CONSERVATION OF HUMAN ENERGY. 413 



women, old and young, by educating the muscles of the waist till they 

 were able to comfortably meet all demands, actual and artificial. If 

 corsets are claimed to be required on esthetic grounds, the reply is, that 

 among well-constructed women, whose tissues are normal and who have 

 acquired and retained normal attitudes, no improvement can be made 

 by empirically adapted mechanisms. This is proved by the universal 

 admission of the fact that a young girl of good figure does not require 

 corsets. A bust support or special waist can be used if demanded, but 

 this should not be a confining, unyielding cuirass. Then it follows 

 that those who insist that elaborate molding contrivances are impera- 

 tive by the making of this demand, tacitly admit that they have become 

 already deformed. The question must then be faced whether this de- 

 formity is the mark of fate, or is due to individual culpability. If the 

 former be true, let them accept if they must the compulsion of machine- 

 made figures to conform to the dictates of fashion. If acquired by 

 faulty attitudes, lethargy or epicurism, or all three, let them set about 

 recovering as from a disease. This is entirely possible, and only other- 

 wise if the person is irresolute or ill-taught. 



Again, there are long backs and short backs, with various degrees 

 of space between the ribs and the pelvic bones. A woman with a long 

 back and plenty of room between the thorax and the pelvis, can wear 

 a corset with less danger, because the greatest hurt is from interference 

 with the action of the lower parts of the lungs. It is a grievous sin 

 against health to restrict the chief oxygen laboratory. For this oxygen 

 interchange full muscular action alone will not suffice; free lung room 

 is essential. A woman with a short back, but plenty of room between 

 ribs and hips, may wear a low or narrow corset with small danger. 

 When there is little soft tissue between these parts the ribs are readily 

 prevented from full play. Then not only lung action is impaired, but 

 liver, kidneys and stomach are all compressed and made to relax from 

 their supporting tissues, and tend to fall down confusedly toward the 

 bottom of the abdomen. Hence arises the long train of ills growing 

 commoner daily in all corset-wearing countries : movable kidneys, livers, 

 dropped stomachs and intestines, and above all displaced organs of 

 generation. The chief damage from the corset is the circular com- 

 pressing action exerted upon the blood vessels of the waist, whereby 

 passive congestions are induced in all tissues, and the great organs are 

 forced downward, aggravating the weakness of the already mechanically 

 frail normal supports. The straight front corset is only a little less 

 bad, since it presses inward constantly, and all continued pressure 

 exerts paralyzing effects on vaso-motor nerves and muscles. The least 

 harm is done by that form of corset which has as part of its action, a 

 low-placed firm semi-elastic belt so adjusted as to hold up the contents 

 of the abdomen from a level with the outer hip prominence, and thus 

 prevents the downward pressure of the rigid waist-encircling garment. 



