CLOTHING



XII.

CLOTHING.

There is no duty of those persons having control of a family where
principle and practice are more at variance than in regulating the
dress of young girls, especially at the most important and critical
period of life. It is a difficult duty for parents and teachers to
contend with the power of fashion, which at this time of a young girl's
life is frequently the ruling thought, and when to be out of the
fashion, to be odd and not dress as all her companions do, is a
mortification and grief that no argument or instructions can relieve.
The mother is often so overborne that, in spite of her better wishes,
the daughter adopts modes of dress alike ruinous to health and to
beauty.

The greatest protection against such an emergency is to train a child
to understand the construction of her own body and to impress upon
her, in early days, her obligations to the invisible Friend and Guardian
of her life, the "Former of her body and the Father of her spirit,"
who has committed to her care so precious and beautiful a casket. And
the more she can be made to realize the skill and beauty of construction
shown in her earthly frame, the more will she feel the obligation to
protect it from injury and abuse.

It is a singular fact that the war of fashion has attacked most fatally
what seems to be the strongest foundation, and defense of the body,
the bones. For this reason, the construction and functions of this
part of the body will now receive attention.

The bones are composed of two substances, one animal, and the other
mineral. The animal part is a very fine network, called _cellular
membrane._ In this are deposited the harder mineral substances,
which are composed principally of carbonate and phosphate of lime. In
very early life, the bones consist chiefly of the animal part, and are
then soft and pliant. As the child advances in age, the bones grow
harder, by the gradual deposition of the phosphate of lime, which is
supplied by the food, and carried to the bones by the blood. In old
age, the hardest material preponderates; malting the bones more brittle
than in earlier life.

The bones are covered with a thin skin or membrane, filled with small
blood-vessels which convey nourishment to them,

Where the hones unite with others to form joints, they are covered
with _cartilage,_ which is a smooth, white, elastic substance. This
enables the joints to move smoothly, while its elasticity prevents
injuries from sudden jars.

The joints are bound together by strong, elastic bands called
_ligaments,_ which hold them firmly and prevent dislocation.

Between the ends of the bones that unite to form joints are small sacks
or bags, that contain a soft lubricating fluid. This answers the same
purpose fur the joints as oil in making machinery work smoothly, while
the supply is constant and always in exact proportion to the demand.

If you will examine the leg of some fowl, you can see the cartilage
that covers the ends of the bones at the joints, and the strong white
ligaments that bind the joints together.

The health, of the bones depends on the proper nourishment and exercise
of the body as much as that of any other part. When a child is feeble
and unhealthy, or when it grows up without exercise, the bones do not
become firm and hard as they are when the body is healthfully developed
by exercise. The size as well as the strength of the bones, to a certain
extent, also depend upon exercise and good health.

[Illustration: Fig. 61]

The chief supporter of the body is the spine, which consists of
twenty-four small bones, interlocked or hooked into each other, while
between them are elastic cushions of cartilage which aid in preserving
the upright, natural position. Fig. 61 shows three of the spinal bones,
hooked into each other, the dark spaces showing the disks or flat
circular plates of cartilage between them.

The spine is held in its proper position, partly by the ribs, partly
by muscles, partly by aid of the elastic disks, and partly by the close
packing of the intestines in front of it.

The upper part of the spine is often thrown out of its proper position
by constant stooping of the head over books or work. This affects the
elastic disks so that they grow thick at the back side and thinner at
the front side by such constant pressure. The result is the awkward
projection of the head forward which is often seen in schools and
colleges.

Another distortion of the spine is produced by tight dress around the
waist. The liver occupies the right side of the body and is a solid
mass, while on the other side is the larger part of the stomach, which
is often empty. The consequence of tight dress around the waist is a
constant pressure of the spine toward the unsupported part where the
stomach lies. Thus the elastic dials again are compressed; till they
become thinner on one side than the other, and harden into that
condition. This produces what is called the _lateral curvature of the
spine,_ making one shoulder higher than the other.

The compression of the lower part of the waist is especially dangerous
at the time young girls first enter society and are tempted to dress
according to the fashion. Many a school-girl, whose waist was originally
of a proper and healthful size, has gradually pressed the soft bones
of youth until the lower ribs that should rise and fall with every
breath, become entirely unused. Then the abdominal breathing, performed
by the lower part of the lungs, ceases; the whole system becomes reduced
in strength; the abdominal muscles that hold up the interior organs
become weak, and the upper ones gradually sink upon the lower. This
pressure of the upper interior organs upon the lower ones, by tight
dress, is increased by the weight of clothing resting on the hips and
abdomen. Corsets, as usually worn, have no support from the shoulders,
and consequently all the weight of dress resting upon or above them
presses upon the hips and abdomen, and this in such a way as to throw
out of use and thus weaken the most important supporting muscles of
the abdomen, and impede abdominal breathing.

The diaphragm is a kind of muscular floor, extending across the centre
of the body, on which the heart and lungs rest. Beneath it are the
liver, stomach, and the abdominal viscera, or intestines, which are
supported by the abdominal muscles, running upward, downward, and
crosswise. When these muscles are thrown out of use, they lose their
power, the whole system of organs mainly resting on them for support
can not continue in their naturally snug, compact, and rounded form,
but become separated, elongated, and unsupported. The stomach begins
to draw from above instead of resting on the viscera beneath. This in
some cases causes dull and wandering pains, a sense of pulling at the
centre of the chest, and a drawing downward at the pit of the stomach.
Then as the support beneath is really _gone,_ there is what is often
called "a feeling of _goneness."_ This is sometimes relieved by food,
which, so long as it remains in a solid form, helps to hold up the
falling superstructure. This displacement of the stomach, liver, and
spleen interrupts their healthful functions, and dyspepsia and biliary
difficulties not unfrequently are the result.

As the stomach and its appendages fall downward, the _diaphragm_,
which holds up the heart and lungs, must descend also. In this state
of things, the inflation of the lungs is less and less aided by the
abdominal muscles, and is confined chiefly to their upper portion.
Breathing sometimes thus becomes quicker and shorter on account of the
elongated or debilitated condition of the assisting organs. Consumption
not unfrequently results from this cause.

The _heart_ also feels the evil. "Palpitations," "flutterings,"
"sinking feelings," all show that, in the language of Scripture, "the
heart trembleth, and is moved out of its place."

But the _lower intestines_ are the greatest sufferers from this
dreadful abuse of nature. Having the weight of all the unsupported
organs above pressing them into unnatural and distorted positions, the
passage of the food is interrupted, and inflammations, indurations,
and constipation, are the frequent result. Dreadful ulcers and cancers
may be traced in some instances to this cause.

Although these internal displacements are most common among women,
some foolish members of the other sex are adopting customs of dress,
in girding the central portion of the body, that tend to similar
results.

But this distortion brings upon woman peculiar distresses. The pressure
of the whole superincumbent mass on the pelvic or lower organs induces
sufferings proportioned in acuteness to the extreme delicacy and
sensitiveness of the parts thus crushed. And the intimate connection
of these organs with the brain and whole nervous system renders injuries
thus inflicted the causes of the most extreme anguish, both of body
and mind. This evil is becoming so common, not only among married
women, but among young girls, as to be a just cause for universal
alarm.

How very common these sufferings are, few but the medical profession
can realize, because they are troubles that must be concealed. Many
a woman is moving about in uncomplaining agony who, with any other
trouble involving equal suffering, would be on her bed surrounded by
sympathizing friends.

The terrible sufferings that are sometimes thus induced can never be
conceived of, or at all appreciated from, any use of language. Nothing
that the public can be made to believe on this subject will ever equal
the reality. Not only mature persons and mothers, but fair young girls
sometimes, are shut up for months and years as helpless and suffering
invalids from this cause. This may be found all over the land. And
there frequently is a horrible extremity of suffering in certain forms
of this evil, which no woman of feeble constitution can ever be certain
may not be her doom. Not that in all cases this extremity is involved,
but none can say who will escape it.

In regard to this, if one must choose for a friend or a child, on the
one hand, the horrible torments inflicted by savage Indians or cruel
inquisitors on their victims, or, on the other, the protracted agonies
that result from such deformities and displacements, sometimes the
former would be a merciful exchange.

And yet this is the fate that is coming to meet the young as well as
the mature in every direction. And tender parents are unconsciously
leading their lovely and hapless daughters to this awful doom.

There is no excitement of the imagination in what is here indicated.
If the facts and details could be presented, they would send a groan
of terror all over the land. For it is not one class, or one section,
that is endangered. In every part of our country the evil is
progressing.

And, as if these dreadful ills were not enough, there have been added
methods of medical treatment at once useless, torturing to the mind,
and involving great liability to immoralities.

[Illustration: Fig. 62.]

In hope of abating these evils, drawings are given (Fig. 62 and Fig.
63) of the front and back of a jacket that will preserve the advantages
of the corset without its evils. This jacket may at first be fitted
to the figure with corsets underneath it, just like the waist of a
dress. Then, delicate whalebones can be used to stiffen the jacket,
so that it will take the proper shape, when the corset may be dispensed
with. The buttons below are to hold all articles of dress below the
waist by button-holes. By this method, the bust is supported as well
as by corsets, while the shoulders support from above, as they should
do, the weight of the dress below. No stiff bone should be allowed to
press in front, and the jacket should be so loose that a full breath
can be inspired with ease, while in a sitting position.

[Illustration: Fig. 63.]

The proper way to dress a young girl is to have a cotton or flannel
close-fitting jacket next the body, to which the drawers should be
buttoned. Over this, place the chemise; and over that, such a jacket
as the one here drawn, to which should be buttoned the hoops and other
skirts. Thus every article of dress will be supported by the shoulders.
The sleeves of the jacket can be omitted, and in that ease a strong
lining, and also a tape binding, must surround the arm-hole, which
should be loose.

It is hoped that increase of intelligence and moral power among mothers,
and a combination among them to regulate fashions, may banish the
pernicious practices that have prevailed. If a school-girl dress
without corsets and without tight belts could be established as a
fashion, it would be one step gained in the right direction. Then if
mothers could secure daily domestic exercise in chambers, eating-rooms
and parlors in loose dresses, a still farther advance would be secured.

A friend of the writer informs her that her daughter had her wedding
outfit made up by a fashionable milliner in Paris, and every dress was
beautifully fitted to the form, and yet was not compressing to any
part. This was done too without the use of corsets, the stiffening
being delicate and yielding whalebones.

Not only parents but all having the care of young girls, especially
those at boarding-schools, have a fearful responsibility resting upon
them in regard to this important duty.

In regard to the dressing of young children, much discretion is needed
to adapt dress to circumstances and peculiar constitutions. The leading
fact must be borne in mind that the skin is made strong and healthful
by exposure to light and pure air, while cold air, if not excessive,
has a tonic influence. If the skin of infants is rubbed with the hand
till red with blood, and then exposed naked to sun and air in a
well-ventilated room, it will be favorable to health.

There is a constitutional difference in the skin of different children
in regard to retaining the animal heat manufactured within, so that
some need more clothing than others for comfort. Nature is a safe guide
to a careful nurse and mother, and will indicate by the looks and
actions of a child when more clothing is needful. As a general rule,
it is safe for a healthful child to wear as little clothing as suffices
to keep it from complaining of cold. Fifty years ago, it was not common
for children to wear as much under-clothing as they now do. The writer
well remembers how even girls, though not of strong constitutions,
used to play for hours in the snow-drifts without the protection of
drawers, kept warm by exercise and occasional runs to an open fire.
And multitudes of children grew to vigorous maturity through similar
exposures to cold air-baths, and without the frequent, colds and
sicknesses so common among children of the present day, who are more
carefully housed and warmly dressed. But care was taken that the feet
should be kept dry and warmly clad, because, circulation being feebler
in the extremities, this precaution was important.

It must also be considered that age brings with it decrease in vigor
of circulation, and the consequent generation of heat, so that more
warmth of air and clothing is needed at an advanced period of life
than is suitable for the young.

These are the general principles which must be applied with modification
to each individual case. A child of delicate constitution must have
more careful protection from cold air than is desirable for one more
vigorous, while the leading general principle is retained that cold
air is a healthful tonic for the skin whenever it does not produce an
uncomfortable chilliness.