EVILS ENGENDERED BY POVERTY. 201 irritation, but too continuous thought on subjects difficult to be comprehended, or even on those which are within the grasp of our understanding, when they interest us too deeply, is quite sufficient to produce such over-excitement. There is no doubt that many of the depraved habits of the working classes may be traced to a chain of evils which poverty may forge and lengthen. 66 "I am convinced," observes Dr. James Johnson, "by long and careful observation, that the mental anguish of many of these poor men and women is out of all proportion greater and more intolerable than any physical sufferings they may have to endure. True it is that their bodies are often worn down by hard labour, poisoned by impure air, and exhausted by want of proper food; but worse than all this is the black despair which settles upon them when they find themselves beneath a thick cloud of sorrows, or surrounded by a hopeless entanglement of debt and difficulties, from which they see no way of escape, with, perhaps, no one to lend them a helping hand, or to speak a word of encouragement or sympathy. What wonder is it that in circumstances so cheerless and so desperate, men, and, alas! women too, many of whom have grown up in utter ignorance of the very rudiments of Christianity, should fly to the gin shop to escape from their wretched homes, to drown in the oblivion of drunkenness the cares and troubles which daily become more intolerable, or to seek temporary relief from the physical exhaustion, occasioned by excessive labour, in the impure and overheated atmosphere of their workshops! "It appears to me that in this state of things we have a sufficient explanation of the necessity for a continual increase of prisons and lunatic asylums, institutions which it would be well that we should all learn to look upon as monuments of neglected duty. We may be well assured that if we were more diligent in our efforts to educate the young, and to visit and relieve the sick and the distressed, we should less frequently be called upon to erect costly buildings for the reception and maintenance of criminals and lunatics. Crime and sickness are very expensive, and the principles of economy, no less than the precepts of Christianity, instruct us that we should act wisely if we did more to prevent these evils.” BODILY DEFORMITIES. 203 CHAPTER XIII. BODILY DEFORMITIES: THEIR PREVENTION AND CURE. "Poor race of men! said the pitying spirit, Some flowers of Eden ye still inherit, But the trail of the serpent is over them all!" MOORE. be traced In most cases of bodily deformity the evil may to the period of childhood, when the bones are soft and flexible, and are easily, unless prevented, led into distortion. Mr. Hare, in his excellent work "On the Curvatures of the Spine," justly remarks that the common origin of such irregularities of form occurring at an early period of life, in proportion, therefore, to the delicacy of the infant will be the care required for its rearing. Much has often been effected in this way by constant and persevering attention; and many weakly and unpromising children have, by judicious management, been raised to maturity, and have passed through life in the enjoyment of a considerable share of health and vigour.* A finely formed body is favourable to the * "The age of infancy," says Tissot, "is consecrated by nature to those exercises which fortify and strengthen the body." "The first epoch of life," remarks Sinibaldi, " to the age of seven, ought to be entirely consecrated to the perfect development of the organisation of children, and by the aid of physical education to render them as healthy, robust, and strong as the nature of man will permit." enjoyment of sound health. Every one is struck with the commanding figure, the graceful appearance, of a person so formed; but few inquire into the reason why all are not so gifted. If parents would have their offspring free from personal defects-if they would have their limbs moulded into the form indicative of grace, activity, and strength, they must commence their attention to them from the time of birth; and although they may not always succeed in securing for them the highest state of physical perfection, yet they will generally be able to effect such an improvement in their constitution as will form the basis of future health. Children should not be too early set upon their feet, but should rather be placed on their backs upon the floor, that they may exercise their limbs with freedom: the former practice is a frequent cause of malformation in the lower extremities. Especial care should be taken that the spinal column, so tender in young children, may not take a wrong direction. The manner in which a child, and especially a delicate one, is suffered to sit on the nurse's arm, should be carefully attended to, and, until it has acquired sufficient strength to keep itself erect, its back ought to receive proper support. By being suffered to shrink into a crouching posture, with the head and shoulders inclining forwards, and the back projecting, a bad habit is soon contracted, which often leads to distortion of the spine. Neither is it in the arms alone that this attention is required; the effect is not less injurious if the child be suffered to sit long in a chair, as when fatigued it will naturally adopt that position which at the moment affords most ease. Here it may not be irrelevant to notice the very common and reprehensible practice of raising a young child by its arms in such a manner that the sides of the chest being pressed by the hands, or rather, the knuckles of the nurse, its cavity is diminished, the sternum, or breast bone, pushed out, and that deformity produced in delicate children commonly called "pigeon breasted.” In all cases where a child is delicate and puny, and DANGER OF MAKING A FINE FIGURE. 205 supposed to suffer under the effects of diseased organisation, when the symptoms are such as denote weakness of the back, and consequent incapacity to support the weight of the head and shoulders, it ought without delay to be minutely examined. Mr. Hare, who has made the subject of bodily deformities his particular study, makes the following excellent remarks on the absurd and dangerous habit of making what the ladies credulously term a fine figure "That women should experience a feeling of support from the use of stays, after wearing them from early childhood, admits neither of doubt nor surprise; the only wonder is that they should feel comfortable without them during the hours of repose. Our promenades, public streets, and places of fashionable resort afford abundant evidence of the sad effects arising from the almost universal prevalence of this baneful practice. The foolish notion that a woman is more beautiful with a remarkably small waist ought long ago to have been exploded as well might we admire as beauties the flattened heads of some tribes of Indians, or the extremely contracted feet of the Chinese. Genuine taste admires no such eccentricities. Modern stays are constructed with so little attention to the form of the body, that the pressure is the greatest upon the lower part of the chest, which is naturally the widest, whilst they have the most freedom at the upper part, where its diameter is the smallest, thus, in effect, inverting the order of nature, and causing a complete transformation of this important portion of the body by making its base uppermost, and its apex downward; they are also made so long as to cause injurious pressure on the pelvis, the crest of the ilium being not unfrequently turned inwards. "The evils arising from tight lacing are numerous and appalling. By the pressure of the stays the functions of the vital organs are injured, and the whole frame impaired; the bones of the chest being contracted, prevent the free action of the lungs; the blood, not being suffi |