esented at the rooms of mantuamakers and
milliners, there will be hundreds of foolish women, who will risk their
lives and health to secure some resemblance to these deformities of the
human frame. But it is believed, that all sensible women, when they
fairly understand the evils which result from tight dressing, and learn
the _real_ model of taste and beauty for a perfect female form, will
never risk their own health, or the health of their daughters, in
efforts to secure one which is as much at variance with good taste, as
it is with good health.

Such female figures as our print-shops present, are made, not by the
hand of the Author of all grace and beauty, but by the murderous
contrivances of the corset-shop; and the more a woman learns the true
rules of grace and beauty for the female form, the more her taste will
revolt from such ridiculous distortions. The folly of the Chinese belle,
who totters on two useless deformities, is nothing, compared to that of
the American belle, who impedes all the internal organs in the discharge
of their functions, that she may have a slender waist.

It was shown, in the article on the bones and muscles, that exercise was
indispensable to their growth and strength. If any muscles are left
unemployed, they diminish in size and strength. The girding of tight
dresses operates thus on the muscles of the body. If an article, like
corsets, is made to hold up the body, then those muscles, which are
designed for this purpose, are released from duty, and grow weak; so
that, after this has been continued for some time, leaving off the
unnatural support produces a feeling of weakness. Thus a person will
complain of feeling so weak and unsupported, without corsets, as to be
uncomfortable. This is entirely owing to the disuse of those muscles,
which corsets throw out of employ.

Another effect of tight dress, is, to stop or impede the office of the
lungs. Unless the chest can expand, fully, and with perfect ease, a
portion of the lungs is not filled with air, and thus the full
purification of the blood is prevented. This movement of the lungs, when
they are fully inflated, increases the peristaltic movement of the
stomach and bowels, and promotes digestion; any constriction of the
waist tends to impede this important operation, and indigestion, with
all its attendant evils, is often the result.

The rule of safety, in regard to the tightness of dress, is this. Every
person should be dressed