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xiv is simply intelligence; the stitching was quite as good before we begun as it is now.

It may appear strange, that after so long a period since the ordinary corset had been con­demned, no substantial improvement had been made in its construction. But the reason of this evidently is, that the whole affair had been left entirely in the hands of working people—generally females of little or no education—who knew no more of the structure and functions of the body than an unlettered philosophical-instrument maker knows of the structure of the starry heavens. Hence the requirements of the internal organs were unknown, and the line of beauty on the ex­ternal figure unperceived. The old assemblage of straight lines and angular shapes, which were brought together to make up one pair of stays, was no more adapted to the preservation of the health and the display of the beauty of the body, than a straight piece to cover a round ball without creases. And hence the just condemnation which has been bestowed on them by the medical faculty.

One reason why we succeeded in improving the corset where all others had failed was, perhaps,