Year: 1870

Under the heading of The Perils of FASH
ion" the editor of the London Lancet supple
ments his denunciations of tight lacing with the
following hit at high heels


The custom of wearing high boot heels, and
those too so much smaller than the actual heel
of the wearer rs to afford no solid support, but
only balancing point, is source of much mis-


chief. In the first place, it throws the centre of
gravity of the body so far forward that n free
and gracefully erect carriage is impossible
Secondly, there being no firm support to the
heels ladies are very apt TO twist the ankle sud-
denly, by overbalancing themselves and this is
not only bad in itself, but the fear of its
renee makes them assume timd mncing gait
And, thirdly, the effect of driving the foot con-
stantly forward into the toe of the boot is pro-
duce very ugly and painful distortion of the
great toe joint There is but little need for won
der to the almost fierce contempt with which
young men whose characters are at all above the
lowest grades of conventional inanty regard the
average ''grl of the period.' 1t cannot be de-
MED that there is significant correspondence
between the aesthetic hideousness and the de-
grading effects physical health which are pro-
duced by tight stays and crippng boots, and
certain mental ana moral tone in female society
| OF the present day which is no less surprising
| than it is repulsive. The whole dress and car
riage of our fashionable WON en-, for several years
past, has been modelling itself, with less and less
| concealment, upon the ideal furnished by Par
| isian torettes of the consumptive ITaDiata type
| 1t is not our business to set up moral censors
But we may be excused if, for once in way, we
find 1t impossible to ignore the logical though
repulsive consistency of the grandes DANES and
citzenesses, who are willing to spoil their lungs
| and their digestions, and endanger their chances
of happy maternity, for the sake of wasp waist
to talk slang closely vergng on ndecency for
the sake of the tenth part of a chance of catch
ing husband and to simper and leer at the in
decencies OF Grand Duchesse de Gerolstein in
order to escape the dreaded imputation of a de-
fciency in shic."


To the obvious charges brought by the writer
above against high heels, it may be added that
organic difficulties peculiar to the female sex
may be produced or aggravated by their use.
When the body is balanced in a naturally erect
| posture, the position of the thigh bone relatively
to the line of the body is such that certain i'm
portant internal muscles at rest. To over
come the disturbance of equilibrium caused by
the elevation Of the heel the body must be
thrown back from the hip, thus altering the an
| gle of the thigh-bone in it's socket, and placing
these muscles on the stretch, and thereby giving
rise to a tendency to cOngestive and other de-
rangements. 1t seems probable that, by an in
stinct almost approaching to reason, women who
had already experienced the Inconvenience re-
sulting from high heels, clumsly attempted to
counteract the disturbance of gravity forwards
| by appending a compensating weight on the op-
poste side, in this way offering some rational
excuse for the origin and persistence of the
| sGrecian bend"