296 APPENDIX. 



Now we have nothing to do with the mere extrava- 

 gances, or follies, if they exist, of the female costume of 

 the present day ; our design being to speak only of such 

 fashions, or habits of dressing, as produce deformities, 

 and disease : and in this respect, and on this subject, 

 there are facts so common, and so deplorable, that they 

 ought to induce thousands to raise their voices, and their 

 authority, against the practices to which their origin is 

 plainly to be traced. 



EFFECTS OF TIGHT LACING UPON THE LUNGS. 



It is true, that while the bones of animals are in a soft 

 and pliable state, which is always the case when they 

 are young, their natural forms may be modified, or 

 moulded into almost any shape. Even the head, togeth- 

 er with its contents, that noblest of all created organs in 

 a reasoning being, can be changed from its natural form, 

 to a parallelogram, or cube, as the customs of the Flat- 

 headed Indians abundantly prove. Nor are we aware 

 that this change produces any evil, either to the bodily 

 health, or intellectual faculties ; and since our design, as 

 already declared, is only to condemn those fashions 

 which by producing deformities, or otherwise, tend to 

 shorten life, or produce disease, we should have nothing 

 to say against the fashion of moulding the cranium into 

 any form which the taste of the age might propose, if in- 

 deed no bad effects followed. 



But if our female readers will examine the trunk of 

 the human skeleton, represented at fig. 95, and observe 

 in what manner the five lower ribs are attached, and 

 how readily, in the young subject especially, they would 

 so yield to the force of a tight band, as greatly to dimin- 

 ish the cavity they were intended to maintain ; and also 

 remember that this cavity contains the vital organs, the 

 heart and lungs, neither of which will endure pressure 

 with impunity we think that on contrasting this with 

 fig. 137, they can hardly avoid the conclusion, that other 

 sad consequences must follow the use of tight lacing, be- 

 sides the deformities we have described. 



