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Lacing Tight

Sources: Papers On Health

This produces such serious deformity, and in many ways

so interferes with the health of women, that we are constrained to

write upon the subject. We find in cases which come before us that

lacing, both of the feet and the waist, as practised by our women, has

caused disease, and prevents our curing it. To begin with the lacing of

boots. There is a certain form and size of foot which are supposed to

be graceful. To obta
n this, boots unsuitable in shape, and far too

small in size, are used, and tightly laced down upon the foot and

ankle, preventing circulation of the blood in these important parts.

This causes corns and misshapen toes and nails; but its bad effects are

also felt throughout all the body. We have pointed out in other

articles the great curative power of bathing or fomenting the feet. The

tight lacing of boots produces exactly the opposite effect. It is as

powerful to injure as the other to cure. Cold feet are the cause of

many most serious troubles. To keep tight-booted feet warm is almost

impossible. True neatness abhors all such mistaken treatment of the

feet. Moreover, no supposed good shape, in body or feet, can ever

produce the impression of beauty which good health never fails to give,

so that the tightly-booted high-heeled girl or woman defeats her own

object.



A yet more serious evil is the wearing of corsets. From this comes very

much of the ill-health from which women suffer. The stomach, liver, and

other organs are forced downward, their proper blood supply is cut off,

and indigestion, constipation, headache and backache are the inevitable

consequence. The pressure of these organs causes falling of the womb

and the terrible troubles which employ two-thirds of the fashionable

surgeons. These have not failed to denounce the folly which brings so

many patients to them.



Dr. Herbert Snow, the great authority on cancer, and physician to the

London Cancer Hospital, attributes almost wholly to the use of corsets

the fact that for one man who dies of cancer two women die of it. The

compression of the womb makes it specially liable to be attacked, while

the rubbing of the hard edge of the corset on the breast sets up cancer

there.



Besides its evil effects on the abdominal organs, the lungs also

suffer, the ribs are prevented from expanding and so the wearer can

never breathe as deeply as is necessary. The muscles of the abdomen and

trunk are greatly weakened; indeed to this is due the fact that a woman

who is accustomed to corsets has great difficulty in giving them up.

She feels as if she would "come to pieces" if not supported by them.



The exercises given in the appendix will help to restore tone to these

muscles, and with perseverance in these, vigor and health will return,

and the deformities such as flat or hollow chest, drooping shoulders,

and protuberant abdomen, caused by muscular weakness, will disappear.



As we have said (see Skin, Care of) clothing should be loose and

porous in order that the skin may perform its functions. Corsets are

both tight and impervious. The constriction of any part of the body by

tight bands, and the hanging of the clothes from the hips, are highly

injurious.



It is frequently urged that corsets are necessary if a woman is to have

well-fitting clothes and a neat figure, but this is by no means the

case. We illustrate a "good health waist" which has the advantage of

allowing freedom of movement and respiration, producing no constriction

of any part, and yet being well-fitting. Buttons are arranged, as shown

in the illustration, to support the skirts so that their weight falls

equally from the shoulders. This waist can be had from the Good Health

Supply Department, 451 Holloway Road, London, N., who will send

particulars on receipt of a post card.



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