Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 June 1884 — Tight Trousers. [ARTICLE]

Tight Trousers.

“Here, conductor, this young man’s fainted.” The words were uttered in a tone of great excitement by a stout woman of about 40 years of age recently in a Columbia avenue car, and as she spoke a slim youth who was seated beside her in a corner of the car fell forward and dropped in a heap upon the straw. With the assistance of a gentleman the conductor lifted the senseless youth on the seat, and two minutes later, as the car passed a drug store, pulled the bell-strap, and, followed by half a dozen interested passengers, five of whom were women, carried him into the store, where he was placed on a lounge in the back room. A doctor was hurriedly summoned, and after a disappearance of about ten minutes the young man and physician came out of the room, which, had been kept closed, arm-in-arm, The young man’s face was Still pale, and he walked with a very perceptible tremor, After a few moment’s rest the young man got on another car and went away, and the doctor said: “This is the fourth case this month I have seen of the deadly effects of wearing tight trousers, and had that young man not been, attended to promptly he might have been in great danger.” “Tight trousers?” queried a bystander, incredulously. “Yes, sir; tight trousers! Why you can not imagine how often we doctors have to treat cases of illness brought on by no other cause. Take that young man, for instance; his trousers were at least four sizes too small for him; not too short, of course, but too tight, and for hours and hours he had been walking about with a pressure of at least 275 pounds to the square inch on his o/exli vwisectoH arteries, which are situated in the calves of the human leg. This tremendous pressure forces the blood into channels not able to carry it without undue straining, and although the victim feels no pain he is liable at any moment to topple over in a swoon, and unless relief is promptly given a long and serious illness is likely to follow. It is a similar trouble to that experienced when it was the fashion for the ladies to wear very tight sleeves, except that in the case of tight trousers the material is heavier, the arteries are larger, and the result apt to be more dangerous and difficult to relieve.”— Philadelphia Record.