PREVENTION OF SPINAL DISTORTION. 313 



from the disease, but by attributing it to a mode of dress, 

 which no one will deny, does in many instances at least, 

 not only create such a predisposition, but actually and 

 obviously brings on the disease ; and from which the 

 males, even of the same families, escape, by using a dress 

 which allows the functions of the lungs to be continued 

 agreeably to the laws of natural economy, and the design 

 of the Creator. 



PREVENTION OF SPINAL DISTORTION. 



1004. It is no part of the plan of this work to point 

 out the methods of cure proposed, and practised by sur- 

 geons and physicians, for the various deformities and 

 other affections in young females, consequent upon the 

 causes which have been noticed in the foregoing pages. 

 And yet, we can hardly avoid saying a few words on this 

 subject for the purpose of showing young ladies what 

 terrible remedies are employed for these deformities, 

 and how difficult it is to cure them, even in their incipient 

 stages. This we do as a warning to those who are still 

 in the enjoyment of their natural forms, not to make use 

 of any of the means, or indulge themselves in any of the 

 habits which we have described as the causes of such 

 evils. And also, a caution to mothers, how they encour- 

 age their young daughters in tight lacing for the sake of 

 procuring genteel forms, lest thereby they should thus be- 

 come the authors of disgusting diseases which art can 

 never remedy, instead of the fine shapes which they ex- 

 pect will be so much admired and coveted. 



1005. The attempts heretofore most commonly made 

 to cure curved spines have been by means of various 

 machines, consisting of beams, bars, pulleys, ropes, screws, 

 inclined planes, straps and buckles, more or less of which 

 are combined, and applied in different ways, according to 

 the nature of the case, or the skill of the mechanic by 

 whom these machines are employed. 



1006. The late Mr. Shaw, a surgeon of reputation in 

 London, who has written a treatise on the cure of curved 

 spines, says that it is the practice of some to keep young 

 girls afflicted with this disease in a horizontal position, 

 for months, and even for years, " without intermission." 



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