Page:TIGHT-LACING - 26.png

 often roundness of shoulders, and thus a full, capacious chest; throw the arms far apart and sets them well back; gives a well-developed abdo­men, large and strong lungs; a great power of voice; a full strong pulse sound and well set teeth; plumpness of person; a large waist; full bust, and good figure. This organization gives great strength of constitution and vigour of body; a strong hold on life; a capacity for endur­ing fatigue, privation and exposure; an abundant supply of animal life and vital energy, to be expended either by the muscles in physical exer­tion, or by the brain and nerves in thought or feeling; give warmth and elasticity of feeling, and a hearty relish for food, sleep, and all the enjoy­ments of animal life. They furnish vitality. They impart that animal life, that physical vigour, required by every muscle, by every nerve, by the brain, by all portions of the body to sustain them in action. With­out this vitality they die instanter. With it but sparingly supplied, the brain, the muscles droop, become inert and die. Lassitude, general weakness, fatigue, a permanent faintness or sinking of spirit, together with this whole class of feelings, grow out of the feebleness of these organs. Many readers know by experience what a weakening influ­ence indigestion, or extreme fatigue, or bad breath, say the feeling of suffocation produced by being in a crowded room, or a muggy atmos­phere, &c., have on both the mind and the body. Being hard put to it for breath, or afflicted with the asthma, or troubled with palpitation of the heart, or diarrhea, or spitting of blood, or a sinking down into consumption, are all disorders of this range of organs, and the languid faintness and feebleness occasioned thereby, will serve to illus­trate both their function and the effect of their feebleness or disease. This portion of the body not only originates vitality, but supports and sustains the whole animal economy; and constitutes the fountain-head and main source of animal power and vital energy; manufactures animal heat; resists cold and heat, disease and death; and re-supplies the brain, nerves and muscles with that vital energy which their every action compels them to expend. It is the first portion of the animal economy formed, and the means employed in manufacturing and depo­siting matter for the formation, growth, and nutrition of all the partsrequiring either; and hence, is most active in childhood and youth, when these functions are the most vigorous. Life is also extinguished sooner by a blow on the pit of the stomach than on any other part, the head not excepted, and the blood in such cases, instead of coagulating, remains liquid, all showing that these internal organs are the fountain and centre of animal life. All aged, all eminently talented persons, will be found to possess amply developed chests; and all consumptive and short-­lived families, to have narrow chests. All grand-mothers will be found to have large waists; for, without that ample stock of vitality furnished thereby, they cannot live to become grand-mothers. The chests of-lived persons, and of hale, hearty families, will always be found to be deep, ample and expansive; their shoulders broad, waists large, and persons stocky; but those who die young, unless of accident or some acute inflammatory disease, as well as sickly, delicate, feeble children and invalids, will be found to be slim-built, narrow and shallow chested, small round the waist, and poorly developed in the abdomen: as are most who are afflicted with dispepsia, liver-complaint, scrofula, weakness, palpitation of the heart, consumption, and this whole class of diseases. The cause of these diseases is feeble vital organs, and their indications are a narrow chest and small waist. Other things being the same, in proportion to the development of these vital organs, that is, to the fulness of the waist and expansion of the chest, will be the health and strength of constitution. Show me a narrow chest and small waist, and I will show you a delicate, sickly, invalid; but let the heart, lungs, digestive apparatus, and circulation be vigorous, and the whole system is vigorous; the feelings buoyant and elastic; the health excellent;