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Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students
Another serious evil is the wearing of skirts so that their weight
must be sustained by the hips. This heavy weight, pressing upon
the internal organs, drags them downward and causes weakness
of the stomach and a feeling of lassitude, inclining the wearer to
stoop, which further cramps the lungs, making correct breathing
more difficult.
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Of late years the dangers resulting from compression of the waist
have been so fully discussed that few can be ignorant in regard to
them; yet so great is the power of fashion that the evil continues. By
this practice, women and young girls are doing themselves untold
harm. It is essential to health that the chest have room to expand to
its fullest extent in order that the lungs may be enabled to take full
inspiration. When the lungs are restricted, the quantity of oxygen
received into them is lessened. The blood is not properly vitalized,
and the waste, poisonous matter which should be thrown off through
the lungs is retained. In addition to this the circulation is hindered,
and the internal organs are so cramped and crowded out of place that
they cannot perform their work properly.
Tight lacing does not improve the form. One of the chief ele-
ments in physical beauty is symmetry, the harmonious proportion
of parts. And the correct model for physical development is to be
found, not in the figures displayed by French modistes, but in the
human form as developed according to the laws of God in nature.
God is the author of all beauty, and only as we conform to His ideal
shall we approach the standard of true beauty.
Another evil which custom fosters is the unequal distribution of
the clothing, so that while some parts of the body have more than
is required, others are insufficiently clad. The feet and limbs, being
remote from the vital organs, should be especially guarded from
cold by abundant clothing. It is impossible to have health when the
extremities are habitually cold; for if there is too little blood in them,
there will be too much in other portions of the body. Perfect health
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requires a perfect circulation; but this cannot be had while three or
four times as much clothing is worn upon the body where the vital
organs are situated as upon the feet and limbs.
A multitude of women are nervous and careworn because they
deprive themselves of the pure air that would make pure blood,
and of the freedom of motion that would send the blood bounding