EFFECTS OF TIGHT LACING. 309 



989. This effect follows in numerous instances, attend- 

 ed with a hard projection on one side of the breast-bone, 

 and a hollow on the other ; or the bone itself in other 

 instances, has one of the edges thrown outward and the 

 other turned inward, consequently because the lungs, as 

 already shown, entirely fill the cavity of the chest, one 

 or both of the lobes, beside the general pressure, must 

 suffer a local injury from the interior protuberance thus 

 formed. 



990. More than one instance of this effect from exces- 

 sive lacing, has come within the knowledge of the author ; 

 and more than one who reads these observations will ac- 

 knowledge perhaps mentally, the truth of the statements 

 here made, and will be able to bring examples either in 

 themselves or their friends. 



991. Dr. Morton' 's Case, proving the above Assertions. 

 But since many profess to doubt the injurious consequen- 

 ces of tight-lacing on the lungs, at least so far as them- 

 selves are concerned, we will here offer an abstract of a 

 case for the consideration of such ; and which we cannot 

 but hope will be thought worthy of serious notice by our 

 female readers. It is from a work on consumption, by 

 Dr. Morton, of Philadelphia. 



992. " A lady," says he, " aged thirty-two years, of 

 strong constitution, and good frame, but of a nervous tem- 

 perament, with dark hair, and brunett complexion, had 

 been for some time under the care of Dr. Hodge, for an 

 attack of severe nervous irritation ; when in the absence 

 of that gentleman, I was requested to see her on the 6th 

 of May, 1833. On my arrival, I found her dying, and 

 she survived but a few hours. 



993. " There was no obvious emaciation, but the thorax 

 was contracted by a depression of the breast-bone, so 

 as to reduce the diameter between it and the spine. On 

 removing the pectoral muscles, the five or six superior 

 ribs were observed to be considerably depressed at their 

 extremities, where the cartilages joined them to the ster- 

 num, and at which point there was a remarkable angle 

 which protruded into the thorax. The left lung adhered 

 at its apex, at which point the pleura [the membrane 

 covering the interior of the ribs], was deeply contracted 



