File:TheFamilyDoctorFeb9 1889page375 .png

Summary[edit]

TIGHT LACING AND HIGH HEELS.

TO THE EDITOR OF FAMILY DOCTOR.

SIR.--While the correspondence is on, I should just like to ask one question. Would the ill effects of a reduction of a waist from 23 inches to 17 inches (outside the dress) be felt after having been laced for eighteen months ?

We have two cases in our family. My elder sister, age twenty, had a waist, two years ago, of 23 inches, but in six months reduced herself to 16 inches, and has remained that size ever since. She has not had a day's illness during that time. beyond a cold in the head. She states, moreover, that the feeling caused by these tight stays is quite enjoyable--certainly not in the least painful. I have seen her play tennis for hours when laced in, and never seem exhausted. Her mode was to bee in about an inch per month, and as her mother did not object she frequently slept in them.

My other sister is two years younger, and is of a slighter build, and measures half an inch less at the waist.

They both wear high heels--about. 3 inches---to their walking boots. Their dancing shoes are made with the same size heel, but to allow for an inside cork sock of 1 inch. A lady friend of my sister, who is companion to a titled lady, when on a visit to us, was wearing hoots with 4-inch heels and an inside cork sock of half an inch. She says she finds it quite as easy to walk in these as in low ones, but would prefer to have them about 3 inches. She only wears them 4 inches because it is the wish of her mistress, who, by the way, is frequently laced-in to 14 inches. I am inclined to think, after what has come under my notice, that tight lacing and high heels, indulged in to a moderate extent, is not so harmful as some would have us believe.

I could mention four or five other cases of ladies in the same tennis club as I belong to who indulge in both, and are anything but invalids.

I enclose my card, and beg to subscribe myself,--

Yours truly, F. S.

Rainham, Essex, Jan. 24, 1889.

from F. S.

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