FASHION IN DEFORMITY. 



74i 



I must speak last upon one of the most remarkable of all the arti- 

 ficial deformities produced by adherence to a conventional standard, 

 and one which comes very near home to many of us. 



It is no part of the object of the present discourse to give a medi- 

 cal disquisition upon the evils of tight-lacing, though much might be 

 said of the extraordinary and permanent change of form and relative 

 position produced by it, not only on the bony and cartilaginous frame- 

 work of the chest, but also in the most important organs of life con- 

 tained within it, changes far more serious in their effects than those 

 of the Chinook's skull and brain, or the Chinese woman's foot. It is 

 only necessary to compare these two figures (Figs. 17 and 18), one 



Fig. 17. Torso op the Statue of Venus 

 or Milo. 



Fig. 18. Paris Fashion, Mat, 1880. 



acknowledged by all the artistic and anatomical world to be a perfect 

 example of the natural female form, to be convinced of the gravity 

 of the structural changes that must have taken place in such a form, 

 before it could be reduced so far as to occupy the space shown in the 

 second figure, an exact copy of one of the models now held up for 

 imitation in the fashionable world. The wonder is not that people 

 suffer, but that they continue to live, under such conditions. 



It is quite possible, or even probable, that some of us may think 

 the latter the more beautiful of the two. If any should do so, let us 

 pause to consider whether we are sure that our judgment is sound on 

 the subject. Let us remember that to the Australian the nose-peg is 

 an admired ornament, that to the Thlinkeet, the Botocudo, and the 



