DISEASES PECULIAR TO WOMEN 573 



ever try the experiment? We know of some hundreds 

 of intelligent women who have tried the experiment 

 of changing the weight of the clothing from the waist 

 to the shoulders, and we do not know of a single in- 

 stance in which the experimenter has been willing to 

 return to the old style of dressing, after shoulder-straps 

 had been adopted. Suppose the Doctor should try the 

 experiment himself once. Let him supply himself with 

 a fashionable corset, now button his pantaloons tightly 

 around his waist, and fill his pockets with buck shot or 

 twenty-dollar gold pieces, and start off for a ten-mile 

 tramp. If he doesn't complain of a dragging pain in 

 the lower bowels and an insupportable backache before 

 he gets around home, it will be because he hails the 

 first cab, and takes the journey on wheels. 



^'Shoulder-straps hinder the movements of the 

 chest, and tend to make the wearer round-shouldered. ' ' 

 Undoubtedly this is true if ' ' many petticoats ' ' are sus- 

 pended from them; but what intelligent woman who 

 has undertaken to reform her dress does not know that 

 "many petticoats" are never, instead of "sometimes, 

 necessary." But here is the real argument: "Besides, 

 they could not well be worn with a low-necked dress." 

 Certainly not. A strip of red, white, or striped web- 

 bing striking straight down across a broad, bare space 

 of pink and white immodesty, would destroy a "great 

 deal of esthetics." 



But did it ever occur to our learned authority that 

 corsets may "hinder the movements of the chest, and 

 tend to make those who wear them" narrow-waistedf 

 It is true, women have wider hips than men, but this 

 anatomical peculiarity is given to women for quite 

 another purpose than to hang either trousers or petti- 

 coats on. The Italian farmer works tne cow as well 



