© and Rational Gymnastics. me 
of the boot. I have been told by another gentleman, that 
in some parts of the country they wear boots of the weight 
of 14]lbs. It will explain how difficult it is for them to 
march if that is the case; and if, in addition to this, they 
have not the right form of boot, you can easily understand 
how the development of the foot is prevented, and that the 
men are unable to perform their duties. Short and thick 
stockings aid in producing deformed toes; these models 
show divisions for each single toe, and may be called foot- 
gloves. In the other model is only one division for the 
big toe; such stockings have proved very useful in some 
cases of deformed and compressed toes, and I may say 
‘that they prevent the pushing out or down of single toes, 
‘which is frequently caused by narrow shoes and boots. ° 
I trust this will fall into the hands of ladies, because 
what I have mentioned in regard to the foot applies equally 
to the chest. If you look at the figure, which shows the 
natural development of the chest, you will see that the 
external lines of the space in which the lungs are enclosed, 
are almost round or oval. But the form into which the 
chest is usually compressed is different—the external lines 
are angular. I sent to a shop for a stay such as would be 
worn by people of the working class, as I wished to say 
something on this subject. I did not like to send to a 
fashionable staymaker’s, where the compression is carried 
to a still greater extent. Now, stays such as these inter- 
fere very much with the action of the lungs. But so long 
as gentlemen admire this form of waist, there is no hope 
that ladies will give it up. In short, the object of my 
bringing this subject forward, is not to blame the ladies, 
but to tell the gentlemen that so long as they admire this 
deformed figure of a lady, and say, “Oh, I can span her 
waist! oh, how beautiful!” so long will it be perfectly 
useless to induce the ladies to relinquish the bad habit of 
wearing tight stays. It does much mischief, for though it 
may not matter with fashionable ladies, who have their 
doctors and can remain at home, it is imitated by the 
middle class and the working class, and it produces a very 
bad effect. Therefore, gentlemen, do not blame the ladies, 
but blame yourselves. So long as you do not change your 
ideas of beauty, so long as you think a curved line is ugly, 
and an angular line is pretty, we have no reason to expect 
that any change will take place. 
Then, again, there is another injurious influence which 
acts against our natural physical development, and that is, 
