Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Amusement, Gender, Health, Disease

    Discusses an article in the Lady's Newspaper reporting the abandonment of tight stays for looser fitting 'ceinture Suisse'. Reports Mr Punch's relish for this latest development in Parisian fashion, which will deter women from wearing crinoline. Outlines some of the debilitating illnesses suffered by women as a result of the fashion for 'small waists', including 'Bent spines and reddened noses [...] headache, giddiness, and fainting fits, and other fashionable ailments'. Later notes that 'young ladies' seem to think that 'men like a slim waist', but points out that men do, 'if it be one of Nature's moulding', and that 'much as they value good looks in a wife', men 'put a higher estimate upon good health and good temper'.