SANITARY SUBJECTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1341, 11 August 1877, Page 19

SANITARY SUBJECTS.

Miss Martha Turner, who is one of the -rice-presidents of the Australian Health Society, recently delivered a capital lecture at Melbourne, under the title of " Familiar Talk on Sanitary Subjects." Alluding to the necessity of. taking exercise, she said: — "Adequate physical exercise was difficult to get, particularly for girls and young women. Women to whom walking was recommended had two foes to contend against — cheap caba and heavy clothing. There were few who would not find some good excuse for not walking when they could be drivm two or three miles for 3d. * Think,' they ■aid *of the saving of our clothes.' Yes, and let them also think of the damage they did to their livers. When she sawhow they dressed, she did not wonder much at their distaste to walking. When 24 yards of material had to be carried in one garment, and the train must be held in the hand, then, with an umbrella and the inevitable three volume novel, a lady was heavily weighted. But when the weight- came to be poised on heels two

inches high and about the size of a shilling at the base — (laughter) — then no doubt people would rather ride than walk. — (Cheers and laughter.) Any change which was to take place in the habits of life must necessarily be slow, and would only come through the growth of right feeling and sound public opinion, based on a more common-sense view of the usages and habits that controlled our lives."