Chapter VI.
ON THE ADAPTATION OF THE CORSET TO THE BODY.
THE reader will have already observed that the reason why our corset differs from every other that has been offered to the public is, that we have taken a totally different view of the whole matter from any of our predecessors. Staymakers have studied fashion, and imagined that beauty consisted in following the Magazine des Modes as it came from Paris, and hence have carried the waist up to the breasts, or depressed it down on the hips, according to the whim of the time. We, on the other hand, have studied Nature—taken the human frame as our standard, and in all our labours have attempted to perfect that according to our ideal of its particular type of beauty: hence, instead of displaying fashion we display the human figure, and by giving freedom to every organ and support where it is needed, are enabled to impart all the advantages which can result from the addition of another muscular envelope to the figure. It was this adaptation which secured for us the approbation of the Report made by a special commission at the Athếnếe des Arts de Paris (sitting 10th April, 1848), on Madame Caplin' s Hygienic Corsets :—
"Gentlemen,—The corset now under your consideration, invented and manufactured by Madame Caplin, of London, has been presented by her husband, Dr. Caplin, a corresponding member of the society, at present residing in London, and who, when amongst us, nearly twenty years ago, used to take an active part in our scientific work, and who frequently met with your approbation for the many communications he made to the society on Objects of art.
"This corset, to which she has given the name of Hygienic, is totally different from the other corsets hitherto made, under two different points of view. But before entering into the details of its construction, we must say that, like many others, the principal object
