i 9 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



people. It is this observation, that the mischiefs inflicted by mode 

 of dress become hereditary in character. I do not mean to say that, 

 because a person produces in himself or herself a deformed waist or 

 foot, by dress, therefore that particular deformity will be physically 

 hereditary in the offspring of such person. I think the evidence is 

 rather against that view, because it would seem that the Cbinese chil- 

 dren, born of mothers whose feet have been mechanically distorted, 

 are born with feet which would come to a natural condition if they 

 were not bandaged in infancy in the same manner as the mothers' 

 were. But of this I am sure, that the hereditary tendency to commit 

 these deforming acts is hereditarily received and hereditarily transmit- 

 ted, and that the sense of desire for the performance of the act is also 

 transmissible. This, in fact, is one of the great difficulties which we 

 teachers have to overcome. We have to fight against inbred proclivi- 

 ties, which are so deep rooted that I believe if all the women of Eng- 

 land at this time could, by a voluntary act of education, be led to give 

 up tight lacing, another generation, perhaps two generations, would 

 have to live before the practice was entirely abolished. 



The lesson we have to learn and practice in respect to the mechani- 

 cal arrangements of dress so far is, that every plan which leads to ir- 

 regular tightening of the body should be given up. The corset and 

 waist-strap should especially be abandoned, and our young girls should 

 be taught to grow up just as their brothers grow, without ever learn- 

 ing the sense of false support which the corset soon suggests as a neces- 

 sity. With the members of both sexes a reform should be introduced 

 in the matter of boots and shoes. The tight boot should be entirely 

 discarded, and that boot preferred which approaches nearest in form to 

 the natural foot. Mrs. Haweis and others have insisted on the removal 

 of the raised heel altogether from the boot, with which I entirely 

 agree. Anatomically and physiologically it is a complete mistake to 

 have the heel raised from the ground beyond the level of the palm of 

 the foot. The moment the heel is raised, the plan of the arch is 

 deranged, and the elastic, wave-like motion of the foot impeded. The 

 arch ought always to have full play, and Mr. Dowie's plan of intro- 

 ducing an elastic connection or band across the arch, so as to allow it 

 freedom, is an admirable device. 



The method by which clothes should be supported on the body 

 is another extremely important subject in connection with dress, and 

 especially in relation to the dresses worn by women. Copying prob- 

 ably from an Eastern custom, and from the primitive method of wear- 

 ing a girdle, it has become a habit endorsed by long centuries of use 

 for women to carry all their long, flowing robes from the waist. These, 

 tied one over the other, layer upon layer, and with sufficient tightness 

 to enable the garments to be borne by the actual pressure upon the 

 waist, are as great an incumbrance to the wearer as the corset. In- 

 deed, it is sometimes argued that the corset is necessaiy, in order that 



