Professor Roy, Professor of Pathology, Cambridge, and Mr. J. G.
Adami, Demonstrator in Pathology at the same University, are bold men. They read a paper on Friday week before the British Association in defence of stays, and naturally attracted more attention than lecturers on subjects more strictly scientific. They maintain that the desire for waist- belts is instinctive, and has been displayed by all athletes and persons of whom exertion is required since the beginning of history, the " girded loins mentioned in the Bible being, according to Professor Robertson Smith, "tightly constricted " loins. Such constriction, moreover, if not too severe, tends to drive the blood, which is apt to collect too much in the abdominal veins, back to supply the heart, lungs, and brain, where it is more required. Mankind, as it passes the stage of barbarism, meets this demand by belts, stays, and the like, which are rather healthythan the reverse. It will be observed that this argument, which is certainly true so far as the practice of all runners, Asiatic or European, is concerned, applies to men equally with women, though men gird them- selves only to meet special calls upon their strength. The writers pressed, however, for elasticity in stays. The paper seems to have provoked some irritation, abhorrence of stays being an article of faith with advanced women, who, how- ever, will not find that Hindoo ladies are healthier than English, or can walk one-half so far.
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