CORSETS IN FRANCE.

j A DOCTOR'S PROPOSAL. One of the best known ladies' doctors- in Paris, Dr Marechal, has proposed a law against the wearing of corsets by any woman under thirty years of age ; he has, it is said, found a deputy who will submit bis proposition to the Chamber. By Dr Marechal's new law any woman under thirty who imprisons her form in a corset of any kind whatever, shall be liable to a term of imprisonment of from one month to three months, and a fine varying from £54 to £540, according to the circumstances of the case. The sale of corsets is to be prohibited, except to women over thirty, and any infringement of this law is to be punished by fifteen months' imprisonment, and a fine of £540, besides the confiscation of every corset in the shop of the offender. In .addition to these restrictions, every corset vendor is to be compelled by law to keep a register on which is to be noted the age of each one of his customers, her name and her address, and he is to insist upon the production of an official document proving her age before he makes a sale. Dr Maracbal declares that, owing to the use of corsets, an abuse which has existed for four hundred years, the female form divine has become a monstrosity. Of every one hundred girls who wear the thing, says Dr Marechal, twenty-five are bound to die consumptive, fifteen will die when their first baby is born, and fifteen suffer from different diseases after the birth of their first child. Other maladies will carry off another 15 per cent, and only 30 per cent of corset-wearers may hope to escape scot free. These figures, according to Dr Marechal, can be fully proved. Dr Marechal's law is causing considerable amusement.