which supports the lower abdomen. In accomplishing this, we aid Nature in the performance of her operations; when less than this is done, we either labour in vain, or else inflict a positive injury.
The reason why the ordinary stays are so injurious may be demonstrated by tying a piece of thread tightly round the finger. Immediately that this is done, the circulation of the blood is impeded, and the finger becomes blue and painful, and this simply because an unyielding substance is pressing upon it. Now, although the waist is more pliable than the finger, it does not follow that the pressure is less injurious; but, on the contrary, as the organs which are deposited there are of greater importance to the health and strength of the body, so any undue pressure is sure to cause the most grievous injury. This injury is inflicted in consequence of its interference with the circulation of the blood, upon the proper action of which all that concerns our well-being depends.
It is generally known that the circulation of the blood takes place through two sets of vessels, the arteries and veins. The former come from the heart, and are employed in distributing the vital fluid over every part of the system, until they terminate in the capillaries, or vessels small as a hair, which are distributed over the whole of the internal and external surfaces of the body. When its vitality has been exhausted the colour of the blood is changed from a bright red into a very dark hue, and it is then taken up by the other set of vessels, and carried back again to the heart and lungs, to undergo another process of purification. Any interruption of this circulation by a pressure upon the soft pipes through which the fluid is carried, must, as a natural consequence, lower the natural action of the organs, and, by increasing the sensibility, give rise to pain and disease. Hence the headache, the giddiness, dullness, depression, and languor, the numbness of the extremities, the enlarged veins, and other painful sensations which too often accompany gestation; and when all these have passed away with parturition, it too frequently happens that the figure is spoiled for life. Now every one of the evils here spoken of may be avoided. Nature in her beneficence has given to every organ the inherent power to perform its functions without pain; and the organs of reproduction are no exception to this rule. There is no reason why the muscles should become soft, flabby, and relaxed, the pelvis diseased, and the figure spoilt, except it
