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walls of the abdomen are bound down, and its capacity seriously 

 diminished, to the detriment of the action of all the important 

 organs it contains. You will perhaps say, why are these conse- 

 quences not more felt and serious symptoms immediately produced ; 

 I answer the practice is commenced so early in life that the organs, 

 with that wonderful adaptability which they fortunately possess, 

 have time to accommodate themselves to the unnatural conditions, 

 but they are nevertheless * slowly but surely affected by it, and 

 eventually langour, hysteria, dyspepsia, headache, backache, 

 neuralgia, bad complexion, skin eruption, red noses, and a host of 

 other ailments are produced, and the whole race is gradually 

 deteriorated. Mercifully the stays are taken off at night, so, as most 

 women spend a large proportion of the twenty-four hours in bed, 

 nature has lime to recuperate. But enough of medical detail, and 

 let me tell you how stays came to be worn. There was once a 

 cruel butcher, who had a very talkative wife ; to restrain her 

 loquacity he used to lace her up in a jean waistcoat so tightly that 

 she could scarcely breathe, much less talk. This cruel practice 

 became after a time, so popular with husbands, that the ladies, in 

 self defence, adopted it as a fashion, and followed it as such ever 

 since. I am not so sanguine as to imagine that any words of mine 

 will have any influence in altering fashion, it is too deeply rooted, 

 and of too unreasonable a nature to be affected by arguments ; but 

 if I have succeeded in impressing on even one of my audience the 

 follies of some fashions, and the unhealthiness and mischievous 

 consequences of others, I shall not have spoken wholly in vain. 



The Rev. C. Bosanquet, in proposing a vote of thanks to Dr. 

 FitzGerald, defended the practice of wearing stays as supports, 

 and remarked that women were not so bad in this respect as they 

 used to be. He could remember that his nurse used to *' creak " 

 when she moved, which was not the case he believed with nurses 

 now. 



Dr. Tyson seconded the vote of thanks, which was carried with 

 acclamation. 



Dr. FitzGerald in acknowledging it, concluded with a few more 

 rapid delineations of fashion's phases on the black board, and ex- 

 pressed a hope that his lecture would be followed by one on 

 modern dress. 



