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118 Nature by the judicious application of another layer of muscles, which shall support the former in the performance of their functions. It is not mere pressure that is demanded, for this will too frequently increase the evil, and it often happens that middle age is burdened with infirmities in conse­quence of the compression to which the waist has been subject in youth; and hence that enormous distension of the abdomen with which some females are troubled. The uterus and other internal organs will, from sympathy, be affected also, and this will give rise to numerous painful disorders in the region of the pelvis. But we have already spoken of the evil of tight-lacing, and need not recur to it again here; we appeal to the experience of every lady who may read this, whether much that we have said has not fallen under her own observation. The extreme disfigurement to which the human body is liable may be seen by a reference to certain nations and races, in whom the deformity is great; and although the picture is rather calculated to inspire disgust than any other feeling, still it is well to exhibit it as an advertisement of how far the frame may be mutilated through ignorance or misconception. Having stated the fact that women need support at particular periods of life, and given the reason