XX 



WAIST 



function so essential to the preservation of life and health is 

 to be performed in an efficient manner, should be perfectly 

 free and capable of variation under different circumstances. 

 So, indeed, it has been allowed to be in all parts of the world 

 and in all ages, with one exception. It was reserved for 

 mediaeval civilised Europe to have invented the system of 

 squeezing together, rendering immobile, and actually deforming, 

 the most important part of the human frame ; and the custom 

 has been handed down to, and flourishes in, our day, notwith- 



FIG. 34. Normal form of the skeleton of the chest. 



standing all our professed admiration for the models of classical 

 antiquity, and our awakened attention to the laws of health. 



It is only necessary to compare these two Figures (Figs. 3 2 

 and 33), one acknowledged by all the artistic and anatomical 

 world to be a perfect example of the natural female form, 

 to be convinced of the gravity of the structural changes that 

 must have taken place in such a form before it could be 

 reduced so far as to occupy the space shown in the second 

 figure, an exact copy of one of the models now held up for 

 imitation in the fashionable world. The actual changes that 

 have taken place in the bony framework of the chest are seen 



