for curing a Stoop, 247 



Youn^ ladies are often obliged, "while at their music lessons, 

 to sit upon those chairs, which have high backs, long legs, and 

 small seats. These chairs are said to have been invented by a 

 very eminent surgeon, and are intended, either to prevent dis- 

 tortion, by some supposed operation on the spine, or as the 

 most effectual means of supporting the body. It is difficult to 

 imagine how a chair of this description can effect the first 

 purpose ; and to discover how far it is calculated for the second, 

 the reader should make the experiment, on a chair of the same 

 proportion to his figure, as the chair in question is to that of a 

 little girl. He will find that if the seat or surface on which he 

 rests is small in proportion to his body, the chest will, after a 

 time, either fall forward or to one side, unless he exert himself 

 to a degree that is very fatiguing. Indeed, if the seat be at the 

 same time so high, that the feet do not rest fairly on the ground, 

 but dangle under the chair, a forward position of the head is 

 almost necessary to preserve the balance of the figure ^s 



The objections to such chairs have been met with the asser- 

 tion, that girls feel remarkably comfortable in them. This is 

 no argument in favour of their use, for it is not uncommon for 

 a girl who has seven or eight pounds of iron strapped upon her 

 body and next to her skin, to say the machine annoys her so 

 little, that she does not care how long she wears it. 



But whether this chair is agreeable or not, it is easy to show 

 that it is not calculated to give much proper support to the 

 body, and that it is almost impossible for a delicate girl to sit 

 long in a natural or easy position upon it. 



It may be allowed, that the chair which we consider the most 

 comfortable, that is, the chair which affords the most support 

 to the body, should, if made in proper proportions, be the best 

 for a delicate girU In such a chair, the seat should be scarcely 

 higher than the knees (thus permitting the whole of the foot to 

 rest on the floor), and of such a size, that on sitting back, the 

 upper part of the calves nearly touch it. This form of seat is 

 very different from that of the chair alluded to, the back of 

 which is also equally objectionable, for, instead of being in 



♦ It must be almost unnecessary to remind the reader, that if the 

 knees are bent in standing or walking, there is a curve in th^ spine at 

 the same time. 



