The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1873-04-01
Woman's Dress.

DIR. Mary Sanford, in an earnest article ad-
vOcating a change of costume for women,
thus sums up the effects on the physique of
the modern style of dress: While in the hos
pitals of Vienna and North Germany, great
opportunities were given me Of with essing the
post mortems of women not only those who
die in the hospital, but many in private life
are brought here for examination; and have
had the occasion to study closely The
i'll effects of dress upon all classes
of women. And my deep feeling upou
the subject cannot be called hobbied zeal
it is founded upon the observation of many
huldred women, and can safely say that
not one out of so had a natural development
of the thorax, and the abdominal organs In
their proper position. Iexpect in every new
anatomy that appe ars, that some one equally
wise with him who has given it as physi-
illogical law that women breathe differently
from men, will say that the ribs of women
naturally curve in more than those Of men,
and that their livers are unlike, that the
right lobe of that of women extends far be-
low the ribs, and is u ually cut in two, as has
been the case of many have seen. The
humorous old professor. who made the post
mortem examination. always had Joke ac-
cempanying the twinkle of his eye, and
standing one used to be, "Here is another
weak sister, victim to vanity" / have
seen ribs overlapped. as one can twist the
fingers one upon the other. / have seen
them doubled under, perforatiug the liver,
and other internal organs atrophied and dis
torted by pressure; and this not always
among women of fashion, but among the
working classes. Laboriug women in Aus
tria work out-of-doors, employed in the va
rious ways chat men are, doing the same
amount of work with fourth less pay. The
winter that was in Vienna the thin brick
walls of a block of houses fell, killing and
mangling Is women who were employed In
their const. uctiou. They were mostly thick
wasted peasants, whose sides had never been
screwed into corsets, and yet none presented
normal condition; the heavy skirts worn
from childhood, tightly tied about the waist,
had displaced the internal organs, and by
pressure changed the texture of the tissues.
The laying aside of thai inquisitorial instru-
meat, the corset, is not all that must be done
to render woman's garb less injurious.
When am told by women, as is frequently
the case, that they cannot live without this
pressure upon them, the acknowledgment
bears upon its face an abnormal state of the
body, for when our own bones and muscles
refuse to support us, IL shows plainly that
violated Nature cannot longer perform the
functions belonging to her. Knowing that
that mos sensitive nerve gang lion, the solar
plexus, lies at tn pit of the stomach, If there
is the least reflection given to tn subject, one
can ut see how injurious those steel and
bones must be, pressed upon that tender
spot, which adapt themselves to the form Of
the body, aud must be felt, whether the cor
set strings be loosely or snugly drawn. Con-
tinually pressed upon, the abdominal muscles
lose their tone and almost their existence,
and train of evils follow that cannot here
enumerate, but which every physician knows
brings him the largest share OF his patients
Herald Of Health.