EFFECT OF TIGHT SKIRTS.

Evening Star, Issue 14932, 19 July 1912, Page 8

EFFECT OF TIGHT SKIRTS.

Dr Karl Francke, a leadi.ni Munich physician, is (says, the Berlin correspondent of the ' Daily Telegraph *| evidently <if opinion thai woman is quite as much iu need of sartorial as of political enfranchisement. He hat- hoc-!; mveftitratirit* th'r phvsieal phenomenon known in (rennany a* " X legs.'' an<] in England as " knockknees'." and he has collected data and reached conclusions which possibly may bof significance for other countries as well as for his own. On the basis of a careful and comprehensive, research, he has discovered that in the earliest years of childhood some 75 per cent, of members of both sexes suffer more or b\=s from this deformity, but. that subsequently, while the limbs of the males straiahtcn out, those of the females become more crooked. Thus, in the 48th year of life only 8 per cent, of men, but. no fewer than 82 per cent, of women, are the unenviable pesfrcrsorj or " X lees ." Dr Frincke admits that the general physical f.tmcturr* of the two sexes is L> some extent, lesponsibk- for this disparity". but lie ascribes to it quite ?. seecndaiy influence. The decisive factors, in_ hi = opinion, are exercise a;nd dre*.--._ He found that women who, from inclination • r necec.fitv. do a, pood deal of walking, as a rule show no traces of this peculiarity, wbiift exactly in proportion a.i thev lead inactive .iryf indolent lives thoir limbs take on an inward departure from the perpendicular. Indeed, he uoes to far as to contend that the shape of the lees supple* an ipcicv of character, and enables us to say whether th-tir owner is energetic. But even move rrrolific of knock-knec.-than unexercised muscles is. in his belief, modern feminine afire. I'lose-littjii.: and heavv skiris. he says, hamper the gait, and force the raised knee inwards, so that the shape, of their wearers' limbs my.-i inevitably become contorted. He winds up his report in the Munich ' Medical Weekly with a nrophecy that lite "time wiii coin when it "will be"considered n crime to wear olose-fittinj skirts, and an imbecility to fi ! out one's days in idle luxury."