Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1880-04-19
A NOTED DOCTOR ON
WOMAN'S DRESS.

DR.. Richardson delivered a lecture
yesterday at the London Institution on
Health and Dress. The lecturer said
the character of dress stands 80 closely
to the character of the person who wears
it that it is hard to touch the one with
out introducing the other. All kind of
sympathies are evoked by dress; poll
tical sympathies are on the most init
mate relationship with dress; social
sympathies are lndexed by it; artistic
sympathies are part of it. Proceeding
then to lay out the plan of the lecture
he begged it to be understood that it
was altogether apart from his purpose
to depreciate good fashion in dress. He
thought it was the duty of every one to
cultivate good fashion and that every
woman ought to make herself as becom-
ingly beautiful as she possibly could.
Corsets, Wristbands, garters and tight
shoes were specially denounced. The
dress should be loose, and the weight
of it should be borne by the shoulders.
In mems modern dress this was fairly
accomplished; but in woman's dress,
dragging from the waist, there was pro-
duced such waste of physical power
that if women were in all respects free
as men they could never approach to
the position of men as active workers
until they had emancipated themselves
from this physical bondage.
The reform he suggested in the dress
of women was that it should in all prac-
teal details have the same advantages,
and should be in fact the same, with
the exception of the exterior robe or
gown. The long dress for women,
which even trespassed slightly on the
ground, was the most becoming for them.
This should play the same part as the
outer coat of the man, the rest of the
dress being the same except that it
might be made of rather lighter mate
rails. The great surgeon Cline, when
once consulted by an. anxious mother
what she should do to prevent a girl
from becoming deformed, answered,
"Let her have no stays, and let her run
about like the boys" He would in
dorse this wise rule. and would add,
LET the mothers of England clothe the
girls precisely as they clothe the boys
permitting Knickerbockers if they like,
and let them add the one distinguishing
mark of light, loose flowing gown, and
the girls will grow into women as Wig
orous, as healthy and as we'll formed il
body as their companions of the sterneI
SEX" In the next part of the lectur.
the quality of clothing was considered
aud the amount at various seasons. Tn
necessity of special care in adapting
clothing to season was illustrated fror
, the physiological rule first discovere
, by the late Mr.. Miner, that the body
independently of any will of its owl
underwent two pounds of waste and {
D increase of weight, the waste CONNER
chg toward the close of September, an
: the increase in the first weeks of Apri
c Warm clothing ought to begin in Septeu
Der or early in October, and ought n
!, to be left off until the close of Apr
e For underclothIng next the skin
+ strongly recommended silk. and wi
It that light feecy flannel. Thick hea
It flannel. and every material that absor
!, ed and held the watery excretions fro
8 the skin, were at all times bad. Hea
|, clothes were bad, and had really