I quote the following from her book:[1] "The relation of a
woman's dress to her health is seldom considered, still less is it
contemplated as to its effect upon the health of her children; yet
everyone must see that all that concerns the mothers of our race is
important. The clothing of woman should be regarded in every aspect if
we wish to see its effect upon her health, and consequently upon the
health of her offspring. The usual way is to consider the beauty or
fashion of dress first, its comfort and healthfulness afterward, if at
all. We must reverse this method. First, use, then beauty, flowing
from, or in harmony with, use. That is the true law of life" (p. 14).
On page 23 she continues: "A great deal more clothing is worn by women
in some of fashion's phases than is needed for warmth, and mostly in
the form of heavy skirts dragging down upon the hips. The heavy
trailing skirts also are burdens upon the spine. Such evils of women's
clothes, especially in view of maternity, can hardly be over-estimated.
The pains and perils that attend birth are heightened, if not caused,
by improper clothing. The nerves of the spine and the maternal system
of nerves become diseased together." And on page 32 she writes: "When
I first went to an evening party in a fashionable town, I was shocked
at seeing ladies with low dresses, and I cannot even now like to see a
man, justly called a rake, looking at the half-exposed bosom of a lady.
There is no doubt that too much clothing is an evil, as well as too
little; but clothing that swelters or leaves us with a cold are both
lesser evils than the exposure of esoteric charms to stir the already
heated blood of the 'roue'. What we have to do, as far as fashion and
the public opinion it forms will allow, is to suit our clothing to our
climate, and to be truly modest and healthful in our attire." Mrs.
Nichols, speaking from her own experience, has naturally devoted her
book largely to a condemnation of woman's dress, but man's dress as
worn in the West is just as bad. The dreadful high collar and tight
clothes which are donned all the year round, irrespective of the
weather, must be very uncomfortable. Men wear nearly the same kind of
clothing at all seasons of the year. That might be tolerated in the
frigid or temperate zones, but should not the style be changed in the
tropical heat of summer common to the Eastern countries? I did not
notice that men made much difference in