The spinal distortion is one of
the ordinary consequences of lacing. No one who laces habitually
can have a straight or strong back. The muscles being unbalanced
become flabby or contracted, unable to support the trunk of the
body erect, and a curvature, usually a double curvature, of the
spine is the consequence. And if anything were needed to
aggravate the spinal curvature, intensify the compression of the
internal viscera, and add to the general deformity, it is found
in the modern contrivance of stilted gaiters. These are made with
heels so high and narrow that locomotion is awkward and painful,
the centre of gravity is shifted "to parts unknown," and the head
is thrown forwards and the hips projected backwards to maintain
perpendicularity.

[3] I have reproduced the admirable cuts found in Dr.
Trall's physiology, as they were essential to the
understanding of the text quoted, and also because they
convey more vividly than words the injury necessarily
sustained by those who persist in outraging nature and
violating the laws of their being by improper dress.

[Illustration: The internal viscera.]

[Illustration: Anterior view of thorax in the Venus of Medicis.]

[Illustration: The same in a fashionable corset-wearing lady of
to-day.]

In speaking of the destructiveness to health caused by woman's dress,
Prof. Oscar B. Moss, M. D., declares:

Although the corset is the chief source of constraint to the
kidneys, liver, stomach, pancreas, and spleen, forcing them
upward to encroach upon the diaphragm and compressing the lungs
and heart, its evils are rivalled by those resulting from
suspending the skirts from the waist and hips, by which means the
pelvic organs are forced downward and often permanently
displaced. Now, add to these errors a belt drawn snugly around
the waist, and we have before us a combination of the most
malignant elements of dress which it would be possible to invent.

The waist belt enforces the evils which the corset and skirts
inaugurate. Every proposition of anatomy and physiology bearing
upon this subject appeals to reason. Did the abdominal organs
require for their well-being less room than we find in the
economy of nature, less room would have been provided. Nature
bestows not grudgingly, neither d