average height, varies in circumference from twenty-seven to twenty-nine inches; and there is scarcely any difference in its proportional size between male and female. But such is the power of fashion, that the waist is seldom permitted to expand to the dimensions of twenty-five inches; the majority are within twenty-four; thousands are compressed to twenty-two; and some even to less than twenty inches; and by the aid of wood, whalebone, and steel, the capacity of the chest is very often reduced to less than one-half. The penalties attending this infringement of the organic law are as follows:—Shortness of breath; palpitation and oppression of the heart; cough, and pain in the side; headache, with a feeling of weight at the vertex; neuralgia of the face, and eruptions; œdema of the ankles; dyspepsia and chlorosis. The temperature of the body partakes of the extremes; there is generally a chilliness of the whole surface; the viscera of the pelvis are liable to derangement, and in married women especially. The lateral curvature of the spine is a consequence, not uncommon, of this pernicious practice."—Medical Times. ["It is in reference to such subjects as these that a visit to Madame Caplin's establishment, in Berners Street, becomes so instructive; for it is there proved that elegance of form is in no degree dependent on tight lacing."] —Mercury, Jan. 31, 1846.
Madame Caplin's Corsets.—"It is rarely that anatomical principles are applied to the fashioning of any article of ladies' attire, and still more rarely that they are applied, as we are assured on competent female authority, with such complete success as in the ingenious and very elegant articles named at the head of this paragraph. Madame Caplin is here on a short visit, and we earnestly invite our fair friends to avail themselves of the brief opportunity of paying her a visit."—Manchester Chronicle, August 29th, 1846.
