Daily evening star. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1852-1854, 1854-09-18
EVENING STAR.
FASHION AND DISEASE.

The editor of the Scalpel, in q very in.
teresting article, in the August number
of that excellent work, on the crippled
condition of the lungs, in woman, makes
the following sensible remarks, which
we commend to the serious attention of
every female: -.,.
"Only look at the position of fashion
ably dressed woman, sitting in her rock
embroidering; see the approx
imation Of her arms, and the bent neck
and body. The chest containing the
lungs has to sustain the whole weight of
the head and arms; they hang upon it
almost like pieces of dead flesh; the in
testines are forced down upon the womb.
and the great blood-vessels that supply
the limbs are compressed. There is the
beautiful spine superbly arched BY the
Great Artist, with its exquisitely ar
ranged and graceful curves, to bring the
centre of gravity between the feet, the
very line of beauty its unmatched and
unelualled elastic substance between
each bone, to take off the shock of every
step, the collar-bOnes to keep the arms
apart, and to allow the lungs fall play,
and to show the beauty of the breast and
throat, with beautiful and grand muscles
on the back to keep back the shoulders
the whole woman-'a dream of Eden
when the world Was young and look.
only look at the best results of fashion.
able society. Great Heaven! Spirits of
Guido and Raphael, do We tehold her
Shades of Hunter and Bell, do not your
bones rattle in your graves at the spec
tscley Such respiration with the lungs
poisoned and irrltated the atmosphere of
the parlOr, and the rank and sitting
smell Of a magnificent" velvet carpet,
filled with dust for the simple reason that
1t cannot be swept away the light of
heaven shu; out by blinds and curtains,
will stifle tbree-quarters of the natural
demand for air. exercise and food, it will
congest the hands and eye-lids, rob the
colorless blood vessels that nomis the
window or pellucid cornea of the eye and
give it its sparkling lustre, and the skin
its fairness, make the finger nails blue,
take away the capacity and muscular
power to hold up the head and keep the
shoulders back, constipate the bowels,
by robbing them of their secretions and
the constant motion impaired by a full
supply of air to their muscular coat, and
make the whole woman mere halfvital-
lied machine, fit only to give the sickly
replies of mental insanity to the insulting
twaddle she expects to receive from the
male fool that sits before her. This is
the actual condition of almost every fash
ionable woman in the city, and it is
brought oLout mainly by want VI eIsr-
else; she is unable to take it from the
of her dress, and the slayish
adherence to fashion indeed she does not
dream of its necessity; she feels the
wretched lethargy that presses with lead
en- weight upon her soul she knows that
the glad earth is full of music, of love
and happiness her smothered instincts
tell her she ought to share them, but mo-
notonous conventionalism threatens her
with ostraeism if she allow ray of nature
to warm the generous impulse into life.
Great God ! when | look upon the beau
tiful and fair faces of my country-women,
as they move before me like so many au-
cohhoeo, uhoOi ehO iiou oCSpOllSlu vi lIldI
bloodless and sickly thing called fashion,
my soul is sick at the spectacle, and I am
glad to escape into the forest where can
see the wild bird hymning the praises of
its creator, and listen to the unchecked
murmur of the winds, and the leaping of
the dancing rivulet; and when return
to the duties Of life, look from my win
dow upon the little spot of verdure q city
prison allows me, and hear the murmur
of the bee, and see the little hummiDg-
bird slipping the nectar from the honey
suckle, my heart yet leaps with childish
delight as the lovely littlecreature swings
upon the branches return to my task,
and feel that if had the eloquence and
benevolence of Christ, l could spend nv
life in no better cause than attempting
her instruction in the laws of her being,
and showing her how beauty and truth,
love and simplicity are inseparably con-
nected with the sublime science of life.