shoulders free from weight. Where is the belt fastened? It does not encircle the waist or soft-walled middle portion of the body below the ribs and above the iliac crests. If worn there tight enough to support the heavy trousers it would press uncomfortably on the abdominal viscera. It is therefore worn over the bony pelvis, whose walls protect from its pressure the organs within. The navvy's leather belt is worn low, passing below the anterior superior iliac spines on either side, much in the position of a hernia truss. In this position a belt passes over hardly any muscle, and impedes no movement, nor does it compress any internal organs. The same region is chosen for the support of the skirts or trousers worn by women in many Oriental countries. Thus the Moorish dancer wears a short jacket covering the shoulders and chest, and a divided skirt whose band rests on the hips below the iliac crests, the middle soft part of the body between thorax and pelvis being left uncovered or protected by a soft garment which exercises no pressure on the waist. Thus the Oriental woman and the western labouring man support their lower garments in the same way, namely, on the hip bones. The ordinary civilised man who does not work hard transmits the weight of his lower garments by braces to his shoulders. But what is the course adopted by the civilised woman? She wears heavy skirts whose weight is supported by bands round her waist—that soft portion of the body which is protected by no bony walls. How is it possible to wear round this portion of the body bands which support the weight of numerous and often heavy garments? The answer is, By means of the corset. This garment forms a bridge connecting the firm chest wall with the firm pelvis—an artificial completion of the bony wall which Nature has left incomplete in the middle portion of the body. The use of the corset is to transmit the pressure of the skirt-bands to the hips and the ribs, and so to protect from their pressure the organs in the region of the waist. The conclusion is that so long as skirt-bands are fastened round the waist, corsets should be worn. They should be stiffer than usually made if they are effectively to protect the soft middle portion of the body from the pressure of the waist-band. The front should be quite straight, and the waist measurement should be at least as large as the wearer's waist measured over a single soft garment. During pregnancy this measurement should be gradually increased as the uterus grows and rises. It is clear that so long as women hang their skirts round their waists they must have corsets to protect their waists from their skirts. This is the use of the article; its abuse consists in employing it as a means of compressing that which it was meant to protect from compression, namely, the soft middle portion of the body. That this misuse or abuse of the garment is still very common no one will deny.
It must be allowed, however, that fashion in corsets has of late made a move in the right direction, which, it is to be hoped, will be permanent. The modern article with straight, stiff front is certainly much better than its predecessor which had a pronounced curve in the midriff, and lessened the waist by pushing out the abdomen.
Dr. J. C. Martin, F.R.S., Professor of Physiology in the University of Melbourne, has been appointed Director of the Jenner Institute of Preventive Medicine.
