The class-book of anatomy : designed for schools, explanatory of the first principles of human mechanism, as the basis of physical education / by Jerome V.C. Smith.

  • Smith, Jerome Van Crowninshield, 1800-1879.
Date:
1834
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The class-book of anatomy : designed for schools, explanatory of the first principles of human mechanism, as the basis of physical education / by Jerome V.C. Smith. 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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    small for the requirements of the body ;■— they cannot oxygenate the blood, —an indispensable vital process. Corset boards are quite as reprehensible, though the in- juries to which they give rise, are less apparent in the be- ginning. The busk operates almost exclusively on the sternum or breast bone, which is easily bent out of its original position, at its lower extremity. By a constant pressure of an inelastic board, the lower end of the sternum, which juts down into the abdominal muscles two or three inches, is forced inward, and be- coming ossified in that direction, is productive of serious injury to the stomach, which lies just behind it. A multitude of painful and protracted diseases, by which females in the higher walks of society, in this age, are hurried to an early grave, have their origin in this hor- rible custom of wearing stays. Thousands upon thou- sands of young ladies are the yearly victims, even in the United States, to consumption, which is wholly referable to this fashionable, but perverted taste, of conforming to a practice which has for its object, the improvement of the female form ; as though the Creator, in constructing the most beautiful work of his creation, neglected to give that last finishing process, which they imagine them- selves to have discovered, and which can alone be satisfac- tory to the sex. While we lament the tolerance of an evil in our coun- try that sweeps the young, the beautiful, and the intelligent to the tomb, before the summer of life has fairly commenc- ed, we scarcely indulge the hope of a reformation : per- nicious customs which are preserved by common consent, cannot be easily overcome by persuasion or argument. If, notwithstanding the many illustrations given of the sad effects of stays and busks, by various philanthropic writers, mothers and nurses manifest no disposition to be