WEARING BELTS.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 248, 21 March 1888, Page 3

WEARING BELTS.

Costume is no unimportant factor, not only in athletics but in everyday life also, and on the vexed question of belts, the opinion of Dr. B. W. Richardson will be listened to> with respect, and, it is to behoped, attention likewise. I give his exact words as taken from a papor read by him at the London Institution, to which my attention has been recently drawn by an English paper: — There is another and more permanent injury of this kind, however, carried out by boys and men, which consists in wearing a belt for the so called purpose of giving what is called support. Boys who are about to run or leap, put on the belt and strap it tightly, in order as they say to hold in their wind or breath. Working men who are about to lift weights or carry heavy burdens put on a belt for the same purpose, their declaration being that ifc gives support. There is not a figment of truth in this bolief. The belt impedes respiration, compresses the abdominal muscles, compresses the muscles of the back, subjecting them to unnecessary friction, and seriously impedes motion. I had a good working man in my employ who would undertake no vigorous effort until he had tightened lite belt. Once I gofe him to test what he could lift with and without the belt, and he was obliged to admit that he could do more without than with it. ... Respecting this belt for boysand men there is a word more I must say which. is of serious import. When they put on the belt for the sake of performing some feat of strength they effect dangerous mischiefCompressing the abdomen, they force during tl.e exertion the abdominal cavity downwards under pressure, giving no chance ta sesilience back again after the exertion of the shock. In this way they frequently cause hernia or rupture. I haA r e seen professionally several instances of this occurrence in boys, and amongst workmen who wear bolts this accidental disease is so> common that it is the rule rather than the exception to find it present. . . Anothei: form of constriction in dress is that produced by the garter. . . . This is one cause of varicose veins — sometimes an original cause, and always a serious impediment to recovery when, from any other reason, the enlarged or varicose vein is already present. The ligature, or band called the garter, is bad in any way, but ife is far worse when it is worn below rather than above the knee ; for the two tendons called the hamstrings receive the pressure • of a great portion of the bandage and act as bridges to the veins which pass beneath. 1 " The extracts are somewhat lengthy but tha importance of the subject justifies me. The moral is that loosely fitting elastic bell* are the only ones admissable ; those having; belts of broad and narrow webbing will bosto avoid risk by wearing them very loose. All should bear in mind that the belt is only to prevent the trousers slipping over the bip»» and not to act as supports to the abdominal [ parts.