To compress the waist, and thereby change its form, pushing the ribs
inward, displacing the vital organs, and preventing the due expansion
of the lungs, is as destructive to beauty as it is to health.


* * * * *

THE HISTORY, MYSTERY, BENEFITS AND INJURIES OF THE CORSET.


[Illustration: The Corset in the 18th Century.]


1. The origin of the corset is lost in remote antiquity. The figures
of the early Egyptian women show clearly an artificial shape of the
waist produced by some style of corset. A similar style of dress must
also have prevailed among the ancient Jewish maidens; for Isaiah, in
calling upon the women to put away their personal adornments, says:
"Instead of a girdle there shall be a rent, and instead of a stomacher
(corset) a girdle of sackcloth."

2. Homer also tells us of the cestus or girdle of Venus, which was
borrowed by the haughty Juno with a view to increasing her personal
attractions, that Jupiter might be a more tractable and orderly
husband.

3. Coming down to the later times, we find the corset was used in
France and England as early as the 12th century.

4. The most extensive and extreme use of the corset occurred in the