Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-09-04
INJURY FROM THE GIRDLE.
Medical Authorities Claim That 1t IL
as Disastrous as the Corset.


as Disastrous as the Corset.
From the Chicago Tribune.
The propensity TO deform some part Of
the body is common to human nature. To-
day all womankind, in America and Eu-
rope. wears girdles, girdles two and three
riches broad. garnished with handsome
clasps and eminentIy pleasing to the eye.
So popular has the girdle become this sum-
mer on account of its facilities for setting
Off the figure to the reatest possible ad-
vantage and for holding the skirt in posi-
ton that many women and girls have dis
carried their corsets. substituting the new
and yet old-fangled attribute of toilet in its
stead- Now, they argue, we can no longer
be charged with gripping ourselves for the
sake of presenting a sylph-l:ke shape
But they are woefully mistaken. Tie cir
die is if POSSIBLE. more injurious than the
corset. A Perrin physician has just con-
Guided a series of observations in the case
Of female patient addicted to the girdle-
wearing habit.
The woman in question was DESTROYS of
lending to her figure that graceful long line
of bust for which Calve is famous. She had
been wearing the style of corset first intro
duced by Mime. Recamier, and was grad
ually acquiring the much-coveted French
figure with its broad shoulders, low, small
bust, and long, Slender waist, when in the
spring Of the year her physician prohibited
ured in its untrammeled state seventy CEN
tineters; by lacing she was in the habit of
reducing it to slXty-two centimeterS, which
feat resulted in the displacement of her in
ner organs, ard consequent cold hands and
cold feet, he attaches ard painful respiration.
She promised the doctor to obey his in
junction, and forthwith bought a siXty-two-
centimeter elastic girdle. The fact of the
elasticity of the new instrument imbued
the woman with the idea that she might
try to reduce her waist still more by this
harmless means. and with dilig mt tuck
ing and squeezing she succeeded, in the
course of the day, of pushing back the
buckle to tho fifty-eight- centimeter limit.
Gradually the local troubles brought on
by the tight stays she had worn disap-
pcared, but nevertheless health would not
rel urn On the contrary, she began to suf-
fer from steadily progressing constitutional
weakness. She lost her color, grew thin
and aged, and became daily more whimsical
and ill-humored She. who formerly had
given all her time to society and enjoy
ment, grew misanthropic and needed strong
stimulantS to keep up.
Again she sought the doctor and blamed
him for her condition. claiming that the dis
c;rding of the corset, which he had ordered,
had thrown the weight of her skirts upon
her hips and stomach and thereby caused
her sufferings. Upon investigation the rhy-
sician discovered a deep furrow encfrcling
his PATIENTS waist which latter had great
ly decreased in spite of the apparent re-
movai of the cause. He found that a fifty
y =
which in its natural state measured seven
ty centimeters, which means that for six
to eight hours every day its proprietress
reduced her circumference fourteen cent?
CterS.
After this the diagnosis easily ar
rived at: The diaphragm had been so
completely compressed by the girile's &C
ten as to leave no room for some of the
most important vital organs, which had
been pushed down so that all their func-
tons were hampered and at times actually
stepped. These discoveries explained the
woFnan's bodily ailments already :Isention-
ed; they also explained the unsightly in
crease in the circumference of her abdo-
men.
by massage. dieting and by wearing
10 Sc garments supported by the shoulders,
concludes the Berlin authority, the woman
will, in the course of few months, regain
her health as the girde habit has been
stopped in time. But l doubt very much
whether I will be able to reduce the size of
her abdomen, which has been increased. out
of all proportion by the action of the girdle.
Only in very rare cases will the organs of
the diaphragm return into their natural
places and groups after once being oislo-
cat ed
Physicians, massage doctors dress
makers. tailors and corset architects have
been fighting the deformity known as
pl projecting abdomen for many years, and
new it has been established that one of
the most fashionable adjuncts to every f.
male toilet the friend of the shirt waist and
dainty frock. is the direct cause of the
lamentable Disagreement.