report of the Juries of the Great Exhibition of 1851, Sientific Department, Class X. See page 346. "Corsets ingeniously adapted for giving support to the trunk without confinement to the thorax."
As we have but one principle of adaptation to guide us, it will naturally follow that, properly speaking, we have only one corset, and that all the others are nothing more than modifications of this, rendered necessary by the great variety of bodily formations which are presented to us. And first, then, we have the plain Hygienic Corset for ordinary use. This is always made expressly for the wearer and adapted to her peculiar form. We here presume a state of healthy natural formation, and have therefore nothing to do but to preserve the true form as we find it. A glance at our illustration will show that the waist is put in the natural position—that is, across the abdomen, below the floating ribs, and just over the hips; by doing this we avoid all injurious effects, which are laid—and that truly—at the door of the ordinary corset, and by placing the waist in its natural position give not only a more beautiful but a more slender appearance.
HEBE.
