Midwifery and the diseases of women

by Joel Shew

LACING.

Some persons seem to suppose, that if they dispense with the words fashion, corsets, stays, and the like, they have nothing more to do in the matter of tight clothing; but it should be remembered, there may be lacing, that is, compression of the body, by other means than mere corsets, corset-strings, and stays. A dress may be so tight—and such there often are—as to lace the body as effectually as if the strings were actually used.

It is to be hoped that the times will, ere long, change; that it will become as fashionable for females to vie with each other as much in possessing a full, plump waist, as it has hitherto been to possess a small one. Why may it not be, and may we not imagine that cotton wadding, etc., may be yet brought into requisition to remedy the forms of nature about the waist, as now in other parts of the body? At any rate, fashion can do any thing; and since it is the order of fashion to change, we may, in time, expect a different state of things.

It is well remarked by Dr. Andrew Combe, that “already sounder views of the nature of the human frame, added to the lamentable lesson of experience, have convinced many mothers that the surest way to deform the figure, and to prevent gracefulness of carriage, is to abolish exercise, and enforce the use of stiff and tight stays; and that the most effectual way to improve both, is to obey the dictates of nature in preference to the inspiration of ignorance. It was not by the use of tight bands and stays that the classic forms of Greece and Rome were fashioned; and if we wish to see these reproduced, we must secure freedom of action for both body and mind, as an indispensable preliminary. If the bodily organization be allowed fair play, the spine will grow up straight and firm, but at the same time graceful and pliant to the will, and the rest of the figure will develop itself with a freedom and elegance unattainable by any artificial means; while the additional advantage will be gained, of the highest degree of health and figure compatible with the nature of the original constitution.”

Let us look at this matter a little more in detail.

1. It is a law of the living body, that in order for easy, healthful, and natural motion to be put forth, no unnatural or artificial pressure must exist.

If we wear a shoe that is too tight, we know how much walking is impeded, that, perhaps, best of all exercises; and that if this pressure be continued for a considerable time, nature revolts at our waywardness, and produces for us a corn. The parts are made to grow out of proportion; the toes crooked, bent, and ugly in appearance.

So, too, if a person wears a tight cravat, we see how soon circulation is impeded, and headache follows.

Compare, too, the breathing of an individual with a full, healthy, and well-expanded chest, that has not been exposed to artificial pressure, with that of a man or a woman which has been for years contracted to the smallest span; the one can scarce mount a flight of stairs for want of breath, while the other can climb the mountain-side, and be but the more invigorated thereby.

2. Pressure upon any part of the system impoverishes that part.

It is said of the Chinese women, that many of them wear shoes so tight that their feet remain as small as in childhood. If a person is in the habit of stooping forward too much, or of leaning against a desk a considerable length of time in the counting-house or at school, we see the chest becomes enfeebled and sunken. The general law is, artificial pressure impoverishes any part of the system to which it is applied.

3. Look at the skin. It is naturally a breathing organ.

If you keep the air from the skin, your system feels smothered. Does not every one know how refreshing it is, on a hot, sultry day, to allow the atmosphere to circulate freely about the surface?

Every lady, however genteel, however pinched up in her fashionableness she may choose to be when she goes out before the world, takes off her clothing from instinct as soon as she is alone by herself again.

Even in cold weather, smothering the skin is productive of uncomfortable sensations; and all persons may observe, that in lying down to sleep by day, with the usual amount of clothing on, they become feverished, unrefreshed, and awake with at least a general lassitude, and very likely with a severe headache, or other uncomfortable feelings of the head. On the other hand, if there is necessity for deep during the day, and the individual lies down with suitable clothing, and yet sufficiently covered to remain comfortable, a refreshing sleep is obtained.

Ladies especially who, from pregnancy or other reasons, have need of their forenoon “naps,” will do well to remember this advice. So also infants should always be undressed when they are allowed to go to sleep. Thus much for the skin as a breathing organ.

4. But perhaps the worst of all physical injuries produced by clothing, is that exerted upon the chest. We read that in the blood of the animal is the life thereof. In the stomach the digestible portions of the crude materials of food are formed into chyme. The chymous mass passes then onward through the pylorus into the duodenum, or second stomach. Here the chyle is formed, which is a step nearer blood than chyme. The lacteals suck up this milk-like fluid called chyle, and carry it into the portal circulation, to commingle with the blood. The blood, in this crude state, is sent to the liver, where a still further purifying process goes on. After this the venous blood passes to the heart, from whence it is sent to the lungs, there to become arterialized, or rendered in its purest state. Thence it passes back again to the left side of the heart, from which it is sent to all parts of the system, to afford life, growth, energy, and strength.

You will now perceive that this blood-restoring process, which, by the wonderful mechanism of nature, goes on in the lungs, is a very important one to the health. Here, in myriads of air-cells contained in the lungs, the surface of which amounts to at least as many superficial inches as the entire external skin, it is purified, and rendered fit for the purposes of life.

We see, too, that when the system is left free to perform its own normal functions, the chest expands freely at every inspiration of air we breathe; and in proportion as this expansion of the chest is full and free, will be the amount of air inspired, and, as a consequence, the amount of oxygen, or the blood-purifying principle, will be proportionately augmented. On the other hand, if, by compression of the chest, the full, free inspiration of air is hindered, less oxygen will be received into the system, and, consequently, the blood will become less pure.

A woman who laces herself tightly about the waist cannot be supposed to breathe hardly more than one half the amount of air she should do. How, then, in the name of common sense, can she expect to enjoy health? Every organ of the human system must be allowed its free exercise, or a deterioration of the general health must be the inevitable result. We might as well expect to have good health with only half the amount of food we should have, as with half the amount of the air we should breathe.

Thus, you perceive, if any unnatural pressure is made upon a part of the system, motion is impeded, and without free motion, health cannot exist; that with such pressure, parts upon which it is made are impoverished; that if clothing is worn too tightly about the body, the breathing function of the skin is hindered, and that debility is the result; that in particular, if the chest is compressed, as is often done by the use of stays and corsets, tight dresses, and the like, that important function of respiration is impeded, and that thus the health must inevitably sink. These principles cannot be too much studied, or too much carried out in practice, in order to secure the firmest and most enduring health.

There are also other ill effects than those we have glanced at that are caused by tight clothing. Thus, in compressing the chest, the abdominal organs are also made to suffer. The functions of the stomach cannot go on properly; the food is not digested as it should be; the liver cannot act freely; the bowels become torpid and constipated; the uterus is pressed out of its place, causing prolapsus uteri, or falling of the womb, as it is called; neither the blood-making, the blood-purifying, nor the blood-distributing processes can go on healthfully. Thus the entire system is made to suffer merely from the pressure made upon the external parts of the body.

Do you ask me, how does all this bear upon the subject of pregnancy? I answer, that if in ordinary states of health, clothing should be of such a character as at all times to allow of the most free and unrestrained movement of every part of the system, how much more important and imperative is this consideration with those in pregnancy. And, accordingly, as is well remarked by Dr. Eberle, “The custom of wearing tightly-laced corsets during gestation, cannot be too severely censured. It must be evident to the plainest understanding, that serious injury to the health of both mother and child must often result from a continued and forcible compression of the abdomen, while nature is at work in gradually enlarging it for the accommodation and development of the fetus. By this unnatural practice, the circulation of the blood throughout the abdomen is impeded: a circumstance which, together with the mechanical compression of the abdominal organs, is peculiarly calculated to give rise to functional disorder of the stomach and liver, as well as the hemorrhoids, uterine hemorrhage, and abortion. The regular nourishment of the fetus, also, is generally impeded in this way: a fact which is frequently verified in the remarkably delicate and emaciated condition of infants born of mothers who have practiced this fashionable folly during gestation. It may be observed, that since the custom of wearing tight-laced corsets has become general among females, certain forms of uterine disease are much more frequent than they were sixteen or eighteen years ago.” Hence, as has been judiciously remarked, “it ought to be the first duty of the young wife, who has reason to believe pregnancy to have commenced, to take special care so to arrange her dress as to admit of the utmost freedom of respiration, and to prevent even the slightest compression of the chest or abdomen.”

If I could write as impressively as I feel earnestly on this subject, how would I warn you, my friends, against the evils of too tight and illy-adapted clothing in pregnancy. How often have I pitied the newly-married woman, who seems really to be under an unavoidable necessity of conforming to fashion—so much are we all of us under the world’s influence—that her health and bodily comfort have been deteriorated and greatly interfered with. How often, too, have I wished that the day might hasten in which there would be a wide and general dissemination of light on this subject, so that people might not only know the truth, but be able to practice it. That such a day is not far distant, I do most confidently hope.

LETTER X.
MANAGEMENT IN PREGNANCY.

Of Solar light—Its Effects on Life and Health—Air and Exercise—Rules of Management.

Among the life agents, solar light is one of the most important.

Anciently the sun was considered as a deity. In most countries it was called the “Supreme Being,” the “Father of Light,” “Jupiter,” “Jehovah,” the “Creator of all living matter,” the “residence of the Most High.”

All nations, in all periods of time, have been impressed with the magnificence and power of the great center of the solar system.

That the sun’s light has a powerful influence on the living body, every one will readily admit. Knowing the reviving influence of a moderate degree of solar heat, the ancients had terraces on their house-tops, called solaria, in which, to use their own expression, they took a solar air-bath.

According to physiological experiments, it has been shown, that if tadpoles be nourished with proper food, and at the same time exposed to the constantly renewed contact of air, so that their respiration may be fully carried on while they remain in their fish-like condition, and, at the same time, be entirely deprived of light, their growth continues, but their metamorphosis into the condition of air-breathing animals is arrested, and they remain in the condition of a large tadpole.

The rapidity with which water-flies, insects, etc., of pools, undergo their transformation, is found to be much influenced by the amount of light to which they are exposed.

If equal numbers of the eggs of the silk-worm be preserved in a dark room, and exposed to common daylight, a much larger portion of the larva are hatched from the latter than the former.

A great variety of facts might be given in proof, that light exercises an important influence over the processes of development in animal life.

“Those who live in mines, or dark caves,” says Dr. Andrew Combe, “and who are rarely exposed to the light of day, present a pale, relaxed, sallowness of skin, which contrasts with the ruddy freshness of country people and others living much in the open air.”

Every one knows how much paler and more delicate those are who remain mostly, or entirely, within doors. The inhabitants of villages, towns, and cities, may often be known by the lighter color and delicacy of skin, which arises from their occupation being more in the shade than that of the country people.

The extreme paleness and depression of the poor population resident in the dark lanes of crowded cities, medical observers have often noticed, as a striking exemplification of the effects of a want of light.

Light is also well known to have a great influence in preventing deformity.

Those who are confined much within doors, or that are brought up in cellars, mines, and the dark places of cities, where the sun can never come, have much oftener deformity of body than such as have free access to the light.

Among those nations that wear but little or no clothing, thus leaving the system more to the influence of light, it is well known that there is a remarkable freedom from this form of disease.

Rickets is much more common in the dark, dirty parts of cities, than elsewhere.

There is, however, of course, in all these instances, other agencies concerned, than mere light. The effects are more or less modified by a variety of causes, as, for instance, the want of a due circulation of pure air in dark and confined places produces debility of the body, which always tends to deformity and disease. But it is demonstrably true, that the want of light is one of the most prominent among the many causes of bodily deformity.

In curing diseases, and the general management of the sick, light, too, is an important agency.

It is said by Sir A. Wilie, who was long at the head of the medical staff in the Russian army, that the cures of disease on the dark side of an extensive barrack at St. Petersburg, have been uniformly, for many years, in the proportion of three to one, to those on the side exposed to strong light.

In one of the London hospitals, with long range of frontage, looking nearly due north and south, it has been said by observers, that a residence in the south wards is much more conducive to the welfare of the patients, than in those on the north side of the building.

Light is a very important matter as regards the health of the eyes.

We find nowhere so much disease of these important organs, as among the poor people who inhabit the dark, filthy, and illy-ventilated portions of large cities.

This is true of infants, who are, more than others, kept within doors. It is, indeed, said, that in a certain dark alley of the city of Boston, infants are not unfrequently born blind.

Fish that live in the pools of the Mammoth Cave, in Kentucky, we are told, have no sight.

Thus, my friends, I have spoken at length on the subject of light; almost more than was necessary, perhaps, you will say. But it is a matter which has not been much spoken of; and this, if there is need, is my excuse.

What practical lessons are we to gather from facts like these?

Shall ladies darken their parlors and sitting-rooms, thus making them more like dungeons than pleasant apartments for use?

Shall they practice reading, sewing, and the like exercises in rooms so poorly lighted that a person coming from the open air can scarcely discern one object from another?

Shall they remain in-doors as much of the time as is possible, lest the light should render their skin of a somewhat less delicate hue?

Shall they, when they must needs come out for a walk, wear a thick, heavy, and perhaps three-double vail, in order to preserve that delicacy, of which women too often appear to be so fond?

Shall they go on thus keeping up this so-called beauty and delicateness, even if it be at the expense of ennui, debility, nervousness, and general ill health?

Or, on the other hand, shall they go often and freely into the open air, walking miles every day; or what is perhaps better, engage in active, and, if possible, out-door pursuits, a part of each day?

In the one case, health is, as a general thing, easy to obtain; in the other, impossible.

As children know by instinct, and physiologists by scientific facts, human beings must go often into the open light of day, in order to insure firm and enduring bodily health.

Nor are the good effects of light less important on the feelings, habits, and mental manifestations of the individual.