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xii system to the wants of humanity. We cheerfully concede all this to the faculty, and only ask in return to be measured by the same standard.

It never seems to have occurred to the Doctor that ladies must and will wear stays, in spite of all the medical men in the world. The strong and perfect feel the benefit of using them, and to the weak and delicate, or imperfect, they are absolutely indispensable; but when we say this, we mean corsets properly constructed; for if the construction be faulty, the mistake will be equally as bad as the administration of a cathartic instead of a diapho­retic. Yes, says the practitioner, but then none but a quack would do such a thing. Precisely so; and no one who knew how to adapt a pair of corsets to the human figure would ever injure the body by trying to improve it. Only suppose that corset-making has fallen into the hands of quacks—that is, of people who do not understand their profession—and the whole question is answered.

But, says the Doctor again, they are "useful only to conceal defects and make up deficiencies in appearance." Well, that is something, at all events,