# Caplin - Health and Beauty (1864)/Chapter IV

CHAPTER IV.
CLOTHING FROM THE AGE OF ONE TO TWELVE YEARS.
"It is quite as cruel to compress the chest, to weigh down the form, to impede the movements at thirteen years of age, as to swathe the infant of thirteen days; quite as wicked to slowly poison the body with close vitiated air and unwholesome food, when the mind is rapidly unfolding, and the individual is beginning to sustain wider external relations, as to injure by the same means the unopened life of the infant. Throughout the whole period of youth, the watchfulness of maternal love must enfold the organic life of the advancing being, and provide for its necessities."
Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell.
WE will next suppose that Baby has been short-coated, and has attained sufficient muscular strength to pre­serve the erect position whilst sitting in its nurse's arms. Now is the time when its dress becomes a matter of very serious consideration, ​as the bones are now attaining something like solidity, and any deviation from the proper position of the body will, day by day, become more difficult to remedy. If the same influences of which I have before spoken be continued, the spine will, even at this early age, show symptoms of yielding; the natural curves of the vertebral column will be more or less distorted, the shoulders will present a rounded appearance, and the size and form of the chest have undergone injurious modification. The weight of the child by this time will become too great to permit of its constant carriage in the nurse's or the mother's arms, and it is therefore too frequently seated in a chair sufficiently high to enable it to reach the table. In front of the chair a bar is placed for the purpose of guarding against the possibility of a fall. The child is thus literally forced into a certain position, and its playthings being put before it, it will naturally reach forward to grasp them. Now mark the result. The round­ness of the shoulders and projection of the scapula are increased by the forward motion of the baby's arms; and if heavy substances are given it to play with, their weight, at the end of these levers, adds to the injury, while the chest being pressed against the transverse bar, is driven inwards with a force ​proportioned to the infant's exertions; so that the more active and energetic the child, the greater is the injury done. All this while the feet are rest­ing on a board placed underneath them, the lover extremities being thus impeded in their movements; the head falls more and more forward, the muscles of the back are weakened and elongated, while those of the chest derive considerable strength from their constant exercise; the clavicles are unable to support the shoulders in their proper position, and therefore bend, or are forced from their natural situation; the cavity of the chest is diminished, and the foundation of numerous disorders is laid.
We cannot help in this place adverting to the habit so frequently adopted by nursery-maids of dragging the child by the arm during the process of teaching it to walk. The unhappy infant is con­signed to the care of an inexperienced nursemaid, who, in her anxiety to pass a crossing, seizes the baby by the hand, and literally drags it across, regardless of the child's feet not touching the ground. The poor baby stumbles in its passage over the rough ground, and the nurse being en­gaged in preserving herself from the probability of being run over by the cabs or omnibuses which are constantly passing, rushes across, and at the end of ​her unnecessary journey beats the poor infant for its clumsiness. By this practice the shoulder of the child may be dislocated, or the clavicle broken, while the spine becomes completely distorted. The same thing will sometimes occur with boys who, when very young, are taken out for a walk by their parents. The father walks on with long and rapid strides, holding the child by the hand, and as he does not consider that his step is much longer than that of his offspring, he tells the child to "step out like papa." The boy endeavours to obey, and the result is that the pelvis becomes ricketty and deformed. The late lamented Thomas Hood, whose sagacity nothing escaped, has in one of his Comic Annuals given a good illustration of this subject by a wood engraving entitled "A Step Father," in which he represents a poor child being dragged along in the manner I speak of.
Let us now suppose that the period has arrived for the education of the girl, who, in her infancy has been subjected to the injurious influences against which we have endeavoured to warn our readers; and let us consider whether the course of education ordinarily pursued is calculated to cor­rect or to increase the evils already described. It unfortunately often happens that precocity of mind ​is allied with physical weakness; and this may be accounted for by the fact, that in a child brought up without the necessary exercise of the muscles, the blood so constantly forced from the heart is carried to the brain, which is thereby stimulated to undue exertion. Indications of ex­traordinary mental ability are thus engendered, and the delighted parents, solacing themselves with the belief that time will work wonders in their daughter's behalf, and that her mental powers will compensate for her physical debility, determine on sending her to boarding-school in order that her mind may be properly cultivated—forgetful or ignorant of the wise maxim enunciated by the ancient philosopher, who truly said that a sound mind could only exist in a healthy body. Fond, though mistakenly fond as the mother may be, she cheerfully parts with her child, and consigns her to the care of strangers at a period when all her efforts should have been directed to the repression of what we may truly call a morbid cerebral activity. The business of a child is play, and this is proved by its anxiety to relieve the monotony of study by a hearty laugh, or a healthy scamper through the fields. Believe me, that children should not be compelled to study, until the equilibrium between ​the body and mind has been perfectly established; and the instances in which an infant prodigy has in maturer years fulfilled the promise of its youth are few indeed. No! they have been like hothouse plants, forced to yield their blossoms before the time for flowering had arrived; and now whilst their hardier but later neighbours are strong and healthy, these victims of early culture are falling into decay, and repaying the pains taken in their development by an early death.
Arrived at school, let us now inquire into the method by which these latent energies and talents are to be matured. To do this effectually, it will be necessary to review the means and appliances which are brought to bear upon female education; and in doing this we are well aware that many ladies conducting such establishments are unremitting in their en­deavours to promote the health and happiness of their pupils, and attribute many of the evils of that system to the extreme anxiety of parents to see their ​children eclipse their fellow-students by the multiplicity and brilliancy of their acquirements. The conductors of schools are therefore, from pecuniary motives, compelled to gratify the vanity of the parents, though their own feelings might prompt them to relax the discipline, and afford leisure for more healthful physical exercise. It is due to the accomplished members of the scholastic profession to say thus much, as we all know the difficulty—­nay, the impossibility—of conforming to all the whims which are dictated by parental soli­citude.
The first evil to be complained of in large educational establishments is the crowding together of a great number of children in small or insufficiently ventilated apartments. If a fresh supply of pure air be not constantly admitted, the carbon given off from the thirty or forty pairs of lungs accumulates, and is respired over and over again; the children become listless, and complain of headache and a sensation of tightness across the chest. Most adults are familiar with this feeling after sitting for some time in a crowded church or theatre; and it is so common in the latter place as to have acquired the title of "a playhouse headache." The dormitories ​of schools are also often insufficiently ventilated, in consequence of a very unnecessary apprehension of the ill effects of fresh air, which, if introduced freely and without draughts, never did, and never will do any injury. Children are also generally put two in a bed—a practice which we do not approve, but which cannot always be avoided. Where this is the case they should change sides every night; as, from their natural dislike to breathing in each other's faces, they will, if this be not attended to, contract the habit of always lying on the same side, and the weight of the arm above will compress the ribs in the manner which we have before described.
On rising in the morning, the young ladies are expected to be out of bed the moment the bell rings, and in a short time another imperative tinkle sum­mons them to prayers in the school-room. The child is obliged to make her appearance at the wonted moment. Bills of pains and penalties are not only known in the outer world, but may be found also in a Ladies' Boarding School. Each drowsy pupil, in order to avoid the consequences of being too late, huddles on her clothes as rapidly as possible, and as for the corset, or bodice, which is supposed to be ​for the purpose of keeping its wearer erect, it is either not laced at all, or is laced in such an uneven manner that it had better not be worn. In our corsets all this is impossible; the fastening is in front, and they can be put on in one minute, so that, if the time for a young lady's dressing be circumscribed, she will not be compelled to neglect the ornamental part of her toilet. By this means also deformity is avoided, and ease and comfort secured, as the corset can never fail to fit properly.
It has often occurred to us that it would be an excellent thing to have a competent dresser in every large establishment. Sufficient time should be allowed for the operation, the child be taught to stand in a proper position, and the whole toilet well arranged, so as to require no shifting, twitching, and shuffling during the day. Not only the com­fort, but the ability of the child to maintain a per­fectly upright and natural position, will depend much upon the proper adaptation and arrangement of its clothing.
The next thing to complain of in Ladies' Schools is the length of time allotted at one period to study. The heaviness of the atmosphere just spoken of, and ​the rigid silence maintained, broken only by the voice of the teacher, or the apathetic drone of some lazily-repeated and imperfectly-known lesson, create a lassitude which induces the children to place themselves in all kinds of awkward positions, for the purpose of resting the muscles which keep the neck and spine erect. Being seated on forms with­out backs, the children cannot accomplish this by leaning backward, and they therefore place one or both elbows on the desk, and rest on them the weight of the head and trunk. Here the erroneous mode of dressing, which at this time is so generally adopted, seriously adds to the evils occasioned by this habit. When a girl is sent to school the mother insists on dressing her daughter in the same fashion and with the same materials as herself. Does the mother wear flounces, the child must also present an equal number of rows, ascending in