a post in front, of what value are the hinges?

If mothers ask, of what use this motion of the lungs is, it is only
necessary to refer them to the chapter on Ventilation, in which I trust
the subject is made intelligible, and a satisfactory answer afforded.

But I might appeal to facts. Let us look at females around us generally.
Do their countenances indicate that they enjoy as good health as they
did when dress was worn more loosely? Have they not oftener a leaden
hue, as if the blood in them was darker? Are they not oftener
short-breathed than formerly? As they advance in life, have they not
more chronic diseases? Are not their chests smaller and weaker? And as
the doctrine that if one member suffers, all the other members suffer
with it, is not less true in physiology than in morals, do we not find
other organs besides the lungs weakened? Surgeons and physicians, who,
like faithful sentinels, have watched at their post half a century,
tell us, moreover, that if these foolish and injurious practices to
which I refer are tolerated two centuries longer, every female will be
deformed, and the whole race greatly degenerated, physically and
morally.

Those with whom no arguments will avail, are recommended to read the
following remarks from the first volume of the Library of Health, p.
119:

"It is related, on the authority of Macgill, that in Tunis, after a girl
is engaged, or betrothed, she is then _fattened_. For this purpose, she
is cooped up in a small room, and shackles of gold and silver are placed
upon her ancles and wrists, as a piece of dress. If she is to be married
to a man who has discharged, despatched, or lost a former wife, the
shackles which the former wife wore are put on the new bride's limbs,
and she is fed till they are filled up to a proper thickness. The food
used for this custom worthy of the barbarians is called _drough_, which
is of an extraordinary fattening quality, and also famous for rendering
the milk of the nurse rich and abundant. With this and their national
dish, _cuscasoo_, the bride is literally crammed, and many actually die
under the spoon."

We laugh at all this, and well we may; but there are customs not very
far from home, no less ridiculous.

"There is a country four or five thousand miles westward of Tunis,
where the females, to a very great extent, are emaciated for marriage,
instead being fattened. This process is begun, in part, by shackles--not
of gold and silver, pe