The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1878-09-26
Skirts and COrSetS.

The advancement of women in the
world has become more apparent eve
nv day. until they are now the worthy
competitors of men in many of the
pursuits of life. Women have learned
to contract all kinds OF business, and
take rank among the highest in the
intellectual professions. They can
practice law or medicine, edit a news
D or i'll fact, do almost anything
they set their heads to, as successfully
as a man: but as a class, they have so
far never learned to dress themselves
i'm a manner which will not interfere
with the most perfect health. 1t is
not for want of preaching that women
haven't learned to dress healthfully,
for they have been entreated, almost
from the beginning of the world, to
allow their bodies to grow in their
natural beautiful form. All lectures,
sermons and prayers alike seem to
have fallen upon their ears without
making the slightest impression, and
they go on just as their fore mothers
did. and just as their grandchildren
probably will, dressing in the most APP
approved manner to encourage the all
ments which bcset the women of our
day. Poor Eve will have to shoulder
the responsibility of all the diseases
and deformitieS arising from abuses in
the matter of dress, Us none of us
would ever have dressed at all if Eve
had kept her teeth out of the apple.
This abuse in dress has gone on for so
many years, that a perfectly healthy
woman is something we don't meet
very often these days. Glance Over
the list of your lady acquaintances,a and
mark those who nave poor health, and
YOU will be astonished to find nearly
all your lady friends complaining of
something. One of the most preva-
lent and injurious abuses in dress,
especially among girls an. young la
dies, is
TIGHT AGING.
In spite of the entreaties of their
mothers and elder sisters who have
red noses, and palpitation of the heart
and monstrous bowels, from tight
lacing in their younger days, the girls
are never contented till they have
squeezed themselves to the diameter
of five inches. 1t is a fact that girls
have in many cases used pieces of cord
almost as thick as a common clothes
line to draw their corSetS together,
the usual corset lace not being strong
| enough TO STAND the tension. o y
ladies have tainted time after time
from the pressure of a tight corset,
This is apt to occur in crowded halls
where the air is Initiated. 1t also hap
pens from undue pressure being exer-
ted in the region of the heart and
lungs.
The evidences of lacing are often ap.
parent in the skeleton. The ribs are
damned and curled In till the skeleton
Is 50 disfigured that it would scarcely
be recognized as a part of that "most
perfect work of God" The liver is
found full of burrows. where the ribs
have been crowded down upon 1t.
causing what is known as the corset
liver. Many corset livers would,
doubtless, be found, were it not that
the girls who are fashionable enough
and foolish enough to lace themselves
to death are not often subjected to a
postmortem examination. They are
usually supposed to be a victim Of con.
sumption.
The walls of the chest and abdomen
cannot be forced inward upon the vita
organs for any length of time without
causing some form of disease. By a
continual motion, called the p~eristalie
movement, the food in the stomach is
! rolled from side to side till every por-