Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser. — 1889-09-21 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

LADY ON TIGHT LACING.  OnWednesdayMrs Stopes,of the Rational Dress Society, lectured at the Literary and Philosophical Institution, Newcastle. before the members of the British Associatiou on "The Psychological, Physiological, and Physical Aspects of Dress," with a especial reference to tight lacing. Dividing the present faults in connection with women's clothes into two classes—the temporarily and the permanently injurious —Mrs Stopes included among the first all forms of criuoline and dress improvers, tied-back skirts, tied down arms and sleeves, over-long dresses, over heavy trimmings, and any absurd fashion that impedes the action, freedom, and development of women or outraged art. Coming to the second dials of faults, she spoke of the " various miseries of full-dress," and condemned the use of high heels, which, she said, entirely l altered the natural pose of the body, strained tin!' portant internal organs, jarred the delicate spinal cord, and exhausted the brain itself. Tight lacing, however, came in for the severest condemnation. The habit of wearing tight stays f was an evil of national importance. Mrs Stopee I drew an alarmiog picture of the physical doneequenoes to which those who practised tight Lacing were liable. She NS WI no learned physiologist, she said, but in general phrases she could say that none of the compressed organs could act healthily and freely, a perpetual hunger belt preventing the reception or assimilation of natural and substantial meals, produced low-toned and ! nourished bodies and brains, and a whimsical I appetite, blotched complexions, and abnormal depositions of fat. The tightened heart could I not have full play for the propulsion of the vital fluid, the compressed lungs and sir cavities were unable to inhale the uecessaiy quantity of air for the purification of the smali supplies of poor ! blood, and the spine, which should be the support of the body, being disused, became weak and a ; source of suffering. The breaking of these laws tended to mans:aughter and suicide, and certainly 'prevented the natural. development of body and mind. The question was worthy of consideration whether women, from any motive, were justified in following fashion to an extent that not only injured their own health, but tended to lower the physique of a whole nation.— The discussion was pretty evenly divided between ladies and gentlemen. Most of the gentlemen r were members of the medical profession, who agreed in their condemnation of tight lacing.— ' Miss Findlay asked if it was a question between corsets and no oorsets, or tight corsets and loose corsets, " because," she added, "that makes a very great difference." She thought the danger of tight lacing was a little exaggerated.—Miss Lydia Becker came forward as an out-and-ont defender of" that very use al, very indispensable portion of ladies' attire, the corset," which she said, was absolutely necessary to the health, comfort, and appearauce of women under the present conditions of woman's dress. There wag a great difference between tight lacing to excess and that moderate amount of compression of tho waist which ninny of them found so necessary and desirable. The " wasp waist' she considered an entirely tt4ly thing. "What we want in the corset, she &des I, "is graceful modulations and beautiful curves to show the body in its natural beautiful curvatures, but the wasp dress destroys those curves, aud produces what is a physical deformity, and is very iingracieful to a trained eye." What was really iujurious was not the corset, but : bands round the waist from which depended long ' and cumbrous skirts. If fashion would allow the , length of the skirts to be abridged a little—not very much, but a little—it would be a very great relief.—A cordial vote of thauks was passed to Mrs Step., for having introduced the subject.