Page:Personal beauty how to cultivate and preserve it in accordance with the laws of health (1870).djvu/68

 *stance of the swelling often changes into a bony substance, to remove which is beyond the reach of art. It is important, therefore, that parents should be on the watch, and call the attention of the family physician to any fulness of the neck, at an early enough period to allow him to administer those remedies which at this epoch of the disease are almost certain to remove it promptly and permanently. Change of climate is advantageous but not necessary.

THE SHOULDERS AND CHEST.

Rounded, sloping, regular shoulders are indispensable to beauty, and they are the more important as full-dress frequently requires them to be displayed. They should be equal in height, and slope symmetrically in graceful curves from the base of the neck to the summit of the chest.

One of their most frequent faults is to be square instead of curved—to start almost horizontally from the base of the neck on either side. For this deformity—it is nothing less than a deformity—most women have nobody but themselves to thank. In four cases out of five it has been brought about by too close-fitting corsets, which press the shoulder-blades behind, and collar bones in front, too far upward, and thus ruin the appearance of the shoulders. When this ugliness is once acquired, it is by no means easy