from the way in which it is supported, pressing upon the waist (see Plate 5, line A, B), hindering the development of the internal organs and cramping them, thus tending to produce injuries which may affect the happiness of the girl's future.
I believe that a large number of the cases of curvature of the spine met with in surgical practice, generally in girls between the ages of twelve and sixteen, result directly or indirectly from the weight and improper pressure of clothes, a potent agent in causing the deformity being the wearing of high-heeled boots, which throw the body forward in walking. Tight, stiff stays are responsible for a great deal of harm, and I am afraid that horrible process called tight-lacing begins but too frequently earlier than is generally suspected.
I propose to deal with these evils seriatim, and show how best they may be avoided.
I have already given what seem to me sufficient reasons for maintaining that wool is the natural and most healthy substance out of which to manufacture clothes. Clothes in their action should be merely supplementary to the skin, and care is required to enable them to properly perform the functions demanded of them. They should be light, warm, permit free transpiration, or, in other words, ventilate well; they should exert no pressure on any part, and they should be free from all poisonous particles, whether of dirt or of dye.
Our bodies lose heat by evaporation, and also by conduction, convection, and radiation. We, therefore, require our clothes to be absorbent, so that
