by full and frequent inspirations, dillating them to their largest capacity, and besides remaining healthy, they will continually increase in size and strength. But let the opposite course be pursued, and opposite results will follow. Let the lungs be cramped, and they will become diseased. The mere pressure of the corset can hardly fail to induce inflammation; and this carried far, must end in ulceration. But however detrimental pressure is to any part of the body, and to the lungs in particular, it is their want of action which is most fatal to their healthy condition. The law that governs them is, constant action, or else disease, Nothing is more fatal to the lungs, than that inaction which tight-lacing always and necessarily induces. This, and the pressing together of their pores, which inspirations would keep apart, causes adhesions, and these inflammation, and this, ulcerations. Scarcely any one cause of consumption is more prolific. And yet, its victims are said to die of consumption, when in fact they die of lacing. It is just as bad as though they committed suicide by strangling themselves. They commit suicide by strangulation, and thus break the hearts of friends and family, and yet the real cause of their death is overlooked, or else kept studiously out of view.
The alarming prevalence of consumption within the last few years, should cause every true lover of his country to weep. It has broken the hearts of thousands of disconsolate parents, removing one by one their fond hopes and blooming daughters, till all were carried to their long home and they hastened into their graves mourning. And all because their vain but ignorant daughters laced. Tight-lacing answers the question, 'Why do so many more females die of consumption than males?'
But its effects on the stomach are still more cramped in proportion, and the nourishing of the system is reduced in even in greater ratio. So that tight-lacers are not even one quarter alive, and are more than three quarters dead while alive. How can the liver act, when drawn down and bandaged with a strong girth around it? Not only is its action proportionably enfeebled, but the product of that action becomes corrupt, because the organ itself becomes diseased, and the stomach thereby corrupted, and the blood rendered impure. This carries disease to every portion of the system; especially to the brain, because that organ receives so large a supply of blood from tight-lacing This unfolds another cause of the diseased feelings of lacers. Lacing corrupts the blood, and this diseases the brain, which makes the feelings produced by the action of that brain diseased. This diseased action of the brain is usually called craziness, or insanity. How beautiful, how philosophical an exposition of the almost universal fact that those who have laced so tight as to disease the blood, are crazy. That they are crazy, is rendered evident by the state of mind described on a former page, and will be rendered still more evident hereafter.
The state of mind there described, is only the effect of partial insanity. That tight-lacing produces this state, first, by sending too much blood to the head; and secondly, by corrupting the blood, and thereby diseasing the brain, is self-evident; and this principle fully establishes and clearly explains the fact, that tight-lacing produces mental derangement.
Tight-lacing not only diseases the blood, but also retards its circulation. How can a bandaged, labouring heart give full, strong, healthy pulsations, when thus cramped up and bandaged? how send the blood to the extremities, and force it through all the almost infinitely minute and ramified veins of the body? It cannot: and even if it could, the blood would be stopped in its course, especially to and from its lower limbs so that the feet must necessarily be cold, (universally regarded as one of the most prolific causes of disease,) and the muscles used in walking, be enfeebled. Who ever knew tight-laced women capable of walking much? How soon do they get out of breath, (because the lungs will not
