Health and Ill-Health in Women.
By Lucy M. Hall
AMONG the especially pernicious tendencies in the dress of women we find:—
First, compression and fixation of the body about the waist.
Second, too great weight of clothing; passing vagaries, as tight sleeves and the wearing of décolleté costumes.
Third, insufficient protection of the lower extremities in cold weather, feet included.
Fourth, improperly shaped shoes.
Fifth, intricacies and unnecessary varieties in attire. First, by compression and fixation of the body from the middle of the chest nearly to the hips, with what organs have we interfered? Alas! the very ones which are hourly, aye, momentarily, furnishing the vital stream with that which must support the whole system in the myriad internal activities which go to make up our existence—the very ones which most need to do their work unhindered. Just under the line of greatest compression are the delicate and complicated processes of digestion going on; five, six, seven busy organs or sections of organs making material which is to fly first to the lungs, for a final vivifying touch, then to the brain and muscle and bone, strengthening, refreshing, and upbuilding. Cramped, pushed upon each other, and displaced upward and downward, their work is laboriously and imperfectly done, and every part must suffer in consequence. Even here the trouble does not end. The chest walls are interfered with and cannot properly expand, and action of the diaphragm is made nearly impossible; consequently respiration is but imperfectly performed. Not such a very serious matter, perhaps you think; and yet you know that, although the blood has been replenished from the immediate products of digestion, it is yet loaded with impurities and is unfit for nourishment until after it has come in contact with the air in the cells of the lungs. Also, every drop of blood in the body must be returned to these air-cells three times in each minute to be freed from the products of waste and change in the tissues; otherwise the blood becomes charged with a deadly poison. If by any means the power of expansion of any portion of the lungs is cut off, just to that degree is the poisoned blood robbed of its chances for purification. Carry the interference a little further, and dizziness and a feeling of pressure about the temples will ensue; further, and death—death from the excess of poison which could find no escape from the blood, and from the lack of the vivifying element which could find no room for ingress. We call this suffocation, asphyxia; but these are only the names which we give to the direful consequences of the blood-stream being unrelieved from its impurities and freshly supplied with oxygen even for a few moments. And for every inch of expansion of which you deprive your lungs, just to that degree will impaired vitality and irritated nerve-centers revenge themselves upon you. Another evil of compression is the crowding of the superjacent upon the pelvic organs by pressure from above, changing the position from the normal, deranging the circulation, and laying the foundation for future disease and disaster. Again, the body laced into steel and whalebone, with the snugly fitting bodice over all, is held in an almost immovable splint. The naturally strong, flexible muscles of the back are robbed of their legitimate work, until, through inactivity and pressure and heat, they become weakened and atrophied, and the sufferer's complaints of backache and of inability to hold herself up when her corsets are removed are but too well founded. The artificial has interfered with the growth and destroyed the efficiency of the natural supports, and yet the victim never suspects this. Then, too, when the waist has failed to develop, or has become attenuated from constant pressure upon the muscles, the permanent bending inward of the ribs, and the displacement of the internal organs, the sense of pressure is destroyed, and the girl believes she does not lace; but let a deep, full inspiration be attempted, one which should freely expand the chest and open the cells of the poor, unused—or misused—lower lobes of the lungs, it will be found that the effort will end in ignominious failure. We thus have every normal bodily function interfered with, lowered vitality, perishing muscles, and jangling nerves all making their woeful protest. And for what? Alas! for the mistaken idea that a pinched, deformed, immobilized body is more beautiful than one fashioned by the hand of God. Second, when we consider the amount of material which fashion demands, or rather permits, in the making of dresses, the heavy drapings and plaitings, fold upon fold, the braids and buttons, the beads and tassels and tags, it is no wonder that many a weary woman has been dragged by them to a sick-bed, to her grave, or, worse still, to remain a chronic invalid, always to be cared for at the hands of the family doctor or a specialist. The length of the skirt, for street wear especially, is a matter of much importance to health. The most direct and dangerous result of skirts too long is that they become damp around the bottom whenever streets or sidewalks are wet, and the feet and ankles are from this contact made the medium of derangements of the circulation, and often of congestions of sensitive organs, serious disturbances to health thus being engendered. A little care in the selection of light instead of heavy material for a dress, linings and trimmings included, would obviate the unnecessary weight. Suitability of length is a matter still more easily controlled. One day last winter a nervous, overworked teacher came into my office, threw off her cloak, and sat down with a groan. I lifted the garment, and exclaimed at its great weight: "Yes," she said, "it is a terrible load to carry; I believe it is killing me." Whether she saved her life by substituting the short, light, warmly lined wrap which I advised I am unable to say; certain it is that her health rapidly improved after the change. Except for driving, long, heavy cloaks of sealskin, seal plush, or other material of great weight, are unsuitable and injurious. The jet-trimmed wraps worn in warmer weather are little better, some of these weighing twenty pounds or more. The use of jet in the making and garnishing of bonnets, so much in vogue at present, is harmful, as the weight is so great as to tire the muscles of the back of the neck, cause headache and a general feeling of weariness. The wearing of tight sleeves impedes the circulation, interferes with muscular action, and makes the wearer nervous and uncomfortable. To such a degree has this silly fashion been carried that in many cases the wearers have been unable to raise their hands to the head or even to the throat. Of the exposures entailed by the wearing of sleeveless, neckless, nearly shoulderless dresses, the outrage to both the physical and moral nature of woman is about equal, and equally patent to any unprejudiced mind. It is an unhealthy fashion in more ways than one. Third, the warmth of the lower extremities should be secured by drawers reaching to the ankle; the texture and the number of pairs required being determined by the state of the weather and the necessities of the wearer. Clara Barton, when working so bravely on the battle-fields of our own and of other countries, was wont to wear dress, skirt, and drawers all of one plain, dark material, and she has assured me that the many advantages of this arrangement had no small share in enabling her to withstand the fatigues and exposures of her self-imposed labors. The shoes commonly worn are too light, and are not properly shaped. The favorite French kid is quite unsuitable for street wear in cold or damp weather. On a raw winter's day I saw two ladies enter a street-car. Each wore a long, heavy seal cloak, and light, thin-soled French kid shoes. One was red, almost purple, in the face; the other pale as a ghost. One was gasping for breath, with her blood all surging toward her head; the other panting and weak, with not much blood to go in any direction. That they both had feet like ice I will venture to assert. Fourth, the shape of the shoe is a matter of importance in a double sense. That the high-heeled shoe throws a part of the body out of its normal axis and prevents the natural spring of the foot, and that narrow toes cause a multiplicity of local ills, are grave objections; but nature is bountiful, and will adjust herself in a measure to such interferences. The backaches and headaches caused by the unnatural jar which comes to these parts from pegging about upon feet with the elasticity and spring all taken out of them, can be borne. If the discomfort caused by corns, bunions, or ingrowing nails makes you still more nervous, and possibly a little cross, your friends will probably bear with you, and an occasional trip on the stair or a sprained ankle now and then will not hurt your sister, though it may be a little hard upon you. The most serious objection is that women with such shoes and such feet will not, or rather cannot, walk. They ride up and down in the street cars or other conveyances, instead of taking the vigorous tramp which would put new life into their lagging pulses, new strength into their muscles, new vigor into every movement. Imagine a woman with a corsage which renders a full inspiration impossible, sleeves so tight that the arms ache from pressure, ten to twenty pounds of skirts hanging from her hips and twisting about her ankles, as many pounds of cloak suspended from her shoulders, and narrow-toed, high-heeled shoes on her feet, trying to take a six or ten mile walk! Surely nature made a wise provision for the human race when she made women hard to kill, otherwise the world would soon be depopulated for lack of mothers.765 The degree to which servant girls, shop girls—all that struggling class of women—imitate their mistresses and the fine ladies with whom they come in contact in this matter of tight-lacing, skirt-trimming, foot-torturing, and all the rest of it, is a potent reason for much of the illness, the low wages, or the failure to achieve an honest self-support among them. Even the raw recruits who come to us, flushed and brown from over the sea, to take up the burden of our household toil, soon succumb to this evil influence, and suffer accordingly. Fifth, of the intricacies and complications, the variety and elaborateness, of woman's attire, the evil to herself is that it requires much of thought and attention, to the exclusion of higher and better things. Even among the rich, much personal care and labor is expended upon it, while among those of moderate means it becomes a burden of ceaseless toil, keeps the women of the family confined to the house in cramped positions, and is the source of much anxiety and of expense not easily borne, the latter being too often met by scrimping in the necessaries of life. To those girls who are trying to earn a livelihood by long hours of daily toil, who eat cheap lunches in order that they may buy cheaper silks, who bend over their sewing late at night and go to their work with pale faces and tired limbs the next day, it adds another reason for the interruption to or the breaking down in health of these unthinking and short-sighted creatures. Many thoughtful women—by far the larger share of them, women of wealth and culture—are adopting various modifications in their dress, all calculated to promote the health of the wearer. Ladies of the above class are also the especial patrons of the various dress reform establishments, where the best models of hygienic clothing can be procured. At these places are to be found a variety of health waists, skirts of light weight which can be buttoned to them, Alpha or other undergarments, clothing the body from neck to wrists and ankles, fitting the figure perfectly, while the elastic nature of the fabric gives free play to the muscles. "Common sense" shoes, with low heels, soles of suitable width, and leather of suitable thickness for house or street wear, form a necessary accompaniment of these sensible garments, and are gaining new friends daily. If every mother of a young and growing daughter would put her into such a suit, and teach her so wisely that she would never wear a less healthy one, then indeed would the promise of better things be nearing its fulfillment.—Lucy M. Hall, M. D., in Christian Union.