THE WEIGHT OF WOMEN'S CLOTHES.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3648, 22 March 1883, Page 4

THE WEIGHT OF WOMEN'S CLOTHES.

On the. weight of women's clothes, the Lancet says :- -" This is a phase of the dress question that has been too much, overlooked. Tho clothes worn by women arc, as. a whole, far too heavy, and, by a perversity of fashion, they receive au enormous increment of weight at this season in the shape of cloaks or mantles of sealskin or phish with quilted linings. The attention of medical practitioners needs to be specially drawn to this matter, in order that they remonstrate with their female patients, and also avoid misconception as to the actual strength of some who complain of fatigue in walking, which may be mistaken for a token of weakness, whereas it is only natural exhaustion from carrying a burden that few strong men would care to bear. There are oven worse evils than mere fatigue consequent on the practice of loading the body feminine with tho outrageously heavy outer garments now in vogue. Not only are the ordinary movements of the legs and arms injuriously impeded, but the waist is encircled as with a belt or hoop, to which a load heavier than a felon's chains is attached, and the shoulders and chest arc compressed by an additional burden. Breathing is laboriously performed, and the contents of the trunk and pelvis are thrust down with a force which, if represented in pounds, would occasion considerable surprise. We venture fo suggest, as a ma'tor 'if more than curiosity, medical men should ask their female patients to ascertain precisely the total weight of the clothes they wear indoors and ouf. The matter is by 110 means unimportant. We have reason to think that not a few of the maladies from which women suffer acutely, and the general weakness and depression of the muscular and nervous system of which they very commonly complain, will be placed in ;m entirely new light when the facts to which we now call serious attention are fully known.