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The Corset: its History, Use and Abuse.
89

and hence, practically, the staymakers triumphed, for the corset was still worn; but the facts upon which the medical man based his reasoning remained unanswered, for the other party, knowing nothing of physiology, made the stays with as little relation to the requirements of the body as before. This controversy, however, made one thing plain enough—the old corset could be tolerated no longer, and people began to look for something better. An attempt was made to meet this demand by machine woven and other kinds, called by the most strange and unintelligible names; but as they had all the dis­advantages of the old corset, and were only better to look at, it was plain that they could not be the desideratum; neither was it possible that they ever should be, for the people who designed them were ignorant of the first principles upon which they should have proceeded, and not knowing what the body required, could not, as a matter of course, adapt their productions to its necessities. Hence, however elegantly shaped or finely stitched they might be, they utterly failed in the object which they should have served. In this case the body was forced into the shape of the corset, instead of the corset being fitted to the shape of the body; there was, consequently, an infringement of the laws