74, DISEASES CLASS I. % 2. 16, 



quick respiration became less at the same time. After this ob- 

 servation a neck-swing was directed, and she took the bark, 

 madder, and bone-ashes; and she continues to amend both in her 

 shape and health. 



Delicate young ladies are very liable to become awry at many 

 boarding-schools. This is occasioned principally by their being 

 obliged too long to preserve an erect attitude, by sitting on forms 

 many hours together. To prevent this, the school-seats should 

 have either backs, on which they may occasionally rest them- 

 selves; or desks before them, on which they may occasionally 

 lean. This is a thing of greater consequence than may appear 

 to those who hare not attended to it. 



When the least tendency to become awry is observed, they should 

 be advised to lie down on a bed or sofa for an hour in the middle 

 of the day for many months; which generally prevents the in- 

 crease of this deformity by taking off for a time the pressure on 

 the spine of the back, and it at the same time tends to make them 

 grow taller. Young persons, when nicely measured, are found 

 to be half an inch higher in a morning than at night; as is well 

 known to those who enlist very young men for soldiers. This 

 is owing to the cartilages between the bones of the back becom- 

 ing compressed by the weight of the head and shoulders on them 

 during the day. It is the same pressure which produces curva- 

 tures and distortions of the spine in growing children, where 

 the bones are softer than usual; and which may thus be relieved 

 by an horizontal posture for an hour in the middle of the day, or 

 by being frequently allowed to lean on a chair, or to play on the 

 ground on a carpet. 



Young ladies should also be directed, where two sleep in a 

 bed, to change every night, or every week, their sides of the bed; 

 which will prevent their tendency to sleep always on the same 

 side; which is not only liable to produce crookedness, but also 

 to occasion diseases by the internal parts being so long kept in 

 uniform contact as to grow together. For the same reason they 

 should not be allowed to sit always on the same side of the fire 

 or window, because they will then be inclined too frequently to 

 bend themselves to one side. 



Another great cause of injury to the shape of young ladies is 

 from the pressure of stays, or other tight bandages, which at the 

 same time cause other diseases by changing the form or situation 

 of the internal parts. If a hard part of the stays, even a knot 

 of the thread, with which they are sewed together, is pressed 

 hard upon one side more than the other, the child bends from 

 the side most painful, and thus occasions a curvature of the spine. 

 To counteract this effect, such stays as have fewest hard parts. 



