The Massachusetts spy, and Worcester County advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1825-1831, 1829-08-05

SLENDER WAISTS. The Scotsman has
devoted four columns to an essay Son the
Compression of the Waist in females by the
use of Corsets J" with two drawings-one
exhibiting the waist of the Mcclellan Venus,
who did not wear stays, the other the waist
of a modern belle, after a long course of
corset trimming. "a single glance" says
the author, "will show better than many
pages of argument, what havoc tight lacing
must produce in the delicate and compli-
Gated mechanism lodged within the chest"
Another effect of tight corsets, he further
observes, i" is that those who have been
long so closely laced, become at last unable
to hold themselves erect, or move with COM
fort without them, but as is very justly said,
fall together, in consequence of the natural
form and position of the ribs being altered.
The muscles of the back are weakened and
crippled, and cannot maintain themselves
in their natural position for any length of
time. The spine, too, no longer accustomed
to bear the destined weight of the body,
bends and sinks down. Where tight lacing
is practised, young women from fifteen to
twenty years of age are found SO dependant
upon their corsets, that they faint whenever
they lay them aside, and therefore, are
obliged to have themselves laced before
going to sleep. For as soon as the thorax
and abdomen are relaxed, by being depriv-
ed of their usual support, the blood rushing
downwards, in consequence of the diminish
ed resistance to its motion, empties the YES
sells of the head, and thus occasions faint
ing" From 1850, to about l770, it was
the fashion in Berlin, and other parts of
Germany, and also in Holland few years
ago, to apply coTset5 to children. The
practice fell into disuse in consequence of
its being observed that children who did
not wear corsets grew up straight, while
those who were treated with this extraorGi-
nary care got by it a high shoulder or a
bunch. Many families might be named, in
which parental fondness selected the hand
soonest of several boys to put into corsets,
and the result was, that these alone were
hunched. The deformity was attributed at
first to the improper mode of applying the
corsets, till il was discovered that no child
thus invested grew up straight, not to men
ton the risk of consumption and rupture
which was likewise incurred by using Them
Il" says Soemmering, F" for my part, affirm,
that / do not know any woman, who, by
tight laeing THAT is, by artificial meaus,) has
obtained ga fine figure" in whom | could
not, by accurate examination, point out
either a high shoulder, ob,iqae compressed
ribs, a lateral incarnation of the spine, in
the form of an ItalIc s, or some other dis
tortion. have had opportunities of verify
ing this opinion among ladies of high con-
dition, who, as models of fine form, were
brought forward for the purpose of putting
me to silence" "One is astonished," saws
Soemmering, "at the number Of diseases
which corsets occasion. Those have sub
joined rest on the authority of the most en-
inent physicians. Tight lacing produces in
the head-headache giddiness, tendency
TO fainting, pain in the eyes, pain and ring
ing in the ears, and bleeding at the nose.
In the thorax-tesdes the displacement of
the bones, and the injury done to the breast,
tight iacng produces shortness of breath,
splitting of blood, consumption, derange-
ment Of the circulation, papitation of the
heart, and water in the chest In the abdo-
men-loss of appetite, squeamishness, eruc-
tations, vomiting of blood, deprayed diges-
ton, fiatulence, diarrhen, cholic, pains, in
duration of the liver, dropsy, and rupture.
1t is also followed by melancholy, hysteria,
and many diseases peculiar to the female
constitution, which IT is not necessary 10
ennmerate in detail" 9" It NAV not be
amiss to inform the ladies, that according
70 our medical instructor, the red ponted
nose which glows, rather inauspiciouslv ON
some female faces, is, in many cases. the
consequence of tight lacing."