"Don't you think it strange that we never want little rooms with furniture huddled close together, except in our bodily dwellings? The Divine Architect has given us grand apartments, with all the machinery harmoniously related, and we think we improve things by putting everything into the closest possible quarters and disturbing the harmony! But the damage is not done to the heart and lungs alone. The liver is crowded out of place until it sometimes reaches clear across the abdomen and is creased with ruts from the pressure of the ribs upon it. The stomach is also pressed out of place. It belongs close up under the diaphragm, but it is crowded by the pressure down until it lies in the abdominal cavity, as low down, sometimes, as the umbilicus, six or eight inches below where it belongs." [Illustration: Showing how much space is lost by constriction of the waist.] "O, mother, that seems awful." "It is awful, my dear, because the body is created to do certain work, and to do that work well, its laws should be regarded. We would not think of interfering with the works of a watch or a piano, because they are valuable, but we do not hesitate to interfere with the more valuable organs of our bodies, and we do not even think that we are offering an insult to the Creator. "But I have not told you yet of the evil effects in the displacement of the bowels. Do you remember how many feet of intestines there are in the body?" "About twenty feet of small and about four feet of large intestines." "And how are they held in place?" "Why, I don't just remember." "The small intestines are encased in a membrane called the mesentery. It is just as if I folded this strip of cloth in the middle lengthwise and put my finger inside of the fold. The small intestines lie in the middle fold of the mesentery, and the edges of the mesentery are gathered up like a ruffle and fastened to the spine in a space of about six inches, leaving it to flare out like a very full ruffle. In this way, you see, the intestines are left free, and yet cannot tie themselves in knots as they might if but laid loosely in the abdominal cavity. [Illustration: Fig. 1.--A natural figure and a normal pose.] [Illustration: Fig. 2.--Corseted figure producing abnormal pose.] "If the waist is constricted above them, they sink down and pull on this attachment, and that often causes backache and inability to stand or walk with comfort. It may also press the reproductive organs out of place, and so cause much pain and suffering at menstruation. "I am of the opinion that women were not intended to be invalids in any degree because of their womanhood; and very likely there would be much less flow at menstrual periods if women and girls lived in accordance with Nature's laws." "But, mother, you have not told me what this blood is for. It seems as if it would not be necessary for women to go through such an experience every month."