Activate Javascript or update your browser for the full Digital Library experience.
Previous Page
–
Next Page
OCR
pater”
Be poy en
?
10 ‘THE KNEIPP WATER CURE MONTHLY.
thin material and according to the caprice of fashion
may or may not cover the arms, neck and upper part of
the bust. As a rule, a profusion of skirts hang loosely
about the lower extremities and give them relatively little
protection. The bonnet is useless for protection. The
feet are often held in the vise-like grasp of thin, high-
heeled coverings with more resemblance to french stilts
than shoes. They expose the woman to great danger from
cold, because all the blood is squeezed out of the feet and
moreover prevent all free exercise.
In contrast with all such incomplete protection for
the upper and lower extremities, the waist and hips are
swathed and compressed in a “torrid Zone” of whalebone,
corsets, belts, steels, skirts and other cumbersome
material.
The second requirement is freedom from waist-con-
striction. Where do we find nowadays the sensible woman
that is not a slave to this wretched and contemptible
spirit of fashion which desires to give to the human body
another shape than it has received from its Creator? The
evil comes from the corset, which not only constricts the
waist, but dislocates the thoracic viscera upward and
the abdominal organs downward. It restrains the
muscles and causes them to atrophy from disuse. It
prevents by its stiffness the undulatory movements of the
abdominal walls and favors constipation.
Normal breathing requires the lungs to be expanded
in all directions and is therefore a combination of costal
and abdominal breathing. The corset interferes with
abdominal expansion, causing thereby a loss in lung
power which cannot be supplied by any compensatory in-
crease in costal breathing. The diaphragm and the pelvic
floor are rendered inactive and the movements of which
the viscera ought to partake, are suppressed. Great in-
deed is the importance of these respiratory movements.
They are a sort of natural massage. The descent of the
diaphragm with each inspiration increases the pressure in
the abdominal cavity and lessens that in the chest. The
reverse occurs with expiration.
Alternating pressure and relaxation upon the blood
and lymph vessels secure free circulation. Alternating
contraction and relaxation of the muscular bundles of
the uterine ligaments and of the other elastic and muscu-
lar parts of the pelvic floor serve to maintain their normal
tone and nutrition. The organs need alternating rest
and motion, while waist constriction, in which our
fashionable world indulges more than ever immobilizes
those essential organic structures and stops their physio-
logical movements.
The veins of the pelvis empty into the greatest area
of corset pressure; the long and perpendicular column of
blood. which they contain is by this pressure dammed
back upon the pelvic organs, especially the ovaries.
What is the consequence? Passive congestion, suppress-
ion of circulation, an unfailing source of diseases and
sufferings for the foolish slaves of murderous fashion.
Even the loosely-worn corset excites great downward
pressure whenever the woman stoops forward, as_ she
must forcibly do in sitting and rising.
The garter is another constrictino device and is very
injurious from its tendency to abstract the veinous cir-
culation in the legs, preparing the ground for varices and
varicone ulcers.
Freedom from traction is the third desideratum for
reasonable clothing. The abdominal and dorsal muscles
and the hips have to carry the weight of numerous
a
skirts and such other garments as usually oppress that
area. In the. unequal effort to sustain this, the muscles
become permanently tired, lose their tenicity and are
powerless to prevent a still further increase of downward
pressure upon the pelvic floor and the pelvic organs. How
often, dear reader, can you see and pity this muscular
fatigue when you look at those poor girls in the iron
grip of stupid fashion, how they drag along without
spirit, without spring in'them. Look on the other hand
a lot of girls coming on to the gymnasion floor in their
light togery: “they skip and dance and run in the liberty
of their unrestrained and untrammeled motion; they are
different beings.”
Now let all and every one be warned not to indulge
in half-way measures. There is only one judicious com-
promise in laying aside the waist constriction: that is
temporary support by means of a suitable waist having
little or no stiffness, which shall cover the shoulders, and
upon which skirts and drawers and other garments may
be buttoned, so that their weight be distributed over the
shoulders. This should be worn, if at all, during the
period of aggravated weakness of the back which follows
the withdrawal of the corset and continues till the
weakened muscles have regained their tone.
The conventional dress nowadays consists of four
garments hanging from the shoulders and five from the
waist, namely, underskirt, chemise, corset-cover, dress-
waist, underdrawers, white drawers, corset, flannel skirt,
dress skirt.. What a number of layers around the waist!
Counting each band a two thicknesses, these make a mi-
nimum of seventeen.
Hygienic dress on the contrary requires only four
garments, namely:
1. Union undergarment of silk or cotton.
2. Equestrienne tights.
3. Muslin waist and skirt.
. 4. Dress in one piece, or so made that its principal
weight may be distributed over the shoulders, bust and
hips: which in all makes four layers about the waist.
These garments may, of course, be modified in many
ways to suit individual task and requirement. But the
principle is to be observed! ,
_ So for instance light whalebone may be useful in the
waist-seams for very stout women with pendulous
breasts. The advantages of hygienic dress are so num-
erous that certainly every reader that has will-power and
self-guidance enough will throw away the old instrument
of torture when she stops to think of the pleasant freedom
of motion, the agrceable out-door exercise and healthful
in-door gymnastics, which, if followed with system and
perserverance, will give normal tone, strength and
elasticity to all muscles of the thorax and the abdomen,
firmness to the breast, and all the attributes of beauty,
regular forms and triling health, :
4. Yours very sincerely
mea Dr. Theo. J. Jacquemin.
— —~— oT
The Light that the fair Goddess here upholds,
The air caressing her soft garments folds,
The food, that from the ever fruitful ground,
Kind mother nature for her children found,,
And water pure the glorious erystal flood,
These, mankind, gives thee pure and healthy Blood.
pee