KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



79 



THE MONTH OF MAECH; 



OR, 



A WOKD IN SEASON. 



We promised in our last, that our new sub- 

 scribers (not a few), should soon see the extent of 

 our anxiety for their welfare. We vowed to speak 

 out, if they would listen. Our fair friends shall 

 find us as good as our word. We live but to 

 study their best interests, and this very page shall 

 prove it. 



March has arrived, and with it all those dis- 

 eases and maladies so peculiar to this month. He 

 has greeted us, as Spencer says — 



With brows full 6ternly bent, 



And armed strangely. In his hand a spade, 

 And in a bag all sorts of seeds ye same, 



Which on the earth he streweth as he goes. 



Now, maidens, is the time for you to show your 

 good sense ; by arming yourselves against the in- 

 vader. By the aid of suitable woollen clothing, 

 keep your body comfortably warm ; don't contract 

 your amiable persons into less than half the space 

 required by nature (of which more anon), but let 

 your internal machinery have free play. It will 

 then never be out of order. Be " natural" first ; 

 " symmetry" will be sure to follow. At this sea- 

 son, the feet must be most particularly attended to. 

 Cold feet and wet feet bring on a diseased stomach, 

 and with it a host of ailments indescribable. Thin 

 shoes must be regarded as heretical, and banished. 

 Warm stockings too, — black silk, if practicable , are 

 to be commended. Keep these on, all day ; and 

 also good, strong, sensible shoes, or ancle boots. 

 What can be neater, nicer, than a well-made 

 trim-looking, lady's boot? Wear such, by all 

 means. No satin shoes in the evening, if you 

 please. No low dresses at night, or what is known 

 as " full dress" (which means semi-nudity.) 

 These cannot be cultivated with impunity. Of- 

 fend against our rules, noiv, and we fear that next 

 March you will not be here to listen to our admo- 

 nitions. The body cannot bear, at this season, 

 a repeated change of dresses in one day. Those 

 who will follow Fashion's rules, must pay the 

 penalty. Our readers are surely not of this order. 

 Oh, no ! By the way, let us recommend a thin 

 sole of cork, or felt, to be worn inside the boot or 

 shoe. It is a bad conductor of heat, and there- 

 fore highly desirable. 



Beware of chilblains ! These are often induced 

 by the use of carpet shoes, or fur slippers. Away 

 with all these tom-fooleries. Active excercise will 

 always keep the feet naturally warm. People 

 become positively crippled by the use of too much 

 covering to their feet. In Scotland and Ireland, 

 where the feet are so little protected, chilblains 

 are rare. In England, our children are tormented 

 by them. Consumption, which visits us this 

 month in all its horrors, may be kept at arm's 

 length, by proper care. Air, exercise, and atten- 

 tion to diet, are the best foils to its power. 

 Sedentary and lazy people, perish by the hundred ; 

 whilst the alert, lively, and cheerful, defy both 

 wind and tide. We might enlarge on this subject, 

 but it is needless. All we will add is, before in- 

 troducing a chapter on tight lacing (every daughter 

 of Eve must read that chapter, and plead more or 

 less guilty to the charges contained in it, notwith- 

 standing the sex have improved a little) — rise 



early, and practise all the christian virtues. Love 

 every body, — you really can do it if you try 

 — better than yourself, and see how a "happy 

 heart" will regenerate an ailing constitution. To 

 live for others, and to delight in labors of love — 

 is happiness and health united. Try the experi- 

 ment. 



BAD HABITS,— 



THE USE AND ABUSE OF STAYS. 



BY W. H. ROBERTSON, M.D. 



Fad habits gather by unseen degrees, 

 As brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas. 



There is a custom prevailing among the 

 women of the present day, a truly horrible cus- 

 tom. It is most directly opposed to the dictates 

 of nature ; not only irrational, but dangerous, the 

 unsuspected parent of numberless diseases.* The 

 custom I allude to is, that of tight lacing ; I had 

 almost said, that of wearing stays. 



Habit leads people to the most unnatural 

 conclusions. Fashion and custom are the parents 

 of absurdity. Much as we may laugh at the 

 effects which these produce on other nations — 

 much as we may ridicule the compressed, the 

 crippled, and useless feet of the Chinese females — 

 they do not interfere with any important or indis- 

 pensable vital organ by the practice. Much as we 

 may view with an amused feeling of superiority 

 the blackened teeth, the skin painted with many 

 colors and grotesque devices, and the be-ringed 

 nose and lips of the savage — yet these are only 

 what they purport to be ; they are to them orna- 

 mental ; they do not interfere with the exercise of 

 a single function ; they do not even tend to dis- 

 order the health, injure the constitution, or 

 curtail the, at best, short span of human life. 



Far different is it with the European custom 

 of wearing stays. Let any one who may now 

 have his attention for the first time directed to 

 this subject, quietly compare his mode of 

 breathing with that in which any female breathes, 

 and think of what must be the probable effect of 

 so great an interference with one of our most im- 

 portant functions. He will find that he breathes 

 chiefly, if not wholly, by the diaphragm, or muscle 

 which divides the chest from the bowels ; that the 

 rise and fall of his abdomen is the effect produced 

 by his respiration ; that he seldom, unless during 

 or immediately after exertion, raises his chest, or 

 expands his ribs ; whilst the female, her abdomen 

 being confined by her stays, is obliged to 

 perform this function by expanding her chest, and 

 raising the ribs. But is this all ? No ! in a 

 number of instances, the busk, or central bone, 

 or steel of the stays, presses on the stomach, 

 and produces, by the pressure, disturbance of 

 its functions — indigestion and its consequences. 



But further. The muscles of the spine being 

 compressed by the stays, and the back not being 

 dependent on them for support — shrink, become 

 smaller, and consequently weaker ; and the least 



• We have before hinted at the enormity of this evil, 

 and pointed out some of the horrors resulting from 

 study ins; the fashion of modern d ess. See Vol I., 

 page 133; article "Nature and Art."— Ed. K. J. 



