File:TheFamilyDoctorSept7 1889page25.png

Summary[edit]

CORRESPONDENCE.

--:o:--

CORSET DISCIPLINE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE FAMILY DOCTOR.

SIR,--As a medical man I must utter my protest against the compulsory wearing of stays as a discipline for young people of either sex.

I am sure tight lacing must be bad for a growing boy's health. At the same time the theory is an admirable one, and with certain modifications, a most wholesome regime for a rough, conceited lad who should be made to feel that he cannot do as he likes.

Now I venture to affirm that what I may term glove-discipline provides a sufficiently irksome and restraining power for a disobedient lad, and for the time will prevent him running riot and using his boisterous powers in unmannerly ways.

Permit me to describe a part of my school routine which I went through some years ago at a very strict establishment.

The principal was assisted by his daughter, a young lady who. when I went, had not long left a finishing school in Paris. If we incurred her wrath she often ordered us to have a spell of discipline gloves. We then had to wear a tunic with the sleeves cut away at the elbows, giving room for a pair of twelve-buttoned tight pale kid gloves to be exposed to view.

The gloves fitted us perfectly, and were carefully cleaned before we put them on.

We were obliged to keep them free from the least vestage of a stain, and this could only be done by sitting or standing quiet, or reading some book which was scrupulously clean.

The top buttons were tied with thin ribbon, and the knot sealed with a little wax, and stamped with the crest of our pretty tyrant. Woe betide the unhappy delinquent who did not keep the wax intact. If when we went to her boudoir for inspection she found we had soiled the kid, dire results overtook the culprit, for he had to hold out his palms to be slashed by a long birch rod consisting of three thin shoots bound together at the end with a piece of white kid to prevent her exquisitely delicate soft white fingers suffering any inconvenience from the friction during the energetic exercise.

As a boy of eighteen I have begged my smiling executioner for mercy, as the pain was most severe. I can vouch for the success of the glove discipline, and I am confident it is far safer than the punishment of the corset.

We dreaded it, as it put a stop to our freedom for the time, and we were in fear of soiling the kid.

As a substitute and a useful one for the dangerous stays, I recommend for rude and rough lads the discipline of the gloves. I should be much obliged if you can insert this.--Yours. &c., P. V. S.

from P. V. S.

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