heard in
large French workrooms, and it is part of the duty of the superintendents
of the rooms to make the girls sit properly.[208]

"During a visit which I once paid to a manufactory of military
clothing," Pouillet writes, "I witnessed the following scene. In
the midst of the uniform sound produced by some thirty
sewing-machines, I suddenly heard one of the machines working
with much more velocity than the others. I looked at the person
who was working it, a brunette of 18 or 20. While she was
automatically occupied with the trousers she was making on the
machine, her face became animated, her mouth opened slightly, her
nostrils dilated, her feet moved the pedals with constantly
increasing rapidity. Soon I saw a convulsive look in her eyes,
her eyelids were lowered, her face turned pale and was thrown
backward; hands and legs stopped and became extended; a
suffocated cry, followed by a long sigh, was lost in the noise of
the workroom. The girl remained motionless a few seconds, drew
out her handkerchief to wipe away the pearls of sweat from her
forehead, and, after casting a timid and ashamed glance at her
companions, resumed her work. The forewoman, who acted as my
guide, having observed the direction of my gaze, took me up to
the girl, who blushed, lowered her face, and murmured some
incoherent words before the forewoman had opened her mouth, to
advise her to sit fully on the chair, and not on its edge.

"As I was leaving, I heard another machine at another part of the
room in accelerated movement. The forewoman smiled at me, and
remarked that that was so frequent that it attracted no notice.
It was specially observed, she told me, in the case of young
work-girls, apprentices, and those who sat on the edge of their
seats, thus much facilitating friction of the labia."

In cases where the sewing-machine does not lead to direct self-excitement
it has been held, as by Fothergill,[209] to predispose to frequency of
involuntary sexual orgasm during sleep, from the irritation set up by the
movement of the feet in the sitting posture during the day. The essential
movement in working the sewing-machine is the flexion and extension of the
ankle, but the muscles of the thighs are used to maintain the feet firmly
on the treadle, the thighs are held together, and there is a considerable
degree of flexion or extension o