American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1872-06-15
Weak Backs and Bad Seats.

THE small of the back is the weak or
strong point of every person. 1t is the
center of voluntary motion. Nearly three
hundred muscles are directly or Indirect
ly connected with the motions of which
the small of the back is the pivotal center
Hence, while those who are strong, and
whose muscular systems are we'll bal
anced, know nothing of spinal weakness
or vertebral distortion, invalids are for
ever complaining of this part of the body
One very prominent cause of weak
backs and crooked spines is, the unhygi-
enic and unanatOmical seats and benches
of our schoOl-houses, churches and halls;
nor are the seats and benches provided on
steamboats,, railroad cars, or at stations
or ferry-houses any better 1t is impossi-
BILE for any person to occupy these seats
long without being forced out of shape
And when school children are confined
to them for several hours day for months
and years, their backs will inevitably be
more or less weakened, with correspond
ing deformity of body, for life.
If we go into private families, even into
the palaces of the opulent, we find the
seats made more for show than for use
Girls suffer much more by using such
seats than boys, for the reason that boys
are taught to run, jump and exercise
themselves all over and all through, while
girls are expected to keep still and be
pretty.
1t is certainly one of the strangest
| problems of the nineteenth century that
no parent, teacher or mechanic, will give
any attention to anatomy or physiology in
the construction of seats for the human
body. Must our chairs, and sofas, and
settees, and divans, and tete-a-tetes, and
pews, forever be dictated by fashion, and
never 'c0nformed to nature =? Must our
tortured bodies forever be compelled to
shape themselves to the seats, instead of
| the seats being adapted to our bodies
Go through all the great chair factories
| of the country, and you will not find a
single article that is not put together in
| gross violation of the rules of health or
comfort. If some Cooper, or Peabody,
or Stewart, or Vanderbilt, or Astor,
would invest IA little million of dollars in
establishing an immense chair factory
''on strictly hygenic principles" he
would do more to improve human health,
| promote longevity and remedy the back
ache, than any medical college in the
land. from Backoche," in Science Of
| Health
! DURING the Revolutionary war Qua
/ ker was brought before General Wash
| ington, charged with feeding the horses
of the British cavalry. He did not DENY
the charge, but alleged that he belonged
to no party, was Christian man, and ex-
| pected to go Heaven. General Washing
ton replied: Friend, thee may be a good
man and go to Heavens but thee will GER
tainly have to go round by Nova Scotia
to get there" And the General banished
| him, with other Tories to the British Do
minions.
| A CLERK in the English admiralty Of
| flee lately had his pay suspended for
| twenty eight days for addressing to the
4 first lord of that august board some sug
| gestions in regard to iron shipbuilding.
These suggestions were admitted to,be val
liable and original, nevertheless n clerk
had no business TO know more than
! lord.