304 APPENDIX. 



973. Now we have nothing to do with the mere ex- 

 travagances, or follies, if they exist, of the female cos- 

 tumes of the present day ; our design being to speak 

 only of such fashions, or habits of dressing, as produce 

 deformities and disease ; and in this respect, and on this 

 subject, there are facts so common and so deplorable that 

 they ought to induce thousands to raise their voices and 

 their authority against the practices to which their origin 

 is plainly to be traced. 



EFFECTS OF TIGHT LACING UPON THE LUNGS. 



974. It is true, that when the bones of animals are in 

 a soft and pliable state, which is always the case when 

 they are young, their natural forms may be modified, or 

 moulded into almost any shape. Even the head, togeth- 

 er with its contents, that noblest of all created organs in 

 a reasoning being, can be changed from its natural form, 

 to a parallelogram or cube, as the customs of the flat- 

 headed Indians abundantly prove. Nor are we aware 

 that this change produces any evil, either to the bodily 

 health, or intellectual faculties ; and since our design, as 

 already declared, is only to condemn those fashions 

 which by producing deformities or otherwise, tend to 

 shorten life, or produce disease, we should have nothing 

 to say against the fashion of moulding the cranium into 

 any form which the taste of the age might propose, if in- 

 deed, no bad effects followed. 



975. But if our female readers will examine the trunk 

 of the human skeleton, represented at Fig. 95, and ob- 

 serve in what manner the five lower ribs are attached, 

 and how readily, in the young subject especially, they 

 would so yield to the force of a tight band, as greatly to 

 diminish the cavity they were intended to maintain, and 

 also remember that this cavity contains the vital organs, 

 the heart and lungs, neither of which will endure pressure 

 with impunity, we think, that on contrasting this with 

 Fig. 137, they can hardly avoid the conclusion, that other 

 sad consequences must follow the use of tight lacing be- 

 side the deformities we have described. 



