The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-04-19 00:00:00

THE INCONVENIENCES OF MODERN

DRESS.

On Thursday afternoon in last week, a lecture was
delivered in the Library of the Social Science Rooms,
Adam-street, Adelphi, London, by Mr. W. 1). Teget.
meier, F.Z.S., on " Modern Drees, in relation to
health and taste." Mr. James Heywood presided.
The great majority of those present were ladies.
The walls of the library were hung with various
drawings of the human form Divine, clothed and un-
clothed by nature and by art, together with diagrams
of the knot, the chest, and other parts of the human
frame. In contrast with modern fashion as against
primitive attire, were shown two female figures, one
contortioned in the style of the "Grecian bend," talc.
ing an airing in Hyde-park ; and the other in the
flowing robes of a Tahiti girl gathering oranges. The
result of the contrast was not complimentary to "the
girl of the period."

The lecturer is an emineet member of the National
Health Society, the efforts of which have been devoted
to teach man and woman, rich and poor. the best con-
ditions of healthy living. Having been introduced to
the meeting by the Chairman, the Lecturer stated
that his ohservations would that day point chiefly to
the evil effects which the present style of dress bad
upon the health. Ile pointed out that the great defect
of modern dress was felt most severely by ladies in the
introduction of modern fashions. Of all the evils of
latter day fashions for females none were so great as that
one of constricting the waist and so altering the form of
the human body. It might not seem to us so ata camel
glance, because the eye had become accust rmed to the de-
formity ; but still it was not lees hideous in point of taste
than it was destructive to the health. Rebid measured
the waists of women of twelve stone weight, and found
their circumference not to exceed 18 inches—thus
compressing a waist which at the most modest com-
putation should have been 25 inches to half its natural
girth. This terrible pressure had, of course, the most
detrimental effect upon the vital organs by depressing
and circumscribing, and, at times, reversing the action
of the heart, the lunge, the liver, and the stomach.
The fact was that the w mien had now become so
obedient to the laws of fashion, and they laced them-
selves to such an extent that they ceased to breathe
through the inflation of the chest, but rather by the
inelegant as well as unwholes me means of "puff-
log." It was a law of nature that when the
aotion of the heart was repressed the circulation
of the blood was impeded, and so the general
health must of necessity be injured and ultimately
destroyed. Women who inflicted upon themselves
the penance of tight-lacing as a consequence suffered
from cold feet and red noses. The cold feet might
not perhaps alarm them sr much as the red noses;
but nature, giving them warning at either extremity,
was not to be held responsible if such warnings were
allowed to go unheeded. Nowadays if a servant girl
were asked to go upstairs she could perhaps run for
the first flight or second; tell there she was obliged to
slacken speed and gasp the rest of her way upwards'
l'his was by no means natural. Females were as well
provided with the functions of health as males; in-
deed it must be confessed that amongst the noble
birds of prey the females were superior to the males
in sire, in courage, and in activity. Another dreadful
evil of existing fashion was the deformity in-
duced in the feet by the modern style of boot,
and the worst of such defects were now at their
word. The lecturer here explained the action of the
foot in walking, by which naturally the weight of the
body was thrown upon the heel, the forepart of the foot
being used as a spring to impel the body forward.
But the present fashion did not admit of the ful-
filment of such natural laws It did not even
allow the great toe to remain straight, but
forced it outward, so that all the toes were
crushed up into a bunch. Naturally the result of
such harves.ing was a flourishing awl ever-increasing
crop of corns and bunions. This had, during late
years, been carried to such an extent that during the
late American war an army of corn-cutters was
obliged to accompany the Army of she Potomac, to cut
the corns of the warriors before they were enabled to
go forth and do battle for the stars and stripes. Here,
in England, ladies nowadays wobbled about in
hich-heeled boots, so constructed that the entire weight
of their body was thrown upon the ball of the foot, which
was re.ver intruded to bear such a burden. Apart from
the more important injury which this posture neces-
sarily compelled, surely nothing could he more inelegant
than the attitude of the "Grecian bend," which in
motion produced a ridiculous wagging of the body.
Why so prepostermia a posture should be named after
a nation so purely ;esthetic as the Greeks was one of
the secrets which belenged to theaponsors of modern
fashions and follies. Then there was the insufficiency
of covering for the chest which a false fashion imposed
upon ladies attending balls and theatres, the effect of
which was that national scourge consumption. And
as to the taste of such ball-room attire, might it not
best be described in the words of a satirieal poet, who
tells that towards the close of the evening's enjoyment.