protruding; if heavier on one side than the other, one shoulder is constantly hitched up, and grows higher than the other, and the head is twisted to one side to retain the centre of gravity. The spine may become curved and the pelvis deformed owing to the way the body is twisted. The chest is also compressed by the weight hanging over it, and breathing becomes laboured—an accident which brings with it a whole train of evils, of which the chief is general debility, brought about by insufficient aeration of the blood. The weight of the clothes is, moreover, rarely supported on the shoulder arch, but on the upper part of the arm itself, which it pinions to the side. This is caused by the bad way in which clothes are generally cut. If—as, for example, in chemises—the garment is low in the neck, the band or sleeve, which is supposed to rest upon the shoulder, almost invariably slips down over the arm, causing a painful dragging at the shoulder (see Plate 5, line C, D), and preventing the possibility of raising the arms over the head. High-necked garments also are frequently cut too long on the shoulder—a fault which brings about much the same unpleasant result; and armholes are generally made too small to allow those free movements of the arms which are necessary to their healthy development and to the development of the lungs.
The great desideratum is, that clothes should fit, in the proper sense of the word. They should be neither too tight nor too loose. As I said in a former chapter, clothes in their action are supple-
