the lungs lie below the point of beginning corset pressure, so that
with tight corsets this amount of lung substance must be more or less
useless.

It is self-evident that any restriction placed about the waist, by
preventing the full expansion of the ribs and the descent of the
diaphragm, will further embarrass the heart's action by diminishing
the amount of room it has to work in, at the same time that it
diminishes the amount of oxygen which is inspired. Fresh air is by far
the most important part of the daily food. It is in the lungs that the
blood throws off its carbonic acid and other impurities; but it is
able to do this only when the lungs are supplied with an abundance of
oxygen. Every inch which a woman adds to her chest measure adds to the
measure of her days.

Great physical injury has followed women playing lawn-tennis while
tightly corseted. And although dancing is a much milder exercise,
since it frequently takes place in an overheated and poorly ventilated
room, fatal results occasionally occur from the same cause.

Standing erect calls into action almost all the muscles of the trunk,
neck, and lower extremities. So long as the line of gravity falls
within the area of the feet, the muscular effort required is so slight
that it is little more than the tonicity contained in all living
muscle. The greater the displacement of the line of gravity, the
greater the muscular effort required to maintain the equilibrium of
the body. Up to a certain extent, exercising the muscle develops the
strength and size of the muscle. On the other hand, when a muscle
within the body is unused, it wastes; when used within certain limits,
it grows. But when the corset splint is applied to the body of the