. No acrobat would attempt to perform feats of strength or of
agility if restricted even so much as by a belt.

The Russian Government has issued an edict that the soldiers must wear
their pantaloons held up by suspenders, for it has been demonstrated
that when they wear them supported by a belt around the waist they are
not able to do a fair amount of work. The Austrian Government has also
decreed that the pantaloons of soldiers are not to be suspended by
belts because of the increase of kidney difficulty caused thereby.

We will understand why kidney difficulty is caused by tight clothing
when we study the location of the kidneys and how they are affected by
compression of the ribs. Most people think the kidneys lie low down in
the back, but in reality they lie up under the short ribs, and the
pressure of tight clothing brings the ribs to bear directly upon the
kidneys, injuring them in such a way as often to cause disease.

The heart and lungs are protected by a bony framework called the
thorax, but below the thorax there is no protection for the internal
organs except that of the muscles, therefore the corset or tight
clothing can do most damage to the vital organs below the diaphragm.
The largest of these is the liver. It should lie close up under the
diaphragm, from which it is suspended. Under the influence of tight
clothing it is often pressed over on the right side, sometimes
extending over the whole front of the body, or even as low down as the
navel. It is rutted by the pressure of the ribs. The corset liver is
well known in the dissecting-room. Sometimes, where corsets are not
worn and tight skirts are worn, supported by the hips, the liver has
almost been cut in two, the pieces being only held together by a
sufficient band of tissue to keep them from dying.

When Hiram Powers, the great sculptor, was in this country, he once
attended an elegant party, and was observed watching very intently a
beautifully dressed, fashionable woman. A friend, noticing his
interest, said to him, "What an elegant figure she has, hasn't she?"

"Well," said Powers, "I was wondering where she put her liver."

You see, Powers had studied the human body, and when he saw such an
outline as the figure of a fashionable woman, he knew that some
internal organ must be displaced in order to create that tapering
waist, and his anxiety was for the internal organs. As an artist he
did not admire the tapering waist, as is shown by the b