File:TheFamilyDoctorAug31 1889page10.png

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a steel busk to prevent stooping. It clasps his figure tightly for its entire length, and only allows his waist to measure 18 inches. Of course this entails a certain degree of discomfort, especially during the night, but it is only what many girls have to submit to while they are at school, with the addition of backboards and stocks, which effectually sacrifices all ease and freedom. This discomfort is the important part of corset discipline, and must always be maintained, especially with boys, by tightening their stays periodically, for when he is under the regime of the stay-lace, and his figure enclosed in stiff, unstretchable stays, he is easily made to submit to its being squeezed tighter and tighter, and by the irksome restraint which this entails he is constantly reminded that he is not his own master. In the case of a girl, her hands should always be tightly gloved in strong kid, and her shoulders firmly strapped back by braces in order to flatten the back. The compression of her waist should commence at fourteen, as if begun young no ill consequences will ensue from even the strictest figure training.

Can any reader tell me where the books on figure training, mentioned some time since by a correspondent, can be obtained, or any others on the same subject ?-Yours, &c., FINISHED FIGURE.

Kensington, W., August 13.

SIR,-I have read with interest, and some disgust, the numerous letters that have lately appeared in your columns anent corset discipline. Tight lacing to gratify personal vanity I can understand, though I deplore it; but tight lacing as a punishment seems to me to be senseless, barbarous, and injurious to health. A sentence in the letter of "Experimentum Crucis " in your last suggests "a more excellent way," both as a means of discipline and a promoter of good carriage. I refer to the old-fashioned stocks and backboard used in the last generation to correct the bad habits (alas, still prevalant!) of turning in the toes and stooping. By the backboard, I do not mean the steel backboard and collar--that fearful instrument of our grandmothers' days--but the more modern wooden instrument of that name. Perhaps some of your fair readers can give us their experience on this point. and tell us where these necessary articles can be procured, or mention any schools where they are still in use. Such information would be useful to many of us, who are, like myself,

July 1, 1889. OLD-FASHIONED. Image:TheFamilyDoctorAug31_1889page9.png from Finished Figure; from Old-Fashioned

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