Introduction and Background

JESTHETICAL SANITATION. BY WILLIAM WHITE, FELLOW OF THE SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES, FELLOW OF THE ROVAL INSTITUTE OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS, MEMBER OF THE SANITARY INSTITUTE. “A thing of beauty is a joy for ever : Its loveliness increases ; it will never "EGR REVIEW With The Publisher’s Compliments. SHOULD THIS WORK BE REVIE COPY OF THE NOTICE WILL MUCH CoLIGe Fowanp Sie 55, CHakinLONDON EDWARD STANFORD, 55, CHARING CROSS, S.W. 1883. Isl. 0. TO Her Roya HIGHNESS PRINCESS MARY ADELAIDE DUCHESS OF TECK ¥s Dedicated, WITH SPECIAL AND GRACIOUS PERMISSION, THIS EARNEST ENDEAVOUR TO PROMOTE THE INTERESTS OF DOMESTIC WEAL, AND OF NATIONAL HEALTH, IN THEIR INTIMATE ASSOCIATION WITH ACADEMIO ART, BY HLR.H.’S LOYAL AND OBEDIENT SERVANT WILLIAM WHITE. PREFACE. —o 4 THESE papers, which have now received a few revisions and additions, were contributed in the first instance to the ‘ British Architect’ in a series called “ Friends in Council,” a series which was initiated by the editor for the purpose of affording to architects a free and friendly inter- change of opinion on the very many varying matters which relate to art, and other profes- sional subjects. It has been suggested that I should reprint and publish them in a form suit- able for general circulation. I cannot do this without gratefully acknowledging the compli- ment paid by that journal to my treatment of the subject, and at the same time expressing a hope that the friends of Education, of Art, and of Sanitation, will not fail to give to the whole question the consideration which its im- portance deserves, and indeed demands, at the hands of all who can lay any claim to intelligence or refinement. W. W. joa, WimpoLe Stet, W. Art’s highest aim— ‘The human form divine. New adage. ASTHETICAL SANITATION. No. I. “* What’s a fine person or a beauteous face, Unless deportment gives them decent grace ? Blest with all other requisites to please, Some want the striking grace of ease ; The curious eye their awkward movement tires, ‘They seem like puppets let about by wires.” Churchill, THE absorbing topics of the present day are High Art and Sanitation. Sinks and sewage, light and air, colour and form, tender tones and graceful bends, are freely discussed, without a thought that there may be a branch of sanitation which has such intimate relations with high art that the one is naturally and materially depen- dent on the other for its successful development. The consideration of this subject may be of ser- vice to “friends,” whilst its discussion will be specially suited to the columns of a journal which has devoted so much energy and ability to the cognate subject of costume in relation to the drama. The human form divine has been 8 “ESTHETICAL SANITATION. . rightly regarded as the highest subject of high art; and by many sensible persons, such as are not the mere dupes of whimsey or of fashion, pinched waists and cramped toes are, perhaps, to some extent recognised as incompatible with its healthy expansion, or with its perfect expression. But any one walking for a short distance behind the outpourings of a morning suburban train may see how frightful is the following which folly and fashion obtain in these respects. The bearing of health on true beauty, and of true beauty upon health, has not met with the recognition which, in these days of art and science, its investigation might be supposed to deserve. My attention has been the more drawn to this lately from facts which have fallen under my observation, through members of my own family having taken up the scientific study of Ling’s system of gymnastics, and from the great benefit which they have derived, and are enabled to impart to others by their use. Figure, and carriage or gait, may be said to comprise all that upon which beauty in form and in grace depends, in so far as these are related to physical form and development. It is curious to see their subversion by ignorance and'bad STHETICAL SANITATION. 9 taste. A waspish figure, unlike a waspish disposition, is considered “a thing of beauty and a joy forever.” Even the picturesque quaintness of the Medizeval, or the flowing grace of the ancient Greek costume, when imitated now, can- not be made to adorn the natural form, but the natural form must first be reduced to a state of artificial beauty by tight bodices and other careful contrivances, to keep the whole in place, lest the falling folds, the tucks or pleats, should be displaced or creased. The delicate form beneath has to be transformed into a dummy before the genuine ware can be set forth to due advantage. An artistic stoop, a Grecian’ bend, or as some would say, an esthetic attitude, a gait which is sufficiently marked or peculiar to be the reverse of natural, passes for distinguished, or stylish bearing. And men who ought to know better foster the unreality. The injuries arising from ill-shaped, or tight, or high-heeled boots and shoes, are very serious to the figure and gait, but still more so to the general health, through the manner in which the distortion of the foot, and of its position, acts upon the muscles of the hips and spine. Most of the cases in the Orthopcedic hospitals 10 “2STHETICAL SANITATION. come under spinal treatment. Even where there is no disease, evil often commences with the first tottering steps of childhood. The child may resent the tightness of a shoe and get redress ; but suffering soon begins, perhaps unconsciously, through the way in which, by the misfitting of the shoe, the great toe is compressed in the direction of the other toes. The “abductor ”— the principal muscle provided for the purpose of drawing it away from them, thus forming a gap between the great toe and the others, and dis- tributing the area of leverage by which the balance of the body is preserved—becomes stretched, and the joint permanently enlarged, creating serious inconvenience, and making steadiness of walk more difficult. The natural instinct by which this defect is remedied is by turning the foot itself inwards. I remember a supposed remedy for this defect being carried out by having the shoes made with pointed toes turning outwards, obviously to the still greater increase of the evil to be remedied.* I also well remember that the village shoemaker of * For proper form of shoe see ‘Knapsack Handbook or Pedestrian’s Guide,’ Edward Stanford, 55 Charing Cross. I have found Mr. Webb, 31 John Street North, Marylebone Road, a good, anatomical and surgical, working bootmaker. “2STHETICAL SANITATION. II my native place, when taking his measures, would ask, “Do ye like ’em to poonish ye a bit?” though, whether you wished it or not, he would infallibly punish you, and then complain of the awkward shape of your feet. How many are there at the present day whose great toe is not thus “adducted,” more or less permanently, and the joint enlarged in this manner? Again, facility of balance, upon which gracefulness largely depends, is quite impossible with high or pointed heels. Follow a pair of high heels, and you may observe the wobbling of the ankle, which indicates the undue strain thrown upon the hips and spine. They are also commonly accompanied by the treading down of one side of the foot. Putting the heels upon stilts reduces the power of the lever by which the balance of the body, in an upright position, is preserved; and arching the shoe, to fit the span of the foot, is very much like the shoring up of the keystone of an arch to prevent its falling. The barbarity of the Chinese in trans- forming by pressure the heads and the feet of their infants is well-nigh outdone by the bar- barity of the fashion which subjects the growing bodies and feet of the English to such indignity 12 STHETICAL SANITATION, and inconvenience. Young persons, whose con- stitutions have been injured by such means, are further led to delude themselves into the idea that bands and belts are necessary for the sup- port of their enfeebled frames, in ignorance of the mechanical law that although lateral cinc- tures may add considerably to the strength of a post or column in a building, and that lateral support may be needed in the case of strains, injury or weakness of muscle, such pressure takes away from the force of their free and natural tension, torsion, and contraction, and that under continuous pressure the muscle gets a permanent set or indentation which can be recovered only by long and persevering exercise. I have known a lame child improve in his walk and in his general health from the very time when his high stilted boot, which had been pro- vided to make up for his shortened leg, was removed. Gustavus Adolphus cured his ague by the constant and persevering exercise of his muscular system. I have myself witnessed the daily fatigue of an exhausted body gradually and entirely disappear under the rational use and exercise of a rational system. The muscles being ‘fed by the blood, derive their nutriment ESTHETICAL SANITATION. 13 only through their proper exercise; and all pressure or restraint which impedes circulation, reduces the vitality of the muscular system. The healthy condition of the spinal cord is esseritial to good figure, and this is dependent on the treatment not merely of the body, but of the feet also. Whether we are to be allowed, or not, to express our opinion as lovers, husbands, wives, parents, teachers, or guardians, surely we are as artists and sanitarians entitled, nay, bound to raise our voices against so crying an abuse. But what can be pleaded on behalf of “the higher education of women,” when we see the flounder- ing way in which young ladies ascend the plat- form, as I have witnessed, to receive their well- earned prizes and their university certificate ? Their heels were manifestly unfit pivots for graceful balance ; their arms stretched out for assistance, hampered by sleeves fitted on to a body too tight to rise with the action; their knees tied together as though it would be un- dignified in the highest degree to move faster than a London policeman towards the scene of a street row. An occasional titter of amuse- ment, or of pity at their ungainly movement, 14 “ESTHETICAL SANITATION. was too delicately subdued to reach their ear, to offend their susceptibilities, or to raise in them even the suggestion of something wrong. How surely does vanity miss the very aim which it holds. forth to itself. The brain, moreover, is found to suffer from the loss of physique by the check given to the nutritive and circulating systems which the improper compression or dis- tortion of the body involves. Only a few months ago, as proved at the inquest, a lady fell ap- parently a willing victim herein to folly and fashion. In these days of high education and close application many .well-grown figures are tuined by the want of a rational antidote to the tedious and cramping position which students are often obliged to take. The most prepos- terous of these positions, which I am told is a rule in Board schools, is that of the distortion of the whole body by thrusting forward the left arm upon the desk in writing, in order that the pupil may not be able to look over his neigh- bour’s shoulder and see what is written. Those whose whole frames are duly and properly exercised can endure such processes and such postures with more impunity than those who never have any counteracting advantages, &STHETICAL SANITATION. 15 and there is some hope to be derived from the rational study and exercise of the body, in the wonderful system of which Colonel Ling was at once the author, exponent, and professor, and by which more than 500 muscles of the human frame, together with very many thousands of nerves, are thoroughly and equally exercised and trained. This system, whilst it gives health and vigour to the constitution—especially during growth—is of the greatest possible service in the improvement of the gait and of the figure, ren- dering these the more esthetically true and graceful as becomes the highest subject of art. But this system of the valiant Swede must not be confounded with the ordinary exercise of calis- thenic poles and dumb-bells, which from violent use, and undue strain thrown upon some muscles to the detriment of others, cannot but be often positively injurious. Ling was an officer in the army, and having cured, by patient exercise and manipulation, a defective muscle in his own sword arm, he conceived the idea of a preventive, curative, and educational process on a large scale, which eventually resulted in the establishment of the Grand Central Institution at Stockholm, 16 ESTHETICAL SANITATION. The benefits derivable from the practice of his system may be neutralised by the body-cramping and shoe-pinching process, which entails such injury and malformation amongst the very classes of persons who would seem to show by their misapplied ingenuity that they are not insensible to the charm and attractiveness of grace and beauty. The remark of a pupil fresh from her class is worth placing on record, as showing an appreciative sense of the value of her training. “Really to any one who has studied the skeleton anatomically, it seems cruel to over- load it with cumbrous clothing, and to cramp it with needless restraints.” This remark would be especially applicable to Thornycroft’s Teucer in this year’s Academy [A.D. 1881]. If the heels were propped up, but half an inch, what would become of the vigorous balance which is now thrown so admirably on the fore part of the foot? It is pitiful to contemplate what would be the result. Yet this, and more than this, is what we shall be called upon to see and to sanction every day of our lives, till public opinion in art as well as in science shall have become better informed. ao ™ STHETICAL SANITATION. 17 No. II. “ Come, and trip it as you go, On the light fantastic toe.” —Afilton. My former paper upon this subject having been so well received, and the importance of it be- coming every day more and more apparent, I shall be glad to follow it up with a few more words, In doing this, my chief aim is to set forth in its true light the gain which must accrue to high art from a proper appreciation of the human form, and from a careful consideration of the means requisite to the full development of the body. It will be necessary to dwell now more fully than I could wish upon the physical side of the question, rather than upon the esthetical, although this will