EFFECTS OF TIGHT LACING. 311 



997 Says Dr. Reid, " very straight lacing, and strain- 

 ing for a fine shape, hath made many a fine girl spit blood, 

 and ruined the lungs by preventing a full and free respi- 

 ration." On Consumption, p. 99. 



998. Now since the practice of tight lacing, if not 

 universal, is at least exceedingly common, and as the re- 

 mains of comparatively few who die of diseases of the 

 lungs are submitted to post-mortem examination, it is im- 

 possible to give any conjecture of the number who destroy 

 themselves in this way. But I have no doubt that the 

 ladies themselves, to a considerable extent, will agree 

 with me in believing, that hundreds, nay thousands^ of 

 females literally kill themselves every year by this fashion 

 in our own country : and if suicide is a crime, how will 

 such escape in the day of Jinal account ! 



999. We have represented by figures 134 and 135 the 

 difference between a natural human skeleton, and one in 



Fig. 134. Fig. 135. 



which the pressure of stays has pushed the front ends 

 of the ribs inward, bending the soft cartilages, so as to 

 make them form acute angles outward. It will be obvi- 

 ous to those who will reflect on this subject, even only 

 for a moment, that the ribs cannot possibly sustain the 

 force often applied to them in the process of forming a 

 slim waist, in a girl of eighteen, without yielding in one 

 direction or another; otherwise, and if the circumfer- 

 ence remained the same, no difference would be made 

 in the size of the chest, except that resulting from the 

 compression of the fleshy fibres by which it is covered ; 



