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12. SOBRE O ROSTO

            MY DEAR LAURA, – Our chat this week will be, with your permission, on the subject of the figure, its treatment and development. Many ladies afflicted with a superabundant opulence of neck and bosom have besought me to recommend them some lotion or drug which will have the effect of reducing this inconvenience. I always refer them to the advice I gave to “Julia,” (1) assuring them that no specific exists by which the bust can be safely reduced in dimensions, unless by the method of treatment there laid down for sufferers from general obesity. Astringent washes or unguents applied to the bosom, even if efficacious in absorbing a part of the adipose tissue under the skin, would infallibly leave the loosened cuticle wrinkled, flabby, and discoloured, and so impart an appearance of premature old age, incomparably more dreadful than the inconvenience of a little extra plumpness. On the other hand, not a few clients come to me with a request for some prescription by means of which they may attain a rotundity of bust denied them by Nature. To these petitioners I usually recommend the adoption of the farinaceous regimen advised to “Psyche,” (2) with the addition of a local treatment, such as daily friction of the neck and bosom with “Lait Mamilla,” the efficacy of which preparation I have frequently tested, or with linseed oil

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added to an equal part of “Lait Virginal” (elder-flower or orange-flower water, 1 quart; simple tincture of benzoin, 1 oz.; tincture of myrrh, 12 drops), mixed gradually by stirring. At the same time, cod-liver oil, preferably Allen and Hanbury’s “Perfected,” – the best in the market, – should be taken internally, in small doses several times daily. Frequent ingestion of the oil in fractional quantities is more efficacious for fattening purposes than larger doses less often. The oil should be beaten up in warm milk and drunk, while in suspension immediately after every meal. Whether “Lait Mamilla” or “Lait Virginal” be used for external treatment, or even, simply, linseed oil diluted with orange-flower water and glycerine, the friction must never be omitted. It imparts firmness, solidity, and contour, and should be continued for five or ten minutes at a time morning and evening. As, however, the bosom in women is an especially delicate and glandular part of the body, this friction must be gently and evenly applied, never being allowed to cause abrasion or sensation of bruising. Such treatment may be advantageously supplemented by the daily practice of singing scales and vocal exercises for an hour, taking deep inhalations the while; and by the regular use of dumb-bells or the performance of calisthenic movements for the enlargement of the thorax and pulmonary capacity. Exercises of this kind, a full description of which I give in my Letters to “Sibyl,” should form part of the physical training of every woman.

            It should be remembered, in view of the functions which most women hope to fulfil, that the duties of motherhood are greatly dependent on the physiological development of the lactic glands. Where these are immature and incompetent to meet the needs of nature,

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much disappointment may result to the mother, and very real detriment to the child, which is, in consequence, relegated to some hired nurse, or brought up by hand. All the glandular structures of the body are benefited and aided in their normal growth and vigour by judicious manipulation and friction. The hair-bulbs, the sudatory-glands, and those of the digestive tract, equally respond to the stimulus of massage with increased or renewed power of secretion and development. The regular stimulus of gentle rubbing with the open palm of the hand and without undue pressure, constitutes the most suitable and the simplest method of promoting healthful functions, and counteracting any tendency to morbid arrest of development or secretive energy.

            Need I say anything, my dear Laura, about the wickedness of tight-lacing? Shall I remind you that if you lace tight nothing can save you from acquiring high shoulders, abnormally large hips, varicose veins in your legs, and a red nose? Surely such penalties, to say nothing of heart disease, spinal curvature, or worse interior affections, are sufficiently dreadful to deter maids and matrons from compressing their waists unduly.

            No adult woman’s waist ought to measure less in circumference than twenty-four inches at the smallest, and even this is permissible to slender figures only. The rule of beauty is that the waist should be twice the size of the throat. Therefore, if one’s throat measures twelve and a-half inches round, one’s waist ought to measure twenty-five. The celebrated statue known as the Venus de Medici, the acknowledged type of womanly beauty and grace, has a waist of twenty-seven inches, the height of the figure being only five feet two inches. Consider what important and delicate organs are packed away inside a woman’s waist. “Within that cincture lie the

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stomach, the liver, the upper part of the intestine, the spleen, the pancreas; and, immediately above, the heart and lungs. It is something worse than silly to compress and lacerate these organs. It is suicidal, and even murderous; for when girls who have deformed their bodies by tight-lacing become married women, their infants often perish before birth, in consequence of the folly of which the mothers have been guilty. Such acts are sins for which women are quite as much accountable as for any other moral transgression. It is far less stupid and mischievous to compress the feet as do the Chinese, for by this practice no vital organs are injured. Bones are crushed and sinews withered, it is true, but the great circulatory, digestive, respiratory, and reproductive centres are not interfered with. Corsets should support without constriction; they should be pliable and elastic. No man worth a woman’s regard admires an unnatural waist, and girls are, therefore, greatly mistaken if they imagine that by deliberately abandoning the form of a human creature to assume that of an insect they are commending themselves to male admiration. By such conduct they only exhibit their own ignorance, stupidity, and vanity, besides doing their best to render the sex to which, by misfortune, they belong, ridiculous and contemptible in the eyes of all intelligent persons.

            For my part, I recommend for your adoption corsets of the kind which I myself wear, made of perfectly permeable white canvas, stiff enough to afford comfortable support, while permitting free cutaneous evaporation; wholly innocent of whalebones, and having merely a very light steel busk, fastening easily in front. These corsets should be made by a skilled artiste, and moulded to the figure. The petticoats should not be tied over them round the waist, thereby producing

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a bulky and ungainly effect, but attached to the edge of the corset low down on the hips, where the additional thickness is not disadvantageous. Over the corset should be worn only a single under-bodice of spun silk, which occupies very little room, and is warm, and so elastic that it may be fitted exactly over the stays, without wrinkling the dress or disturbing its “set.”

            From a hygienic, as well as from an aesthetic point of view, a multiplicity of petticoats is a great error in dress. Two underskirts suffice; one of these should be in white calico, flounced, to serve as a “crinolette” or “dress-improver;” the other – worn outside the flounced petticoat, and immediately under the dress – should be of some white embroidered material in summer, and of satinette or linsey stuff in winter. In place of the old-fashioned and unhealthful “flannel petticoat” which our mothers used to wear, a merino combination suit or a pair of flannel knickerbockers should be adopted. Of course, stocking suspenders must replace the odious ligatures, which, under the name of garters, were used, in an unscientific age, to disfigure the legs of past feminine generations. Our fashionable modistes are now adopting all these improvements in attire; and in the showrooms of the first-class corsetières now-a-days you will see beautifully-modelled corsets very slightly whale-boned, and constructed with a deft arrangement of hooks around the lower edge in such a manner as to prevent the bands of the petticoat skirts from rising above the hips. As for undergarments, the chief thing to be borne in mind is that the material of which they are made should be pervious, and that all highly glazed and “dressed” linen, cotton or calico is therefore unsuitable for clothing. The skin is constantly throwing off through its myriads of pores an invisible cloud of transpiration.

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When this is shut in by impermeable clothing the result is a damp and clammy moisture which clogs the cuticle, soaks the inner garment, and becomes the fruitful source of rheumatism, cold and skin eruption.

            The “dressing,” composed of tallow, glue or other artificial substance, which gives the yam of linens and damasks their gloss and smoothness, is not only by its nature detrimental to the skin when brought into contact with it, but its presence upon and between the fibres of the material renders the latter well-nigh impenetrable by the vapoury exhalation of the body, so that this exhalation, unable to escape by natural radiation, condenses and becomes watery. Soft web-like cotton goods are by far the best for under-wear, and they are manufactured for the purpose under Dr. Lahmann’s directions by a Würtemberg firm named Wizemann, at an extremely moderate cost, considerably less than that of ordinary woollen fabrics. Dr. Lahmann calls his material “baum-woll” (tree-wool), and, indeed, for all intents and purposes, it may fairly be described as vegetable wool, possessing, however, one advantage over sheep-wool, even of the finest, to wit, that it never causes the tickling or irritation to which the epidermis, when very sensitive and delicate, is apt to be liable in contact with flannel or merino.

            Some time ago I dwelt on the necessity of wearing woollen clothing in cold weather, and I may now point out that in cold damp climates like ours, woollen fabrics are especially requisite, and should, if possible, be worn next the skin over the entire surface of the body in winter. “Baumwoll” is, for this purpose, eminently serviceable and appropriate, its peculiar weft making it in the highest degree elastic, while its unglazed, unwrought surface answers all the ends of a fleecy garment. The

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looser and “fluffier” the texture of the material, the warmer it is to wear, because it imprisons more air in its meshes, and this air becoming warmed by proximity with the body, retains a constant temperature over the surface of the skin, and prevents loss of heat from the person by chill. Feathers and down make still warmer apparel than wool, because they retain a yet greater quantity of warm air. If, however, duvet petticoats and jackets be worn all day, or duvet coverings spread over the body at night, headaches and other discomforts are apt to be produced, the free evaporation from the cutaneous surface being liable to be impeded by the want of permeability in the material used. It is, in fact, of the highest importance that, while we study warmth in our clothing, we should not forget the functions of the skin. Any fabric which solidly encompasses the body and hinders transpiration is unhealthful.

            With regard to boots, I give the preference to the “Hygienic” or the “Sensible,” which are admirable for walking purposes. Pointed toes are, of course, an abomination, whether for boots, shoes, or slippers. Besides looking hideous, these unnatural points are certain to produce corns and enlarged toe-joints, especially if associated, as is usual, with very high heels, the effect of which is to throw the foot forward upon the contracted extremity in front. Broad-toed boots, with flexura “waists,” to support the instep – the comfort of which in walking long distances is very marked – heels sufficiently high to prevent untoward soiling of the dress skirt at the back, and sufficiently broad at their base to avert the rolling motion common in walking upon slender heels – these are the desiderata after which we ought to aspire, carefully avoiding impervious material, because it hinders cutaneous evaporation and produces

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“tenderness,” and preferring curved soles (“rights and lefts”) to straight ones. In cold weather, cork soles, flannel-lined, should be put both in outdoor and indoor boots and shoes, for it is all-important to keep the feet warm and dry.

footnotes

(90:1) Letter No. I.

(90:2) Letter No. II.

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