July 2002, Vol 92, No. 7 | American Journal of Public Health 1085
© 2002 American Public Health Association
The Effects of the Corset
Elizabeth Fee,
Theodore M. Brown,
Jan Lazarus and
Paul Theerman
Elizabeth Fee, Jan Lazarus, and Paul Theerman are with the History of Medicine Division, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md. Theodore M. Brown is with the Department of History and the Department of Community and Preventive Medicine, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY.
Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Elizabeth Fee, PhD, Bldg 38, Room 1E21, 8600 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20894 (e-mail: elizabeth_fee{at}nlm.nih.gov).
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INTRODUCTION
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THIS ILLUSTRATION APPEARED as a foldout in a little book, Über die Wirkungen der Schnürbrüste (On the Effects of the Corset), written by Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring.1 The essay was published in 1793 and republished in an expanded edition in 1803. Translated into several languages, it became a best-seller.2
Von Sömmerring, a physician and well-known anatomist, argued that the back-laced corset, as worn by fashionable ladies of the time, constituted a heath hazard by compressing the ribs and other internal organs and leading—he claimed—to tuberculosis, cancer, and scoliosis, or curvature of the spine. His illustration contrasts the natural shape of the female body with the artificial hourglass shape produced by a tightly laced corset. In Germany, England, and the United States, dress reformers advocated looser lacing, pantaloons or "bloomers," and clothes that allowed more natural movement. Throughout the late 19th century, however, these reformers belonged to the radical fringe of the feminist movement, and their arguments led to much merriment in the popular press. Most middle- and upper-class women continued to compete for the tiniest waists, regardless of their impact on health. In more recent years, hiatus hernias caused by overly tight girdles or corsets have been termed "Sömmerring's syndrome" in tribute to the first physician to warn of the dangers of tight lacing.3
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Source. Prints and Photographs Collection, History of Medicine Division, National Library of Medicine.
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Footnotes
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Note. Most of the Prints and Photographs Collection of the History of Medicine Division of the National Library of Medicine may be viewed through the on-line database "Images From the History of Medicine" at http://wwwihm.nlm.nih.gov/. The Web site also provides information on ordering reproductions of images. If you have a print, photograph, or other visual item that might be appropriate for this collection, please contact the History of Medicine Division.
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References
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1.
von Sömmerring ST. Über die Wirkungen der Schnürbrüste. Berlin: Neue Auflage; 1793.
2.
Schwarz GS. Society, physicians, and the corset. Bull N Y Acad Med.1979;55:551–590.[Medline]
3.
Bell JA, Bell GC. "Tight girdle" or Sömmerring's syndrome. N Engl J Med.1973;289:698.
Copyright © 2002 by the American Public Health Association
TOP
INTRODUCTION
References
