"In connexion with the use of stays the usual mode of their construction requires some notice. Whilst they are so made as to press downwards and together the lower ribs; to reduce the cavity of the chest, especially at its base; to press injuriously upon the heart, lungs, liver, stomach, and colon, and even partially to displace those vital organs; they leave the upper region of the chest exposed—those very regions where tubercular consumption, bronchial and inflammatory diseases generally commence, or are most prone to attack—to the vicissitudes of season, weather, temperature, humidity, and external injury. These noxious and unnecessary articles of clothing—these mischievous appliances to the female form, useful only to conceal defects and make up deficiencies in appearance—are rendered still more injurious by the number of unyielding, or only partially yielding, supports with which they are constructed on every side. These are the whalebones in the back and sides, and steel in front, extending from nearly the top of the sternum almost to the pubes. The motions of the trunk and spine are thereby restrained, and the nutrition of the compressed parts impaired; but, irrespective of the dis-
