STOOPING AT WORK.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1868, 19 February 1880, Page 2

STOOPING AT WORK.

The " Lancet " says:—-" The dangers which the sempstress, eipecially the young undeveloped girl, incurs by prolonged stooping over her work have been exposed by ns on more than one occasion. Every practitioner will have been able to trace cases of deviation of the spine, uterine complaints, &0., to the bending of the back and the crossing of the legs for so many hours day after day. Our object now is to record the successful attempt made by Dr. Malherbe to avoid these melancholy consequences of an industrious occupation. The new system employed is that of fixing to the edge of an ordinary table a sort of cushion on which the work can be easily fastened or spread out, and represents the sempstress' knees. A framework of the simplest description admits of the raising or lowering of this cushion, so that the work may be done either sitting or standing; but in either case the vertebral column is maintained perfectly straight, while the facility thus given to a change of position will tend to mitigate the fatigue a young person would otherwise experience. Recognising that example is more forcible than theory when waging war against common routine, Dr. Malherbe at once Bought an opportunity for making some practical experiments. He therefore introduced his contrivance at the Communal School of Nantes, and no obje=tion was raised on the part of the pupils. Two among them had a slight tendenoy to malformation, which has been to some extant rectified since the introduction of this reform in the attitude of sewing. _ Evidently the remedy to a great evil is simple, practical, and should be made the subject of more extensive experiments."