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CHAP. X.] cumstances; but that is not a guarantee that no harm is being done. Life will continue under conditions so adverse that its continuance is surprising; but it may be laid down as a rule that a sudden change in vital conditions will be fatal, whereas a change as complete, but brought about gradually, will affect the health insidiously, but will not put an end to life. For example, if we were to take a girl the natural size of whose waist was twenty-four inches, put on her a small pair of stays, and draw those stays in till the waist measured sixteen inches only, that girl would faint almost immediately, and, unless the stays were opened, would probably die from failure of the heart's action, owing to mechanical pressure on the heart—one of the evils brought about by the external compression. But if we were to take a girl of the same age and height, whose shoulders and hips measured the same, but who from childhood had been gradually accustomed to tight lacing, we should find that, with a waist of only sixteen inches, the vital functions were still being performed, although, as might be expected, health was feeble for not one organ of her body on which the pressure had been exerted would be in its right place. (See Plates 2 and 4.) The deformity caused by tight stays is unfortunately generally effected so gradually during the years of growth that the sufferer is unconscious of any harm. Moreover, just as the Chinook infant will cry when its head-bandages are removed, so the woman whose body has been crushed out of all semblance to its natural form by