The crusade against corsets is by no means confined to this country; even the educational authorities in America and on the continent of Europe have dealt pretty drastically with the matter. It is said, moreover, that the Queen of Portugal has brought before the ladies of her Court the evils of tight lacing, by means of radiographs. There have been other times when even laws have been made with regard to the corset, which, it appears, was first employed for a wrong purpose in mediæval times. It is said of the time of Henry III of France that the corset was no longer the simple basquine that was inoffensive enough at first.[55] The corps piqué which was endured by the fair ladies of the period was an instrument of torture. A hard solid mould into which the wearer had to be compressed, there to remain and suffer in spite of the splinters of wood that penetrated the flesh, took the skin off the waist, and made the ribs ride one over the other. Montaigne and Ambrose Paré are witnesses, and the latter must have known something about the question. It is not, perhaps, surprising that Charles IX and Henry III brought in stringent laws on the subject. We are told[56] that with Catherine de Medici's ascent to the throne the habit became compulsory. She gave her subjects no choice, and said that all women of good birth and breeding should wear corsets which would reduce their waists to the abnormal size of thirteen inches. In our country on various occasions lacing was carried to extremes, as in the time of Henry VIII. In Elizabeth's time, the forerunner of the busks was not fastened to the stays, but consisted of a piece of carved wood which was pushed down inside the bodice. (See Plate XI.) Some of the outer bodices in the times of the early Georges seem to be as hard and unyielding as if they were intended for armour. Tin stays were not unheard of in the days of the earlier colonists in America. [Illustration: WOODEN STAY BUSKS. THESE INCIDENTALLY SHOW SURVIVALS OF PRIMITIVE ORNAMENT. _From the "Reliquary," by kind permission of Messrs. Bembrose & Sons, Ltd._ _PLATE XI._] The craze for tight lacing once more made itself felt at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and not many years before the end one heard from time to time of the cruelty that was practised at high-class schools for young ladies, where the girls were made to sleep in specially tight and rigid corsets.