“But I have not told you yet of the evil effects in the displacement of the bowels. Do you remember how many feet of intestines there are in the body?”
“About twenty feet of small and about four feet of large intestines.”
“And how are they held in place?”
“Why, I don’t just remember.”
“The small intestines are encased in a membrane called the mesentery. It is just as if I folded this strip of cloth in the middle lengthwise 58 and put my finger inside of the fold. The small intestines lie in the middle fold of the mesentery, and the edges of the mesentery are gathered up like a ruffle and fastened to the spine in a space of about six inches, leaving it to flare out like a very full ruffle. In this way, you see, the intestines are left free, and yet cannot tie themselves in knots as they might if but laid loosely in the abdominal cavity.
| Fig. 1. | Fig. 2. |
| A natural figure and a normal pose. | Corseted figure producing abnormal pose. |
“If the waist is constricted above them, they sink down and pull on this attachment, and that often causes backache and inability to stand or 59 walk with comfort. It may also press the reproductive organs out of place, and so cause much pain and suffering at menstruation.
“I am of the opinion that women were not intended to be invalids in any degree because of their womanhood; and very likely there would be much less flow at menstrual periods if women and girls lived in accordance with Nature’s laws.”