.1827.] Note* for the Month. 21 1 



have some bodily defect, or the elasticity and tone of their muscles are lost, long 

 before the period at which they would have attained their full strength." 



In Portugal and Spain, where the lower classes of people are com- 

 pelled to work their ponies and raules very early, and the load is not 

 drawn, but carried upon- the back, the animal is constantly seen walking 

 with the back of the fetlock joint almost resting upon the ground. 



" When muscles are gradually increased in strength, the ligaments become 

 strong in proportion ; but the ligaments are as likely to be hurt from the muscles 

 being suddenly called into violent action, and at an early age, as by any accidental 

 twist or strain. They are in this way liable to become spongy and relaxed, so as 

 to produce weakness, or a condition similar to the joints of a young horse which 

 has been galloped hard, or obliged to take great leaps, before he has acquired hi* 

 full strength. Indeed there is much resemblance in the condition of a joint with 

 the ligaments strained, to that of a horse which is broken down or hard galloped. 

 Small bunyons or ganglions, which are similar to what the farrier calls wind-galls, 

 are sometimes found about the ankle joints of delicate girls, who have over exerted 

 themselves in dancing." 



We have seen the same affection upon the wrists of girls, who were the 

 pupils of professional musicians, and passed a great portion of their time 

 in practising the piano -forte. 



4< If any exercise, however good, be continued for a long time, and regularly 

 repeated while a young person is growing, certain ligaments may become unnatu- 

 rally lengthened and elastic. As for example, we may observe, that in the bolero 

 dance upon the stage, some of the performers can nearly touch the floor with the 

 inner ankle, which no person with a fine and strongly formed ankle can do. 



" The ligaments of the foot, and especially the lateral ligaments of the ankle, 

 become so unnaturally long, that the foot may be turned in every direction as 

 easily as the hand. The bad consequences resulting from this looseness of the 

 joints, do not appear when the performer is dancing, or strutting along the stage ; 

 but the effect is quite obvious when the dancers are walking in the street, for then^ 

 while attempting to walk naturally, they have a shuffling gait. This is particularly 

 the case with old dancers who have retired from the stage; for the muscles 

 having by disuse lost their tone, the bad effects of lengthening and straining the 

 ligaments are then distinctly marked. Indeed these evils are not confined to a 

 peculiarity of gait, for the feet of almost every opera dancer are deformed ; and 

 even some of the dancers, while in full vigour and most admired, are actually lame. 

 This seems a bold assertion ; but, if a high instep be important to a well-formed 

 foot, thess dancers' feet are deformed ; for, with few exceptions, they are quite flat ; 

 and that they are lame cannot be denied, as they have, almost all, a halt in their 

 gait." 



We rather doubt whether the disposition which the ancles of girls have 

 (too generally) to bend inwards, does not often proceed from a less violent 

 operation of the same cause. But the fact is, that all the lament about a 

 "want of exertion," and " superior advantage of labour as females are 

 educated now is miserable nonsense : the milliner's girls of London, who 

 sew muslin for fourteen hours a day, in shops and back rooms, are pretty 

 nearly the finest women in Europe ; and the girls who work at farming 

 labour in the country both here and in France notwithstanding the 

 superiority of the atmosphere in which they live are uniformly among 

 the homeliest and the most clumsy. And, even assuming a greater quan- 

 tity of exercise to be desirable than girls at school actually take, wKere 

 i$ 'the necessity for- making the taking exorcise a if sMJiehese?" Where is 



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