Society, Physicians, and the C O R S E T Gerhart S

551

SOCIETY, PHYSICIANS, AND THE C O R S E T GERHART S. SCHWARZ, M.D. Director of Radiology New York Eye and Ear Infirmary New York, New York

A LTHOUGH an occasional physician such as Clemenceau has become a statesman, and although major medical discoveries profoundly influenced society at large (Jenner, Pasteur, Koch, Rbntgen, Fleming, Salk, Sabin), such scientific accomplishments in no way reflect the behavior of the rank and file physician whose actions are minutely tuned to the whispers and stirrings of his environment. The attitude of the average physician probably lies somewhere between the two possible extremes of complete compliance with and defiance of society. To assess the relation of physicians to their environment, one needs to establish an indicator manifestation of society to exemplify changes in medical attitudes from social pressure. The indicator manifestation is the attitude of western civilization and its physicians toward the corset, from 1790 to the present. If one disregards the Cretan-Minoan civilization of ca. 2000-1000 B.C., one can safely state that the corset as we know it has been the hallmark of western civilization for the past 600 to 800 years. The attitude of the medical profession toward this garment varied greatly, and, for analysis, our inquiry will start with the end of the 18th and extend beyond the middle of the 20th century. Toward the end of the 18th century, the corset was so much a part of fashion and culture that its wearers, male or female, wasted very little critical thought on it. It was an instrument of esthetic display and invited few negative comments. It was worn by aristocrats, the burgeoning middle class and even by nuns in convents. It was often proudly displayed by its wearer because it was a visible outer garment at that time. In itself it was .an object of beauty and ornamentation, and its display was part of social etiquette. A bridegroom might visit his bride-to-be for breakfast in her home and watch her being laced up by her maid (Figure 1). Social customs and the visibility of the corset were intimately intertwined. Address for reprint requests: 310 East 14th Street, New York, N.Y. 10003.

Vol. 55, No. 6 June 1979 552 G. S. SCHWARZ

Fig. 1. Morning visit to his fiancee. Engraving by N. Ponce, 1771. To watch her as she was being laced was considered a proper social custom.

Bull. N.Y. Acad. Med. THE CORSET 553 l~~~~~~~~TECRE 5

Some 18th century physicians condemned tight lacing, at times with tongue in cheek, often making fun of women's vanity (their diatribes rarely included men) and blamed indiscriminately nearly every female disease on the corset, so that very few serious physicians or laymen believed them. More thoughtful physicians of that period accepted the corset without comment. By and large, the medical profession, just as was society, was not adverse to the corset. The famous French orthopedist, Nicolas de Bois-Regard Andry (1658-1742), suggested in 1743 that every boy and girl should be put in corsets from the fifth year of life, and believed that the corset would improve the entire human race.1 An exception to the rule was Jean Jaques Rousseau (1712-1778), who declared the corset "an enemy of mankind." He died insane, suffering from persecution mania. Although his writings are highly regarded as the seed of the French Revolution, which he did not live to see, one must take some of his statements cautiously. The aftermath of the French Revolution and the influence of Napoleon's quest for a "free Europe" brought about the decline of this garment, or so it seemed. Initially, the French Revolution did not combat the corset, and fashion plates of what the revolutionary woman should wear still showed her tightly laced. Napoleon, however, called this garment "the implement of detestable coquetry which not only betrays a frivolous bent but forecasts the decline of humanity."2 Yet, his paramours were tightly laced and the advertisement of an auction of Josephine's clothes (after her death) lists 300 corsets from her wardrobe. The true psychological impetus of the French Revolution was toward nationalism. Napoleon raised the first people's army, and other European countries would much later follow his example. The germ of nationalism settled on fertile ground in Germany, and Germany became the implacable enemy of the corset. The coalition between freedom and nationalism which took shape in Germany in the beginning of the 19th century is the clue to the almost hysterical hostility of German physicians toward the corset at that time. The first major blow against the corset came from the pen of a German physician at a time when its popularity had waned. In 1788 Samuel Thomas von Soemmerring wrote a prize-winning essay about the dangers of the corset. The prize was sponsored by Christian Gotthilf Salzmann, director of a Protestant boys school in Schnepfenthal near Gotha, Ger- many. Salzmann was a pedagogue, known for his book, Instruction for an Unreasonable but Fashionable Education of Children. This tongue-in-

Vol. 55, No. 6 June 1979 55554 G..SS. SCHWARZCWR

Fig. 2. Frontispiece of Soemmerring's prize-winning essay on the effect of corsets, 2nd ed. Berlin, 1793.

Bull. N.Y. Acad. Med. THE CORSET 555 -~~~~~~~~TECRE 5 cheek work probably explains why he donated a prize for the best essay combating the corset. The first two editions of Soemmerring's essay, published in 1788 and 1793,3 went largely unobserved. But his third edition of 1802, "augmented by several new illustrations," became a best seller. Translated into several foreign languages, it has remained the cornerstone of medical folly, so characteristic of the first half of the 19th century (Figure 2). It was only a few years until the corset returned, and this return prepared fertile ground for its diatribe. When the corset reappeared, it had become an undergarment! It was invisible to superficial view and it seemed doubly important, therefore, to eradicate the enemy who had re-established his domain over mankind by deception. It also gave physicians an opportunity to concern themselves with what women wore beneath their dresses, in the manner of dress designers, and several German physicians indeed began to design "reform" dresses. But, to return to Soemmerring, who railed against the custom of putting boys into corsets and regretted that the best looking ones, whom parental fondness prepared for a career in the army, had to suffer the consequences of tight lacing the rest of their lives. His main objection to the corset was his belief that it caused tuberculosis, cancer, and scoliosis. He arrived at his conclusion from autopsies, for he was primarily an anatomist and pathologist. It is obvious that he was misled by his antifetishistic views. He confused post hoc with propter hoc. The tubercle bacillus had not yet been discovered and, because more women than men died of tuberculosis between the ages of 15 and 45 (many of them during pregnancy), he concluded that the corset was responsible for it. Similarly, he found more scoliosis among women and attributed this to their clothing (Figure 3). (He could not have known that nowadays, when the corset has nearly disappeared, idiopathic scoliosis is still eight times as prevalent among girls as boys.) His statistical acumen was also warped by his Teutonic outlook on life, reflecting rising Germanic nationalism under Napoleonic rule. Thus, he wrote that he regretted to see the result of the barbaric custom of deliberately deforming the human body. The atrocity he encountered sometimes on his autopsy table consisted of females whose waistlines were no larger than the circumference of their heads. In reality this can be normal, at least for some Anglo-Saxons.4 Soemmerring's prejudice attributed a natural phenomenon to the artifi- ciality of the hated corset. That his conclusions were emotionally con-

Vol. 55, No. 6 June 1979 556 G. S. SCHWARZ

Fig. 3. Soemmerring's attempt at explaining the cause of scoliosis. The corset is made responsible for it.3

Bull. N.Y. Acad. Med. 557 THE CORSET 557 ditioned or flavored also becomes apparent through his failure to ascribe to the corset the only disease which has withstood the test of time, hiatus hernia. Soemmerring discovered this condition, yet when it came to his own discovery he disregarded the corset as etiology. The change in attitude from adulation to condemnation of the corset which took place in Germany early in the 19th century on biologic grounds is best exemplified by the conversion of Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Ger- many's greatest spirit, who saw the corset as an attractive token of erotic byplay when he was young. In his Faust, Part 1, he has Mephisto explain the good life of physicians: And casting burning side-long glances He clasps her swelling hips to see If tightly laced her corsets be.5 (Translation by Bayard Taylor) But much later, in his last years of life, in Faust, Part 1I, second Walpurgis night, he had the same Mephisto exclaim: How wholly worthless is the race With body corsetted and painted face.6 (Translation by Bayard Taylor) The term "race" here applies to a specific event in the plot of the play and is open to varied interpretations. In the original, the German term Volk is used. He employed the word race (German: Rasse) in an unmistakeable sense, however, at about the same period in his life elsewhere. In his Conversations with Eckermann7 he stated in 1827: "I am against all artificialities, such as stunting the growth of trees, cutting the mane of horses and deforming the bodies of maidens with corsets. The main thing is that the race must remain pure!" Most probably Goethe referred to the human race in general. His concept was a biologic-medical one. This was decidedly not the case with his younger contemporary Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811), whose negative attitude toward the corset stressed ethnic purity as early as 1810. Goethe's concern for health was stimulated by his private physician, Christoph W. Hufeland (1762-1836), a famous naturopath. In his declin- ing years he was totally dependent upon Hufeland for his daily comfort. Any naturopath is likely to condemn the corset and it is reasonable to assume that Goethe's change of mind was influenced by this physician. A picture now emerges in which German naturopathy and nationalism unite in war against the corset. One of the strongest examples of this

Vol. 55, No. 6 June 1979 G. S. SCHWARZ 558 sentiment is an epigram by a German physician, Justinus Kerner (1786- 1862), who had been a freedom fighter against Napoleon and had risked his life on the battlefield. He wrote a poem which is about the strongest invective against the corset ever made in the name of nationalism. Vying with the men in fervor You must hate the Corsican, I vow. Hate your corsets also, therefore And set free your body now. Every pressure is a chain Every foreign custom is your shame. Throw your corsets with disdain After the Corsican, German Dame.8 To blame Napoleon for Germany's corsets was, of course, a nationalistic aberration. Justinus Kerner settled down to a comfortable practice of medicine until cataracts made it impossible for him to continue his practice. One might assume, therefore, that his "Ode to the German Woman" was eventually forgotten. This, however, was not to be the case. More than 100 years later it reared its head again. In 1935 the 31st yearbook of the German Justinus Kerner Society reprinted this poem. It was followed by the comment: "At the present time, when danger of a return of the corset assumes ever waxing dimensions, it is of special interest that a poet of the olden days, who had not only been a poet but also a physician, preached against this unhealthy garment. Among several poems of Kerner can be found an Epigram against the corset. This poem is all the more of interest in that it also contains a barb against Napoleon by using a play on words alligning the word Corsican with corset, etc."8 An event highlighting the sentiment of German society in the first half of the 19th century occurred in 1817: the Wartburg celebration. On the occasion of the 300th anniversary of Luther's Reformation, 500 students of 12 Pan-Germanic fraternities congregated at the Wartburg in Thuringia, a castle of great historical significance, and burned several hated objects; among them was a corset (Figure 4), a man's Schnurleib.9 When this object was committed to the flames, the students chanted the following verse: A corset girds with great elan The waist of every proud Uhlan So that when he in battle stands His heart won't fall into his pants.9

Bull. N.Y. Acad. Med. THE CORSET 559 THE CORSET

Fig. 4. The burning of the corset at the Wartburg. German students also burned a swaggerstick, a queue, and a variety of books on that occasion, October 8, 1817. Drawing by Ludwig Burger.9

At the end of this celebration a unified pan-Germanic Republic was proclaimed. Among the onlookers was a figure who would soon emerge as one of the major driving forces of German nationalism: father of gymnastics Friedrich Jahn (1778-1852). He had become the founder of the Ger- man gymnastics movement, which grew quickly into a paramilitary force. When Germany invaded France in 1871 the regular army was accom- panied by 15,000 volunteers recruited from the gymnastics movement. Jahn, theologian, philologist and gymnast, did not live to see this event, which culminated in the defeat of France and the unification of Germany in 1872. As behooves every gymnastics teacher, Friedrich Ludwig Jahn was an implacable enemy of the corset. In his book, Deutsche Turnkunst, he condemns the corset, but his object of scorn was mainly the male corset,

Vol. 55, No. 6 June 1979 560 G. S. SCHWARZ 56l.S CWR and he condemned many of these garments as foreign to boot. The main targets of his ire were the French "ceinture-corsets," which deprived men of their capacity to utilize their bodies fully. He showed less interest in what women wore at the time he founded his movement. Women were not yet drafted into the gymnastic movement. However, his assistant and successor, Spiess, did organize women into gymnastics societies, too. Adolf Spiess (1810-1858) founded several antilacing societies, a Ger- man Association for the establishment of a reform dress, and included women wherever he could in his endeavors. The pan-Germanic gymnastics movement grew, but the decisive clue that nationalism was at the root of his ideas was his sponsorship of the Watch on the Rhine. He commis- sioned Max Schneckenburger to write a poem that would best symbolize German national aspirations. The Watch on the Rhine appeared first in the Tuttlinger Grenzbote,* a small country newspaper, in 1840. Not until set to music by Karl Wilhelm in 1854 did it become the rallying cry of the paramilitary pan-Germanic Gymnastics Association. Eventually it became a secondary national anthem. These events underscore that hostility toward the corset was a manifestation of nationalism and that physicians of the first half of the 19th century merely echoed the sentiment of the society in which they lived. Hygiene was the pretext, not the motive, which made them combat the corset. Three more lay people must be mentioned to complete the picture of the nationalistic fervor of society in the first half of the 19th century. The Brothers Grimm-Jakob Ludwig (1785-1863) and Wilhelm Carl (1786-1859)-originated the strongest antifetishistic message condemning the corset when they collected (German) fairy tales and rewrote them in modern language. Their story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs contains a scene in which the stepmother tries to kill Snow White by lacing her up too tightly. Attempted murder by means of a corset! This story is instilled into all German children, but Walt Disney left this part out of his movie. Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811), mentioned earlier, a brilliant Prussian playwright who ended his own life, had one of his plays, The Kaethchen von Heilbronn, culminate in a scene in which an evil woman is unmasked. Her "crime" consisted of using such beauty aids as false hair, rouge, false teeth, and-last but not least-a corset, which illustrated the deceptive *Tuttlingen, small town at the border between Baden and Wuertemberg, population at present 17,000. Grenzbote: German for border herald.

Bull. N.Y. Acad. Med. THE CORSET 561

October 21, 389 SOCIETY. 194S MADAME DOWDING, 8 a t0, CHARING CROSS ROAD Opposite the Natioqal Callery Trafalgar Square), tablcs Catior, Corectcre. anb Court Drcssmalwer.

ilk iiiwy pii.. Silkt C~uiii. S..' Ski- .W '.0114 T

1OS- . Id E;ansm. Camu may ts mryesats fs. meame 000tr15 ,hsabswa4msbas?t**afi..ebd~s..aee.aaaO.Caus.ia..iutir*^,....a.AMeemsiigdi 6o:. konrfttt fair .tcrTeu. 3feralstu-&Wt Msu ter tnoli0ee ?smilifpatrfri ...Sociev"Veon IS99

Fig. 5. The corset as an instrument of class distinction in England at the turn of the century. Advertisement in Society, an upper-class magazine catering to British society, designed to appeal to both sexes. October 21, 1899.

Vol. 55, No. 6 June 1979 562 G. S. SCHWARZ 56 G. S.SHWR means by which she aspired to marry the noble count. The condemnation of her accouterments is based on nationalistic appeal. Her hair had come from France, her rouge from Hungary, and her corset from Sweden. "She is a mosaic composed of four countries," stated the dialogue before explaining the foreign origin of her artifices. Because she turned out to be, thereby, only one-quarter German (her false teeth came from Munich) she had to relinquish her place to a genuinely 100% German maiden, Kaeth- chen, the true heroine in the plot. The concept of ethnic purity versus racial mixture is obvious here.10 The play has remained in the repertory of many German theaters until today, and is generally conceded to be the most popular German play of national appeal. In academic literary circles it is still regarded as the most Germanic of all German plays. The second half of the 19th century saw incisive changes in the texture of European society. The bourgeoisie developed into a social force, acquired enough political power to consider itself privileged, and separated itself from the nationalistic fervor of the lower classes. In the first half of the 19th century nationalism aligned itself with liberalism because both opposed a monarchy neither national nor liberal. In its second half the climate changed. The bourgeois, the nouveaux riche, became dominant as a proud patrician, often outranking in wealth the land-owning aristocrats, whom he envied mostly for their genealogical trees. Primness, prudery, pride, arrogance, aloofness, selectivity in social contacts and marriage, display of opulence and wealth became his main characteristics (Figures 5 and 6). The corset was now embraced with enthusiasm by anyone who wanted to matter. The coquettish playfulness of the Biedermeier period and Met- ternich belonged to the past. The laboring class became potential revolu- tionaries, a threat to the other two classes that mattered. The corset became a symbol of the privileged class. The Victorian era reached its first plateau. Victorianism spread from England to France and to Austria and all her possessions. Germany was initially exempted because she was still in the throes of "I~beral" nationalism and her struggle for unification of the numerous principalities. However, somewhat belatedly, after her war against France had been won and she received five billion gold francs in reparations, nothing could stop the growth and affluence of her middle class. 1872 thus marked the watershed of her social climate. Similarly, the United States, after the conclusion of the Civil War, entered a period of

Bull. N.Y. Acad. Med. THE CORSET 563 THE CORSET 563~~~~~~~~~

P-O-W-E-R ElASTIC holds somach flat and firm . . . trims inches off waist, hips in complete comfort. Gives you in- stint back support as it relieves fatigue. Never slides or rides. Won't bag or sag. bRsAlnow 2 for slO White only

s.*~~~'~~ r SIZE AT WAIST SMALL 3032. MEDIUM 3436 Sty? 141910 V RILARGELARE 30-404640ILARGE 42-44;. 26"1waistOhmr2uSize ___ lMail Coupon to: MAGIC MOLD, lwe. Dept. 29% 210 Hansa Ave., P.O. Box 3000, Freeport; N.Y. 11520 Q PREPAID: I enclose full payment plus STYLE MANY WAIST SIZE PRIC as5 for delivery & handling. (Sa.n __ NIOW _ Pheoe for FAST SERVICE C.O.D. charge.) deposit. MONDAY thru FRIDAY C|COcD.(Minimumtenclose$2 perSHIS.Sitem.) I'll pay X N.T.S. SALES TAX 516-8681 800 postman plus postage and handling POST & HANOLINC TOTAL-. I 212-526-7440 1 mF _ ------, | REtAIL SAIES-210 HANSE AVE ADDRIESS -.-.--.__-_-,_-_-_-_---_--_-_-_--_--______---_-_---_._-_-_--,_-_-_-_-_-__ _| N.Y. FREEPORT. 1lh20 I CITY STATE ZIP -- .It10 RstaatrinPl fer Fel ColonS of Pwdfoo Prce loopoo). PrW of rone ouy be romed =.

Fig. 6. Current American advertisement addressing itself to both sexes on a more democrat- ic level. National Enquirer, April 18, 1978. Reproduced by permission from Magic Mold, Inc. 1978 Magic Mold. All rights reserved. Reprint courtesy of the National Enquirer.

Vol. 55, No. 6 June 1979 564 G. S. SCHWARZ unparalleled prosperity. Her reconstruction period thus closely resembled the Gruender period in Germany. In the last decade of the 19th century, usually categorized as the "gay nineties," Victorianism covered western civilization from the western border of Russia to the Pacific coast of the United States. The corset was its major vehicle. The corset now changed its function and symbolism. It became the bastion and bulwark of the burgeoisie; it shed its c6lors and frills and, whenever possible, was made only in white. Chastity was now defended by the corset, and women became unapproachable to avoid social ostra- cism. This function of the corset could not be depended on, however, according to Cornelia Otis Skinner.11 She quoted an 1894 copy of Le Rire: "The defense of virtue by the corset seems easily overcome concluding from the number of discarded stays found on park benches and on seats of fiacres." This did not alter the fact that this article of dress had become a social prerequisite. Its function as a guardian of virtue was the accepted pretext for its existence. Because it remained an undergarment although the times necessitated an open declaration of one's corseted state, display of the narrowest wasp waist became an absolute necessity and a yardstick of social belonging. The corset, once the instrument of coquetry, had now become the tool of utmost social propriety. From Queen Victoria to the chamber maid, nearly every woman (and many a man) wore one. To illustrate its social necessity, a letter from a graduate of a British girl's school is herewith reproduced. It was published in 1906, and it belongs to the Edwardian age. Nevertheless, it is quite consistent with the climate which prevailed in an upper class girls' boarding school in the late 19th century.12 ... though no words were ever spoken on behalf of this theme, we imagined that society depended on the size of the waistline. Nancy, the domestic who fixed the fireplaces in the morning wore no corsets and clearly was a robust child of the country, a farmer's daughter most likely. The maids who assisted us with the lacing in the morning were laced themselves, but would never dare compete with us. Next were the outside teachers, commoners who came to our school for a few hours in the day and depended on the reward of their labours. They were followed by the students who in turn were outdone by the two under-mistresses. Finally, came Lady F., an imposing appearance whose statuesque bearing was accented by an incredibly slender waist which we all admired. My greatest desire was to be like her, but I despaired of ever reaching such a degree of refinement. Belonging to the elite circle around Lady F., I was nevertheless outshone by Rebecca, whose 17-inch waist I could not achieve

Bull. N.Y. Acad. Med. THE CORSET 565 -~~~~~~~TECRE 6

because of my size and nature. I had to satisfy myself with 18 inches but being tall this was not surprising. Nobody could approach Lady F.'s measurement, we were certain. But we were all convinced that the slenderest waist was being carried by her Majesty, our gracious Queen. We all hoped that perhaps some day after we had left our establishment we would be almost like her. Remarks of the writer's grandmother, who attended an exclusive girls' boarding school in Dresden, 1874-1879, seem to corroborate this letter. Austria went even a step further by forcing boys into corsets in upper- class boarding schools. A letter by an Englishman who attended such a school is illustrative. It appeared in the November 1867 issue of The Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine:'3'14

. From personal experience, I beg to express a decided and unqualified approval of corsets. I was early sent to school in Austria, where lacing was not considered ridiculous in a gentleman as in England, and I objected in a thor- oughly English way. A sturdy Maedchen was stoically deaf to my remonstrances, and speedily laced me up tightly in a fashionable Viennese Corset.... After a few months of discomfort he began to like it however: "It is from no feeling of vanity that I have ever since continued to wear them for, not caring to incur ridicule, I take good care that my dress shall not betray me.... " The fact that this school did not make boys effeminate was revealed in the March 1868 issue of the same magazine.15 The social pressures which enforced the wearing of corsets in this country were best expressed by Consuelo Vanderbilt in her autobiog- raphy,16 when she described her sojourn at the seashore in Newport (circa 1898): My dresses had high, tight, whalebone collars. A corset laced my waist to the 18 inches fashion decreed. An enormous hat adorned with flowers, feathers and ribbons was fastened to my hair with long steel pins and a veil covered my face. Tight gloves pinched my hands and I carried a parasol. Thus attired, I went to Bailey's Beach for a morning bathe.... Needless to add that I was never taught to swim. The corset became so entrenched in western society that not wearing one became indecent and occasionally came in conflict with the law! In 1904 women were arrested in Berlin for shopping in an uncorseted state. Ger- many's satyrical magazine Simplicissimus lampooned this event by printing a cartoon depicting women being forced by Prussian policemen into corsets on the street, in the presence of onlookers (Figure 7). In this climate the average physician could not help but endorse the

Vol. 55, No. 6 June 1979 566 G. S. SCHWARZ 566 G. S. SCHWARZ~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fig. 7. Cartoon by Thomas Theodor Heine which appeared in Simplicissimus, Munich, 1904. Police are depicted as forcing women into corsets.

Bull. N.Y. Acad. Med. THE CORSET 567 THECORSET 567~~ corset. In his office his female patients rarely disrobed beyond doffing their outer dress. A contemporary cartoon depicts a physician of fashion placing his stethoscope wherever he found a spot on her body which was not covered by her corset (Figure 8). Undressing and redressing would have been too time-consuming had women shed their corsets in their doctor's office. The corseted patient became a way of life for the average physician. A copy of a picture hung in Sigmund Freud's apartment showing Professor Jean Martin Charcot (1825-1893) presenting a case before his students in the Salpetriere of Paris. The patient was a woman disrobed to her corset, but no further. To deprive a woman of her corset would have been regarded as unnecessarily humiliating (Figure 9). Cogent scientific reasons also ended the war of doctors against the corset: childbed fever was banished and with it the most potent cause of women's death. Women began to outlive men as was shown in 1871 by the vital statistics of the state of Massachusetts. Because this occurred at the height of the tight lacing custom, the corset could no longer be regarded the "killer of women" as it had been called by Soemmerring. Eleven years later the tubercle bacillus was discovered and the disease it caused could no longer be blamed on the corset. One disease after another found an explanation which was unrelated to the corset. Breast cancer occurred even after corsets were redesigned to leave the breasts uncompressed. In such a climate most prominent physicians reversed their stand. Physicians in Austria, England, France, and the United States began to write books and papers favoring the wearing of corsets and extolling their virtues. There remained, however, one pocket of resistance: Germany. Although the rank-and-file physician of Germany followed his col- leagues in other countries, the German professor's all-powerful pen continued its war against his object of hate. German universities were ex- traterritorial, and a German professor was totally immune to social or legal pressure.1 He could neither be prosecuted nor deposed for anything he might teach. The German professor thus never really joined the bourgeois class nor did he endorse it. He remained aloof, whether nationalist, semisocialist, racist, or humanitarian. He totally opposed the corset and all it stood for. These sentiments seem incompatible and contradictory nowadays, but prior to the turn of the century nationalism, socialism,18 and liberalism were birds of a feather. The German professor was thus a figure

Vol. 55, No. 6 June 1979 568 G. S. SCHWARZ 568

_ n _: ~ a *'- r -- A . Fig. 8. The physician of fashion. Cartoon of 1906. The physician has placed a Laennec wooden stethoscope between his left ear and the patient's back.

Bull. N.Y. Acad. Med. THE CORSET 569 living in his own world until Emperor Wilhelm 1I declared war in 1914. This resolved his psychological impasse, and he could now join the bourgeoisie with a free mind in a nationalistic war which reconciled him to the once despised civilian establishment. Another motivation for physicians of professorial rank to blame many diseases and unexplained medical conditions on the corset was a desire to appear all-knowing and all-curing. The professorial aura was so dazzling in the 19th and early 20th centuries that physicians who had reached this coveted academic rank could not admit ignorance of any facet of life. Society wanted it that way. It was opportune rather to make the patient guilty for having caused his or her own disease through faulty dress than to confess that medical science had not yet solved the patient's problem. Moreover, by doing so he was excused from curing the condition with which he was confronted becasue it was a foregone conclusion that hardly any woman would follow his prescription to cast off her corsets. The social consequences would have been worse for her than the disease. Germany had no monopoly on dress reformers and critics of the corset. What distinguished her from other countries was that her dress reformers were mostly male, physicians, and at time university professors. In most other western countries it was almost axiomatic that dress reformers be female, while dress designers were male. Even the leading corsetiers were men. 19,32 While in other countries the physician hostile to the corset merely wrote or lectured aginst the custom of tight lacing, his German counterpart often fought it by deeds. He organized numerous societies for reform of female dress, and finally in 1907 united them into the German Federation for Improvement of Women's Clothing (Deutscher Verbandffur Verbesserung der Frauenkleidung).20 One of these organizers, Dr. Karl Spener,21 also designed reform under- garments (see Figure 10) and founded the Journal Neue Frauenkleidung und Frauenkultur (Karlsruhe, G. Braun), devoted to dress reform. In general, the typical, militant German physician dress reformer designed and produced reform underwear and outerwear for women. He set up showings of his garments in various German cities, using professional models. He arranged exhibits of reform dresses in museums and organized "international" congresses which were convened mostly in Germany. He had his models photographed by experts and distributed high-quality fashion plates of reform dresses to magazines and encyclopedias. In 1904

Vol. 55, No. 6 June 1979 57057 G..SS. SCHWARZCWR

Fig. 9. Professor Charcot demonstrating a case of hystera at the Salpetriere, 1887. One of the students is said to be the young Dr. Freud. The woman patient is only partially disrobed. Her corset remained part of her attire. Oil painting by Andre Brouillet. Original in the Musee de Nice.61

Professor Dr. Christian H. Stratz proposed that the reform of female dress be an officially recognized branch of Rassenhygiene (racial hygiene). A German book on fashion,20 referring to the German scene around the turn of the century, candidly stated that the unhealthy effect of female fashions had become geradezu ein Lieblingsstudium der Aerzte, a pet study project of physicians. To enumerate all the anticorset publications that emanated from German medical academia would require too much space. Only a few can be mentioned here. The chairmen of the departments of pathology of the Universities of Kiel, Erlangen, and Wirzburg induced many graduating medical students to devote their obligatory doctors' theses to tight lacing and its adverse effects. Thus, a number of doctoral theses emerged from these institutions, each describing an adverse effect of the corset as seen on the autopsy table.

Bull. N.Y. Acad. Med. 571 THE CORSET 571

J .:n

Fig. 10. Dr. Karl Spener's reform underwear, 1907. Design reminiscent of the American Ferris waist.2'

These dissertations appeared almost yearly between 1886 and 1894.2224 Each, with two exceptions, is a single case report. The first, written by Richard Buck,25 is of special interest, and describes the cadaver of a man who had worn a corset most of his life to control an umbilical hernia. He constricted his abdomen so tightly that his liver was almost cut in two. Its greater part lay above the waistline, while a tongue-shaped process of the liver extended into the pelvis, connected to the main body of the liver merely by a narrow isthmus. The paper implied that the man died from this, but actually Mr. Buck had probably discovered an accessory lobe of the liver, a normal anatomic variant, later named after the surgeon

Vol. 55, No. 6 June 1979 57257 G. S.S.SWRSCHWARZ

Fig. 11. Dr. N. Burger's false corset front, intended to serve as substitute for a real corset. Muenchner Medizinische Wochenschrift, September 5, 1899.28

Riedel.26 Had Buck not catered to the nationalistic, antifetishistic emotions of his chief, he might have been honored for having discovered "Buck's lobe." A doctoral thesis from the pathology department of the University of Erlangen in 1913 was a more elaborate statistical study of the incidence of gastric ulcer found during 3,891 autopsies on adults between 1895 and 1910 and its correlation to tight lacing.27 Corset liver was found in only 16 men, but in 220 women. This disproportion is attributed to the social class of the men who came to autopsy and though the correlation of tight lacing to gastric ulcers is not convincing by modern standards, the corset is condemned. The chief, Professor Heller, had published a paper on this subject and with missionary zeal persuaded a number of medical students to work on this problem. One of the most curious anticorset papers appeared in the Muenchner Medizinische Wochenschrift on September 5, 1899.28 Here Dr. H. Burger described a variety of pseudocorsets which he had designed and manufac- tured. Because women could not be talked out of wearing corsets, he devised a garment which consisted of two leather belts that held a false corset front in place. To all appearances, a woman so attired looked as if she wore a corset (Figure 11) while actually she was only minimally girded. Through this construction Dr. Burger had done Mark Twain one

Bull. N.Y. Acad. Med. THE CORSET 573 -~~~~~~~~H COST 7

Fig. 12. Dr. J. Thiersch's corset-resistance meter. Deutsches Archiv fuer klinische Medi- zin, 1900.29 better. This great literary wit once stated that "the corset is an absolute necessity because it is our only reliable false front." Dr. Burger succeeded in constructing a doubly false front, and is an excellent example of a physician who yields to social pressure without abandoning his convic- tions. Finally, a German physician, Justus Thiersch, devised several instru- ments (Figure 12) to measure the pressure exerted by corsets upon the human body. He published his results in 1900, in a prestigious German medical journal, measurements later corroborated in the United States.29 He differed, however, from his American colleague and successor by his emotionally colored conclusions that the corset... is the cause of perma- nent damage to thorax and abdomen, and that all efforts to prevent such damage by an appropriate reform in dress are to be supported with the utmost urgency. His plea for rapid introduction of dress reform echoed the pocket of resistance mentioned before. Toward the end of the 19th century the voices

Vol. 55, No. 6 June 1979 574 G. S. SCHWARZ 57 .S CWR

of anticorsetism within the German resistance pocket became more vehe- ment by aligning themselves with the call for racial purity. Many vocifer- ous enemies of the corset who continued their fight far into the 20th century were rewarded by the Hitler regime with high positions within the Nazi hierarchy. One of the best known was Paul Schultze-Naumburg, who instituted a reform dress frequently mentioned in literature. He was professor of architecture at the University of Berlin before World War 1, and was made director of the Weimar State Academy of Art on the request of Alfred Rosenberg, official theoretician of the Nazi movement, and later was placed in charge of all German art to eliminate the last vestiges of artistic degeneration from Germany.3" Many others published pamphlets, books, and periodicals excoriating and condemning the corset while extolling the virtues of a healthy, purely Germanic super-race. The year 1905 brought the issue of a magazine entitled Ostara: Library for Blondes and Supporters of Male Rights.31 Its editor, Lanz von Liebensfels, eventually became a rabid racial purist. Sentiment for racial purity extolled the virtues of only one human race, namely, the Germans, although some authors widened their concept to all Nordic races so long as they were blonde and blue-eyed. The call for cultivation of a superior physique, untrammeled by the pernicious deformities visited upon it by the hated corset, rose to a strident clamor. The most hysterical battle cry of the war against the corset came in 1929 from a German woman whose diatribe against the corset appeared when the object of her scorn had nearly disappeared. It was a book by Dorothea G. Schumacher, Woman's Dress and Degeneration of a Thousand Years.32 The history of the corset narrated in this book tried to prove that it systematically led to degeneration of the human race, exerting its evil influence upon mankind for 1,000 years. Because women were tightly laced during most of pregnancy, every boy and girl born in the past millenium had been deformed in utero. This prenatal trauma warped the mind of mankind and nothing valuable had been achieved by society during the past 1,000 years. Moreover, the race has been ruined by chlorosis, which "can only be cured by an energetic cut through the corset."33 To cultivate a healthy race capable of utilizing its potential, society had to remain free of corsets and other restrictive garments for several generations. Only then would a true super-race emerge. Germany stood at the threshold of such a possibility. The lady was highly educated and described not without charm some of

Bull. N.Y. Acad. Med. THE CORSET 575 THE CORSET 575~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ the historical episodes in which the corset played a role. However, her hate got the better of her in one instance in which she dared something few Germans of whatever persuasion would hazard: she attacked Goethe. Discussing the return of the corset about 1815, she regretted that neither Kant nor Goethe put a stop to it. "...When I compare Jahn [i.e., the father of gymnastics Friedrich Jahn] with Goethe, I regret that there were not ten Jahns to oppose the hypertrophic intellectualism of Goethe....' At last it was out. In Ms. Schumacher's mind, Koerperkultur, the fad of cultivating the body, was the antipode of intellectualism. Toward the end of her book another statement draws attention: "Perhaps beautiful people will soon be ashamed of wearing clothes." Such an impassioned plea and such ardent refutation of the corset was uncommon before World War I. However, in the late 1920s and early 1930s the pocket of resistance was no longer encircled by a solid bourgeoisie. The dam which hemmed it in had developed deep fissures. Nazism was on the horizon and the shrill voices of condemnation were angling for high positions in the coming Nazi society. Ms. Schumacher may well have become a Reichsjugendfuhrerin under Hitler four years after the publication of her book. From the Reverend Saltzmann, who offered a prize for the best anticorset essay in 1788, via Soemmerring's winning the award, via the burning of the corset by pan-Germanic student fraternities in 1817, via Justinus Kerner with his epigram, via Spiess' subsidy of the Watch on the Rhine, via Schultze-Naumburg and many others who designed reform dresses, via many a German professor, to Ms. Schumacher of 1929 extended a straight line, culminating in the Hitler regime and World War A1.34 When the indented waist returned briefly during the 1950s it was perhaps a subconscious reaction to all that had happened in the two decades from 1930 to 1950. It is now necessary to investigate the forces which kept the pocket of resistance well encircled and mainly confined to a single country, Ger- many. Within Germany not only the bourgeoisie and the physician of fashion held the fire in check, but in addition a man who might be considered the most American of all Germans: Gustav Jaeger, M.D.,3 professor of zoology and physiology. Starting in 1878 he became a prolific writer extolling the virtues of woolen underwear for men and women. Wool, he argued, absorbs bodily secretions better than any other fabric. In particular, it absorbs also "(sexual evaporations" (geschlechtliche Aus-

Vol. 55, No. 6 June 1979 576 G. S. SCHWARZ 57 G.S CWR JAEGER. ~BELTED| Fo~tCORSET.

The "PAULINE" is the Jaeger Belted Corset. It is the ideal corset for stout figures. ^vf, 8|tJ 8:\\*,4 1 It is moderately long in 4rf , '4_ '',*:-$ tbe waist,s« and, without the use of straps or I ~~~~~~~buckles, reduces the figure and gives the much desired straight effect by lightly !"IWO 1 iv/ distributing the pressure where it does not cause - ~~~~hurt or discomfort. ; ~~~~~~~~The,"PAULINE"' is ItA ij~lilil5 } l made of Jaeger Pure WVool material, which, being porous, maintains the skin NE" __healthy and hrm. ;l | t t . in {it; ~~~~correct inPerfectst le. Busk length 13 inches.

Write 1cw PRIC8 LIST (No. 17) containing PAU IN E," Patterns and 230 Ilutratios, Post free. LONDON-126. Regent Street, W. 456. Strand. 1 Charing Crow-, W C. 30. Stnare Street, S.W. /4 v 115, Victoria St.. S.W. 8S& 86, Cheapside, E.C. The JAEGER GOODS are sold in most An ideal Corset for stout figures. gowns. Add9Wss sent on abolication to wholesale avid Shipping Offie, , Milton Street. Load--, B.C.

Fig. 13. Ad for a Jaeger corset, 1910. Although Dr. Jaeger capitalized on the term Reformkleidung, his garments did not exclude corsets as long as they were made of wool. Perhaps this explains his success while other clothes reformers failed.

Bull. N.Y. Acad. Med. THE CORSET 577 THE CORSET duenstungen). Hence, no Victorian gentleman or lady wanted to be caught without his "Jaegers." Dr. Jaeger thus actually became a pioneer in the field of deodorizing humanity by playing on everyone's fear of offending another member of his society. He began manufacturing the clothes he advocated and they proved an immediate success, except with the Prussian Army, which rejected the all-woolen uniform he designed for outer wear. He opened subsidiaries of his company in other countries and became a millionaire. Although he called his product Reformkleidung, he did not reject the corset as long as it was made of wool (Figure 13). A 1910 ad of the British Jaeger branch extolled the virtue of Dr. Jaeger's "Pauline belted corset" with a 13-inch busk made of Jaeger pure wool that "maintains the skin healthy and firm." His career resembled that of Dr. Lucien C. Warner in the United States, who gave up medical practice to join his brother in the manufacture of corsets in 1874. Similarly, in France Dr. Josephine Ines Gaches- Sarraute wrote extolling her design of corsets and then began to manufacture them.3" Her claim that they were healthier than the models commonly worn was refuted by some physicians in the German pocket of resistance, but her product sold well and she became affluent. Another book extolling the virtues of corsets in general by "Doctor O'Followell," published in Paris in 1905,:s was such a success that a sequel in 1908"s was prefaced by M. le D'Lion, Medecin des Hopitaux de Paris. French advertisements also featured corsets designed by a Doctor Fz. Glenard. One must not suggest that these physicians were merely bribed by the corset industry to endorse a product which had acquired the reputation of being "unhealthy." The sincerity of physicians endorsing the corset is best illustrated by the following examples: England: W. Arbutnoth Lane, M.S., F.R.C.S., surgeon to Guy's Hospital and senior surgeon to the Hospital for Children, wrote an article in The Lancet, November 13, 1909, "Civilization in Relation to the Abdominal Viscera, with Remarks on the Corset.":89 He suggested that our erect position produced relaxation of the intestinal tract and led, via constipation, to autointoxication. He advocated corsets for both sexes to combat visceroptosis and intestinal stasis. Sir William Arbuthnot Lane was a world reknowned surgeon, the first to perform successful total colectomy.4" United States: In 1883 an advertisement appeared in Harper's Bazaar depicting "Dr. Scott's Electric Corset." The accompanying picture

Vol. 55, No. 6 June 1979 578 G. S. SCHWARZ

1883---New Prices!---1883. DR. SCOTT'S ELECTRIC CORSET. $1, $1.50, $2, $2.50, $3. owing to the uinprecedcnteil succe-; attelending the sale and ans of ocer $3 Electric Corset, nnd the rc)nmtant eutic valute, c-e hvRe decided to plac(! ulioe tic- demand tor Klectric Corsets ol les-,ri:'e. tut of theo s.me thleerai tbu market A HANDlS031IG LINE OF ELECTRR1(; C0 t1bk;'rT., ranging eu p)r;ce tronk $1 to ::;, erineene thetui witbin tbe reach *f all who desire thliem. They tire equaily charged w tie electro necegnetusiie, thi only in the quality oi material. The iiilier grades are made o1 extra line inglisb S .te no, 1,:1. doilerenoC being those of Iiec-er prc e ace of vorrespojueiijigly eeee.dl e1i.al'.t. All are matte oil tile lateet ejeproved Pacerisian m..1.1-, ilic.- Imparting a graceiul aLid aterRCtiVe- eiguire to tLI e we rer. By a recently iuvet teci procets 1ot benei g ir enreieg, i%,e are nrlelr-el to effr to WeIt ulic ant IAtSOLLTi. LI S-gZ~oxt PUNBREAKABLE Cecriet, Lac will guarautee ifivei, t>^~r a8si'e.Ci- eejh all eirdinleary wear. tieieg 1'Elee .1- Unbrep ka bli," the eruie Free cli shzepe, end eel better aateatriuu thee lote'. orciiiiarily t-old at tleo peice-, ticke Crc-ets ceil coine netcud1ite re erence of tIle pureleacer. They crc coi, strtecteel on ocien t;.- Pt itceiles. generaten. tell exielar't- ifig, beCIe-PiVinDg current to lice wh.ote Tyti.Their tIlerapetitec velue is uinquestitoned andt they qee ckiy cure A1iS!1. . /> in a marvelous manner, Nervous Delbclily, Spiual C'.m- I3.s g. . Y~c-i X ' t /plaints, RBleecmatiem. Paralysis, Neertebnu-s, Dc sepsia, dt .* jl-.0/ PATE7ITELV Lever anti Kidney treculcea, Ineracred Circul;ition. o0csc- and nil otlier dist csee eceeliter to c-ernteL, pai tit u- jfyt J,.J. r"DRMARK larlypnatin.thoce or seelettare hauits. They alsa bc conie, lier. of a e F.'GJSiERCO courtaeutly w rte, e ululiziteg agenta in all c: se- xceitlic ftatness or le~cttceac, by itmpartieg to the :F 'es-m re- quireda mouott ol 'otdic force. iwhiebhNaturc's lav; d n)iedas. Scientists cte dale niaking kiDown to the world ti!e ri- hebetiefcial eflects of wlhei. ilN. B.-Lach corset j~dispoutably Electro-blagnlettsm, S $ Id I h '\ R^Nw ~1rop.rl%- ilon scientifi:lily ripplied to tbe human b-,dv In ^ l,. > i tlctib enratener * and it N also affirmed by prolessioetl miel-c and Euglishstampedcoat-of-arniswetle the e1 ..8~Q<>tbat thler.o is hardly a dlisease which F~lectricitv -.n~l Ki~c- anti the name P.-L. itetisin will not benefit oc ceire, antl all medical Iileti deIilv e AIti.gFdLECoinL good d Sri t* opc practlcethe same. Amkyour owutd ayiciak d n | q.t ~vTOXLODO3. 1;'. .) DR. W. A. HAMMOND, of New York, forewhereas bydail(and nightly. w d-aje wearinge ourgeon-Generel of theasU. S.minenye C uthare ty weern,ettl and exhtlasting infene is.taste*/publitglicya a lmost miraculotls curescoming underlhnstoha good \r POSt PATe tiwic. An hyr doing goode, uevor iarm, ttere m t no shoct ladies'who h eve once hhteyENTd them se hew willor sensarioo felr inTea ring thamr s e to In imi.c oiel, Each$2.50$CorsetanaThetwolattecasent out in aiNhandsomeTaRIALbox,TIa opieordiBaretothobElectricaboe empationed,Blotery wheonbyresorte.;owiechohowertte tid mort exnausted odwteakened *onn be- andegniting doin g good dursng the oper tio-, Wut illaving pactent lth, forefthereas by daila (and1 igetly.tor rgdesiraoe), wetring our electryt Corset anordnarycP.rseon are usra wornl gentle andkxhilarmting oauenc isislcatigl and agree.bly perceptible, quickly icaempllwshion thao goodworthich theyn arekorn, Taeyaillt never earm cven in the most sensitivh lnen. Tis Lpdees who h tie oncg iend iemcsayrh r-will Mwkrno orhersm Tte pracesabare folloo $1, 1 50. $2, S2.50 an4 $3 The two latter kluds are in-odle In Plinl. Bluec, Wbite ao,)Doveo; Ibe others in Wrhite ti~d Uov,- Each Corset is sent out IN it Yand.one box, a-compaie l by a !ilver-plated compam by wbi-h the elc tr- olGly. ohr m.-gnetT'influence of HbeAorsets c -nlie ces-te. W$w0ll #end $i0her kind t anytlrepostpaioscip,d ce.l; of the price ; also add 10 coens for registratiol), to intruro asat delivery. Remit in P 0. Mloney Order, D~raft, Check, or in Currency. by Registelel Lett-r. In orwering, kindly mention this publical Ion, and state exact size or c8ornet asua11y worn * or, where the size is not knDown. take a tigilt Ineamizremeni; of the wais, over tbo linen. Thai can bo donoe with :t spiece of common strlog, which seud wi-lh your or-ler. Xake all remittances payable to1 |~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ CU^F,0. A. &4ClJo9[`, .S-1 JBrt),nvsln , W. Y. Dr- scirlsi E:Lacirtto HIvRs BRIT B-:36V jlrices $1, $1 50, $2. 2.; o and $3--ent postpaid on1 receipt of price.|

Fig. 14. American endorsement of a corset by the then surgeon-general of the United States, Dr. W. A. Hammond. Harper's Bazaar, 1883.

Bull. N.Y. Acad. Med. THE CORSET 579 THE CORSET 579- showed a very curved, fashionable waspwaist corset, and the text extolled the virtues of the merchandise displayed. It was, however, not a Dr. Scott but Dr. William A. Hammond of New York, late surgeon general of the United States, who endorsed it. A higher medical recommendation could hardly be imagined (Figure 14). The corset also found enthusiastic support among other American physicians in high political positions. Dr. Royal S. Copeland, health commissioner of New York City, wrote in 1922: "Woman's body needs the support provided by the modem corset and because of this, it is an aid to health."'41 Dr. John Dill Robertson, former health commissioner of Chicago, quoted in the March 3rd, 1922 issue of the Chicago Herald Examiner, said he found the modern corset a "splendid aid to health." American female physicians joined in praise of the corset. Alice S. Cutler, M.D., wrote in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal of 1916.42 "Two young women in my hometown thought they had to give up playing tennis...because they suffered from severe back ache and abdominal pain_.. When they were fitted to frontlaced corsets both became enthusiastic...for they could run all day.... "One of our nurses wanted to enter a dancing contest, but was afraid as she easily lost her wind. Front-laced corset gave her confidence.... She and her partner won a prize." She concluded: "I could cite cases indefinitely of the new lease of [sic] life given to women wearing properly fitted front-laced corsets". Even the Women's National Medical Association went on record in favor of corsets.43 The DesMoines (Iowa) Register of June 28th, 1914, referring to a meeting of their association in Indianapolis, reported that Dr. Louise Eastman ended a debate on corsets by admitting that she herself wore one and found in the straight front variety a "friend" who helped her preserve her figure. Nor was American academic medicine adverse to giving corsets a qualified endorsement. The prominent American gynecologist Robert L. Dickinson-nature lover and promoter of hiking-read a paper before the New York Obstetrical Society in November, 191044 on "Toleration of the Corset." He measured the pressure exerted by the corset upon various areas of the body, as Thiersch had. His conclusions differed, though. He felt that there were three classes of corsets-beneficial, neutral, and harmful-and the physician had to be alert enough to make the distinction. The average woman could not be trusted to buy the proper corset for herself. Every physician should, therefore, have Dickinson's apparatus in

Vol. 55, No. 6 June 1979 580

and

fat zecot4Pinj \\ pzessate. Fig. 15. Dr. R. L. Dickinson's apparatus for measuring corset pressure. He felt that this device should be in every physician's office.44

Bull. N.Y. Acad. Med. 581 THE CORSET

4.1

Fig. 16. British endorsement of Austrian training corset on medical grounds. (The Redres- seur corset of M. Weiss of Vienna praised by English authors: Picture from the British book, The Corset and the Crinoline, ca 1870.)48 his office to measure the corset pressure of every one of his patients. The device consisted of a blood-pressure manometer connected to an inflatable rubber pillow to be inserted between patient and corset (Figure 15). The physician thus would become the corsetier of all women. Austria45 always enjoyed the reputation of more severe tight lacing than other countries. An Englishwoman who identified herself as a retired

Vol. 55, No. 6 June 1979 58258 G..SS. SCHWARZCWR

Fig. 17. The return of the classical corset to the American high-fashion scene. Photograph taken as Vogue evacuated its Paris studio before the advancing German army, June 1940. The picture was an immediate publishing success after its arrival here in New York.;" Reproduced by permission from the Cond& Nast Publications, Inc. Photograph by Horst.

Bull. N.Y. Acad. Med. THE CORSET 583 THE~~~ COSE 583--- corsetiere wrote in 186846: "My business has taken me several times to Paris and Vienna.... it is in Vienna where there are seen the fullest developed figures and slenderest waists... All are trained to the corset very early....." Another correspondent stated in the same magazine:47 "From what has been said... Austria seems to be the stronghold of the corset. The beautiful Empress Elizabeth must have a waistline of 16 inches, judging from her jeweled sash, recently exhibited at the fair." A Vienna-made health corset was endorsed by British physicians in a book on the corset48 (Figure 16). It is therefore not surprising that Vienna Professor Dr. Adolph Lorenz, world famous orthopedic surgeon, made a statement on its behalf. He held a New York City Health Department clinic in 1922 while on a lecture tour through the United States. In an interview he stated: "All women should wear corsets.... I frequently prescribe corsets modeled after casts made of the patients under my observation.... A corset gives a woman the sense of being completely dressed and thus contributes to her peace of mind, which is beneficial."49 The timing of his remark was poor, however, because only a year later, in 1923, the stiff back-laced corset disappeared rather suddenly of its own accord. It was neither World War 1, the admonitions of physicians, nor participation of women in sports, but the period of social readjustment which followed the peace of 1919 that was responsible for its demise. By 1926, however, the garment reappeared as the modem girdle, foundation, etc. It became more elaborate and gained popularity in the 1930s. In 1940 the back-laced corset reappeared in the rarified atmosphere of American high-fashion circles. With apocalyptic irony, it had literally to be saved from the Germans. The photograph which established the revival of the classical corset in the western world was "one of the last fashion photo- graphs taken for an American fashion magazine before the Nazi occupa- tion of France." According to a current book on American fashion,50 "it was snapped by Horst at 4:00 A.M. one morning as Vogue evacuated its Paris studio" (Figure 17). It arrived safely in the United States and escaped another bonfire at the Wartburg. It came into more general accep- tance in the 1950s under the influence of Dior, then again eventually disappeared. But society and physicians had changed. Hardly any criticism emanated from the medical profession this time. In Germany the defeat of the national-racist-physical-culture-faddist movement and the availability of

Vol. 55, No. 6 June 1979 584 G. S. SCHWARZ the automobile (a car in every family), coupled with the birth of a new bourgeois class, had put an end to the anticorset faction. For the first time a book appeared there written by a paramedic favoring the corset (1953).51 The Munich woman artist, Bele Bachem, published a book in 1961 entitled Adulation of the Corset. It contained ink drawings depicting men and women in corsets in an artistic esthetic manner.52 Society and the medical profession, so it seemed, had made peace with the corset in the 1950s. However, unforeseen developments occurred thereafter which started a new war! In the 1960s American physicians published cases of the panty-girdle syndrome, i.e., swelling of legs from constriction of the thighs. In 1973 and 1974 several brief notes appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine spearheaded by the late Paul Dudley White,53 accusing girdles of causing cardiac disease and hiatus hernias. Other physicians added54-56 syncope, gastroesophageal reflux, esophagitis, infarct of the colon with death, thrombophlebitis of legs, varicose ulcers, deep vein thrombosis, and dyspnea. Two authors finally proposed, in another issue of the same journal, to name hiatus hernias caused by girdles or corsets "Soemmerring's Syn- drome.3758 History has gone full cycle; from Soemmerring in 1788 to Soemmerring in 1973, from Schnepfenthal to Boston. One hundred and eighty-five years of medical tug-of-war, a mirror of society and its physicians. Thus, a new anticorset resistance pocket has established itself in the United States. Its cause is not racism, physical culture faddism, nor nationalism, as was the case in Germany. Recent developments in Ameri- can society prompted this change in sentiment of physicians: government bureaucracies, industries producing potentially harmful chemicals or foods, consumer-oriented organizations, and the malpractice-suit climate have driven today's American physician into a stance which superficially re- sembles that once taken by his German colleague. Although the individual factors leading to this development differ substantially from those which prevailed in Germany from 1790 to 1950, their common denominator is the same: alienation from society. The difference is that justified resentment of unwarranted criticism of the medical profession is now the physician's subconscious motivation for condemning the modern equivalent of the corset. Whether it is pedal edema, hiatus hernia or cardiac disease, the inference is that the disease is the patient's own fault. The new term, "defensive practice of medicine,"

Bull. N.Y. Acad. Med. THE CORSET 585

Fig. 18. German spoof of the German dress reform movement, entitled: "Our Image Abroad." Well-dressed gentleman to well-dressed lady observing a group of German women tourists: "Now I understand why homosexuality is spreading in Germany." Draw- ing by Thomas Theodor Heine, Simplicissimus, 1908.

Vol. 55, No. 6 June 1979 586 G. S. SCHWARZ has perhaps placed the physician's present dilemma into its proper per- spective.

CONCLUSION The condemnation of an essentially innocent garment currently-once again-accused of being unhygienic is only a token manifestation and subliminal indicator of a major reorientation of the patient-physician relation which has gradually developed since World War II. Regrettably, the physician's traditional image as the materially disinterested friend of his patient and the altruistic advisor of humanity at large is vanishing. It is society which forces him into his present stance. Only the future will tell what will happen to his image and his own beliefs. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I wish to express my thanks to Professor Dr. Werner Ruebe, Reckling- hausen, Germany, who contributed some of the rare bibliographic sources, and to Mr. Elliott Zak, assistant in the Rare Book Room of the New York Academy of Medicine, for his generous help.

NOTES AND REFERENCES 1. Andry, (de Bois-Regard), N.: Or- Houghton, Mifflin, 1912, p. 81. thopaedia. Facsimile reproduction of the 6. Ibid., p. 131. first English edition. London, 1743, 7. Goethe, J. W.: Gedenkausgabe der Philadelphia and Montreal, Lippincott, Werke, Briefe und Gespraeche, von 1961. Ernst Beutler, editor. Zuerich, Artemis, 2. Tabori, P.: The Art of Folly. Philadel- 1948, vol. 24. (Eckermann: Gespraeche phia, Chilton, 1961, pp. 91-92. mit Goethe, April 18, 1827). 3. Soemmerring, S. T.: Ueber die Wir- 8. 31st Jahresbericht der Justinus Kerner kungen der Schnurbruste. Berlin, Vos- Gesellschaft, Weinsberg, i.v., 1935. 1 sische Buchhandlung, 1893. have been told that a copy of this resolu- 4. Harriet E. Phillips, Director ofthe Med- tion by the Justinus Kerner Society, to- ical Art Department, College of Physi- gether with the epigram, had been sent to cians and Surgeons, Columbia Univer- one of the ministries of health in Ger- sity, and I made some informal mea- many. Germany was ruled by Hitler surements of head circumference and then. Whether this Jahresbericht con- girth on young female volunteers in tained political overtones is difficult to 1963. The average head circumference fathom. of white western women is 23 inches. We 9. Massmann, F.: Das Wartburgfest. found two whose waist measured 23 in- Kurze und wahrhaftige Beschreibung ches and three whose waists were only 22 des grossen Burschenfestes auf der inches, despite the fact that the individu- Wartburg bei Eisenach. Leipzig, Re- als had never been tight laced. clam, jun. n. d. 5. Taylor, B.: Goethe's Faust in the origi- 10. Kleist, H. von: Ausgewaehlte Dramen. nal Metres. Boston and New York, Munich Goldmann, 1966. The an-

Bull. N.Y. Acad. Med. THE CORSET 587

tifetishistic message is emphasized by English schools." the additional dialogue in which the hero 16. Vanderbuilt, C. B.: The Glitter and the is warned that should he discover this Gold. New York, Harper and Brothers, woman's false charms spread over the 1952. chairs in the morning hour he might well 17. Austrian universities conferred the same turn into a pillar of stone. privileges of extraterritoriality to their 11. Skinner, C. O.: Elegant Wits and Grand professors as did the German. Yet, a Horizontals. Cambridge, Mass., River- stable untroubled, imperialistic, and ba- side, 1962. Contains other comments on sically happy society provoked hardly the corset also. any professorial outbursts against the 12. Duehren, Geheimrat E.: Das Ges- corset there. chlechtsleben des Modernen Englaen- 18. Socialism was opposed to the corset for ders. Berlin, n.p., 1906. The letter re- its own reasons. Bernard Shaw wrote in produced here in part dates back further, his The Intelligent Woman's Guide to but a reference to an electric fan suggests Socialism (London, 1928) that one of the that it originated during the Edwardian benefits of the new social order would be era. (Author believed to be same as Iwan that women would no longer have to Bloch, M. D.) Elsewhere in her letter the wear corsets. correspondent mentioned that belonging 19. When Napoleon prepared his second to the elite circle conferred the privilege wife, Marie- Luise, for the coronation he of assisting in the punishment of other engaged as corsetier Mr. Leroy, who students. A slender waist had thus a was then regarded a world power among practical advantage as well. the fashionable cognoscenti. To marry 13. Lord, W. B.: The Corset and the an Austrian princess, Napoleon had to Crinoline. London, Ward, Lock and abandon his earlier stand against the cor- Tyler, n. d., ca 1870, pp. 135-37. set. His motive was opportunism for the 14. Outlake, O.: The gentle art of nerve purpose of gaining legitimacy for his wrecking: Discipline in an Austrian title. See also reference 32. gymnasium of 1930, autobiographically 20. Boehn, M. von: Bekleidungskunst und assessed from an American vantage Mode. Muenchen, Delphin-Verlag, point. Med. Circ. Bull. 8:88, 99, 1961. 1918, esp. pp 100-01. This well- 15. The Englishwoman's Domestic Maga- informed and well-balanced review of zine 5 (New Series): 166, 1868. A rash of clothing from prehistoric times to 1918 inquiries by English mothers who also contains a good review of the dress- wanted to send their sons to such a school reform movement in the United States followed in the next few issues of the and England. It appears that in countries magazine. Some had heard that Austrian other than Germany women had to or- schools were less expensive. One wor- ganize their own reform movements, ried that the corset discipline might make whereas in Germany physicians fought the boys effeminate. This prompted the the battle for them. In the foreground correspondent (Walter L. S.) to answer stood Prof. Eulenburg and Dr. Spener, in this March 1868 issue as follows: "In both of Berlin, Drs. Meinert and Brosin, reply...I beg to state that active boyish both of Dresden, and Dr. 0. Neustaetter games are not discouraged in Austria... of Munich. Also mentioned in this book: A great outdoors game was played with a the Prussian Minister of Culture issued large ball about 12 inches in diameter. It several orders to prevent girls from wear- was whirled around by means of a short ing corsets during school gym lessons (n. cord, serving as a handle and propelled d.). The city council of Leipzig ruled so toward the goal. We also had a game also in 1904 (p. 127). An extreme posi- somewhat similar to 'prison base.' tion was taken by Margarete Pochham- Gymnastics and fencing were daily oc- mer, one of the female leaders in the cupations. I can only state that we en- German dress-reform movement. She joyed more sports than were allowed in demanded that in the interest of racial

Vol. 55, No. 6 June 1979 588 G. S. SCHWARZ

hygiene "the State" forbid the sale and Investigation. Supplement of Acta manufacture of the "gemeingefaehrlich- Medica Belgica, 1951, 199 pages (in en corset just as it prevents the sale of English). The relation between the corset dangerous books and foods." (n. d., ca and chlorosis is by no means an issue of 1900), p. 128. the past, as this review amply illustrates. 21. Spener, K.: Diejetzige Frauenkleidung. It contains 738 references, about a third Berlin, Walther, 1897. of which deals directly with the corset. 22. Fricke, J. F. K. A.: Ein interessanter Its author favors the corset theory, which Fall von Schnurwirkungen. Inaugural holds that the waning popularity of the dissertation. Kiel, 1892. corset is responsible for the disappear- 23. Hansen, C.: Ein Fall von Schnurwir- ance of the disease. Others hold that bet- kungen an den Baucheingeweiden. ter nutrition may have prevented its ap- Inaugural dissertation. Kiel, 1894. pearance nowadays, particularly if it is 24. Hackmann, K. H.: Schnurwirkungen. merely an iron-deficiency anemia. Some Inaugural dissertation. Kiel, 1894. believe that the taxonomy of anemia has 25. Buck, R.: Ein interessanter Fall von changed and that this condition is still Schnurwirkunger an den Baucheinge- present but is now known under a differ- weiden. Inaugural dissertation. Kiel, ent name. 1892. 34. Trevor-Roper, H. R.: The Mind ofAdolf 26. Riedel's Lobe, named after Bernhard Hitler (with Hitler's secret conversa- Moritz Carl Riedel, German surgeon, tions). New York, Signet, 1961, p. 169. 1846-1916. Dorland's illustrated Medi- This book suggests that, paradoxically, cal Dictionary, 23rd edition. Philadel- Hitler was rather fond of the corset but phia and London, Saunders, 1960, p. thought it unwise to declare himself on 771. this subject publicly. (Hitler was a native 27. Ginssbauer, J. C. G.: Statistische Un- of Austria.) tersuchung uiber die Hiufigkeit der 35. Ewing, E.: Fashion in Underwear. Schnfirleber und den Einfluss des Schnii- London, Barsford, 1974. In this book rens aufdie Entstehung des Ulcus Ven- Dr. Jaeger is identified as M. D. triculi. Inaugural dissertation. Erlangen, 36. Gaches-Sarraute, J. I.: Le corset: Etude 1913. physiologique et practique. Paris, 1900. 28. Burger, H.: Ein Ersatz des Corsettes. 37. O'Followell, D.: Le Corset, Histoire- Munch. Med. Wchschr. 46:1176-77, Medecine-Hygiene. Paris, Maloine, 1899. 1905. 29. Thiersch, J.: Experimentelle Unter- 38. O'Followell, D.: Le Corset, Etude Med- suchungen uber den Corsetdruck. icale. Paris, Maloine, 1908. Deutsches Archiv. Klin. Med. 57:559- 39. Lane, W.:Civilization in relation to the 73, 1900. abdominal viscera, with remarks on the 30. Kern, S. Anatomy and Destiny. In- corset. Lancet 2:1416-18, 1909. dianapolis, New York, Bobbs-Merrill, 40. Comfort, A.: The Anxiety Makers. New 1975. This book contains a detailed de- York, Delta, 1970. Narrates the extreme scription of the interrelation of anticor- to which Sir William Arbuthnot Lane setism and German racial purism. Its au- went when corsets failed. He advocated thor errs, however, in that he too believes colectomy then to combat autointoxica- the corset to be a dangerous instrument tion. In a stormy meeting on March 10, detrimental to health under all circum- 1913 before the Royal Society of Medi- stances. cine he defended his method with great 31. Ibid. pp. 229, 289. aplomb. 32. Schumacher, D. G.: Frauenkleid und 41. Corset and Underwear Review 19:22- Entartung eines Jahrtausends. 23, 1922. Dortmund, Verlag " Der Gesunde 42. Cutler, A. S.: Corsets versus backache Mensch," n.d., ca 1929. and fatigue. Boston Med. Surg. J. 33. Schwarz, E.: Chlorosis, A Retrospective 175:168-69, 1916.

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43. Sullivan, M.: Our Times; The United and lungenspitzenatmung. Berliner States 1900-1925. New York and Lon- Klin. Wchschr. 49:1702-04, 1912. don, Scribner's, 1932. 60. Stratz, C. H., Prof. Dr. (Christoph H.): 44. Dickinson, R. L.: On toleration of the Die Frauenkleidung und ihre natuer- corset, Am. J. Obstet. Gynecol. liche Entwicklung. Stuttgart, Verlag von 63:1023-76, 1911. Ferdinand Enke, 1920. Stratz had be- 45. The corset was publicly endorsed by come a well-balanced moderate in his Empress Maria Theresa. Before World later years, as this 1920 book shows. War I it was also obligatory for court After studying the costumes of women of appearances. Emperor Joseph 11, her many nations and being particularly im- successor, forbade the wearing of corsets pressed by the Japanese obi, he modified by students in convents, but after his his stand and recommended moderately short reign of 10 years this edict was applied corsets for western women. He repealed. evolved the theory that artificial body 46. The Englishwoman's Domestic Maga- plastic serves to amplify racial pride. zine S (New Series): 224, 1868. Each race attempts to emphasize its own 47. Ibid., p. 56. bodily characteristics. The European 48. Lord, W. B.: The Corset and the white-skinned woman is blessed by a Crinoline. London, Ward, Lock and narrow waist and broad hips, hence she Tyler, n.d. c. 1870, pp. 210-11. tries to develop these features to the ut- 49. The Corset and Underwear Review most. Japanese women are narrow- 17:79, February 1922. hipped and small breasted. It is their 50. Lee, T., American Fashion. New pride to display a cylindrical figure by York, Quadrangle/New York Times means of the obi. Originally, German Book Company, 1975, pp. 152-53. racism was almost exclusively concerned 51. Becker, P. W.: Im Dienste der Frau. with the creation of biologically and es- Selbstverlag, 1953. thetically superior individuals by means 52. Bachem, B. and Ebert, W.: Anbetung of selective breeding and later by des Korsetts. Hannover, Fackel- eliminating from their midst all those traeger-Verlag, 1961. who did not achieve this goal. Any ar- 53. White, P. D.: The tight-girdle syn- tifice, therefore, was considered a fraud drome. N. Engl. J. Med. 288:584, which tried to conceal biologic inade- 1973. quacy. Cosmetics, corsets, orthodontics, 54. Bietz, D.: More on tight girdles. N. and plastic surgery were held in low es- Engl. J. Med. 288:917, 1973. teem unless they were used to correct 55. Schwartz, M.: Tight girdle syndrome acquired blemishes such as might have (cont'd.). N. Engl. J. Med. 288:1359, been caused by injury. Selective breed- 1973. ing alone was hoped to achieve the de- 56. Banks, T. and Farhoudi, H. O.: More on sired effect from birth. Stratz tried to tight girdles. N. Engl. J. Med. 289:46, reconcile the aspirations of racism with 1973. the corset. This constitutes a departure 57. Bell, J. A. and Bell, G. C.: Tight girdle from his earlier stand, and may be at- or Sommerring's syndrome, N. Engl. J. tributed to his world travels. He even Med. 289:689, 1973. went so far as to engage in a polemic with 58. Schwarz, G. S.: Sbmmerring's syn- Schultze- Naumburg. drome? No! Never! N. Engl. J. Med. 61. McHenry, L. C.: Garrison's History of 291:802, 1974. In this communication Neurology. Springfield, Ill., Thomas, this correspondent rejected the proposal 1969, p. 285. The physician holding pa- by Bell and Bell on grounds that Sbm- tient is Josef Babinski, that sitting next to merring had failed to see the connection window is Pierre Marie; the man seated between hiatus hernia and the wearing of at table is Paul Richer, medical illus- corsets. trator. Although Freud left Paris in 1886, 59. Hirschfeld, F. and Loewy, A.: Korsett his picture may have been inserted by the

Vol. 55, No. 6 June 1979 590 G. S. SCHWARZ

artist in 1887. mixed with professorial arrogance as it 62. Nigrin-Gerff, A.: Ueber die Schaeden was in vogue before World War I. durch das Schnueren. In: Geschlecht and 63. Lothar, R.: Sittengeschichte des Kor- Gesundheit, vol 2. Dresden, Verlag der setts. In: Sittengeschichte des Intimen, Schoenheit, n.d., ca 1908. Excellent Schidrowitz, L., editor. Wien/Leipzig, example ofa hysterical condemnation of Verlag fuer Kulturforschung, n.d., ca the corset by an academic physician 1929, pp.83-119.

EPILOGUE TO NOTES AND REFERENCES To avoid slanting this bibliography toward an overemphasis on condemnation of the corset by German physicians as distinct from physicians of other countries, a fairly careful search of German medical literature was made. However, I found only one German paper favoring stays as worn for fashion purposes. Its authors stated unequivocally that the dangers of the corset had been overrated and that, contrary to general opinion, it turned out to be beneficial in the cases they reported. It remains an exception.59 Of the multitude of German physicians who wrote books, contributed chapters on dress reform, or concerned themselves with female fashion in general, only a small minority expressed, however reluctantly, a qualified endorsement of the corset. Their argument might be summarized as follows: As long as women insist on suspending from their waists an exces- sive number of unnecessary garments, a well-fitting, moderately applied corset is better than none at all because it distributes pressure over a larger area than a narrow belt or band can provide. Until women give up the wearing of irrational clothes, the corset will remain the lesser evil. Only Stratz voiced a more conciliatory opinion.

Bull. N.Y. Acad. Med.