CHAPTER V.
THE CORSET, ITS HISTORY, USE, AND ABUSE.
Of all articles of human attire there is none, perhaps, that has survived so much abuse as the corset. Introduced into common wear many centuries ago, it was met with the rebuke of the sober and the satire of the vivacious; always painful, and generally injurious, it has, nevertheless, outlived even the general condemnation of the faculty, and spite even of the doctor maintains ground. There must surely be some fascination in the article, or some latent conviction that, after all, it is a good thing, or it would have been banished out of the world long ago.
Now, we hope to reverse the dictum of Mr. Whitfield and other medical men, who contend that stays and corsets are bad things, and in the course of this chapter show that, properly constructed, corsets are, as articles of dress, the most useful and in every sense the most beneficial that can be constructed—that is, of course, when they are properly adapted to the body; for if, either through ignorance or a mistaken idea of fashion, the construction be faulty, and a compression of the chest ensue, why, then, undoubtedly it is far better to be without corsets altogether.
It is a matter of little consequence for us to inquire here why the female figure needs support more than that of the male. In a purely natural, or rather savage state, perhaps it does not; but in all times when beauty and comfort are studied, corsets will undoubtedly be worn, and there are many reasons why they should be. The delicacy of the intercostal muscles, the falling of the breasts, the spreading of the frame at a certain period of life, all call for support, and call for it too
