Personal hygiene and physical training for women

by Anna M. Galbraith

The Curved Front Corset.—The corset is applied to the trunk of the body, consisting of the thoracic cavity, a distensible cage containing and filled by the heart and lungs; second, the abdominal cavity, whose walls are almost wholly composed of muscles, and containing the liver and the entire digestive apparatus; and third, the pelvic cavity, whose walls are partly bony and partly muscular.

When the anterior wall of the body is forced to take the shape of this curved corset, it is pressed back toward the vertebral column, and even when the corset is not laced tightly, there is always more or less constriction of the base of the thorax, so that a serious deformity of the lower part of the thorax and abdomen is produced; instead of the normal outward curve of the anterior surface of the body, with its most prominent part in the region of the umbilicus, there results a broken line at the waist, and an obtuse angle is formed here, pointing outward. This causes a marked incurvation of the lower part of the chest and its approach toward the spinal column, with a corresponding flatness of the chest and lessening of the respiratory capacity of the lungs, and the action of the heart is seriously interfered with.

The chest or thorax is forced into the shape of a cone, the lower opening is narrowed, and its walls are brought too near together. The lower ribs become too short, and, if the corset is worn early in life, the upper ribs become too long; and the thorax as a whole is too long.

The greatest constriction produced by the corset occurs in the plane extending from the ninth to the twelfth ribs, which corresponds to the position of the diaphragm, stomach, and liver.

Just how seriously the curved corsets interfered with the expansion of the lungs was shown in a paper published by Dr. Sargent in 1889. He found that the average lung capacity when corsets were worn was one hundred and thirty-four cubic inches; when corsets were removed, the lungs showed a capacity of one hundred and sixty-seven cubic inches—a gain of thirty-three cubic inches; that is, corsets crippled the lungs to the extent of one-fifth of their entire capacity.

Nature endeavors to make up this loss by the increased rapidity of the heart’s action and more frequent respirations, but this is at the expense of greater wear and friction of the machinery. Palpitation and shortness of breath follow, and the woman is obliged to give up all active exercise.

Through this failure of the suction power of the heart there result disproportionately larger lower limbs and an accumulation of adipose tissue below the waist. This condition is much more common in women than in men, and is due to the lack of power of the heart to draw the blood back from the lower limbs against the force of gravity. Hence, the blood tends to linger in the lower extremities and the oxidation of the tissues is interfered with.

Fig. 15.—Diagram showing the action of the curved front corset (O’Followell).

The Relation of Corsets to Abdominal and Pelvic Disorders.—By the constriction of the lower part of the thorax, as we have seen, the action of the diaphragm is very greatly impaired; this not only seriously interferes with its respiratory function, but with digestion as well, since, by the active contraction of the diaphragm in inspiration, it presses down the liver and other abdominal contents, and produces a powerful massage of those organs, which aids in the digestion of food and in the unloading of the bowels, and, at the same time, the pelvic circulation is interfered with and pelvic congestion is favored.