304 APPENDIX. 



and this certainly is not sufficient to account for the ef- 

 fects actually produced. If we undertake to diminish 

 the circumference of a hoop, we shall find it impossible 

 to do so, without having the ends where the circle is 

 joined shoot by, or lap over each other. The lower ribs, 

 the cartilages of which join the breast bone obliquely, 

 leaving a space between their ends, may be pressed so 

 as to diminish the circumference, by forcing these parts 

 inward upon the lungs, without producing this effect ; 

 but the upper ribs, which are continued directly forward 

 to the breast bone, by their cartilages, cannot have their 

 circumferences shortened without doubling these parts 

 upon their ends. The consequence of this will be, that 

 these ends, on one side or the other, must project inward 

 upon the lungs, as shown in the case dissected by Dr. 

 Morton, and stated above. 



The diminution of capacity in Fig. 135, when com- 

 pared with 134, is not nearly so great as we believe act- 

 ually takes place in many instances of tight lacing, the 

 figure being made to show the displacement of parts in 

 the skeleton, by that process, rather than the extent of 

 its effects, 



MORTALITY BY CONSUMPTIVE DISEASES. 



In Great Britain it is estimated that 50,000 persons 

 die annually of consumption. 



In the the city of New York, the whole number of 

 deaths of all ages and diseases, in five years, namely, 

 from the beginning of 1829 to the end of 1834, was 

 31,822, making a yearly average of 6364. 



Now it is known by the reports of the Inspector, that 

 nearly one in five of the mortality of that city are of con- 

 sumption, in one form or another, which would give the 

 number of 1272 per year who die of this disease in that 

 city alone. The cities of Philadelphia, Baltimore, and 

 Boston present similar bills of mortality from the same 

 cause; and these bills also show that much the largest 

 proportion of these are females. But there is no reason 

 to believe that females are, from their organization, any 

 more predisposed to consumption than the males. How 

 then shall we account for the difference of mortality 



