TIGHT LACING.

Clutha Leader, Volume I, Issue 39, 8 April 1875, Page 3

TIGHT LACING.

A correspondent of the ' Englishwoman's Magazine' says-*-" Will you allow me to offer a few words upon the tight lacing, which just now appears to be exciting mueh interest ? lam an elderly woman, the mother of daughters, and the widow of a medical man, who freely imparted to me much knowledge not often possessed by non-professional persons. I therefore claim to make my protest against this terrible evil on three grounds : — Ist. The practice of stiff corsets and tight-lacing, so far from procuring grace and symmetry of figure, has precisely the contrary effect, and the redundant material is pushed into parts of the frame which become frightfully augmented- All observation, poetry, tradition, and history, prove the incomparable beauty of form existing in Eastern women. Their lithe, supple, and elegant figures have never felt compression, and the . willow, acacia, and palm are used as similitudes to express the mingled delicacy and statliness of their appearance. All classical figures — the Venus, flebe, and Aphrodite, those * statues which enchant the world,' are models of female beauty untouched by this barbarous influence, 2nd. The physical results of severe and continued pressure are deplorable. Ido not know how far your pages may be open to a frank exposition of this part of my subject, and I must, therefore, touch it lightly, although it is of the most grave and momentous consequence. Suffice it to say, that I believe were these matters fully known, every sensible and conscientious woman had rather be cubical in her shape than incur the risk of such terrible calamities to herself and her future offspring, Impeded circulation, congested brain, heart disease, pulmonary disorders of various kinds, displaced internal organs, dyspepsia, these are a few of the most ordinary and obvious results of tightlacing- ; while in very many instances the effects are such as cannot well be detailed here. Some escape, or appear to do so ; but exceptions never disprove a rule. Some are specially robust, and defy ordinary probabilities ; some abandon the pernicious practice in time to avoid its penalties ; and how many do we fail to trace, or hear of in their subsequent career of suffering, infirmity, and premature death !- 3rd. The incidental evils of red noses, mottled and spotty complexion, ungraceful protuberance above or below the line of attenuation, short breath, difficulty in stooping, &c. Where is the cleanliness, refinement and delicacy of a female who would wear any kind of covering continually for six weeks, with only an hour's intervel once a week ? Depend on it, the purity, freshness, and fragrance arising from daily ablution and scrupulous cleanliness are ten thousand times more attractive to any man than a waist pinched to the very narrowest limits. The only advocates of the system are those who live by the construction of the apparatus for crushing 1 the human frame, and those, bitterly ignorant of physiology, who blindly resign themselves to this martyrdom at the sbrine of fallen taste and senseless fashion.