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KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



debilitating cause affecting them through the 

 system, produces weakness of the back, stooping 

 shoulders, and deformity ; and then backboards, 

 and inclined planes, and other similar attendants 

 on the use of stays, are resorted to ; and in their 

 turn, of course, prove the means of still further in- 

 juring the health or disturbing the system. 



These, however, are the effects attending the 

 use of stays — effects which medical men are con- 

 stantly called to witness. Their abuse — an abuse 

 which female vanity or maternal pride is ever 

 producing — is followed by consequences still 

 more immediately serious. The ribs form more 

 or less yielding walls to the cavity which contains 

 the lungs and the heart; they are a series of 

 bones, connected behind to the spine, and before 

 to cartilages, or gristles, which intervene be- 

 tween them and the breast-bone, to render them 

 elastic, yielding, and more or less flexible. By 

 tight-lacing these qualities, with which nature 

 has for wise purposes endowed the ribs, to defend 

 the heart and lungs from injury, to lessen the 

 risk of undue pressure on them from without, or 

 undue resistance to the exercise of their functions; 

 these very qualities are, by tight-lacing, converted 

 into pregnant sources of evil. The ribs and 

 their cartilages yield to the pressure, the respira- 

 tion and heart's action are interfered with, and 

 disease of the heart or of the lungs is the pro- 

 bable and frequent result. 



I am quite aware that all which could be 

 written on this subject would not cause stays to 

 be disused ; indeed habit may be said to render 

 them almost a necessary part of female dress! But, 

 as a sort of " forlorn hope," I would beg to offer 

 the following suggestions. Let not stays be worn 

 until at as late an age as possible ; certainly not be- 

 fore twelve or thirteen years old. The older the 

 individual, the less soft ; the firmer are the ribs ; 

 the less apt to be materially bent by moderate 

 pressure. Let them be worn with as few, and as 

 thin, and as yielding bones as possible ; and, if it 

 could any how be dispensed with, without a busk. 

 Let them always be laced loosely. Some at least 

 of the evils of this practice will in this way be 

 avoided, and the feelings of society not be in the 

 least shocked by seeing women without stays. 

 Stays are in fact useless : the spine wants no 

 support. The way to make it want support is, to 

 support it ; and in that way to weaken the 

 muscles. The only possible end that stays can 

 serve is, to confine and give rigidity to the figure ; 

 an effect which would be produced, and produced 

 without the ungraceful stiffness, which stays 

 always cause, by a stout linen or cotton under- 

 garment, made to fit closely to the body. This 

 would confine the figure, and it would afford the 

 pressure required ; but the pressure would be 

 equable, and it would be at no point unyielding ; 

 it would not weaken the muscles of the back, by 

 affording a useless support to the spine ; it would 

 not interfere with the abdominal respiration ; it 

 would not press unduly on the stomach ; it 

 would not deform the ribs, and so contract the 

 cavity of the chest. 



I have made an appeal to the common sense of 

 my country-women ; but habit and fashion are 

 too firmly seated on their tyrant thrones to lead 

 me even to hope that the appeal will be suc- 

 cessful. 



TO ALL THOSE WHO LOVE HEALTH. 



We all love to be well ; yet who amongst 

 us is there, that takes the direct mode of accom- 

 plishing what he most desires? Our stomach gives 

 us many " a hint ;" but we turn a deaf ear to its 

 remonstrances, and punish it — oh, how cruelly ! 

 for its officiousness. An Englishman's stomach 

 knows not what repose is ! 



Let us hear what Dr. Todd says about it, for 

 we must not take too much upon ourself. " In 

 the multitude of counsellors there is safety." The 

 Doctor is speaking on the subject of "eating," or 

 the Englishman's God : — 



Many silly people will shut themselves up en- 

 tirely in unpleasant weather, during the long 

 winter, or whenever they find a pressure of busi- 

 ness within, or unpleasant weather without ; and 

 yet they eat just as voraciously as if they took 

 exercise every day. 



To say that no attention is to be paid to diet, 

 is madness. You must pay attention to it sooner 

 or later. If you are faithful to take regular and 

 vigorous exercise every day in the open air, then 

 you may eat and pay less attention to quantity 

 and quality. But if you take but little exercise, 

 you may be sure you are to be a severe sufferer 

 if you do not take food in the same proportion. I 

 do not ask you to diet ; that is, to be as difficult, 

 and as changeable, and as whimsical as possible, 

 as if the great point were to see how much you 

 can torment yourself and others. But I do ask 

 you to beware as to the quantity of food which you 

 hurry into the stomach, three times each day, with- 

 out giving it any rest. It is the quantity, rather 

 than the kinds of food, which destroys sedentary 

 persons ; though it is true the more simple the 

 food, the better. 



If you are unusually hurried this week, if it 

 storms to-day, so that in these periods you cannot 

 go out and take exercise, let your diet be very 

 sparing, though the temptation to do otherwise 

 will be very strong. When by any means you 

 have been injured by your food,or have over-stepped 

 the proper limits as to eating, I have found in such 

 cases that the most perfect way to recover is, to 

 abstain entirely from food for three or six meals. 

 By this time the stomach will be free, and the 

 system restored. I took the hint, from seeing an 

 idiot who sometimes had turns of being unwell : 

 at such times he abstained entirely from food for 

 about three days, in which time nature recovered 

 herself, and he was well. This will frequently, 

 and perhaps generally, answer instead of medicine ; 

 and is every way more pleasant. The most dis- 

 tinguished physicians have recommended this 

 course. 



It is a part of the Mahomedan and Pagan sys- 

 tems of religion that the body should be recruited 

 by frequent fastings. Let a bull-dog be fed in his 

 infancy upon pap, Naples biscuit, and boiled 

 chicken ; let him be wrapped in flannel at night, 

 sleep on a feather bed, and ride out in a coach for 

 an airing ; and if his posterity do not become short- 

 limbed and valetudinarian, it will be a wonder. 



We leave our readers to meditate on these sen- 

 sible observations. Health is within our reach, 

 if we be prudent ; but if we will offend against 

 nature, then we must take the consequences. 



