| Bust measure | 36 | Bust measure | 38 |
| Waist | 26 | Waist | 32 |
| Hip | 45 | Hip | 43 |
| Fig. 1 | Fig. 2 | ||
“You see how graceful the curves of the Venus (Fig. 2), how abrupt those of the actress (Fig. 1), and yet to most people her figure looks the more elegant. But I want to call your attention to the fact that to create her figure is really to lose much space, and to crowd together the important 56 vital organs until their working power is greatly hindered. This same actress has become enlightened and now says: ‘Of course, no woman can breathe properly in a tightly-laced corset. I am horrified when I think of the way I used to compress my waist, and look back at the pictures showing my hour-glass figure with positive amazement.’
“Don’t you think it strange that we never want little rooms with furniture huddled close together, except in our bodily dwellings? The Divine Architect has given us grand apartments, with all the machinery harmoniously related, and we think we improve things by putting everything into the closest possible quarters and disturbing the harmony! But the damage is not done to the heart and lungs alone. The liver is crowded out of place until it sometimes reaches clear across the abdomen and is creased with ruts from the pressure of the ribs upon it. The stomach is also pressed out of place. It belongs close up under the diaphragm, but it is crowded by the pressure down until it lies in the abdominal cavity, as low down, sometimes, as the umbilicus, six or eight inches below where it belongs.”
Showing how much space is lost by constriction of the waist.
“O, mother, that seems awful.”
“It is awful, my dear, because the body is created to do certain work, and to do that work well, its laws should be regarded. We would not think of interfering with the works of a watch or a piano, because they are valuable, but we 57 do not hesitate to interfere with the more valuable organs of our bodies, and we do not even think that we are offering an insult to the Creator.