substance which will render them incapable of ventilation and impervious to perspiration. The "Girton stays" are made of flannel, and there are many other kinds of woollen material which are suitable for the purpose. The small ventilating power of ordinary stays is another serious charge to add to those I have already made against them.
Fig. 12.
Before quitting the subject of stays, I may remark that the ordinary mode of lacing them is very inconvenient and clumsy. A far superior method was shown, and gained a medal at the Health Exhibition; and the inventor of it, Mr. Frederick H. Smith, of 52, Queen Victoria Street, has kindly lent me the subjoined illustrations. The advantage of this method is that the stays can be immediately contracted or expanded with the greatest ease. The stay cords run on tiny pulleys, so that the laces adjust themselves to every movement of the body. Moreover, as the pulleys are perfectly flush with the stay, the laces are not visible through the dress, and do not fret the skin as is sometimes the case with ordinary laces. Figs. 9 and 10 show the frame of the pulley, while Fig. 11 shows the pulley itself, and Fig. 12 the needle with which the lace is threaded round it.
