EFFECTS OF TK3HT LACING. 301 



This effect follows in numerous instances, attended 

 with a hard projection on one side of the breast bone, 

 and a hollow on the other ; or the bone itself in other 

 instances, has one of the edges thrown outward and the 

 other turned inward, consequently because the lungs, as 

 already shown, entirely fill the cavity of the chest, one or 

 both of the lobes, besides the general pressure, must suf- 

 fer a local injury from the interior protuberance thus 

 formed. 



More than one instance of this effect from excessive 

 lacing, has come within the knowledge of the author ; 

 and more than one who reads these observations will ac- 

 knowledge perhaps mentally, the truth of the statements 

 here made, and will be able to bring examples either in 

 themselves or their friends. 



Dr. Morton 9 s case, proving the above assertions. But 

 since many profess to doubt the injurious consequences 

 of tight lacing on the lungs, at least so far as themselves 

 are concerned, we will here offer an abstfact of a case 

 for the consideration of such ; and which we cannot but 

 hope will be thought worthy of serious notice by our fe- 

 male readers. It is from a work on consumption, by 

 Dr. Morton, of Philadelphia. 



" A lady," says he, " aged thirty-two years, of strong 

 constitution, and good frame, but of a nervous tempera- 

 ment, with dark hair, and brunette complexion, had been 

 for some time under the care of Dr. Hodge, for an attack 

 of severe nervous irritation : when in the absence of 

 that gentleman, I was requested to see her on the 6th of 

 May, 1833. On my arrival I found her dying, and she 

 survived but a few hours. 



" There was no obvious emaciation, but the thorax 

 was contracted by a depression of the breast bone, so 

 as to reduce the diameter between it and the spine. On 

 removing the pectoral muscles, the five or six superior 

 ribs were observed to be considerably depressed at 

 their extremities, where the cartilages joined them to the 

 sternum, and at which point there was a remarkable an- 

 gle which protruded into the thorax. The left lung ad- 

 hered at its apex, at which point the pleura, [the mem- 

 brane covering the interior of the ribs,] was deeply con- 

 26 



