by our Patent Collar for the Neck, which fits under the chin, and supports it in its natural position. It is worn without any pressure. The elastic nature of the substance allows of perfect free motion of the neck. ”

“ They then all begin at once, in a very prolonged and harmonious tone, to cry, “The neck!” at the same time slowly raising themselves upright, and elevating their arms and hats above their heads; the person with the neck also raising it on high. ”

“ We must see for the first time the strangely small head set on a neck not only longer but thicker than itself, as the face of a gargoyle is thrust out upon a gutter-spout, the one disproportionate crest of hair running along the ridge of that heavy neck like a beard in the wrong place ”

“ Have I not made myself beautiful? See! My hair just as you like it, high, and my neck uncovered. But my poor neck is so extremely shy that it never could have displayed itself in the broad light, if I had not encouraged it a little by wearing a low-necked gown. After all, it is only right to be in full-dress uniform at a supper with the authority. ”

“ The neck that has supported heavy loads, and has not responded to the varied requirements of delicate changes of position of head and body, will appear massive and clumsy. These physiognomic differences must not mislead us in our interpretations. But even without them, we are inclined to draw inferences in regard to mentality from a receding forehead, a heavy jaw, 24large and heavy teeth, perhaps even from an inordinate length of arms or an unusual development of hairiness. ”

“ A woman's neck is full of entrancing curves; a man's neck very strong, very muscular, and consequently rather thick.
As with all other parts of the human body, necks exist in every variety—short necks, long necks, thick, thin, muscular, strong, feeble, and fat; but, and the fact is worth noting, the base of the neck where it joins the body is always its thickest part.
With this slight introduction to the general proportion and shape of the head, we can next turn our attention to the face and the features.
One hears many curious remarks from young artists ”

“ Though the head is large, the features are almost negligible, the tiny neck is a mere roll of fat. Baby has a larger round eye, a flat wide nostril, a button of a nose, and a half-open, flower-like mouth. ”

“ The muscles of the neck should not be compressed. If the muscles of the neck and larynx are compressed by a high cravat, or other close dressing, not only will the free and energetic movements of these parts be impeded, but the tones will be feeble and ineffective. Therefore the dress of the neck, particularly of public speakers and singers, should be loose and thin. For a warm dress upon the neck, when the vocal organs are in action, will induce too great a flow of blood to these parts, which will be attended by subsequent debility. ”

“ Where youth is shown, the upper eyelids and skin under the eyebrow are delicately rouged. If hollows in the cheeks, temples, or neck are wanted, these are the next things to be done, and the outlines of the cheeks may be rounded out with light shades or made to assume eccentric shaped with darker ones. The muscles of the neck may need bringing out, and hollows put under each side of the chin. ”

“ The tip of the nose has more than three times the power of distinguishing relative positions which the lower part of the forehead has. Can this greater power be shown to have any advantage? The back of the hand has scarcely more discriminative ability than the crown of the head, and has only one-fourteenth of that which the finger-tip has. ”

“ While we view the general lateral outline of the neck, we find that, in the same measure as the blood vessels ascend from the thorax to the skull, they recede from the fore-part of the root of the neck to the angle of the jaw, whereby a much greater interval occurs between them and the mental symphysis, or the apex of the thyroid cartilage, than happens between them and the top of the sternum, as they lie at the root of the neck. ”

“ Then a neck exquisitely turned, graved behind and on the sides with fais hair, playing freely in natural ringlets, connected his head to a body of the most perfect form, and of the most vigorous contexture, in which all the strength of manhood was concealed, and softened to appearance by the delicacy of his complexion, the smoothness of his skin, and the plumpness of his flesh. ”

“ A thick neck is jammed like a post into the heavy trunk of his body. His arms with their big, hairy, freckled hands, and his stumpy legs terminating in large flat feet, are awkwardly short and muscular. ”

“ In regard to the body generally, it also makes a more striking display of its shapes, than in any former part of life; the neck grows thin and fine; the withers grow sharp, and give an appearance of increased length and obliquity to the shoulder ”

“ Don't worry yourself into your grave about too much flesh or a lack of it unless you find yourself taking on the extreme proportions of a skeleton lady, or a museum exhibit of unusual plumpness. A thin neck may be a bad thing—as all girls so afflicted can testify—but if that thin neck is rebellious, and pays absolutely no attention to tonics or massage or other coddling for which it should rightly be grateful, then merely say, "All right, if you insist!" ”

“ Extending from behind the ear to the forepart of the collar-bone, they are always more strongly developed in a boy than in a girl, and in a man than in a woman. These you can feel at the root of the neck and the forepart of the throat by twisting your head right and left ”

“ When the necks are thoroughly cured in the sun, turn them right-side-out again and place them on your children's shoulders. Then they will find it does not hurt them to swallow.'
"I thanked the great Doctor and returned home, where I did as he had told me. For the last three days the necks of not only my children but of my wife and myself, as well, have been hanging on the bushes to be cured; so we could not possibly have eaten your plum-pudding. Indeed, it was only an hour ago when I finished putting the neck on the last of my children, and at that moment your soldiers came and arrested me." ”

“ In some necks only a small depression is visible, particularly when the trapezius has a broad insertion into the clavicle, and comes well forwards, so that its front border gives a graceful contour to the base of the neck. ”

“ The skin is fine, thin, and extensible, especially below and in front; becoming coarser and more adherent toward the upper part of the posterior triangle; it frequently presents some transverse wrinkling above the hyoid bone, which seems to depend on the platysma myoides; here, too, the follicles are larger and more abundant than in the other parts of the neck, and, in the male subject, the surface is overgrown by the beard. ”

“ The shortness is principally owing to his inability to hold the face properly elevated, in consequence of which the chin drops down, and conceals the upper part of the neck. The flatness depends on the little muscular and cellular substance present, and on the great breadth of the neck, which takes from its natural rotundity. ”

“ The adult has the face, front, and sides of the neck, all the under surface, sides, and back, dark or blackish-brown, passing into dark slaty grey on the extremities of the limbs; the hinder half of the crown, the nape and back of the neck, rich deep fawn-colour. ”

“ The neck should, by the gentlest curvature, form an almost insensible transition between the body and the head. It should also present fulness sufficient to conceal the projection of the flute part of the throat in front, and of the two large muscles which descend from behind the ears toward the pit above the breast-bone. ”

“ The figure should be slender without being bony, the waist long and the hips narrow. To secure grace, the body should be held slightly forward, not boldly erect. A very important feature is the neck, which should be long, white, slender, and gracefully curved. ”

“ The chin of the critter seems to be so long that the weight of it holds his mouth open.
We have with us now the neck. To speak like a poet I’d say that he had the neck of a swan. Maybe not so graceful, but longer. ”

“ The neck is short, the arms and body have no particular mark of beauty or elegance in their formation, but are rather clumsy; and the limbs in all are very small in proportion to the other parts, and crooked or ill-made, with large feet badly shaped, and projecting ancles. ”

“ The neck and the rounded shoulders are connected by gracefully curved lines, whereas a man’s neck is placed more at a right angle to the more straight and angular shoulders.... The hair is softer, the skin more tender and transparent. All the forms are more covered over with adipose tissue, and connected by those gradual transitions which produce the gently rounded outlines; whereas in a man everything—muscles, sinews, blood-vessels, bones—is more conspicuous. ”

“ We can hardly suppose that disuse would maintain or develop the projecting chin, increase its perpendicular height till the jaw is deepest and strongest at its extremity, evolve a side flange, and enlarge [10] the upper jaw-bone to form part of a more prominent nose, while drawing back the savagely obtrusive teeth and lips to a more pleasing and subdued position of retirement and of humanized beauty. ”

“ The effect of the bits upon the mouth and neck produces a cause and effect. The mouth refuses because the neck resists, the neck refuses because the mouth resists. This difficulty is found in the different conformations, and to obviate it, the alternate flexions of mouth and neck are the proper work. ”

“ We may repeat that it consists in an upward elongation of the head, with a receding forehead, delicate features, but rather sharp and prominent face, in which a long and straight or gently aquiline nose forms a principal feature. The eye is sometimes oblique, the chin short and retracted, the lips rather tumid, and the hair whenever it is represented, long and flowing. ”

“ The fashion most in vogue, is to make a stripe down the forehead along the nose to the chin, and another in a direct angle across from ear to ear, indented in a peculiar way, so as to give the face the appearance of its having been sewed together in four parts. ”

“ When the torticollis attitude has been corrected in childhood, the asymmetry of the skull disappears.
Spasmodic wry-neck is the term applied to a condition in which clonic contractions of certain muscles produce jerkings of the head. The muscles most frequently at fault are the sterno-mastoid and trapezius of one side, and the posterior rotators of the opposite side. By these muscles the head is pulled into the wry-neck position, and is at the same time retracted, and there is more or less constant nodding or jerking of the head. ”

“ It is worthy of remark, that the distortion of the neck is often com­plicated, with roundness of the shoulders, in consequence of the violent contraction of the pectoral muscles, which are not properly counter­balanced by the muscles of the back. ”

“ Attacks upon the neck may be discovered in great variety by the diligent student. For instance, let him seize his own neck with each hand wrapped half-way around. The thumbs should press hard against the "Adam's apple," while the finger-tips dig forcibly in exactly the centre of the hollow that is found just at the base of the skull. ”