Many a school-girl, whose waist was originally
of a proper and healthful size, has gradually pressed the soft bones
of youth until the lower ribs that should rise and fall with every
breath, become entirely unused. Then the abdominal breathing, performed
by the lower part of the lungs, ceases; the whole system becomes reduced
in strength; the abdominal muscles that hold up the interior organs
become weak, and the upper ones gradually sink upon the lower. This
pressure of the upper interior organs upon the lower ones, by tight
dress, is increased by the weight of clothing resting on the hips and
abdomen. Corsets, as usually worn, have no support from the shoulders,
and consequently all the weight of dress resting upon or above them
presses upon the hips and abdomen, and this in such a way as to throw
out of use and thus weaken the most important supporting muscles of
the abdomen, and impede abdominal breathing.
The diaphragm is a kind of muscular floor, extending across the centre
of the body, on which the heart and lungs rest. Beneath it are the
liver, stomach, and the abdominal viscera, or intestines, which are
supported by the abdominal muscles, running upward, downward, and
crosswise.
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