The influence of dress in the production of disease in females. Read before the Chenango County Medical Society, June 10th, 1847.

  • Purple, William D.
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The influence of dress in the production of disease in females. Read before the Chenango County Medical Society, June 10th, 1847. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    no matter what may be their present inconvenience, or their permanent influence on health, the rules prescribed by a few interested dress makers, must be implicitly followed. It would be truly interesting to enter a gallery composed of female figures, habited in the various fashions that have pre- vailed for the last fifty years. Nor would it be*less amusing than instructive to the pathological enquirer. We should see as the representative of the commencement of this period, a lady dressed in what was delicately called a petticoat, made of flannel, barely large enough to go around the body, and enable her to walk with the measured pace which was then requisite to good breeding ; it is pinned loosely around the body under the arms and supported by short suspenders or shoulder straps. The calico gown, or what was called a short gown, loose and free, tied with a few tape ties, completes the dress of this representative of our grandmothers in the mild seasons of the year. Then the body had a natural shape, that which an allwise Architect gave it—the several cavities were fitted in size to contain in their natural position, the va- rious organs. Then there was in ladies, as pertains in gentle- men, a cylindrical form, whose circumference was nearly the same in the throracic abdominal and pelvic regions—then the functions of the viscera were duly performed, and all moved it^trmonious concert. The heart beat freely, the lungs were dii^* expanded, the stomach and bowels were circumscribed by muscles whose province it is to promote free, general and peristaltic motion—the pelvic viscera hod ample room for all their healthy action, and were not compelled to seek less circumscribed quarters to manifest their various functions. The representative of a modern lady shows us that a change has come over this native simplicity and natural form. An edict has gone forth from the throne of fashion, that art must usurp the prerogative of nature. Not content with her legiti- mate sphere of controling in all their endless variety the ha- biliment of the sex, she advanced a step farther than she even ventured before with reasoning mortals, and declared that the female must be moulded into a more angelic form, and be made to approximate by an hour-glass contraction the sylph- like form of the ant upon the mole-hill.* The mechanical arts were immediately brought in requisi- tion, and the combined powers of the screw, the wedge and the tackle were had in requisition to abridge the work-snop of the vital and animal functions. This was no difficult task. Habit stimulated by pride of personal appearance, at first made the requisite effort—the slow and gradual yielding of the flexible parts at a young and tender age, stimulated' the votary to perseverance. The stimulus of pressure became