sition with the waist line with no trick of breath-holding, the gap is 10 cm. (4 inches) the pressure has been very high, 65 mm. and over. Five to 7 cm. (2 1/2 to 3 inches) is the most that should be tolerated and this means up to 50 mm. Hg. of pressure. It is only in an occasional flabby abdomen that pressure has been low with a wide gaping opening, but in such instances the mobile abdominal contents have been subjected to a considerable range of displacement upward or downward, so that the rule is not vitiated that reads "the wider the gap the greater the tension."
Coughing and straining efforts with and without a corset show
no very different maxima in strong-walled abdomens. Strain is strain on pelvic structure when there is counter-pressure, whether that counter-pressure be muscle or corset bone. But in flabby-walled abdomens the pressure in the pelvis (vagina) of the corseted woman is considerably increased under strains (as compared with the uncorseted individual) because the corset gives a point of counter-pressure. Curiously, too, when abdominal walls are firm, either by reason of strong muscle or dense adipose, the intrapelvic pressures seem increased nearly equally as between a fairly loose and very tight corset. In other words, in normal individuals the pressure from above meets opposition and accommodation
