Caplin - Health and Beauty (1864)/Appendix C
APPENDIX C.
HEALTH AND BEAUTY;
or,
Corsets and Clothing.
BY MADAME ROXEY ANN CAPLIN.
Darton and Co. Second Edition. Price 2s. 6d.
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
"The author has studied the human body accurately, and used the knowledge thus acquired to promote the health and comfort of her own sex. The book is well illustrated, and beautifully printed and bound; and notwithstanding its limited details, one cannot read it without feeling that the author is perfectly master of her subject. Every mother should possess it."—Morning Advertiser, September 24th, 1856.
"That Madame Caplin possesses the requisite knowledge to adapt the Corset scientifically to the wearer, and understands the principles to be observed in clothing, few, if any, who peruse these pages will be inclined to doubt. The book may therefore be commended to the notice of the female world, and more particularly that part of it to which is entrusted the responsibilities of maternity, the requirements of the sex in regard to clothing being set forth from the cradle to old age."—Sun, September 22nd, 1856.
"Although, as we said before, this is the first book that we have seen of the kind, it is a very promising one, and we hope it will be the pioneer to many others. It is a book that should be in every family wherever there are children to nurse or ladies to dress."—Morning Star, September 27th, 1856.
"Madame Caplin is not a mere theorist. She has long had to deal with ladies in the way of Corsets, and, like a sensible woman, deeply impressed with an important truth, she has laboured hard, and not without success, to reform the pernicious custom which produces absolute deformity and ill-health in an unnecessary process for obtaining beauty of figure. Madame Caplin begins at the beginning, however, with the dress adapted for infancy; and thence she passes through the several states of girlhood and womanhood to middle and old age; and her book, which is profusely illustrated with lithographs, may be profitably read by both mothers and daughters."—Sunday Times, Sept. 26th, 1856.
"Madame Caplin's book is very sensibly written, and we should think would be useful to the principals of ladies' schools, who might obtain from it the materials for a few short lectures to be orally addressed to their pupils. There are numerous illustrations."—The Era, Oct. 5th, 1856.
"It merits the attention of all."—Weekly Dispatch, Oct. 5th, 1856.
"Madame Caplin desires to withdraw the clothing of the female form from the arbitrary empiricism of the modiste, and to reduce it to scientific rules. Like Carlyle she writes the philosophy of clothes, but in quite another spirit. She contemplates the human race, at least that part living in civilized society, as beings made to be clothed, and she examines their wants from birth to the last stage of life. She is further separated from the modiste by the fact that she does not concern herself with the ornamental parts of dress, with costume, or the elegance or absurdity of some particular fashion; but she has commenced from within, has analyzed the wants, and noted the structure of all the internal organs, and then adapted the clothing that envelopes them in such a manner as not only to preserve the health, but to impart the greatest benefit to the wearer. To assist nature to develope beauty of form, and to correct, perhaps to conceal, defects, is the task proposed to herself by Madame Caplin."—Weekly Times, Oct. 5th, 1856.
"Of its kind, the work before us is one of the most perfect that has hitherto been published, that is, as a practical work; but it does not profess even to discuss the whole question of clothing. The chapter on the relation of dress to the human figure might have been enlarged into the dimensions of the whole volume, without exhausting the subject. The work, which is well illustrated and elegantly got up, is especially addressed to ladies, and is one that every mother should possess."—Educational Times, Oct. 1st, 1856.
"This work is intended expressly for females, and contains much useful information respecting dress in relation to health and comfort. The scientific knowledge of the authoress has availed for the invention of corsets and other articles of attire suitable for all the varying necessities and advancing infirmities peculiar to females. We recommend the work to the perusal of the maternity of England."—Lady's Newspaper, October 4th, 1856.
"Madame Caplin has invented a hygienic corset to which was awarded a medal at the Great Exhibition, and which has been otherwise recognised as an ingenious and useful invention. The present volume, however, comes within the scope of a notice in our columns chiefly because it contains intelligent and sensible disquisitions on the philosophy of health, taste, and comfort. There are not a few points in Madame Caplin's book from which the author of Sartor Resartus might have gathered suggestive hints."—Literary Gazette, Sept. 20th, 1856.
"The exterior of this book is fascinating by its elegance, but we are more pleased with the interior. Madame Caplin discourses in a very rational manner on the requirements of the human body in respect to clothing. She declares health to be the first and essential requisite in clothing, She gives a description of the best kind of dresses for both sexes from infancy to old age. The causes of many deformities—notably those of the spine—and a rational mode of prevention and cure are also given. It is a book which every mother ought to possess."—Sheffield Free Press, Oct. 11th, 1856.
"This beautiful work is designed to prove that corsets may be so formed as to be beneficial, instead of being injurious, as at present formed. The fair author proposes to make them in accordance with the physiological laws of the human body, in its various stages from childhood to old age. It is beautifully illustrated with figures to show both the symmetry of the frame and the suitable form of dress. The volume is elegantly bound, and is so got up as to fit it for the table of the drawing-room. It is really a sensible book, and that is more than we can say of any other book of the same class."—Glasgow Examiner, Oct. 20th, 1856.
"The entire volume is peculiarly adapted for them [ladies], especially for mothers, on whom so much depends, not only as to the culture of the mental faculties, but also as to the preservation of the physical health of their children. Dressmakers and manufacturers of corsets should, by all means, procure and study this volume, which will do much towards correcting many erroneous ideas, and in establishing correct principles with respect to dress."—Ladies' Magazine of Fashion, Oct., 1856.
"Madame Caplin has done her fair friends good service in the useful work before us. She seems to possess a perfect knowledge of the anatomy of the human body, which enables her to skilfully adapt her corsets to the human figure. The work is well got up, whilst the illustrations add to its value."—Cheltenham Chronicle, Oct. 7th, 1856.
"Her work abounds with illustrations; and if we compare her pictures of stooping, cork-screw figures and cranky waists, with the erect and graceful carriage which results from the use of Madame Caplin's Bodices, we can have no doubt that she is entitled to the honoured place of Venus's chief bedchamber-woman, with all its emoluments. We have not the privilege of wearing stays, and cannot therefore personally patronise Madame Caplin, but conjure all our lady readers, as they hope to retain the affection of their spouses, or respect length of life, to take this lady into their peculiar confidence."—Medical Circular, Oct. 22nd, 1856.
"Madame Caplin has invented a Corset, and she has written this book to prove its value. It is ingeniously done, and contains some curious and some instructive matter."—Critic, Oct. 15th, 1856.
"Such are some of the engines described; and if the better half of creation persist in submitting to them, they had better go to one who has a conscientious notion of the responsibility that attends on making them. This we are bound to say our enthusiastic authoress appears to possess."—Athenæum, Oct. 11th, 1856.
"We have carefully perused this volume, and have no hesitation in recommending it to the serious attention of those of our readers who may, by adopting a sensible mode of dressing, think it worth their while to study the health and comfort of the human frame."—Court Circular, Oct. 11th, 1856.
"One of the handsomest, as well as one of the best written, and most gracefully illustrated books."—Reasoner, Nov. 9th, 1856.
"The philosophy of clothes, à la Caplin, is not altogether unlike that of Professor Teufelsdroch, since they both recognise the threefold necessity of clothes, viz., that they should be for health, decency, and ornament. The corset-maker as well as the professor, is satirical on the absurdity and inconvenience of certain fashions. Clothiers would do well to hear what Madame Caplin has to say."—Globe, Oct. 27th, 1856.
"A book we should say very useful to mothers, and to young ladies too—if they would believe it!"—The Freeman, Nov. 5th, 1856.
"This volume is certainly the most instructive advocacy of a particular description of clothing that we recollect to have seen."—Tait's Magazine, Nov. 1856.
"A book like this is sure to attract the class of readers to which it is specially addressed. May it work the reform which is the desire of Madame Caplin's mind."—Leader, Nov. 1st, 1856.
"This is an invaluable work for females, inasmuch as its contents are full of information respecting dress, as relating to health and comfort, ease and elegance. From several years' scientific study of the female frame, Madame Caplin has at length produced a work which every woman ought to peruse."—County Herald, Nov. 1st, 1856.
"Much of its practical counsel is strange to our comprehension, but its principles of physiology and taste, are cleverly announced and earnestly enforced. To those who would be versed in the mysteries of female attire in general, and of Madame Caplin's inventions in particular, we can recommend the volume before us."—Bristol Advertiser.
"We know not whether the work is published for ordinary sale or not, but if it be, we can recommend it to the perusal of mothers and expectant mothers, who will further find many useful hints relative to the physical management of their offspring, whilst the more elderly of the fair sex may also therein discover some facile modes of relief from some 'of the ills that flesh is heir to.'"—Brighton Gazette.
"No mother, or the principal of a large seminary for females, ought to be without this treatise, which exhibits 'every phase of woman's life, from the cradle to the grave."—Leamington Courier.
"Calisthenics require too much time and attention; the cure can only be effected by dress and efficient support. Read Madame Caplin's book on "Female Beauty, Corsets, and Clothing."—Family Herald, Dec. 20th, 1856.
"Every stage of life, and every female infirmity or peculiarity, is here considered at length, and illustrated by excellent plates, which are necessary to the work, and calculated to be highly useful to the public."—Press, Nov. 8th, 1856.
"The above extracts will be more than sufficient to excite the curiosity of our female readers, to whom we seriously recommend the perusal of a volume which, although we necessarily know little of the subject on which it treats, appears to us to contain a great deal of good common sense, on a matter to which ladies generally pay far too little attention."—York Herald.
"But, ladies, read this magnificently illustrated and useful drawing-room book; for the reform which Madame Caplin would bring about is much desiderated."—Leeds Times.
"She then points out the various modifications of this article of dress, suitable to the different phenomena pertaining to the maternity and diseases of females at all ages of life; while the chapter on spinal deformities, though necessarily brief, yet displays a great deal of physiological and pathological knowledge on the subject, reflecting great credit on her understanding."—Banbury Guardian.
"It is impossible to overrate the importance of the subject or to commend it too earnestly to the attention of those upon whom devolves the training of the youth of either sex."—Liverpool Chronicle.
"Her work will assuredly repay perusal, and as it is well fitted for the drawing-room table, it would form a highly-acceptable present to a lady at this season of the year."—Leicester Journal, Jan. 9th, 1857.