Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 April 1889 — TIGHT LACINC. [ARTICLE]

TIGHT LACINC.

A. W*MF *f th* Bvila of Thia Dnivennl Vamlaino Kabir. wonderful how slightly regard for health. life and conscience controls most people where fashion is concerned. The thmiltar saying. "Better out of the world than out of fasliiou," is in some sort freely acted on. LJfe is knowingly risked at the bidding of the modern goddess. Whose despotic sway no god of antiquity » every equaled. \ The space inclosed by the ribs is packed to the fullest .possible extent, and it can be diminlshed only at the expense of the heart, lungs and liver, as well as of other organs below. The medical profession the world over, and of every school, is quite unanimous in condemning tlie fashion which commands the forcible diminution of this space. Says Dr. Austin Flint, one of the highest arid fairest authorities in America. *“ “The most important of these distortions of the liver is that produced by tight-lacing. In consequence of constriction of tbrilbwer part of the chest, the liver is compressed from side to side, and a circular furrow, or depression, is produced, which may be so deep as almost to divide the organ transversely into two r art®, of which the lower may even be tilted up over the upper. Corresponding to the tight-lace furrow, the liven substance is atrophied, and the capsule is thickened and opaque. ’j According to W. Johnson Smith, of England, lhe wasting at the furrow may go ott until the parts above and below it are Connected merely by a membranous band. Recently, in this country, a physician cut off and removed the lower portion of the liver of a tight-lacing patient. A late number of the Medical Record adduces the testimony of many physicians from different parts of Europe as to the effects of light-lacing on health. As the names will be unfamiliar to our readers generally, we will omit and give only their condensed testimony. “It weakens the bony and muscular structures. a “It gives rise to intercostal neuralgias, resembling angina pectoris. •tit occasions congestion of the eyes by obstructing the reflow of blood from th©' bead. “It gives rise to gall-stones. “Deficiency of bile, dyspepsia, sickness, constipation, headaches, chlorosis, debility may form a natural sequence. "It may cause wandering (or floating) kidney.®. *By diminishing lhe capacity of the lungs, it may cause oxygen starvation and arterial ana-min.” Against all this it may lie urged that women live as lung ns men; but the answer to this is that wai, the casualties of life, drunkenness and general dissipation tell on men vastly more than ou women.