RESPIRATION. 147 



CHAPTER IX. 



Common Notion of Beauty of Chest unnatural. Chest Seat of most 

 important Organs. Size of Chest corresponds to Size of Body. 

 Natural Chest not conical. Shape of Bones changed by Pres- 

 sure. Comparative Form of Chests. 



332. THERE is a common and mistaken notion of beauty 

 of the female chest. The beau ideal of many requires that 

 it should be of a small and taper form, diminishing from 

 the shoulders downwards to the waist. This opinion is 

 encouraged and strengthened by the fashion of female gar- 

 ments. But however general this form may be, and however 

 Jong established in the world, it is artificial, ^and not natural. 

 It is opposed to that principle of beauty which nature has 

 clearly and every where established that grace is secondary, 

 and not primary ; that it is the proper and becoming arrange- 

 ment of those parts that are necessary and useful. 



333. The chest is not a mere connecting link between 

 the upper and lower portions of the animal frame ; but it is the 

 depository and the workshop of some of the most important 

 of the vital organs, without the action of which life cannot 

 be for a moment sustained, and without whose free and 

 perfect operation life must be impaired and enfeebled. 



334. As the chest is made for the use of the body, and 

 not for ornament, as it was created to contain the heart, 

 and to give room and motion to the lungs, so that respiration 

 could be carried on in the best manner, it would follow that 

 that form and size of this part of the animal frame is the 

 most beautiful, which would best answer these purposes, and 

 allow the lungs to perform their functions most effectually. 



335. The size of the chest should bear a proportion to 

 the size of the body, so that it may receive a quantity of air 

 proportioned to the quantity of blood that must be purified 

 in the system. Therefore, a small waist becomes only a small 

 person, and a large waist is necessary to the grace of a large 



