286 APPENDIX. 



relax the muscles supporting the head. This position is 

 represented by Fig. 132. 



A little experience, with these suggestions in view, 

 will teach the pupil, it is hoped, to preserve a healthful 

 and becoming position at school, without assuming the 

 leaning posture, the consequences of which are so per- 

 nicious. 



LEANING POSTURE. 



One posture which school girls are exceedingly apt 

 to take, is that of leaning forward, and placing the elbow 

 on the desk for support ; and this they often do, even 

 when their seats are provided with backs. This pos- 

 ture, if continued so as to form a habit, will often show 

 its effects on all occasions, the young lady having such 

 a disposition to lean as to indulge it when any support 

 happens to be near where she sits, let the place, or com- 

 pany be what it may. Such a one will lean, with the 

 hand supporting the head, when at home, on a table, or 

 window stool, or any other convenient lolling place, for 

 hours together. 



Where the spine is weak, in a growing girl, and there 

 is predisposition to curvature, there is no posture that 

 she can take, which is so unfortunate, and will produce 

 such a complication of deformities as this ; for if it is 

 continued in one direction, which is commonly the case, 

 the consequences will be a curvature of the lower part 

 of the spine, together with one high, and one low hip ; 

 one high, and one low shoulder ; and a crooked neck. 



The general deformity, thus induced, is however, of- 

 ten most apparent in the shoulder blades, one of which 

 is sometimes thrown so far out of place, as to give it the 

 appearance of absolute dislocation, and which indeed, is 

 the case, when compared with its mate. Fig. 133. 



The other deformities which we have mentioned as 

 arising from the same cause, may in some degree be con- 

 cealed, or qualified by means of stays, extra padding, 

 coussinets, and other efforts of the milliner's skill, wdth 

 which we profess no acquaintance. But the dislocated 

 shoulder blades, especially when they are uncovered, 



