The Effects of the Corset

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

Figure.

Source. Prints and Photographs Collection, History of Medicine Division, National Library of Medicine.