Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/60

40 Sloan's Architectural Review and Builders' Journal. [July, ordinary easy position, assumed in the ordinary high-backed chair, the nape of the neck rests on the top-rail, the shoulder-blades are pressed against the upper middle of the chair-back, the but- tocks are deposited in, or nearly in, the middle of the chair-seat, and the inside of the knee-joint is thrown forward from four to eight inches in advance of the front of the chair-seat. This produces an apparently easy, lounging posture, wherein the body, forming a series of "obtuse angles, is obliquely pendent from two main points of support almost at the opposite extremities of the spine. This causes a decided flexure of the spinal column, and has a tendency to strain the loins and crowd the viscera, besides tiring the flexor muscles of the thighs, from the front of the chair having a ten- dency to cut them. Now, merely cut- ting down the legs of the chair a few inches is immediately felt by all to be a decided gain in comfort. However, this being done without any idea of the principles involved is only a partial re- lief. The back is straightened up near the entire line of the chair-back, and is better braced ; and the ossa iunomi- nata are indeed properly rested ; but the thighs are lifted entirely off the chair-seat, and therefore obtain no sup- port. If, while cutting down the back legs of the chair 3 inches, or 3^, the front legs had only been shortened 2 inches, and the back, supposed to be in- flexible, and to be hinged at the back part of the chair-seat, could have been thrown forward 1 inch at the top, allow- ing a perpendicular line from the front of the chair-seat to the floor to be rather shorter than one from the floor to the inner part of the knee-joint, flexed at an angle of ninety degrees, the desired points would be attained ; the spinal column would have been kept erect and self-supporting, the chest would have been perfectly free, the haunches would have been braced, the*whole under por- tion of the thighs would have rested upon the chair-seat ; and the sitter must have experienced perfect ease. But the chair, not being planned for such angles,