Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 17.djvu/761

Rh I must speak last upon one of the most remarkable of all the artificial deformities produced by adherence to a conventional standard, and one which comes very near home to many of us.

It is no part of the object of the present discourse to give a medical disquisition upon the evils of tight-lacing, though much might be said of the extraordinary and permanent change of form and relative position produced by it, not only on the bony and cartilaginous framework of the chest, but also in the most important organs of life contained within it, changes far more serious in their effects than those of the Chinook's skull and brain, or the Chinese woman's foot. It is only necessary to compare these two figures (Figs. 17 and 18), one



acknowledged by all the artistic and anatomical world to be a perfect example of the natural female form, to be convinced of the gravity of the structural changes that must have taken place in such a form, before it could be reduced so far as to occupy the space shown in the second figure, an exact copy of one of the models now held up for imitation in the fashionable world. The wonder is not that people suffer, but that they continue to live, under such conditions.

It is quite possible, or even probable, that some of us may think the latter the more beautiful of the two. If any should do so, let us pause to consider whether we are sure that our judgment is sound on the subject. Let us remember that to the Australian the nose-peg is an admired ornament, that to the Thlinkeet, the Botocudo, and the