[Illustration: Forms of Corsets in the time of Elizabeth of England.]

[Illustration: EGYPTIAN CORSET.]


* * * * *

TIGHT-LACING.


It destroys natural beauty and creates an unpleasant and irritable
temper. A tight-laced chest and a good disposition cannot go
together. The human form has been molded by nature, the best shape is
undoubtedly that which she has given it. To endeavor to render it more
elegant by artificial means is to change it; to make it much smaller
below and much larger above is to destroy its beauty; to keep it cased
up in a kind of domestic cuirass is not only to deform it, but to
expose the internal parts to serious injury. Under such compression as
is commonly practiced by ladies, the development of the bones, which
are still tender, does not take place conformably to the intention
of nature, because nutrition is necessarily stopped, and they
consequently become twisted and deformed.

[Illustration: THE NATURAL WAIST. THE EFFECTS OF LACING.]

Those who wear these appliances of tight-lacing often complain that
they cannot sit upright without them--are sometimes, indeed, compelled
to wear them during all the twenty-four hours; a fact which proves to
what extent such articles weaken the muscles of the trunk. The injury
does not fall merely on the internal structure of the body, but also