On the ill effects of insufficient exercise, constrained positions, and tight stays on the health of young women.

Date:
1833
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the ill effects of insufficient exercise, constrained positions, and tight stays on the health of young women. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    giving utterance to some terrible denunciation; while the Apostles behind, with hands folded, or pointed to- wards Heaven, acknowledge, with devout astonishment, the manifest interposition of divine justice. The position of Ananias is a wonderful example of Raffaelle’s intuitive perception, or of his acute observation of actual fact, or more properly, perhaps, of both. It is evident that the figure has been struck with sudden death ; the head has fallen on the shoulders, the eyes have lost their volition, the convulsions which contract the limbs are the spasms of mortal agony; but the fulness and roundness of the muscles show that the blow has fallen on the delinquent while in the full possession of health and vigour. The whole action is consecutive; he has been kneeling at the steps, has fallen backwards, and we perceive, notwith- standing his feeble and unconscious effort to sustain himself on his wrist, that in another moment he will be extended on the floor. So sudden has been the shock, that it has not been perceived except by the persons immediately adjacent to the spot. In these individuals of different sex and ages, the fear and astonishment, naturally excited by such an event, are finely pourtrayed; the young man on the left, recoiling in dismay, affords an effective contrast in the fine extension of his limbs to the fore- shortened figure of Ananias. The two men on the right, in the midst of their amazement, appear to admit, by their gestures and expression, the justice of the infliction. It has been questioned whether the woman who is advanc- ing from behind was meant for Sapphira, as it is stated in the sacred record that three hours had elapsed after the death of Ananias before she entered the place. Not- withstanding this objection, it is most probable that Raffaelle intended this figure for the wife of Ananias; and the slight inaccuracy is more than atoned for by the sublime moral, which shows the woman approaching the spot where her husband had met his doom, and where her own death awaits her, but wholly unconscious of those judgments, and absorbed in counting that gold by which both she and her partner had been betrayed to their fate. We have received several communications on the subject of the Cartoons, of which the following is the substance:— One correspondent, remarking upon the cartoon en- titled “ Paul preaching at Athens,” affirms that this title “ is a misnomer. He was not preaching in our sense of the word, but pleading before a high court of justice. He was not brought before this court, like Socrates, on an actual charge of a breach of the law, but to give an account of his doctrines. The picture therefore fails, as it represents Paul addressing an indiscriminate audience, consisting of philosophers of the different sects then in high esteem, the women not being excluded.” Our correspondent then proceeds to lament that in the de- scriptive account of the cartoon opportunity was not taken to point out an erroneous translation in the com- mon version of the New Testament, which makes Paul speak of his auditors as superstitious; and that his conduct and address were not contrasted with those of Socrates in a somewhat similar situation. He then pro- ceeds as follows:— “ Taking the picture as it is supposed to be, the repre- sentation of a fact in a certain place, it has always appeared to me as one of the absurdest productions of modern art, offending without cause both in costume and locality. “Poets and painters have, as Horace says, a very exten- sive range allowed to them, but it has its limits. What can be more absurd than to see in the celebrated picture of the Lord’s Supper (of which I hope to see a print in your Magazine) our Saviour blessing a modern loaf, a loaf of leavened bread, a species of bread particularly interdicted at that time to be in the house.” A second correspondent states that there are two other productions of Raffaelle, denominated Cartoons, in the Duke of Buccleugh’s collection at Boughton House, near Kettering in Northamptonshire. “ These cartoons,” he says, “ are, I believe, very little known ; nor have I ever seen any copies or prints of them. They are paintings in water, much of the colouring of which has faded, whilst all the outlines and bolder strokes are remaining. They are on paper, and, from the creases-^isible in the sheets, appear to have once been folded upNfpr carriage, to be copied, like the other-'cartoGgs, in tapestry or upon glass. The subject of zone of them is, I think, Ezekiel’s Vision; in which theinperjgp of’) the Almighty is won- derfully pourtrayed : it\has exactly the--same expression as the representations or'tbe-safmTDeing on the com- partments of the ceilings in the Vatican—judging from prints. Of the other I have but little recollection, except that it is a group, and very much in the style of those at Hampton Court—at least according to the copies in the Bodleian—never having seen the originals. The cartoons at Boughton are, I think, somewhat larger than the copies alluded to at Oxford, and are reversed in position, the shortest sides of the parallelo- grams forming the tops and bottoms.” This corres- pondent wishes to know whether any other particulars are known respecting them, whether any prints or copies are known to exist of them, and by whom they were brought to England. A third correspondent informs us that he has repeatedly inspected these last- mentioned cartoons with great pleasure ; and adds that the subject of the second is either the Nativity or the Adoration of the Magi, and that George III. wished to have added them to his collection. We shall en- deavour to give a more precise account of these works in a future number. In the introductory remarks on the Cartoons, in No. 43, deserved praise was given to the engravings of those at Hampton Court by the late Mr. Holloway. But the praise, it appears, should not have been confined to that gentleman, and we readily accede to a request of making known the parties to whom any share is due : “ The fact is,” says a correspondent, on whose correct- ness we can rely, “ the engravings have been almost entirely executed by his partners, Messrs. Slann and Webb, who have given up all their time, property, and talents, in executing and supporting the work which must otherwise have long ago sunk from insufficient patronage, and who will even at great pecuniary loss complete the seven engravings. To Mr. Holloway fully belongs the credit of commencing the work, and he, with his eldest nephew, made the beautiful drawings from the originals, and was the public man of the party ; but to his partners, who worked unseen and almost unknown, most justly appertains the credit of the, engra.vings.”>v,k It appears also that we were in error .in stating that the tapestries brought from Spain by Mr. Tupper,4wid recently exhibited at the Egyptian Hall, had been sold to a foreigner, and by him taken to the Continent. They are yet in the possession of Mr. Tupper’s«farother. —. i-.m 24 / ON THE ILL EFFECTS OF INSUFFICIENT EXERCISE, CONSTRAINED POSITIONSrAND TIGHT STAYS ON THE HEAi/m Oi-' YOCNG WOMEN. ^57 B ft f\ 7 There is no branch of education which stanefs more in need of revision and improvement than that which relates to the bodily health and growth of children and young persons, and which is now commonly known by the name of Physical Education. This is more espe- cially true of the education of girls, particularly such as are brought up at boarding-scnools ; boys being com- paratively but little affected by the causes which act most injuriously on the young persons of the other sex.