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The female beauty

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[ca.1900]

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Titel: The female beauty
Deel: -
Auteur: Stratz, Carl Heinrich
Jaar van uitgave: [ca.1900]
Drukker/Uitgever: August Koster
PPN: 407800778
Taal: Engels
Omvang: 311 p
Herkomst: Universiteit van Amsterdam (MM01B-003756 - UBM
Bron metadata: OPC

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Auteursrecht onbekend. Het zou kunnen dat nog auteursrecht rust op (delen van) dit object.
Permanente URL
Titel

Pagina

Gebruiksvoorwaarden

Auteursrecht onbekend. Het zou kunnen dat nog auteursrecht rust op (delen van) dit object.

Titel

The female beauty

Deel

-

Auteur

Stratz, Carl Heinrich

Jaar van uitgave

[ca.1900]

Drukker/Uitgever

August Koster

PPN

407800778

Taal

Engels

Omvang

311 p

Herkomst

Universiteit van Amsterdam (MM01B-003756 - UBM

Bron metadata

OPC

C. H. STRATZ, M.D. THE FEMALE BEAUTY WITH 180 ILLUSTRATIONS AMSTERDAM AUGUST KOSTER TABLE OF CONTENTS. Page. Introduction 1 I. The modern conception of beauty • 4 II. The presentation of female beauty in sculpture and painting. 13 III. Female beauty in literature 25 IV. The doctrine of proportions and the canon 33 V. Influence of development, nutrition and mode of life on te body 50 VI. Influence of sex, age and heredity 57 VII. Influence of diseases on the bodily form 05 VIII. Influence of dress on the bodily form 76 IX. Appreciation of the body generally, from the given points of view 84 X. Appreciation of the several parts of the body 99 a. The head 99 b. The trunk, as a whole, breast, abdomen, back 122 G'onnection of the trunk with head and limbs, viz. Female neck and shoulders, hips and buttocks 158 c. Upper Limbs, Arm, hand 172 d. Lower Limbs, leg, foot 182 XI. Survey of the conditions of normal bodily formation .... 190 XII. Beauty of colour 195 XIII. Beauty of movement 204 XIV. Practical value of the scientific conception of female beauty . 267 XV. Value in art and art-criticism. — Models 289 XVI. Directions for the maintenance and improvement of female beauty 304 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Fig. 1. The Vatican Venus. , 2. Falguiere's " La Danseuse *. .3(7 and 36. The Esquiline " Aphrodite diadumene". , 4. Alma Tadema. "A sculptor's model". , 5. A Jewish girl, fifteen years old. , G. Botticelli's Venus. , 7. Portrait of Jeanne d'Aragon in the Louvre. , 8. G. Fritsch's Canon, Merkel's normal figure. „ 9. Female normal figure according to Richer. , 10. Sarpi, a Javanese girl of about eighteen. , 11. Female normal figure according to Hay. , 12. Female normal figure according to Thomson. 13. Sargent's mean figure of the American woman, compared with Fritsch's canon. , 14. Woman with spinal curvature and fiat foot, but correctly proportioned. , 15. Scheme of Fig. 14 compared with Fritsch s canon. , 16. Posterior view of Fig. 14. , 17. Pasteur's Tangent. , 18. Head of a human embryo in the sixth week (after the schema of Gegenbauer and Hackel). , 19. Head of a young Parisian woman, with beautifully shaped mouth. , 20. Little girl with genu valgum, after Hoffa. , 21. Infantilism of a woman, after Meige. „ 22. Munich girl, 12-J years old. , 23. Curve of Heauty. "Beauté du diable". , 24. Girl with manifest signs of having suffered from rachitis. „ 25. Girl with traces of having suffered from rachitis. , 26. " Myopathic primitive progressive", after Londe and Meige. Fig. 27. Young Berlin woman of 26, with powerful developed muscular system. „ 28. Young Dutchwoman of 20, with phthisical habitus. „ 29. Javanese girl vvho has never worn a corset. „ 30. Piaster cast from the corpse of a youthful suicide. , 31. Young Viennese woman, umnarked by furrow due to tightlacing. „ 32. Young Austrian woman, with a pronounced furrow due to tightlacing. , 33. Young woman, with very marked furrow due to tightlacing. , 34. Young woman with furrows below the knee caused by garters. , 35. Symmetrical carriage of the body. , 36. Normal male figure according to Merkel. , 37. Normal female figure, according to Merkel. „ 38. Normal male figure from behind after Merkel. , 39. Normal female figure from behind after Merkel. , 40. Normal female figure. , 41. Normal male figure. , 42. Female and male torso in profile after Thomson. , 43. Female and male skull modified after Ecker. , 44. Head of an embryo in the sixth week. , 45. Skull of a newly borrt child. „ 46. Skull of a woman with a long, narrow upper jaw. , 47. Skull of a woman with a short broad upper jaw. „ 48. Young South-Italian girl of 13. „ 49. Young Samoan woman. , 50. Head of Austrian woman. „ 51. Lady of Valencia. , 52. Viennese girl of 15, with a dimple in the chin, pure facial oval, a soft mouth, beauty-folds over eyes and abundant head of hair. „ 53. Japanese girl with Mongolian fold. , 54. Female head of good proportions and with a well formed eye. , 55. Head of a Moorish woman of 20 from Algiers. „ 56. Beautifully formed ear (after Langer). „ 57. Girl from Schappach. , 58. Head with classic profile. , 59. Two Italian women with Greek profile. , 60. Sevillana. , 61. Skeleton of the trunk of a young woman of 25, deformed by tightlacing (after Rüdinger). , 62 and 63. Alteration of the skeleton of the trunk through tightlacing (after Sommering). , 64. Muscular system of the female torso, from the front. „ 65. Muscular system of the female back. Pig. 66. Posterior view of a man and vvoman (after Ricber) for comparing the distribution of the fat-cushions. „ 67. Austrian girl of 14, witli a good buiging of the breast towards the anterior axillary boundary (on the right side). „ 68. North-German girl of 16 vvith high position of breast. „ 69. Munich girl of 16 with low position of breast. „ 70. Well formed breast. „ 71. Badly formed breast. „ 72. Fully developed breast of a Bohemian "beaute du diable". „ 73. Pemale pelvis. „ 74. Undulating line of the trunk in profile. , 75. Female body with beautiful boundary lines between trunk and legs (an Austrian). „ 76. Round back. , 77. Drooping of the right slioulder at the beginning of spinal cur- vature in a young woman of 23, of Dutch-English origin. , 78. Beautifully modelled back of a Javanese girl. „ 79. Back of a Parisian woman, ftattened by tightlacing. „ 80. Back of a young woman of Scheveningen with well-developed fossal. „ 81. Female head and shoulder in profile. „ 82. Skin folds over the (right) hip, in a bent attitude of the pelvis. „ 83. Profile of Fig. 75, with beautiful hips. „ 84. Rounding off of the hips in a young Viennese woman. „ 85. Girl of 12, with female forms in course of growtli. „ 86. Samoan girl (back view). , 87. First signs of fading. „ 88. Pointed elbows. „ 89. Axis of the arm in pronation and supination. „ 90. Beautifully rounded arm (Munich woman). , 91. Beautifully moulded arm and shoulder (Swabian woman). „ 92. Strong, femininely formed arms and hands of a Viennese girl. „ 93. Viennese girl (Plate I, 3 years later). Perfect moulding of the hands. , 94. Determination of the straightness of the leg after Mikulicz. „ 95. Brücke's line. , 96. Beautifully formed calves and feet. „ 97. Impressions of the normal foot and of flatfoot, after \ olkmann. „ 98. Female body on orange back ground with neutral shadow. „ 99. Female body on violet back ground with neutral shadow. „ 100. Female body on white back ground. „ 101. Female body on black back ground. „ 102. Torso of a girl of 14, with lowered arms. „ 103. Torso of the same girl, with arms raised. Fig. 104. Extension of the Vertebral column through tension of the dorsa museles. Bohemian girl of 18. „ 105. Girl of 14 (Fig. 67) with pelvis tlirust forvvard. „ 106. Girl of 14, with raised diaphragm and indrawn abdomen. , 107. Girl of 14, with extended back and indrawn abdomen in profile. , 108. Extension of trunk supported by extension of leg. Frenchwoman of 24. „ 109. Young woman of 23, of Dutch-French extraction. , 110. Canon of the young woman of mixed race. „ 111. The same young woman with the extremest extension of the trunk. „ 112. Flexion of the trunk first stage. Austrian woman of 20. , 113. Flexion of trunk, second stage. Munich girl of 12. , 114. Flexion of trunk. Third stage. „ 115. Highest stage of Flexion of trunk. Italian girl of 20. „ 116. Red haired Danish woman. „ 117. The same in flexed posture. „ 118. Japanese girl of Kobe in her bath. „ 119a. Bending furrows caused by extension. , 1196. Bending furrows caused by flexion. „ 120. Lateral bending furrows caused by flexion and rotation. , 121. The same furrows caused by strong rotation towards the opposite side. , 122. Pronounced and faulty kinks caused by rotation and flexion towards the left side. „ 123. Three Munich girls of 6, 8 and 10 "standing at ease „ 124. Standing at ease on the entire sole. „ 125. Erect bearing with raising of the heel. , 126. Symmetrical attitude of the body. „ 127. Posture of the hips after Richer. „ 128. Young woman of 20 from the Rhine, in an easy attitude of the hips. „ 129. Proportions of the young Rhine woman. „ 130. Two girls of 16 in hip attitudes. „ 131. Sitting posture with upper part of body inclined and arms lowered. „ 132. Sitting posture with upper part of body extended and arms raised. „ 133. Girl of 13, sitting straddle legs. „ 134. Half-sitting, half-lying position. , 135. Extended dorsal position. Italian woman of 20. „ 136. Flexed dorsal position. Austrian woman of 20. „ 137. Female model in upright attitude with lowered arms. , 138. The same with raised arms. Pig. 139. The same in extended dorsal position. „ 140. The same in tiexed lateral position. „ 141. Italian girl of 13, ï-ecumbent attitude, back view. „ 142. Austrian girl of 18, recumbent attitude, back view. „ 143. Scheme of human gait, according to Richer. „ 144 — 149. Female gait on bare feet I—VI. „ 150. Viennese girl of 18 walking, from behind. „ 151. The same with faulty carriage. „ 152. Girl going upstairs. Back view. „ 153—158. Girl running I—VI. „ 159. Measurement of the Viennese girl in head lengths. „ 160. Measurement of the Viennese girl by Fritsch s modulus. „ 161. Viennese girl of 17, with perfectlv normal proportions. „ 162. The same from behind. „ 163. The same in profile. „ 164. Proportions of the Viennese girl of 17. „ 165. Young woman of 22, from Scheveningen. „ 166. The same stripped. „ 167. Canon of the young Scheveningen woman. , 168. Berlin girl of 17, after a photograph by G. Fritsch. „ 169. The same from behind. „ 170. Margarethe's proportions compared with Fritscb's canon. „ 171. Dioptric outline sketch in head lengths. „ 172. Gustav Eberlein's girl. „ 173. The original of Fig. 172 photographed two months earlier. „ 174. Munich model of 17, with Russian greyhound. „ 175. Berlin model of 20. „ 176. Posterior aspect of Fig. 175. , 177. Proportions of Fig. 175. „ 178. The model Fig. 175 postures by Eberlein. „ 179. The same postured for the posterior aspect. „ 180. Indian "gurita". Introduction. * Des Weibes Leib is ein Gedicht, Das Gott der Herr gesehrieben Ins grosse Stamnibuch der Natur, Als ihn der Geist getrieben." Heine. hoüsasds of poets, painters and sculptors have, from time immemorial, glorified the beauty of' women in word and design, and even serious savants have not hesitated to put forward theories about the ideal of womanly beauty; and the public admire and worship their works. But people forget that almighty Nature, in her inexhaustible strength, produces every dav women who are far more beautiful than anything ever produced by art and science, and vvhom most of them pass by heedlessly, because no connaisseur says to them: "Look! there is beauty " itself in flesh and blood." " Therefore, look diligently at Nature," writes Albrecht Dürer (1), at the beginning of the sixteenth century; " guide yourself by her * and do not depart from her, thinking that you will discover " anything better by yourself; for you will be deceived. For in * truth Art lies hid in Nature: he who can pluck Art from Nature, " possesses Art. If you master Art, it will save you from many " mistakes in your work. But the more your work is in conformity "with life, the better it appears. And this is true; therefore, never " imagine that you can or wish to do anything better than God " has put it in the power of bis creature; for your ability is " po werless bef ore God's creating." (1) Proportionslehre. Tart 111. 1523. 1 Thanks to photography and improvements in the technique of the other reproducing arts, we are to-day in a position to record with scientific accuracy the outward forms, at any rate, of living beauty. Briicke (1) was the first to make use of that medium, and he was followed by Thomson (2). Richer (3), who has published artistic drawings prepared by himself' after the living model, has also secured scientific records of models by means of photography. Now, in these and all similar works published within recent years, that treat of female beauty in a more or less scientific fashion, I have been impressed by two facts, or, rather perhaps, defects. First of all, those works do not deal with the beautiful body as such, but only in relation to the imitations of it in art. Secondly, whilst all anatomical facts are carefullv treated, pathological facts, the bodily changes caused by illnesses and wrong ways of living, are quite superficially dealt with. I have attempted a new wav of judging human beauty by regarding it not only from the standpoint of the artist and anatomist, but also from that of the doctor, by making my observations, not by means of pictures and corpses, but as much as possible by the help of the living body, which I have considered to be of itself the main point of studv, and not to be merelv an object of artistic representation. The reason why I have limited myself to the female body is that, being a women's doctor, l had not sufficiënt male material at my disposal. I have been helped in my investigations by the works of many writers, especially antliropologists, and after fifteen years work, I have come to the conclusion that we can reach a standard, an ideal of beauty, in a negative way, i. e. by excluding morbid influences and all deforniities of the body that are caused by defective clothing, hereditv, unsuitable nourishment and improper ways (1) Schönheit und Fehler der menschlichen Gestal t. 1890. (2) Handbook of Anatomy for Art Students. 1896. (3) Anatomie a r t i s t i q u e. 1890. of living. The standard may indeed, vary a great deal in individual cases, but it is nevertheless always subject to immutable laws; for perfect beauty and perfect health coincide. In this way alone can we attain to a standard firmly based on facts, which we can apply independently of individual taste, at best an uncertain quantity. But 1 believe there is, besides this, a certain practical value in my investigations, since it foliows from them that we are able, especially in the case of growing youth, to increase and esalt bodily health and beauty at one and the saiue time. Still, before I proceed to consider from this new standpoint the known facts, multiplied by my own observations, I must, for the sake of better understanding, roughly sketch the different ways in which attempts have been made, up till now, to reach the ideal of beauty and, particularly, the modern conception of beauty, and to throw critical light on the circumstances that have contributed to its formation. I. Tbc modern Conccption of Beauty. The modern European man knows almost nothing about the living female body. He only sees a woman's face and hands, and, on festal occasions, her arms and shoulders. He only sees one, or quite a few, female bodies in a nude state, and then generally under circumstances that make a sober, impartial verdict impossible or next to impossible; for love blinds a man. He is certainlv able to form an independent opinion about the face and hands, but all he knows about the rest of the body consists in the combined impression of memories of representations of it in sculpture: observations of the living woman play a quite subordinate part with him. Accordingly the modern European's ideal of beauty is mainly based on impressions produced by the medium of art. The artist and the doctor are exceptions to this rule. Goethe, the great psychologist, has excellently described the immediate impression produced by the tirst view of a naked woman s bodv on the spectator. (1) " She then brought me to a small, neatly-furnished room; a " clean carpet covered the floor, in a kind of niche stood a very " clean bed, at the liead of the bed was a toilet-table with a * looking-glass, and, at the foot, a gueridon with a three" branched candlestick, in which beautiful bright candles were (]) Briefe aus der Schweiz. First Part. Cotta 4, p. 469. " burning. On the toilet—table two lights were «ilso burning. A " fire, which had gone out, had warmed the room througli and * through. The old woman offered me a chair opposite the bed * by the mantelpiece and left the room. * Not long afterwards a tall, splendidly-formed, beautiful woman " came out of the opposite door: her clothing did not difter from " the ordinary. She seemed not to notice me, threw off her black " cloak and sat down before the toilet-table. She removed a large " hood, which had covered her face, from her head; beautiful. " regular features showed themselves, brown hair rolled down her " shoulders in large and abundant tresses. She began to undress. * What a wonderful feeling it was as one piece of clothing after " another was taken off, and Nature, released from its alien covering, " appeared strange to me, and, I might say, made almost an awful * impression on me. * Ah, my friend, is it not the same thing with our opinions, our " prejudices, institutions, laws and fantasies? Do we not become k frightened when one of those foreign, irrelevant, untrue environ- * ments is removed from us and any part of our true nature is to * be shown in its nudity? We shudder, we are ashamed. " Let me confess to you. then, that I was bewildered by the " splendid body, when the last covering feil away. W hat do we * see in women ? What kind of women please us, and how is it, "we confuse all our conceptions of them? A small boot looks " pretty, and we exclaimWhat a pretty little foot! A narrow " bodice has something elegant about it, and we praise the beau" tiful figure. " I describe my reflections to you, because I cannot represent to " you in words the series of ravishing pictures, which the beautiful * girl gave me the opportunity of seeing with all modesty and * decency. All her movements followed one the other so naturally, ' and vet they seemed to be so studied. Delightful was she whilst ' she undressed, beautiful, splendidlv beautiful, when the last covering ' feil. She stood, as Minerva might have stood in the presence 'of Paris." The feeling of awe, which Goethe so correctlv indicates, a mixture " appeared strange to me, and, I might say, made almost an awful of' fright at the unaccustoraed sight and a certain sensual excitement, is shared bv the doctor in the case of his first female patiënt, by the artist in that of' his first female model. lt disappears, as soon as the artist sees onlv the beautiful, the doctor the human in woman; and it very rapidly dies away when a man becomes accustomed to see the nude. Nowadays, when even the representatives of the German people have not shrunk from banishing the image of truth from their midst, because it was naked, (1) many are readily disposed to identifv nakedness with immoralitv. But nothing is farther from the truth. It is not nakedness that is immoral, it is the eyes of the spectator. He who only sees the woman in the nude body, who does not get bevond the first sensual inipression, and Iets himself be dominated by it, is immoral and transfers his own imperfections to the object he contemplates. Dress lias nothing to do with moralitv, but only with decency, with fashion. A nudity, which is prescribed by fashion, is never regarded as immoral. Anvbodv, who has happened to live among peoples who are entirelv or partiallv naked, soon becomes aware that clotliing stands in no relation to modesty, and he very soon notices in himself the broadening of his narrow European ideas. Von den Steinen, (2) excellently describes his American impressions in this connection. When I was travelling in the interior of Java in 1890, I met at Singaparna one morning large crowds of women, voung and old, stripped to the waist, who were going to niarket. The first impression was the feeling of awe described by Goethe, which was occasioned by the sight of female nudity in so great a mass in an environment that was new to me. But soon, in spite of many a truly classicallv and beautifullv formed woman s torso, I had a feeling of repulsion in the presence of the many ugly ones, which were exhibited in perfect innocence; and I suddenly understood (1) Before the opening of the new Reichstag building. A. D. 1895. (2) Unter den Naturvölkern Centralbrasiliens, 1894. why most women prefer to cover themselves, if fasliion allows it. Curious are the perversions of the feeling of decency under the pressure of circumstances. A European girl blushes, if she is surprised in her night-dress, but she exhibits herself décolletée at every ball. A woman in a dark-coloured dress feels extremely uncomfortable among ball dresses, just as a man in a morningcoat does among company in evening dress. In Batavia, where all the ladies put their naked feet into small gold-embroidered shoes, it was considered highly improper when a lady appeared in an hotel who had covered her legs with blue satin stockings, and by the very covering attracted attention to that part of her body. A naked child does not blush, when you look at it, but it does when caught telling a lie. A well-brought-up young lady does not easily blush when she is caught in a lie, but does so when a part of her body is bared. Education, so-called, has transferred the feeling of shame from the soul to the body. I think it superfluous to add to the examples l have given, (1) and believe I am right in inferring that our feeling of morality is innate, whilst 011 the other hand our feeling of decency is altogether dependent on the habits and customs prevalent in our environment. We in Europe unconsciously condenin the nude in Nature, whilst in art we liold the representation of it to be legitimate, and continually have it before our eyes. Therefore, as we do not know Nature, we applv to the beauty of the female body the standard which has become familiar to us in works of art. But again, we do not take it into account that the presentation of woman in art is subject to a certain fashion, a tradition, which has nothing to do with the conception of beauty as such, and cannot straiglitway be transferred to actual life. We find the Venus of Milo beautiful as she is. But if she were dressed according to the fashion of today, we should consider lier figure shocking; for her waist would considerably increase in size owing to the clothes. (1) See Ploss-Bartels, Das Weib. 1897. 1, pp. 359 sq. If, then, on the one liand, we consider the Venus of Milo beautiful, and on the other hand a small waist, we must infer from it that all slim women, when unclothed, are ugly, since thev do not possess the perfection of the Venus. Nevertheless, this is not the case, as experience shows. The further conclusion accordingly is, that, even if any one knows the Venus of Milo by heart, he is not in a position, nor is he justified in drawing any conclusion therefrom as to the body of a living clothed woman. But, further, we unconsciously take the old Greek fashions as a Standard for judging modern works of art, and also for judging lif'e in cases in which it confronts us in the nude. I will give only two examples. In the whole of classical art, so far as we know it, there are but two sculptures of a nude man with a moustache, namely " The Dying Gaul" and the Gaul in the Aria and Paetus Group. All the other figures are represented either with a beard or without a beard. It was not the fashion, either among the Greeks or among the Romans, to wear a moustache; in the statues I have named, it is precisely the barbarian who is thereby characterized. In spite of the fact that we see thousands of moustaches evervday of our lives, we hardly ever find them in art, except in portrait-statues. When we meet with moustaches in a man who is at the same time undressed, our feelings are estranged. We see, not the nude, but the undressed man, because—the old Greek fashion condemned moustaches. The presentation of the nude female body is another exaniple. It is alwavs exhibited without any hair on the body. Was this because it is ugly? No, but because it was customary among the old Greeks and Romans, just as it is even now among all Oriental peoples, for women to artificially remove all hair from their body. This is proved by the well-known verses in Martial II and Ovid's Ars Amatoria. There is a further reference to it in the 103rd. song of Bilitis, (1) where it is spoken of as a peculiarity of the (1) Louys, Les chansons de Bilitis, 1897. Heim, Bilitis' s a m m tliche Lieder, 1894. Many people regard the chansons de Bilitis priestesses of Astarte that: —"They never pluck their hairs out, in " order that the goddess's dark triangle may brand their abdomen, * like a teinple." Although the fashion of depilation disappeared from amongst us hundreds of years ago, it has been preserved in Art and thereby transferred to the ideal of beauty among modern men. How uncritically not only the individual man, but also the whole of so-called public opinion is influenced bv outward appearance, may be best seen by a comparison between Fig. I and Fig. 2. Fig. 1 is a reproduction of the Yatican Venus which has been freed from its tin casing (1). Fig. 2 is Falguières well-known portrait-statue of Cléo de Mérode, who is celebrated as one of the most beautiful vvomen living. The statue of Venus answers every requirement we may demand of a normal female body.—In the case of the dancer one remarks the artificially compressed state of the body below the breasts, owing to dress, the faulty position of the breasts, the faulty position of the knees, and the too heavy anklejoint (2). The modern conception of beauty is, therefore, derived from a knowledge of the head, hands and arms which is made possible by daily experience; and, as for the rest of the body, from a collective conception due to art-reproduction of the nude woman. The general opinion as to female beauty is, consequently, not an expert but an indirect one, which creates for itself false and unnatural ideals, through being led astray, on the one hand, by a represent- as a hoax. I refrain from expressing an opinion: buth whether genuine or spurious, they indisputably testify to the author's accurate knowledge of the data of antiquity. (1) It is Michaelis' great merit that the statue became know to the public in this forra. In the Kensington Museum there is a plaster-cast after the original, and there is another piaster cast in Munich. Cf. Bruckmann, Denkmaler griechischer und römischer Plastik, and Springer s Kunstgeschichte, Vol. I. 4th. ed., 1895.—Professor W. Michaelis writes to me: "There is yet another copy, which is a very much more beautiful " piece of workmanship, in the Vatican Magazines, a bronze-cast of which is "in Paris." (2) Cf. L. Pfeiffer, Angewandte Anatomie. 1899. Fig. 1. The Vatican Venus. ation of' the body which is not true to Nature, and, on the other hand, by corsets, boots and dress. All that I have hitherto said cliiefly refers to beauty of form. Fig. 2. Falguière's "La Danseuse". That it is much more difficult to have an objective opinion in relation to beauty of colour, everyone knows who has devoted anv time to the study of the theory of colour and the function ot the human eve: nobody knows it better than women themselves, who instinctively know hovv to lieighten their charms and conceal their blemishes by a proper choice of colours. It is still more difficult to analyse the beauty of movements, most of which are hidden to us by dress. But we must make yet a further limitation. Even the small amount of the female body, that can be seen daily, is not looked at with sufficiënt attention, because the eyes of the spectators are not practised. Let anybody try to picture to himself the features, the hair, the eyes and the hands of persons whom he meets every day. In the great majority of cases he vvill not be able to remember the colour of the hair and eyes, and the shape of the nose and mouth, unless they have left a deep impression on him on account of unusual development. Even the ears, which contribute a good deal to facial expression, are generally very superficially observed; whilst Mantegazza (1) tells us, with respect to the shape of the hands, that even painters did not know whether or not their second finger was longer than their fourth. A quite superficial notice is, in fact, generally taken even of the head, face, and hand. although we are every day able to observe them in considerable numbers; about the remaining parts of the body only a practised observer can draw certain inferences from gait and carriage; but most people are content with indefinite ideas that are derived from a usually superficial contemplation of works of art. In order then properly to understand this element in the modern standpoint, it is our duty to analyse the presentation of female beauty in sculpture and painting. (1) Physiologie des W e i b e s. German translation by Teuscher, 1894, p. 52. II. The Presentation of Female Beauty in Sculpture and Painting. The flourishing period of Greek art has exercised so powerful an influence on tbe modern ideal of beauty, that even accidents of the then fashion have been unconsciously transmitted into it. The art of sculpture indisputably reached its highest point in the time of Phidias, Polycletus and Praxiteles, and it is a question whether it will ever again approach the sarne perfection. It is, therefore, quite natural that the old Greek art should have appealed to all later art epochs as an unsurpassable model. Apart from Greek art, vvhich was followed by a slumber lasting for centuries, we have here to deal especially with the Renaissance. The Oriental elements, which have to be taken into consideration in the history of art, have nothing to do with the form of the female body. Nor has the Japanese influence in art been of such a nature as to deserve mention in this connection. The old Greek art took its subjects directly from life. Neither inclement vveather nor bodily defects caused the ancient inhabitants of Greece to conceal their beautiful forms by dress, and thus the primary condition of creative art was fulfilled: namely, that the artist should be able to make a daily study and comparison of' the different forms of the naked body in its most perfect moulding. By continuous practice of the eye the artist in those tirnes was able to create an ideal image for himself, for the realization of which he had at his disposal the finest models in the greatest profusion. Moreover, the public of those times saw the nude body everv day and were acquainted with it, so that much more could be expected of artistic productions; and such productions were far more expertly appreciated than is to-day the case with a public that is ignorant of the human body. Richer (1) has recently shovvn, with extreme acuteness, how much superior the artistic perception of the old Greek aitists was to that of all their successors. When he speaks about the representation of movement and calls attention to the fact that we, thanks to modern science, are able, by means of instantaneous photography, to record pictorially every single phase of movement, he points out that most of the later artists, following an unconscious tradition, never represented figures walking or running, but always only gliding or falling figures: whilst all the Greek figures, from the Tyrannicides to the Dancing Faun, proved to be accurate reproductions of positions which were perfectly true to nature. Besides their wonderfully keen artistic perception, besides the large number of pre-eminently beautiful models, the Greeks had at their disposal yet a third expedient for ensuring the fidelity to nature of their representations, namely: plaster-casts from life. According to Pliny, (2) Lysicrates was the first to introducé this method into sculpture. Anatoniy was unknovvn to the Greek artists until the Alexandrine school, as Chéreau (3) and Langer (4) have couvincingly proved. Langer points out that the best of the Greek sculptures are those whose subjects are in repose, " whose muscular niechanism is hidden." " On the other hand, in those works of sculpture that represent movement, faults, arising from ignorance, may often be taken exception to. Sometimes the muscular protuberances are incorrectlv grouped, at others they are handled confusedly and without distinction, like folds of the skin and protuberances of the (1) Dialogue suri'artetiascienc e.—L a nouvelle revue. Vol. 107 et S. 19. Année. La revue de 1'art ancien et moderne, 1897, fase. 3 & 4. (2) Quoted by Langer. (3) Dictionnaire encyclopédique des sciences médicales. (4) Anatomie der ausseren For men des nienschlichen Körpers, 1884, p. 30. sq. skeleton. What excites undivided and justifiable wonder in such sculpture, is the movement, and this lies much rather in the arrangement of the bodily parts than in the muscling." In other words, Langer means to say, that, in spite of subordinate anatoinical errors, the general impression of the moving figures is always true to nature: Kicher, as I have already observed, lias proved their truth to nature by direct verification with instantaneous photographs. Now, as moving figures are the most difficult to represent, because it is impossible to fix a model in the desired position, this similarity of opinion among such different judges is a fresh proof of the extraordinary keenness of observation of the ancient artists. (1) But, although the Masters of antiquity vvere able, in spite of their ignorance of anatomy, to produce the most splendid works owing to their artistically-trained perception and the large number of beautiful models at their disposal, yet the aina of their art was by no means an absolute fidelitv to nature in the representation of the human form. We should not forget, that Art among the Greeks was at the service of their religion, which prescribed the subjects for most of the artistic representations, although certainly in greater variety than did the Cbristian religion. The Greek artist, who represented the gods, was therewith compelled to idealise his tigure, and, in so far, to deviate from Nature. That the model played a by no means subordinate part in the transaction is shown by the example of Praxiteles, who, out of gratitude, set up the nude portrait-statue of Phryne in the temple at Thespiae near the Aphrodite; and, contrariwise, this instance proves that it was not a question with the artist of fidelity to nature in the representation even of the most beautiful model; for otherwise, (1) It has struck me that the Japanese artists also observe much more keenly than our artists and ourselves are accustomed to. In European pictures one always sees birds in the act of hovering, never in that of flying. Japanese representations of flying birds, which at first sight appear unnatural to us, are proved, on comparison with instantaneous photographs, to be perfectly true to nature. this act of dedication of the great artist, the juxtaposition of Goddess and Woman, would not be intelligible. What the Greek artist had to arrivé at was. to treat the model suitably to the traditions of the divine tigure that was to be represented, to generalise the individual to a certain extent, and to combine the divine type with the greatest possible fidelity to nature. And not onlv did the religious purpose of the work of art compel the artist to deviate from nature, but so also did the place in which it was destined to stand. If a figure standing on a high pedestal be reproduced according to natural conditions, it has, to the spectator, an appearance of being thickset and is uncomely, a fact which we can verify any day, when we look up at people from 1-ig. 3a. Aphrodite diadumene irom the Ksquiline. below. In such cases, tne artist has to unnaturallv and disproportionatelv increase the longtudinal measurements at the expense of the latitudinal. If we look at the statue from the front, all the nearer parts must seem comparativelv reduced in size, and all the more distant parts enlarged; we can easilv convince ourselves of the fact, by noticing the mistakes that occur in phütographs whichhave been taken from a wrong position. Lastly, a statue which is to be set up in a temple lias to harmonise architecturally witli its surroundings, and is thus dependent on a whole number of laws which may affect the form in the most various ways. The consideration of all those points required great practice and experience, it required the development of a certain systeni atisation of the relations of the several parts of the body, of a doctrine of proportion which, as might be expected and as was confirmed bynumerousmeasurements in later times, by no nieans always corresponds to the proportions of living beings. Sn flip pfprnal fmmnn . . i'ig. 3b. "Aphrodite diadumene" from beauty lives in all ancient the Esquiline. statues, but is nevertheless influenced by tradition, locality and the character of the personalitv to be represented. I will give but one example. Fig. 3 represents the " Aphrodite diadumene " from the Esquiline. Fig. 4 Alma Tadema's well known o " Sculptor's Model." Fig. 5 a fifteen-year-old Jewisli girl who is fairlv normally built. In the first case the legs, which are somewhat too long in proportion to the trunk, show tliat the figure was calculated for a pedestal: the upper part of the body which is bent somewhat backwards is, compared with the abdominal and lumbar region which comes forward, heavily elaborated, the head clearly represents the archaic type and is comparatively larger than is the case in other antique statues. The general impression of the whole figure is tliat of a young girl, half-child, half-woman, in her first bloom, a bud which is not yet quite opened. Alma Tadema, who tried to give in his „ . „ , , , picture the model of the Fig. 4. Alma Tadema. A Sculptor s model". Esquiline Yenus, has leng- thened the whole figure and removed all the convention from it; the proportions of the breast and abdomen are ratlier tliose of a grown-up woman, the navel is lower, the breasts are more strongly developed, the head is smaller; the girl is older and slimmer, and yet her muscular development is not so good and her thorax is not so beautifully formed as in the statue. But in the young Jewess we find approximately the same forms as in the statue, witli the difference that their perfection is due rather to fat than to muscular development. The relations between the head and the rest of the body agree rather with the statue than with Tadema's picture. Apart from the charm of the picture, we must confess that the Greek master could never have made his statue from Tadema's model: the comparison with the living girl teaches us that he had some such half-developed person to work from, but one with a broader chest and stronger muscular development, one of those compact, thoroughly healthy Backfische, who, after they reach their full length, grow into the most Fig. 5. A fifteen-year-old Jewish girl. beautiful wornen. And the size of the head, which is excessive and opposed to the tradition, points to the youthful age of the statue, which, on tliat account, I should not tliink to be that of Aphrodite; if, indeed, it is a goddess at all, it is a very youthtul Psyche. On 14th August 1485, a marble sarcophagus was dug up by some workmen in the Via Appia, which contained the enibalmed corpse of a young girl. She was of wonderful beauty and so well-preserved that she had the appearance of living. (1) So great was the concourse of people to see it that Pope Innocent YI11 had the body secretly taken away and buried, because he feared the effect on his saintly flock of tliis heathen competitor. "But," adds Vachon (2), " it was all very well for the Pope " to bury that woman's flesh, half-living, deep in the earth, to 4 throw that ephemeral flower into the gutter—that flower which * had opened again to the rays of the sun, after a night of several " centuries: antiquity was revived for ever in the marvellous re-birth " of Art, which had preserved from destruction and the grave the " secret of grace and beauty." On the ruins of Classical Art rose the building of the Renaissance: the relics of former greatness becaine a revelation for a new Spring-time of Art. But not a single one of its works bas reached, much less exceeded, the classical beauty, because the richest source of ancient inspiration was sealed to Modern Art: namely, the daily sight of the naked body in thousands of positions, and the sharpening of artistic observation thereby. The best of the later Masters clearly perceived this, and tried to make up for the deficiency by substituting for the intuitive imitation of beautiful forms a scientific, anatomical study of their foundation. Duval and Bical (3) have criticallv and carefully collected, and illustrated with admirable reproductions, the anatomical studies which most of the artists pursued in association with doctors. Among the artists are Leonardo da Vinei, Michel Angelo, Rapliael. Bandinelli, Cellini, Titian, Carracci, Kubens, Rembrandt, Dürer and many others. But if, on the one hand, this extension of their knowledge made (1)Lettre de Bartholomaeus Fontius aFrancescoEllac h e 11 e, translated and analysed by Hubert Janitscheck. L'art, vol IV. (2) La femme dans l'art. 1891, p. 194. (3) L' anatomie des Maitres. Histoire de 1'anatomie plastique. 1890. it possible for the great artists to improve on faulty models in their works, on the other hand, there was the danger that many of thero, seduced by sucli knowledge, would put more into their figures than was really to be seen, would in some measure, outstrip Nature, without making her more beautiful. Even great Masters did not escape (1). If they tried to ward ofï their danger by faithfully imitating Nature, there was the possibility that they might unconsciously transfer defects of the model into their works, and that the more, since they were not all fortunate enough to light on perfectly beautiful models. Not only the artist, however, but also the public, was unaccustomed to a daily view of the nude, and that is the reason why both the artist and the public became less fastidious and were contented with a lesser standard of beauty. The individuality of the artist vanishes more and more into the background, and whole generations may be blinded, by great improvements in technique or conception, to intentional and unintentional faults of another kind. It is not my purpose to give here a detailed criticism of the Art and Art-history of the Renaissance; it is sufficiënt for my aim to show by an example, how even connaisseurs may be led to erroneous conceptions through the prevailing current of opinion. I will take, for instance, the Florentine Venus of Sandro Botticelli, which in recent times has been awarded the throne of beauty by the Pre-Raphaelites with unanimous admiration. Brücke has already called attention to some anatomical faults in it (l c. pp. 25, 62, 81). Ullman, one of the best of Botticelli's biographers, also admits the anatomical errors to be such. He quotes the verses of Poliziano, which were probablv the basis of the picture, he debates thoroughly and in detail the possibility that Simonetta Catanea, the beloved of Guiliano di Medici, served as model for the Venus, and decides in the negative, because the only (IJ Cf. Henke, Die Menschen des Michel Angelo im Vergleich m i t der A n t i k e. Kostock. 1892. authentic portrait of Simonetta does not altogether tally with the face of the Venus (1). Compare with this Ernst Steinmann's lucubration: (2) " Frau Schönheit i9t's, Von deren Lobgesang Noch zittert Herz und Hand, Die du so oft erkannt Am (liegend goldnen Haar, Am flatternden Gewand." " In these verses frem a hymn to beauty by Rossetti the poetic magie, that clings to the birth of foam-born Aphrodite, is perhaps for the first time expressed in words. The billows, gently splashing, lapround the tossing bark, on the edcfe of which stands the fascinating goddess of love, covering her breast and lap with a chaste gesture. An endless abundance of golden hair flows ai'ound the Heavenly One This figure has rightly been esteemed to be the most beautiful Fig. 6. Venus of Botticelli. picture of Venus in later art: it can, in fact, only be compared (1) Ullman, Botticelli, p. 102. (2) Knackfuss, Künstlermonographien, 24, 1897. with the sleeping Venus of Giorgione, in which the purity of soul, that has taken up its abode in the chaste form of a perfectly beautiful woman, similarly delights us. This picture appeals to us like a saying from the golden age which Marsilio Ficino has described in his letters with such glowing colours. In' its presence the spectator feels as though he were an uninvited witness of one of the holy mysteries, which Nature has hidden in the great book of her wonders. With such reality is this incident reproduced, so vivid is the effect of the maidenly charm of the breathing goddess " etc., etc. The whole of this expectoration, from which I have omitted everything not directly hearing on the Venus, is made yet more superfluous by the picture accompanying it. Should Art-history be written like that? I think not. I should like to contrast this tirade with the following facts. Sandro Botticelli's figure of Venus is filled with a tender, sad charm, which makes a deep impression. If you look closely, you find in the long, narrow throat, the sloping shoulders, the narrow sunken chest, the low position of the breasts and the smallness of the distance between them caused by it, the well-stamped type of the consumptive, which, both in life and in pictorial representation, excites the deep sympathy of the spectator by its sorrowful beauty. When we consider that Simonetta Catanea was bom in 1453, and, after marrying Marco Vespucci in 1468, died of consumption in 1476, when she was not yet 23, it is more than probable that, as some writers believe, she reallv stood as model for Botticelli's Venus, and that the artist, from motives that are easy to understand, only altered the face a little. (1) Botticelli therefore, made his ideal out of the type of a beautiful consumptive woman, without knowing it. His admirers and followers also did not know it, and, striving after his ideal, they gave their healthy (1) In the portrait of Simonetta by Pollajuolo in the Duc d'Aumale's collection, the upper part of her body, which is nude as far as beneath her breasts, shows, in spite of its great beauty, every sign of consumption. (Engraving by de Mare in the Gazette des Beaux Arts, XXII). models the appearance of consumption and so created unreal hybrid figures. The conflict is especiallv clear in Burne-Jones, one of the greatest Pre-Raphaelites. In his Artstudies there are healthy human beings (1), in his paintings they have all become more or less consumptive. This single e.xample may suffice to show hovv, in the later Art-works, Nature and Art are involved in the most complicated relations. In order to be just to an artist, you must not only analyse with extreme care his works, hut also his life and the times in which he lived, and you will, even then, seldom succeed in distilling therefrom a passable ideal of beauty. The more we are able to find in actual life figures similar to subjects in works of Art, the more probable it is that the artist confined himself entirely to beauty in the life; and in this respect the nude female figures of Titian, Giorgione, Palma Vecchio and Van Dyck stand first. Rembrandt and Rubens are their equals in truth to nature, but neither of them had such beautiful models. We may measure the influence of the great artists on the modern ideal of beauty, by asking which are the works that are most widely known ? Tliey are indisputably the Yenus of Milo, the Venus of Medici, the Sixtine Madonna, (2) and the Madonna della sedia. We thus see that the classical art is even nowadays triumphant in regard to the female body, and that, of all later artists, Raphael was the only one who knew how to exalt the charming face of his Madonnas to a generally acknowledged ideal. And, in another way, we also see that * the great majority " are a stern and just judge and know very well how to distinguish the truly beautiful from the mean and mediocre. In Art, as in history, the best and least prejudiced connaisseur is posterity. (1) Cf. Studio, vol VII. p. 198 sq: and vol. XIV, p. 38. (2) Jelinek (Monographie: Madonna Sixtina, 1899) has with good reason doubted the genuineness of the Dresden Sixtina. If he is right, it only proves afresh the great power of the original, which could produce so profound an impression even in a faulty copy. m. Female Beauty in Literature. The representation of female beauty in literature may be viewed both from the artistic and from the purely scientific standpoint. The artistic standpoint has been dealt with bv Lessing in his "Laocoon", in which he defines the limits of what can be represented in painting and poetry (1). " Homer savs nothing about Helen except that she had white arms and beautiful hair. He paints her beauty by describing the impression she makes on the assembled old Trojans. Zeuxis painted her: his picture consisted solelv in the figure of Helen, who stood nude. " According to Lessing's theory the poet should substit.ute the look and the smile for the eyes and the mouth, should describe movements instead of slender limbs, and, instead of bodily beauty, the impression it produces. If the poet wishes to represent the beautiful points of a body, he should not describe tliem themselves, but the act of undressing which reveals them, or the impression they make on the spectator. Goethe's description of a girl undressing, which I have already given, may serve as a pattern. He says nothing about her body, except that the moulding of her face was beautiful and regular, and that her brown hair feil down her shoulders in long, thick tresses; no other parts of the body are mentioned. That they are beautiful, we divine from the impression they made on the wonderstruck spectator whilst she undressed. A painter would have had to represent, not the astonished vouth, but, like /euxis, the unclothed beauty. Another interesting example, which is treated of by two poets, is afforded by the well-known story of beautiful Ginevra. In Boccaccio, (2) Ambrogiuolo steps out of his chest in Ginevra's (1) Lessing, Gesammelte Werke, Cotta, 1886, II, p. 6*20 sq. (2) D e c a m e r o n, 2nd day, Ninth story. bed chamber and takes stock of the room. " Then he approached the bed, and savv that the lady and her young servant were in a deep sleep. He drew the covering off her body, and perceived that she was as beautiful naked as when dressed. He sought for a mark on her body, and at last found under her left breast a small mole, on which were a few golden hairs. And although, as he gazed at her beauty, an irresistible desire came upon him to kiss her and to enjoy her love, he covered her up again carefully, because he feared her anger". Shakespeare has dealt with the same scene in Cymbeline(l). Imogen sleeps. Iachimo comes from thetrunk. Iachimo. " Cytherea, How bravely thou becoms't tby bed! fresh lily! And whiter than the sheets! That I might touch! But kiss; one kiss!—Rubies unparagon'd, How dearly they do't!—'Tis her breathing that Perfumes the chamber thus: the flame o' the taper Bows toward her; and would under-peep her lids, To see th' enclosèd lights, now canopied Under these windows, white and azure, lac'd With blue of heaven's own tinct.—But my design's To note the chamber: I will write all down :— Such and such pictures;—there the window;—such Th' adornment of her bed;—the arras, figures, Why, such and such;—and the contents o' the story,— Ah, but some natural notes about her body, Above ten thousand meaner movables Would testify, t'enrich mine inventory:— O sleep, thou ape of death, lie dull upon her! And be her sense but as a monument, Thus in a chapel lying!—Come off, come otf;— [Taking off her bracelet] " On her left breast A mole cinque-spotted, like the crimson drops I' the bottom of a cowslip; here's a voucher Stronger than ever law could make* (1) Act. II, Scene 2. Boccaccio describes exclusively the impression of beauty. The reader can only guess from the golden hairs about the mole that Ginevra was blonde. Shakespeare only mentions the * fresh lily" colour, the " rubies unparagon'd" of the mouth and the bluish shade of the closed eyelids. Both of them are even more sparing than Goethe in the description of the body, but they depict all the more strongly the passions aroused by the sight of the naked beauty. In the poems of Bilitis an undressing-scene is handled with much skill, and a different artifice is used. The song in question (132) may be freely rendered as follows: — Blumentanz. " Anthis, die lydische Tanzerin, Ist in sieben Schleier gehüllt. Sie wirft den gel ben Schleier hin, Dem schwartzes Gelock enlquillt. Der rosige Schleier gleitet vom Mund, Der w eis se enthüllet die Arme zur Stund. Den rothen Schleier knüpfet sie ab, Der den sprossenden Busen entblösst, Der grüne sinkt von den Hüften herab, Von den Schultern der blaue, gelost. Doch den durchsichtig'n Schleier der Lenden. Bedeckt sie mit schamhaften Handen. " Man bittet. Sie wirft das Haupt zurück ; Doch wie nun die Floten erschallen, Zerreisst sie den Schleier Stück für Stück, Lasst ihn, den letzten, fallen. Dann, singend zum Tanze, pfiücket sie ab Die Blüthen des Leibes, die Gott ihr gab. 'Was ist meine knospende Rose? Die Brust. 'Was sind meine Veilchen'? Die Augen voll Lust. 'Die rothe Nelke? Mein küssender Mund; 'Die LilieV Mein Leib, so blühend und rund. 'O pfiücket, bevor sie verwelken, ' Die Rosen, die Veilchen, die Nelken.' " Here too, nothing is said of the several parts of the body, except that the hair is black and the breasts are small. That the eyes are blue and the mouth red is shown by the comparison with the violet and the carnation- The rest of the body is mentioned, not described. I am convinced that Lessing's artistic standpoint is the correct one, and I cannot help concluding with him that the best literary works chiefly affect the reader's imagination and are, therefore, the least calculated to give us a picture which we can directly compare with living reality ; the aim of the poet, when he praises beauty, is that every reader should imagine to himself he sees his own ladv-love or the woman whose bodily charms have made the deepest impression on him. And now we must turn altogether aside from the artistic point of view. If we place ourselves at the purely scientific standpoint, entirely disregard literary worth, and limit ourselves to the establishing of facts, many quite insigiiificant poetic productions have a certain value for our purpose, in so far as, on the one hand, they mirror the standard of female beauty that obtained in the vvriter's time, and as on the other, they are a criterion for a certain direction of taste in the conception of beauty. Research of that kind has a higher value in that, as experience shows, the fashion, that dominates poetry, alwavs similarly dominates painting and sculpture at the same time, so that we can discover the ideal of beauty at any given period botli in word and in picture. When Martial declares that the female breast should be such "ut capiat nostra tegatque manus", we may infer that in his time large breasts were not esteemed beautiful. We also find small breasts represented in all classical statues of women. We should never consider a girl with a regular swan's-neck and a regular wasp-waist beautiful: but such pictures teach us that a long neck and a narrow middle were once held to be attributes of the ideal beauty, and in a certain sense they are still. A glance at family portraits from the first half of last century, or at Gavarni's beautiful drawings teaches us further, that painting and sculpture obey the same conception. Houdoy (1), in a masterly work, has scientifically analised in this manner the ideal of beauty from the twelfth till the sixteenth century. Vachon (2), Ploss-Bartels (3), Mantegazza (4), Schaeffer (5), and many others have followed him. There is sufficiënt material in the art and literature of all peoples to build up an ideal of beaty of the civilised world, with all the variations of it that have been occasioned by epoch and trend of taste, even as Houdoy has done it for the later Middle Ages. But such a work would go far beyond the scope of this book, so I refer the reader to the authors I have quoted, and content myself with asserting that, in literature as in sculpture and painting, the ideal of beauty rests on observation of life, which always undergoes changes that are determined by fashion and artistic conception. That literary works may influence the prevailing conception of female beauty, is shown by the example of Rousseau, who by his E m i 1 e caused many of his feinale contemporaries to suckle their own children, and so brought it into fashion that full breasts were regarded as beautiful. Of the thousand descriptions of female beauty that occur in literature, I will give only one example which I take from Houdoy's book. I make this selection, firstly, because there is a portrait of the original in existence to compare with it, secondly, because there is in it a Standard for the judgment of female beauty, which we have not considered up till now, and which imperceptibly leads to the further development of our theme. It is Niphus' description of Giovanna d'Aragona, whose portrait, painted by Raphael or more probably by Giulio Romano (6), hangs in the Louvre in Paris. (1)La beauté des femmes dans la littérature et dans 1'art du XITe au XVIe siècle, 1876. (2) La femme dans 1' a r t. (3) Das weibliche Schönheitsideal in Das Weib, etc. (4) Physiologie des Weibes, etc. (5) Die Fr au in der venezianischen Malerei. Bruckmann, 1899. (6) The Gazette des bèaux arts, XXII, 465 points to historical docu- Houdoy gives Niphus' original Latin text side by side witli an excellent French translation. * The exalted Joanna is a proof that true beauty exists only in Nature; for she unites a perfect beauty of body and mind. " Her soul combines moral heroic greatness with gentleness (and in the latter lies precisely beauty of soul), so that she appears to be not of earthly but of heavenly descent. " The forms of her body are of such pre-eminent beauty, that even Zeuxis, who, in order to represent Helen, was compelled to unite the different charms of the most lovely maidens of Croton, would have been content with Joanna for his sole model, if he had had the honour of beholding her and recognising lier excellence. " Her figure is of medium stature, straight and delicate, adorned with the most marvellously well-proportioned limbs; she seems neither fat nor bony, but has a youthful fullness (succulenta); the colour of her skin is not pale, but plays from white to red; her long hair glistens like gold. Her ears are small and round, corresponding to the mouth (1). Small dark-brown liairs, not too thicklv clustered, arch in a half-circle tovvards the brows; her bluisli eyes shine brighter than any stars beneath the black, straight eye-lashes, and spread charm and joy around; the level and beautifully-formed nose descends straight from between the eyebrows; the little valley, that separates the nose from the upper lip, is of divine form. The small, sweetly-smiling mouth attracts kisses more than a magnet does iron; soft lips, honey-sweet and coral-red, surround it. The teeth are small, shilling like ivory and beautifully regular; her breath is the most precious perfume. * Her god-like voice has nothing human in it. A pretty dimple adorns the chin: on her cheeks plays the colour of the rose and of snow. The outline of her countenance is round, inclining to the masculine. " The straight, long neck rears itself full and white between the ments as a reason why Raphael could never have seen Giovanna, and only superintended Romano's work. (1) According to Agrippa, the ears combined should constitute a eircle, which should correspond to the size of the open mouth. glistening, well-arched shouldei-s whicli, in a broad surface, allow no bones to protrude. The moderately large breasts are equally rounded and resemble peaches, whose aroma they exhale. " The white hands are outwardly like snow, inwardly like ivory, and exactly as long as the face; the full, round fingers are not too short and have fine, arched nails of delicate tint. " The form of the upper part of the body is in general that of an inverted, rather flat pear, whose lower end is on the average narrow and round, and whose broad upper end is attached in wonderful lines and surfaces to the root of the neck. " The abdomen is flatly moulded and in good proportion to the hips and loins. The thighs are strong and perfectly round: the thigh stands to the calf, the calf to the upper arm, in the correct proportion of three to two. (1) " The arms are formed in divine proportion to the other parts of the body. " The feet are delicate and end in marvellously shaped toes. " The regularity of her build and her beauty are such that she may justly be reckoned among the immortal. " As, then, the spiritual properties, the cliarm and the beauty of this princess are so great, it may be inferred not only that the truly beautiful exists nowhere but in Nature, but also that nothing surpasses the human body in beauty." Better and quicker than this description does the more discreet portrait of Jeanne d'Aragon in the Louvre convince us of her bodily charms (Fig. 7.) YVhether old Niphus was able to study them practically as well as theoretically, is a secondary matter. (2) The main point is that he strives to persuade us of Jeanne's beauty not merely by an enumeration and description of the several parts of her body, but also by a comparison with a certain Standard, by the proportions of the parts among themselves. (1) That is, the circumference of the thigh=one and a half times the circumference of the calf; and the circumference of the calf=one and a half times the circumference of the upper arm. (2) Guyon (Diverses 1 e f o n s. III) points out that Niphus had, as doctor, frequent opportunities of seeing the body of the princess. He therewitli initiates the transition from the conception of the poet to that of the philosopher, who desires not only to evoke Fig. 7. Portrait of Jeanne d'Aragon in the Louvre. and represent an impression, but also to give the grounds for it. The theoretical considerations, vvhich gentlemen without knowledge of life have invented in their studies, have very little value for us. When Schopenhauer talks of the " short, narrow- shouldered, broad-hipped, and short-legged sexwhich is called beautiful, it only shows that his experiences of it were few and unhappy, and therefore he could not study it without bias. There has been no lack of attempts to divide the various forms of female beauty systematically: artists, philosophers and aesthetes have competed together in the endeavour. A. Walker (1) distinguishes three forms: locomotive, nutritive and mental beauty, and suggests as the type for the first Diana, for the second Venus, for the third Minerva. Lairesse (2) writes: "The beauty of a nude woman's portrait consists therein that, in the first place, the masses of the limbs are well-formed, secondly, that she has a beautiful, free and easy movement, and lastly a healthy and fresli colour." Others again differentiate between beauty which is noble or pretty, moral or sensiial, blonde or brunette. None of such divisions goes bevond the attempt and none of them is universally recognised. The onlv positive fact that has been evolved from all these attempts is the striving to discover a certain normality in form, in the relations of single parts to one another in respect of size, in fine, the doctrine of proportions. IV. The Doctrine of Proportions and the Canon. We have already seen that Niphus partly judged the beauty of Joanna of Aragon according to certain relations: the ears taken together are ecjual in size to the mouth, the hand accurately answers the Jength of the face, and the thighs, calt and uppei arm are in a ratio of 3 to 2 etc. (1)Analysis and c 1 a s s i f i c a t i o n of beauty in woman. London, 1852. (2) Groot schilderboek. Amsterdam, 1716. 3 Since the gray age of the Egyptians up to our own 1), the outline of the chest is gently merged in the lines of the lower bellv, whose even, flat arch is marked by the prominence of the muscles, especially to the right and left of the median line above the navel; the most prominent part is the comparatively fat ïegion about the navel. The first effect of tight-lacing is the appearance of a transverse furrow above the navel, which produces a rather niarked division of the trunk into an upper and lower part; the soft parts of the lower belly, that lie beneath that line, are pressed downwards and Fig. 32. Young Austrian woman, with a niarked furrow due to conipression. frontwards: the belly becomes round and prominent. Fig. 32 shows this disfigurement in an othervvise beautifully made body. In course of time, the tight-lacing becomes tighter, and the abdomen in consequence protrudes more and more (Fig. 33). In consequence of the inconsiderable convexity of the chest, the breasts tend to sink more and more. Owing to the hard compression of the abdominal muscles, especially the rectus muscles, that go from the mons veneris to the sternum, the outline of the lower belly is destroyed, as well as its main supports, so that it hangs flabbily down and becomes a pot-belly. Such a body is once and for all disfigured by the first confine- Fig. 33. Young woman with marks of very tight lacing. ment, by the least accumulation of fat: the abdomen and breasts become thicker and flabbier and hang down; a transverse, puffy fold takes the place of the waist, and the corset alone can, for a time, artificially simulate the lost form which it spoilt. A misuse of the corset affects not only tlie abdominal muscles, but also the development and action of the dorsal muscles. 6 Woman, who are accustomed to corsets, soon feel tired and complain of pains in the back, if they go about for any length of time without a corset In such cases the back, owing to the comparatively slight prominence of the muscular elevations, lias a hollow, flat, and but slightly modelled appearance. The tighter the corset is laced, the higher it is and the earlier it is used, the more injurious is its effect. It is easy to understand that, in the years of development, when the frame-work of the grovving body is still delicate and flexible, a comparatively trifling pressure sufflces to affect the form, and that the action of the muscles of the trunk is much more deeply and extensively impaired by a high corset than a low one, which merely spans the waistlikeabroad girdle. It is of course obvious that the effect of the pressure is intensified in proportion to the tightness of the lacing. But anatomical investigations (1) have shown that peasant-women who never wear corsets, often exhibit much deeper furrows of compression than tight-laced ladies; and the reason is that peasants draw their waistbands tight, and as their effect is confined to a (1) See Meinert, 1. c. Fig. 84. Furrows, caused by pressure of garters below the knee, in a young woman of '23. smaller surface it is all the greater. It is not permissible to argue therefrom in favour of a tight corset. But it may well be allowed that a corset is quite justifiable as a means of support for the clothing of the lower bodv, whilst, on the other hand, it must not be misused for the purpose of making an artificial waist. After the small waist comes the small foot, whicli every woman would like to have, and for the sake of which she spoils the natural beauty of that part of the body by unsuitable gear., A lady-artist, whose chief line of work is the representation of the female body in its highest perfection, once complained to me that she had never in her life seen a beautiful female foot—foot, not boots. She was still young; but I confess that, among the numerous female feet I have seen, there are very few that would stand much criticism. It is chiefly the distortion of the big-toe outvvards and the claw-like appearance of the smaller toes that disfigure the foot. The garter should be mentioned as the third link in the deleterious influence of modern female dress; according to the taste of the wearer, it destrovs the shape of the calf or of the knee. Rembrandt's models preferred the former alternative. The fastening of children's stockings to their stomachs, which is now in vogue, tends, according to Liicke, (1) to produce carvature of the legs. People would tlius have the option between furrows on the knee or calf, and crooked legs, unless they prefer the wearing of short soeks or very long stockings, reaching to the middle of the thigh. Fig. 34 shows the disfigurement of the calf by the pressure of the garters clearly marked. We have now discussed the three most important parts of female dress that may damage the beauty of the body, and we have, as the result, to guard against the disfigurement of the trunk by means of lacing and vvaistbands, of the feet by tight boots, of the knees and calfs by garters. (1) Quoted in Hoffa. Orthopiidische Chirurgie. 1894, p. 112. IX. appreciation of the Body Generally, from the given points of view. We have seen that the beauty of the feniale body is dependent 011 certain more or less definite laws, which have been partly empirically and statistically, partly exactly and deductively established. But in their application we must so far abandon the scientific standpoint, as to criticise individuallv in spite of them, and not to blindly generalise. That is the danger, which is mainly imminent in connection with the facts that have been empirically and statistically discovered. If, by comparing a large number of individuals, we have discovered a certain value, it is an average value, which should only be considered, at the utmost, as the lowest limit of the normal value, but in no case as a standard for "the normal individual Thus, R. von Larisch (Der Schönheitsfehler des Weibes. Munich, 1896), has propounded the opinion that women have too short legs, and, in proof of his statement, he has given 100 measurements of models which he carried out himself. Larisch's measurements only prove that there are many short-legged women, especially amongst artists' models; but this is also the case with men, and is, in both inslances, almost always the effect of rachitis. If we want to determine a normal value, it is not the number, but the selection of the persons concerned that gives the standard. We must first of all prune out all individuals, who have for any reason lost their title to normality. And the word "normal", in this sense, is, as will be shown, equivalent to " beautiful I have endeavoured to follow this principle as faithfully as possible. The medical eye is, like the artistic eye, congenital. It is not necessary to be either a doctor or an artist to have the eyes of both. But there are not only men who are colour-blind, but also men who are blind to form, who lack both qualities in a greater or lesser degree, and unfortunately there are a good many doctors and artists among them. The artist, like the doctor, sharpens his eye by practice, and both are obliged, in order to convince themselves of the correctness of their sight, to use certain technical aids, which enable them to compare their visual impressions with absolute values. We have now, first of all, only to do with the manner in which a man obtains a correct impression of the form of the female body, from the medical standpoint, and we have in connection with it. just as in the case of a patiënt, to begin by considering the figure generally, before we pass to a judgment of the several parts. It is important, in the first place, to set the nude body in such a position that the full light may fall evenly 011 it; as, for instance, opposite the window. When the lighting is oblique, it is difficult to compare the right half of the body with the left. The spectator should place himself at some distance away, with his back to the window, exactly opposite the person to be judged. The posture of the body must be upright, like that of a soldier, but the feet must touch one another in their whole length (Fig. 35). In this position one may, first of all, make oneself familiar with the proportions, the relation of the several parts of the body to one another and to the whole, and, where necessary, assist the eye with tape and compass. Zander's measuring apparatus answers all strictly scientific requirements. For purposes of quick observation, it is sufficiënt to take a few chief measurements, which have been determined by comparative measurements of well-made bodies. A. Measurements of height: 1. The height of the body is 71/* to 73/i times as great as the height of the head; the ratio 1: 8 occurs verv rarel.y. The average bodily height of European women is, according to Quetelet. 158 cm. 2. The middle of the body (Fig. 35) is equivalent to half the total height; in women, its position is approximately at the upper hair-boundary of the mons veneris. The slightest upward deviation of the centre indicates a defect in the lower extremities. 3. If the length of the arm is correct, the elbow-joint must be on a level with the waist, and the wrist on a level with the mons veneris, when the arm hangs motionless. 4. The length of the legs has already been determined by the position of the middle of the body. If the legs are quite straight and well-formed, they must touch one another, when in the position mentioned, at four points, namely, at the upper third of the thigh, at the knee, and the calf, and the ankle. In the case of youthful persons, whose calves are not yet fully developed, the third point of contact may fail, without the shape of the legs being therefore bad. If the knees do not touch, when the ankles are pressed together, the legs are bent outwards (bandy-legs); if the ankles do not meet, when the knees are together, the legs are bent inwards (knock-knees). The highest point of contact is dependent on the size of the thigh. Fig. 35. Symmetrical posture of the body. B. Measurements of Breadth: 1. The breadth of the shoulders is, both in the female and the male body, the absolutely largest of all the latitudinal Fig. 36. Normal male figure, nfter Merkel. Fig. 37. Normal female hgure, after Merkel. measurements; accurate measuring is made difficult by the great motility and the varyingly high and low positions of the shoulders. It is safest to start measuring from above, from the outermost edge of the shoulder-blade, the acromion (breadth of the shoulder-joint). 2. The breadth of the waist is the narrowest diameter of the trunk at the lower edge of the ribs. Fig. 38. Normal male figure Fig. 39. Normal female figure from behind, after Merkel. from behind, after Merkel. 3. The breadth of' the hips is greatest on the level of the externally perceptible projections of the thigh-bones (trochanters), and even below them; for determining the measure it is most advisable to feel through the skin for those projections of the bone and to begin measuring from them. The breadth of the hip-joint is more difficuit to determine, owing to the inaccessibility of the hip-joint; it is equivalent to half the breadth of the shoulder-joint. The characteristic form of a well-made female trunk results from the relation of these three measurements. In 25 well-built women I found the following proportion: It turned out that, quite independent of the length of the body, the latitudinal measurements always feil out in such a way that the breadth of the hips was 4- cm., and that of the waist 16 cm., less than that of the shoulders. If further measurements be required, either liicher's division into heads, or the methods of Fritsch or Langer can be used. The measurements given above are, however, sufficiënt for the judging of the general relations of the figure. But, besides that, one of the most important of the secondary sexual cliaracters, the conformation of the female trunk, is novv already established bv the latitudinal measurements. The secondary sexual characters can be clearly recognised in Fig. 36—39 (1), whicli represent the normal male and female figure, according to Merkel. The measurements for the trunk in Merkel's normal figures are: Apart from the absolute size of the measurements, it is particularly important that the ditference between the breadth of the hips (1) Fr. Merkel. Handbuch der to'pographischen Anatomie. Vieweg, 1896, Vol. II, pp. 182 & '256. The author and publisher of the book were so kind as to allow me to reproduce the excellent figures. Tlie proportions of the reproduction to the original are as 138: 165; the originals are one-tenth of the natural size. Length of body 155—170 cm. Breadth of shoulder 35—40 cm. Breadth of waist 19—24 cm. Breadth of hips 31—36 cm. Man. Woman. Length of body 165.5 cm. 158 cm. Breadth of shoulders 47 cm. 37 cm. Breadth of waist 25 cm. 23 cm. Breadth of hips 32.5 cm. 34 cm. Fig. 40. Norraal feraale figure. and that of the shoulders in a man is 12.5 cm., whilst in a woman it is only 3 cm. The preponderance of the hips in relation to the shoulders is the most important of the secondary sexual characters of a woman. One can further perceive from these figures the greater delicacy of a woman's skeleton and the greater breadth of her pelvis, as well as the alteration of the form of the upper body, caused by the development of the mammary glands, and the rounder female figure. In Figs. 40 and 41 are contrasted two photographs, taken from life, of perfectly normally proportioned human beings, who well express in their vigorous development the difference between the two sexes in bodily form. Although the muscular system of the young woman is exceptionally powerful, whilst the forms of the man are toned down by a certain amount of adipose tissue, yet the lines of the female body are infinitely softer and the preponderance of the region of the hip in the woman, and of the pectoral region in the man, can be seen at a glance. It was, up till now, generally taken for granted that the lumbar part of the female spinal colum is larger than that of the male. Merkel has pointed out that this is certainly the case, if the anterior side of the lumbar vertebrae be measured, but that the precise reverse is the case, if the posterior side of the lumbar vertebrae be compared; for the man is biggel" there. It follows that the female spinal column is more bent in the lumbar curvature than the male, a fact which is connected with the more pronounced inclination of the female pelvis. As for the external form of the body, a fresli sexual character results from this observation, namely, the female loins appear more drawn in, and the profile of the line of the back more bent than that of the male. This distinction is clearly seen in Fig. 25. When you have thus become generally familiar with the proportions and the development of the sexual characters, you must go on to form a judgment as to the symmetrical development of the body. This mav be donc, in a certain sense, by contemplating the human figure in frcnt, in the attitude I have already described. Fig. 41. Normal male figure. But it is better for this purpose that the person to be examined sliould stretch himself at full length on his back, whilst the student should go behind his head, and, from that standpoint, compare the right with the left half of the body in the foreshortening. In that way irregularities become much more easily perceptible. In doubtful cases, the number of which quickly diminishes with a little practice, direct measuring must decide. The weight of the body is decisive ofthenutritorycondition. As I have already said, it can be calculated, according to Vierordt's Fig. 42. Female and male torso in pronie, alter inomson. formula, from the length of the body and the circumference of the breast above the nipples. The normal average weight of a woman varies between 52 and 60 kilograms. A valuable indication for judging of the nutritory condition is the appearance ot the skin, its elasticitv, its brilliancy and its colour. A healthy skin clings smoothly, and without folds to the surface of the body; the natural folds in the flexion parts are smoothed out when the limbs are stretched. All protruding corners and edges of the bony frame are, particularly in women, smoothed out by the fatty deposit, whilst, in places where the skin is more closely attached to the underlying parts, dimples are formed, e. g. 011 the chin, the cheeks, the shoulders, the elbows, the loins. If a fold of the skin is taken up with the fingers, it is immediately smoothed out again. The injury to the elasticity of the skin caused by great emaciation has already been mentioned. W hen the elasticity disappears with age, wrinkles form, which appear first of all at the eyes (crow"s-feet). The skin has a dull, velvety sheen of soft smoothness. Poets compare it with ivorv, alabaster and marble: but artists know how difficult it is to give marble and ivory the appearance of the skin. The surface is not evenly smooth, but is picked out with countless minute clefts, so that it resembles in some respects an exceedingly delicate concrete network, and consists in a small beaded surface. The smaller the bead, the softer the dull sheen of the skin. With bad nourishment or illnesses, the skin becomes faded or discoloured: when there is excessive cebaceous excretion, it has a greasv, mirror-like gleam. It is as difficult to describe the colour of the skin as to reproduce it. It is compared with roses and lilies, milk and blood, wax and snow, and even with new-born lambs; the painter uses, in addition to white, vermilion, cobalt and yellow-ochre, all the colours of his palette, in order to reproduce the shades of the human skin. The uppermost layers of the skin are dully transparent, so that all the underlying parts more or less communicate their colours to the skin, according to its thickness, and thus constitute the different shades of the skin. The dark-red veins appear bluish; the brunette tone is a consequence of the greater accumulation of pigment in the corium, which gleanis brownly through. The tenderer the skin, the more vivid the colouration. Those parts of the skin which are not covered receive a deeper colouring, through the effects of cold and light. It is therefor that the skin reddens, when a person is much in the fresh air, and has a pale look in persons who pass their lives in enclosed spaces. The reason why the cheeks always appear redder than the rest of the face, is that the arterial blood-supplv there is most abundant and the skin most tender. The redness of the cheeks remains even in case of general pallor. The so-called hectic red, to which we shall return further on, must be distinguished from the healthy red colour. With good nourishment, the skin is generalij whitish, with a rosy shimmer; a yellowish or bluish colouring indicates illness, but also a bad diet defective in albumen. Like the skin, the fatty deposit underlying it is of varying thickness in different places in the body. We shall describe further on, how it is distributed; but it should be borne in mind that, as a rule, the skin is thinner and the fat deposit thicker in woman than in man. It is thus, that one never finds in a woman sharply defined muscles, marked off by furrows, sucli as are seen in male workers. The beauty of external forms is almost never injured in a woman bv vigorous muscular work, as I have several times had occasion to remark in female acrobats and circus riders. It has alreadv been pointed out that, by the excessive and exclusive use of one group of muscles the harmonious inipression of the whole body may be injured. In order to be able to form an o])inion about this, a more accurate knowledge of the muscles of the human body is necessary. These can be made more easilv visible than tliey usuallv are, by making the person to be examined go through certain movements, in which the several muscles come prominently into play. We shall return later on to the muscles, and their influence on the form of the various parts of the body. With a little practice, a ]>erson will soon be able to recognise the uniform development of them at a glance, by the modelling of the body. The best way to get acquainted with the muscles of the shoulder and chest is, to let the arms be slowly raised to above the horizontal and then lowered; the muscles of the abdomen and back are best seen by flexing and extending the upper part of the body and the muscles of the legs bv walking movements. If the rotundity of the forms is mainlv produced bv fat, the form of the bodv will reinain compa- ratively unaffected by all such movements; but when the muscular system is well developed, the rotundity caused by the muscles manifests itself clearly. We have indicated above, that besides nutrition and development, mode of live and heredity also have a great effect on the external form of the body, an effect which sometimes leaves it in doubt, how far it has been produced by one or the other of the factors mentioned. The two latter, mode of life and heredity, give rise to individuality, i. e. those varations from the general sclieme, which lend the individual figure its characteristic stamp. One can, as Langer (1) points out, gather together from the vast number of individualities larger groups with coramon characteristics, and, for instance, separate from one another figures that are tall, middle-sized or short, slender or thick-set. Langer finds that those groups are also subject to certain laws, so that tall and slender, short and thickset, generally go together. These are, however, individual variations, which may all be referred to the relation between the proportions of the longitudinal and the latitudinal measurements of the body. It does not matter whether the individual is tall or short, slender or thickset; he can only be held to be normal, if his proportions correspond to the laws already laid down. I believe that it is at present impossible to frame generally acceptable laws for judging individuality, but it is strictly necessary to take stock of the individuality in any given case. I do not believe that even Apelles was able, by combining the good points of the twelve most beautiful maidens of Croton, to create a body capable of life, even in a picture, because the harmonious conformation of the various individuals was thereby nullified. The creative artist, when he départs from his model, runs the risk of being untrue to Nature, because the laws, according to which every single body is developed as a microcosm, are only partially known. (1) Anatomie der ausseren Formen p. 79. We may here content ourselves with recording the following principles for the appreciation of individuality: Every woman has her own individuality, which distinguishes her from all other individuals of her kind. This individuality is founded on certain deviations from the general rules. These deviations give the body its personal stamp and are not to be considered as defects, so long as they remain within the fixed limits of the laws about proportions, symmetrie al development, uniform conformation and secondary sexual characters. For instance, a very deeply marked, inherited individuality may injure a woman's beauty, because it abolishes one of the most important secondary sexual characters, softness of the forms. A long nose inherited from a fatlier may destroy the harmony of the forms in the face of his daughter, but may intensify the strength of the features of his son. As we have now discussed the correct proportions, the nutritory and svmmetrical development, the proper growth of the secondary sexual characters, and the individuality of the woman under examination, it only remains for us to determine the period of the highest prime, before we pass on to a closer consideration of the several parts of the body. It is often difficult to discover in a single examination whether a woman has attained or passed her highest prime. It is generally accepted that the female body is fully developed in the 23rd year of age; but it has already been pointed out that the age in this respect is subject to very considerable individual variations. The appearance of the tirst menstruation is a safer starting-point. The later it is, the greater the probability of the highest prime being later also. We have in the proportions a further starting-point for judging the greater or lesser development of the body. In a newly-born female the head is relatively the largest part, the extremities the smallest. In order to attain to its full development, the whole 7 body must be increased at least three-fold; the liead, nieanwhile, becomes doublé its original size, the trunk increases three-fold, the legs four-fold. The liead generalij reaches its permanent length at about the thirteenth year of age, as also the trunk; hut the legs attain to it much later. Now, as the centre of the body is the lower the longer the legs are, the lowest position of the centre of the body must coincide witli completed growth. It is, therefore the more probable tliat we have to do with a developed body the lower the centre of the body is. And yet it remains in tliis lowest position at a time when the highest prime is gone, and therefore the proportions may at the utmost serve to distinguisli a body which is not fully matured, from a mature one, but not from an over-mature one.—The formation of the breasts affords the surest standpoint for deciding the question. The highest prime of the breasts and also of the body is reached, when their elastic forms have attained their highest development owing to the hard glands, not to a deposit of fat. It is clear from the foregoing, that in order to arrivé at the heart of things, we must put a few questions to the person under examination. Age, the appearance of the first menstruation, occupation, mode of life, and family relations may be important to us for the determining of individuality, the highest prime etc. We are therefore, in a certain sense, obliged to institute a catechism and to base our opinion partly on wliat we learn from the subject of our examination. But it should, at the same time, be borne in mind that this catechism, as also happens in the medical world, has only a subjective value, i. e., that we should only regard the result of it as trustworthy, if it agrees with the objective results obtained by us. This is a scientific requirement, and by no means indicates mistrust of women in general or of the person under examination in particular. X. Appreciation of tbc Sevcral Parts of tbc Body. Just as, when we examine a sick person, we subject his organs, after a general observation of his body, to closer inspection, we must now occupy ourselves in greater detail with the several parts of' the body. The later inspection is in so far the more difficult as we endeavour in the first case to seek out existing defects, in the latter case to weed out possible defects. The better our results are, the more readily may we exclaim with the old General: I can still see many defects that are not there. As we pointed out that, in considering the bodv generally, it is important to let the light fall fully and evenly from in front on the body, we must here point out, that it is often desirable, for the correct judgnient of parts of the body, to look at tliem in a side-and half-light, because the details of the figure become thereby more prominent (Cf. Fig. 22). But, besides this, we are often compelled to place the different parts of the body in different positions. The positions in profile and full-face are sufficiënt for the liead: but we shall see that, for the trunk and yet more for the measurements of the limbs, we shall often not be satisfied with that, but shall also be obliged to make use of the various phases of movements. A. H e a d. The form of the liead, considered as a whole, is essen tially dependent on the formation of the skull. But as 97 per cent of children are bom head-first, owing to whicli the back part of the cranial vault becomes, however slightly, fiattened (and the fiattening is seldom entirely made good again), the skulls are, in by far the greatest number of cases, unsymmetrical. As a rule, however, this abnormalitv is so small that we need not take it into account. The secondary sexual characters are clearly marked in the skull (Fig. 43). In the first place, the size. as well as the contents, ot the cerebral part of the skull are smaller in a woman, and so, too, is the size of the facial parts of the skull, compared with the cerebral part. The cranial vault is stronger and more uniform in a man: in a woman, the crown of the head is flatter and makes an acuter angle in profile from the forehead and the occiput than in a man. The frontal region is on that account shorter in a woman and more vertical than in a man. A woman's forehead, looked at f'roni in front, has a uniform 1 y convex formation, whilst in a man the frontal protuberances are strongly developed and give the forehead a more angular sliape. A woman's facial skull is broader and not so high in appearance, and, in comparison with the cerebral skull, smaller than a man's. The sexual difference of skull is therefore, in general, the following:— Male skull: angular, high, with the facial portion predoniinant. Female skull: round, broad, with the cerebral portion predominant. In respect of living woman, it is, in profile, especially t h e inflection between the forehead and the crown, and, Fig. 43. (a) Female. (b) Male skull. Modified after Ecker. en face, the relative s mail ness and roundness of the face, that can be readily observed, and when well-developed, they constitute an excellence of purely feminine conformation. Marked prominence of the frontal protuberances, vvhich, as a rule, is only clearly marked in an adult man, may occur in botli seses even in youth, and as a consequence of the English illness (tête carrée). Apart from the youthful age, the morbid origin of such cranial conformation may generally be known by the simultaneous presence of rachitic signs in other parts of the body. The upper part of the skull is covered with hair, which is never so long in a man, even if it is not cut off, as in a woman. A woman's hair attains an average length of 75 cm. (Ranke), and is, moreover, thicker than a man's (Virchow). It may even attain a length of 150 cm. and more (1). Long and abundant hair hair is therefore a secondary sexual character in woman, and an advantage in feminine development; and the longer and more abundant the hair is in any given case, the better. The next important part not only of the head, but also of the body, is the face. Individuality is most strongly expressed in the face. It is always uncovered, and exposed to frequent and thorough inspection; everyone knows the fine sliades of its expression, even if he is not able to explain them. 1'eople are so accustomed to judge solelv by the face, that, if it is beautifully moulded, it niakes them forget all the defects of the body; whilst an ugly face carries condemnation with it, in spite of any good points in the rest of the body. If we wish to ascertain what are the anatomical requirements of a beautiful facial conformation we must first of all go back to its embryonic development. We have already, by way of example (Fig. 18), referred to the development of the face, and mentioned what an effect the development of the middle nasal process has on the form of the upper lip. If we again look at the shape of the head of a human embryo, (1) I measured four woraen with especially beautiful hair, and found the length to be 120, 126, 130 and 153 cm.; 1 met in Munieh, in 1899, a lady whose body was 164 cm., and hair 155 cm. six weeks old, we see that the face is niainly constituted of seven processes, one unpaired, the middle nasal process, and three paired, the lateral nasal processes, the processes of the upper jaw, and the processes of the lower jaw, which latter are already deformed in the sixth week (Fig. 44). The regular form of the face chiefly depends on the even development of tliose processes, and it is the processes of the upper jaw that plav the greatest part in it. Each ot the processes mentioned contains, in their rudiments, the skin, muscles, blood-vessels, nerves and bones of the future face; it is especially from the last-named that we can obtain a standard of judgment. If we compare the skull of a newborn child (Fig. 45) with the enibyronic rudiment, we see that the bones belonging to the three nasal processes, the nasal bones and the middle jaw are far surpassed in growth by the bones of the upper jaw and zygoma. The bones Fig. 44. Head of an embryo, ot the upper jaw lorm tlie centre, rouna six weeks old. which the rest of the bones of the face nl and nm lateral and middle 2-anee themselves, as can easily be per- nasal process of the frontal » , ni.ru lobe, m s processes of the C6ived from r ig. -io. lliey nrst ot all upper jaw, m i processes constitute in combination with the of the lower jaw. narrow middle-jaw, the upper boundary of the mouth and the lower boundary of the nose; through the processes which thrust themselves further upwards, they define a part of the orbital cavity and separate it from the nose. Eyes, mouth and nose, the most important parts of the face, are thus brought into dependence on the developments of the upper-jaw. If we go a step further and compare the skull of the newborn child with that of a grown-up woman, the influence of the growth of the upper-jaw at once becomes manifest (Figs. 4(i & 47). If the superior processes of the upper-jaw are too strongly developed, the root of the nose becomes broad and the eves stand further apart one from the other (Fig. 47); if the middle parts are too massive, Fig. 45. Skull of a newborn child. The red line covers the facial part of the upper-jawbones. Fig. 46. Skull of a woman. with a narrow and long upper-jaw. Fig. 47. Skull of a woman, with a short and broad upper-jaw. they thrust the zygoma outwards, and the cheek-bones become more prominent, vvhilst at the same time the nose makes a larger angle forwards. The formation of the upper-lip depends, in the first place, as I have mentioned, on the development of the lower part. If the upper-jaw protrudes in an oblique direction (pr ognathism), and it is at the same time strongly-developed, it dominates the other parts of the face, and forms the type which is a racial peculiarity of the negroes. But a shortening and broadening of the nasal region go hand in hand with this strengthening of the upper part of the mouth, so that the nose is turned upwards and becomes broad, and, at the same time, makes the aperture of the nostrils visible from in front. A pronounced development of the lower-jaw is generally connected with it (Fig. 47). But if the inferior parts of the lower-jaw are narrow, and at the same time inclined to be perpendicular (orthognathism), the oral portion rather recedes, but, at the same time, the nose is narrower and longer in its lower part (Fig. 46.) Xumerous variations of facial conformation result from these factors. It is obvious that the other facial bones may more or less contribute to it. Anyone who is interested in the subject, will find further details in Langer (1). We have here confined ourselves to the upper-jaw, as being far and awav the most inportant of the facial bones. But now the question is, which is the best formation of the upper-jaw. We have here to take up a position in a question which has already occupied mens' minds and been answered in the most various ways. People say that the European always thinks the European women the most beautiful, the Chinaman the Chinese woman, the negro the negress, just as in the case of a dog and a bitch or a cock and a hen. Whence it has been concluded that the conception of beauty is individual and indefinable. But the conclusion I should come to would rather be, that the conception of beauty is more or less developed, and that a cock is less exacting than a dog, a dog less than a negro, and so forth. The conception of the highest developed individual can alone be a criterion, and it appears to me to be unquestionable that the Indo- (1) Anatomie der aüsseren F o r m e n. pp. 110 sq. German and liis descendants may rightlv lay claim to the first place. A most striking proof of it is, tliat we see how the race gradually forces back and rots out the other races, not only in Europe itself, but also in all other parts of the vvorld. In America, the Redskins are alreadv becoming limited in number, and in a few liundred years, it will be read, with shuddering, in old fairy-tales, that there once were men with a black skin. As we thus assign the first place in the natural-historical ranks to the Indo-German, by reason of his success in the struggle for life, we may further state that among the Indo-German women, those occupy the highest place, who have departed furthest from the characteristics of other races, i. e. from the more animal forins. As, therefore, a broad, short and prominent upper-jaw is the characteristic of the negro or monkey-type, the conformation of a face is the more perfect, in so far as the upper-jaw has developed to a more narrow, long and vertical shape, and the narrower its superior processes are. The consequences of such conformation are: a narrow, long nose, a uniform, rather vertical flattening of the lateral nasal part in the direction of the upper-lip, a vertical position of the teeth of the upper-jaw, and only slightly projecting cheek-bones. These excellences can be clearly perceived in the youthful face of a Roman girl of 13 (Fig. 48), whose facial oval is notably pure and regular. But, besides these racial excellences, the sexual secondary cliaracters in the facial skeleton have still to be considered. First of all, we have the above-mentioned relative smallness of the face in proportion to the skull. Further, the orbital cavities of the female skeleton are larger than in the male. The uniform rotundity of the female face can be seen in the skeleton. Two further essential secondary sexual characters contribute to it. Schaafhausen (1) found that, in women of all races, the central incisor-teeth are absolutely greater than in men; and as the central incisor-teeth correspond to the centre of the jaw (indicated in Fig. 48. South Italian Girl of 13. Figs. 46 & 47 by a dotted line), we may regard breadth of the middle-jaw and likewise of the central incisor-teeth as a beauty of the female body. The result is a greater breadth of the face in women below the cheekbones in the central p o r t i on s. (1) Quoted in Ploss-Bartels, Das VV e i b, 1897, p. 25. Lustly, Morselli (1) bas found out, by comparative measurings and weighings, that woman's lower-jaw is smaller and ligliter tlian man's. We may accordingly reckon, as another beauty of female conformation, a narrow lower jaw, with articular processes running obliquely outwards. Fig. 49. Samoan Girl. The result is again, a pronounced tapering of the face from the middle towards the chin. If we collate the results of the sexual differences mentioned, we come to the conclusion, that a well-developed bony subtratum of the female face is broadest on the level of the lower margin of the (1) Sul peso del cranio e della mandibola in rapporto col s e s s o. Firenze, 1876. orbital cavities, and tapers from there downwards in a pronounced and uniform way towards the chin. The total proportions of an evenly-developed skull must, according to coinciding measurements of numerous well-made individuals, be Fig. 50. Head of an Austrian Girl. such that the longitudinal axis falls into three equal parts, namely, from the frontal angle to the upper boundary of the eye, from there to the lower boundary of the nose, and from there to the chin; the greatest breadth above the temples should be to the length of the skull as 2 to 3. Besides this, the left half must, of course, be formed perfectly symetrically with the right. It foliows therefrom, that the principal forms of the face are determined by the bony substratum, but in such a way as to leave plenty of room for individual conformation witliin normal limits. It is a necessary requirement with both sexes that the teeth sliould be evenly disposed, white and smooth; in a woman there Fig. £1. Spanish Lady (Valencia). is, in addition, the greater breadth of the front, upper incisors to be taken into account. The muscles afford yet finer shades of individuality. Their apparent irrugularity becomes explicable (Merkel), when it is considered that they are all grouped about the apertures of the face, the eyes, the- ears, the nose and the mouth, as either constrictor or levator muscles. The constrictor muscles lie circularly about the aperture, whilst the levator muscles lie radially at the margin. But, again, the several muscles are interwoven, one with the other, and, moreover, tliey are difïerentiated frora the rest of the muscles of the bodv by the fact that not only the muscle as a whole, but also each single muscle-bundle, is capable of independent movement. This, for instance, is the origin of dimples in the cheeks, through the isolated action of a muscle-bundle which terminates at that particular point in the skin, and contracts in the act of smiling. There is an excellent description of the facial muscles in Merkel (1) and Langer (2). The muscles are the chiefest exponents of individuality, and possess for us here cjuite a subordinate interest as such. unless one chooses to reckon the delicate de vel op ment of facial expresion as one of the beauties of womanly perfection. To analyse in detail the expression of the face, which is the mirror of the soul, would be overstepping the limits of this book. But one peculiarity of the facial muscles, which Langer has especially pointed out, deserves our particular attention. At various places in the face, the termini of certain muscles are inwoven with the skin, for instance in the frontal region, in the ala: nasi, the lips and the chin. The limits of such inplantations are the eyebrows, and the oblique furrow between the chin and the lower lip, and further off, on both sides, two furrows, one of which descends from the ala nasi to the outer edge of the mouth, the other from the outer edge of the mouth to the chin; the latter is often united below the chin with the opposite furrow. This muscular conformation affects the distribution of the fatty deposit in the face. The fatty layer cannot develope within the boundaries of the firmly cohering muscles; we therefore see, even in cases of pronounced obesity, that the forehead, nose, mouth and chin are preserved from it, whilst the above-mentioned furrows become more and more prominent vvhen there is a great accumulation of fat in the cheeks. One or more rolls of fat form at the chin beneath the combined line of the lip and chin; it is the wellknown double-chin. As, therefore, a certain roundness of forms is peculiar to women, (1) Merkel, Topographische Anatomie, J, p. 100. (2) Anatomie der aüsseren For men, p. 129. though an excessive fullness is unlovely, we may niake it a condition ot' good development in a woman, tliat the above-mentioned boundaryline should be indicated, without being too pronounced (Fig. 54). Fig. 5'2. Viennese girl of' 15, with a dimple in her chin, pure facial oval, soft mouth, beauty-folds over her eyes, and abundant liead of hair. The dimple in the chin, an ornament to the female sex, is, like the dimples in the cheeks, caused by the contraction of' the muscles woven-in with the skin. In Austria, where the "Gruberl ini Kinn" is praised in raany poems and songs, it is of niuch more frequent occurrence than in other countries: chaeun prêche pour sa paroisse. A Viennese girl of 15, reproduced in Fig. 52, shows this beauty very fully developed. The filling-out of the cheeks with fat completes the rounding-off of the face to a regular oval, a long egg-shape, but only so long as is consistent with the elasticity of the skin. When the skin becomes flabby, the cheeks hang down and also become flabby. It is, therefore, an excellent, though not always permissible, way that elderly gentlemen have, of testing the condition of health of their female attendants by pinching their cheeks. We have already discussed the skin of the face. It is tenderest abcve the cheeks and always slightly red there in healthy persons, because the blood shows more clearly tlirough. A sharply-defined, circular, bright-red spot above the cheek-bones is a sign of consumption, and therefore not normal. The eyeballs reach their permanent size in the eiglith year of life, and are of the same size in all human beings. The apparent ditterence depends solely on the comparative largeness or smallness of the palpebral fissure, and on the comparative depth or prominence of the eye. Apart from the fact that dark eyes appear rather larger than light ones, the impression of size depends entirely on the environment of the eye. The eyebrows lie on the boundary between the orbital cavity and the lower margin of the forehead. As large cavities are a female secondary sexual character, the higher the eyebrows are arched, the more beautiful they are. As, furthermore, bushy eyebrows are characteristic of a man and a rather advanced age, narrow, smooth eyebrows may be regarded as a female beauty. It is held to be beautiful, when the eyebrows are long and pointed at the side, and ugly, when they are overgrown in the middle; but there is no satisfactory foundation for the idea. That, however, the entire lack of eyebrows is considered a disfigurement, is proved, for instance, by the Japanese custom (1) for married vvomen not (1) A few years ago I was able to convince myself, in Japan itself, that the custom is gradually dying out. only to blacken their teeth, but also to sliave oö' their eyebrows, in order to still their husband's jealousy. The angles of the eyes must, when the lids are closed, lie in a horizontal line; when the lids are opened, the inner angle, which Fig. 53. Japanese Girl, with Mongolian fold. falls into a round shape with the lachrymal fossa, is somewhat lower than the other. A pronounced heightening of the exterior angle of the eye is a peculiarity of the Mongolian race, and is therefore to be regarded as a defect in the Indo-German, without distinction of sex. Still, it should be pointed out that the obliquity of the Mongolian eye is only partly a real obliquity and that in many cases an apparent depth of position is produced by the so-called k Mongolian 8 Fig. 54. Female head, with good proportions and well-formed eyes. fold " (1). The * Mongolian fold " means that particular course of the upper fold of the eye (which also appears quite normally in Europeans) which runs horizontally between the eyebrows and the superior margin of the eyelid. But, whereas, in Europeans, this fold gently vanishes above the inner margin of the eye, as may be observed with especial clearness in Fig. 51, in the case of the Mongolian eye (Fig. 53), it falls down on the inner margin of the eyelid, entirely or partially covering the lachrymal sac, and disappears in a downward direction in the skin of the nose. (1) cf. Abelsdorff, Ueber Augenbefunde bei Malayen, Mongolen und Negern. 27. Versammlung der ophthalmologischen Gesellschaft. Wiesbaden, Bergmann, 1899, p. 269. A glance at Figs 51 and 53 will show the characteristic differences more effectively than any quantity of words. The position of the eye-lashes on the tarsal cartilage must be straight and regular; for scantv and irregular implantation points to illness, chiefly to scrofulous inflammation of the eyes. This, too, is common to both sexes. Two further requirements in the fonnation of the eye may also count as advantages in both sexes, although they are anatomicallv rather more connected with the female structure. Fig. 55. Head of Moorish Woman. First of all comes the size of the palpebral fissure and, next, the developnient of the fold of the skin, which, when the eye is opened, can be seen over the upper eyelid. The higher the orbital cavity is, the less does the fold of the skin fall over the lid, and the more softly will it melt away towards the temples. A palpebral fissure above the average size causes the eye, and therefore, also the orbital cavity, to appear larger. But as a large orbital cavity is a female secondary sexual character, a wide palpebral fissure and a fold of the skin hanging soft and high over the upper eye-lid may be declared to be predoniinately female beauties. Fig. 54 shows them, as well as the shape of the eyebrows, in a very good form, whilst in Fig. 31 the upper eyelid is completely covered by the fold of the skin. This fold is most pronounced in Fig. 51 and disappears very high up, whilst in Fig. 54 it continues very far outwards, and so lends the eye a dreamy look. The form of the nose is mainly determined by the bony structure together with the nasal cartilage. It is apparent from the foregoing that the form of the nose is good, when it is narrow, a point which chiefly manifests itself in a narrow, long bridge. Whether it then runs straight or is bent, is an individual variation within the normal limits. We have alreadv stated, in regard to the form of the mouth, that a well-developed upper-lip must be such, that the two outer edges turn gently inwards in a soft line, whilst the middle part, which springs from the nasal lobe, keeps sharply aloof. (Fig. 19). Accordinglv, the free middle of the upper-lip must point clearlv downwards. Further, when the formation is regular, the red of the lip must reach exactly to the curved edge of the lip and become narrower outwards. The under-lip lies on the upper-lip in a slight bow, which becomes broader in the centre. In a wellcut mouth, the upper-lip must project a little further than the under-lip. Whilst the other excellences are common to both sexes, the latter is another special advantage of the female sex, since it is originally connected with the smaller size of the lower-jaw in woman. The breadth of the fissure of the mouth is to the palpebral fissure as 3:2, and the eyes are separated from one another bj the breadth of an eye, so that the outer angles of the eye are doublé as far apart as the angles of the mouth. In embryonic life, the ear is very late of development, and shows in later life extraordinarily pronounced individual variations, which are scarcely noticed by most people. But the sculptors among the ancients knevv tliem very accurately (Winkelmann), and Bertillon lias, in recent years, made use of the characteristic points of the ear for the identification of criminals. When well and regularly developed the auricle lias, according to Langer, the following formation (Fig. 56). The tragus and antitragus, which are of about equal size, stand opposite one another at the external auditory canal, just like the helix and anthelix in the upper portion of the auricle. The helix encircles the outer rim of the ear in a long line, the anthelix pj pine]y formed eur, rises in the middle and splits in two in a^er Langer. front, whilst at the back it becomes flatter, '^/'.'(V'antl'enx.' combines with the helix and merges in the antitragus. The lobe of the ear bas a free termination. A defect, which is especially damaging in a woman's ear, is a too pronounced development and size of the auricle. Since the position of the external auditory canal, which is always 011 a level with the base of the brain, is definitely settled, it is, in especial, an excessive development of the upper part of the free auricle, which is disfiguring. When the head is held upright, the external auditory canal should be approximately on the same level as the upper edge of the ala nasi, and the upper end of the auricle must not be bigger than the upper end of the orbital cavity. The young woman of Schappach reproduced in Fig. 57 possesses a very beautiful and regularly formed ear. Looked at from the side, the most beautiful form of face is the Fig. 57. Young woman of Schappach. so-called Greek protile, in which the forehead runs in a straight line into the bridge of the nose. Brucke (l.c., p. 13) writes about it: "The antique model is regarded by many as an ideal, which cannot be found nowadays and which perhaps never existed, but it will not escape the notice of a careful observer that there are sometimes heads to be seen in Italy and even in Germany which approach this ideal very nearly. Fig. 58. Heail with classical cut of face. Photograph by A. Enke. According to a distinguished painter, who lived for sonie time in the East, the type can still be found in Smyrna in its full purity. " It is, as a matter of fact, not difiicult to find a pure Greek profile, or at any rate a profile very nearly approaching it." Fig. 58 represents Herr A. Enke's excellent photograph ot a gipsy with straight classical features, and Fig. 59 represents two Italian women, mother and daughter, who both show a pure Greek profile. Kig. 59. Two Italian women with Greek protile. Photograph by Pluschow. As Brucke points out, the classical sculptors gave the preference to the Greek profile in the presentation of their ideal forms, becau.se it afforded in every respect a good finish to the features. It also harmonises with the ideal facial type, according to the conceptions we have already developed, because its fundamental conditions are the high-arched eye-brows, a narrow long upper-jaw and a narrow bridge of the nose. But it is not the only possible ideal of beauty, and there may well be other types which should also be reckoned as beautiful. Fig. 00. Sevillana. Among sucli types tliere is, first and foremost, the socalled "Roman nose" which, when not too prominent and when the bridge of the nose is narrow, may heighten the individuality of a face without spoiling its beauty. Instances of facial formation of the kind are furnished by Fig. 51, and by Fig. GO, a young woman of Seville, who, it is true, represents the limit of the allowable. If the nose were a little longer, or even a little thicker, the harmony of the womanly forms of the face would be destroyed, the face would have a masculine stamp, and a defect would thus arise. And just as in the case of the Roman nose, aesthetic justification cannot be denied also to the nose that stops sharply at the line of the forehead. Profiles, such as Figs. 50 and 54 are beautiful, in spite of the angle bet ween forehead and nose. Certainlv, in such cases, the nose must be narrow, straight and not too short. All these variations within the established limits constitute, in the aggregate, the cliaracteristic signs of individuality, which is not so conspicuous and so developed in any part of the body as in the face. B. Trunk. In front of the trunk are the breast (in its wider sense) and the abdomen; behind is the back. lts connections with the head and limbs are the neck, the shoulders, and the hips. However obvious this division may be, difficulties are encountered at the mere attempt to sharply define the several parts. It becomes still more difficult if one takes into account the further names given to various parts of the body, such as the nape, the throat, loins, reins, haunch, the iliac and inguinal regions, stomach etc. Everv doctor is struck by the fact that most persons have but a vague idea where those parts are actually situated. For instance, a woman who complains of pain in the back, nearly always declares the loins to be the sensitive part; in the case of beef she knows very well how to distinguish the buttock from the fillet, but would hardly be able to indicate the position of the corresponding parts in her own body. There are even medical men, who are not able infallibly to distinguish all the various parts of the trunk, one from the other. The reason is because there are no fixed, ineft'aceable border-lines, and the transitions merge gradually into one another (1). (1) Cf. Merkel, Topographiache Anatomie, II, p. 180 sq. We shall therefore do well, first ot all to discuss tlie structure of the trunk as a whole, and then its several parts in their more or less sharply marked demarcations. The Trunk as a whole. The Trunk is distinguished from the head by the fact that the soft parts play a much greater röle in determining its outward form. The skeleton of the trunk is formed by the vertebral column, the thorax, the shoulder-girdle, and the pelvis. The relation of the skeleton to the surface of the body can be seen by Figs. 36 to 39, which at the same time make the secondary sexual characters of the skeleton clear. The vertebral column, when in synimetrical position, must be quite straight. Deviations from this point to rachitis, uneven development, tuberculosis and diseases of tlie lungs. Certainty as to the vertical direction may be obtained, in doubtful cases, by bending the upper part of the body forsvards, feeling through the skin on the back the spinous processes of tlie vertebrae, and marking them in black colour. 'I he points thus marked should lie in a straight line. A yet simpler way is to look for the spinous process of the seventh vertebra of tlie back, which is most prominent at tlie nape, and to suspend a plumb-line therefrom, which, when a body is of good build, should lie exactly in the fissure between the buttocks. The length of the vertebral column, to which the distance from the lower edge of the nose to the upper end of the anterior connection of the pelvis corresponds, is a constant nieasurement, which Fritsch, Carus & Schmidt have used as a modulus for determining proportions, as lias already been stated. It has also been mentioned, that a woman's vertebral column is in its lateral aspect more inflected, in the lumbar part, than a man's (Cf. Fig. 42). The thorax consists of the ribs, the sternum and the pectoral part of the vertebral column. When there is a good bodily conformation, the thorax should be strongly built, so that the ribs are almost horizontal at the back, and only tend a little downwards on the breast-side. 1'lie form of the breast depends mainly on its breadth and depth, as we shall see further on. A woman's thorax is generally narrower and longer than a nian's ; but it must always be so formed, that the angle made by the lower costal margin is only a little smaller than a right angle. It is longer in the case of the cask-shaped thorax of asthmatic persons, and smaller, often much smaller, in persons with a consumptive formation and in cases of distortion through tight-lacing. The distortions of tlie trunk caused thereby have been already shown in illustration; in Fig. 61 the distortion of the skeleton is made clear by a fresh example, which shows only a narrow fissure with a very acute angle between the free ribs on both sides. A glance at Fig. 37 will suffice to make the difference manifest. Tlie shoulder-girdle is only connected with the thorax in the supra-sternal fossa by the joints of the two clavicles. These and the sternum are the only bones which lie close beneath the skin in their whole length. At the lower end, the vertebral column is connected with the pelvis by the sacrum. A woman's sacrum is broader and shorter than a nian's; we shall see, further on, how this aft'ects the formation of the surface of the back. There are important secondary sexual characters to be noted in Fig. 61. Skeleton of the trunk of a voung woman of 25, ilistorted by tight-lacing (after Kudinger). the feinale pelvis. It is more spacious, the pubic arch is more obtuse and the pelvic hollows of the os sacrum are flatter and broader than in a man. It is therefor that in the female skeleton the pelvic region preponderates enormously over the chest, whilst the greatest breadth of shoulder in a woman exceeds the greatest 62 aml 63. Distortion of Skeleton through tight-lacing (after Sommering). pelvic breadth only by a little, whereas in a man it exceeds it considerably. On either side of the pelvis, the iliac erests lie close beneath the skin. The bones of the skeleton of the trunk that can be feit give us a certain po int d'appui for determining the boundaries of several of its regions. The clavicular margin forms the boundary between the neck and the breast: the lower costal margin that between the breast and the belly, and the iliac crest that between the belly and the hips. Whilst in the skeleton we are able to define precisely the shoulderboiies, the lunibar vertebral column and the sacrum, such demarcations Fig. 64. Muscular system of the female torso, from in front. are speedily obliterated in the living body by the soft parts that cover them. But we have, all the sanie, obtained through our knowledge of the skeleton a series of foot-holds, which are indis- pensable for the understanding and judging of the outward fornis. Apart from the skeleton, it is, firstly, the muscles and next, tlie Fig. 65. Muscular system of the l'emale back. fatty deposit of the skin, that determine the forms of the trunk. Fig. 64 shows the muscular system of the female torso when viewed anteriorly. Looking at it in a general way, vvhat strikes one is that the superficial muscles of tlie trunk are divided into three large groups. Firstly, those which together produce the anterior and lateral closure of the peritoneal cavity, secondly, those which go to the rig. oo. flacK-view 01 man anu woman, aiier moiw, ior a comparison of the distribution of the fatty deposit. (00000 = large accumulation of fat). shoulder from in front and from behind, from above and from below, and, lastlv, the muscles of the hips. Of these three groups, the first forms the connection between the thorax and the wall of the pelvis. Whilst the second connects and fills out all the sharp corners and edges between the shoulders, breast and back, and carries the outlines of the trunk over into the upper limbs in soft lines, the muscles of the hip are distinctlj separated from the rest of the trunk, laterally and posteriorly by the iliac crests, and anteriorly by the crural arch. The muscles are the same in both sexes, but weaker in the woman. The ill-development of them may disfigure the female as well as the male body. When there morbid disturbances of the uniform development of the muscles, it is, as we have already said, especially the muscles of the shoulders and hips that are first attacked. The bellies of the muscles should be clearly recognisable even in a well-nourished woman, in spite of the abundant fatty deposit. Apart from the fact that the latter is generalij more abundant in her than in man, it is especially the umbilical region, the hips and the lower parts of the back (Fig. 66) that have, in a woman, a larger and characteristic distribution of fat. This and other details will be yet further discussed. In considering the trunk as a whole, we have chiefly to pay attention to the uniform and symmetrical development of the skeleton, so far as it is accessible to the eye and to measuring, to the predominance of the abdominal and pelvic region in relation to the upper part of the body, according to the above-mentioned laws of the doctrine of proportion, and to the influence of tight-lacing. Plate II may serve as a pattern of a well-developed female torso. The several parts of the trunk. Breast. The breast, in the wider sense, is that part of the trunk which is bounded above by the clavicles, beneath by the lower edge of the ribs. lts special characteristic in a woman consists in the two prominences caused by the growing lacteal glands, the breasts, in the narrower sense, the most beautiful of the female secondary sexual characters. From the conformation of the breast important inferences may be drawn not only as to the breast, but also as to the body in general. 9 The thorax is the basis of the breast; I have already pointed out its relation to the other parts of the skeleton. The following conditions sliould be fulfilled in a normally built thorax, and their non-fulfilment is an anatomical defect. 1. The pectoral vertebral column must, when looked at in front, run perfectly straight in the median line of the body; in profile it forms a slight, backwardly convex arcli in its upper half. 2. The ribs proceed symmetrically in a uniform arch, lie almost horizontally at the back, sink rather deeper at the side, lie again horizontally in the line of the nipple and rise from theie imperceptibly, without inflection, towards the breast-bone. 3. The sternum lies a little lower than the most anterior points of the ribs, but uniformly follows their convexity throughout. The angle between the manubrium and the body, on tlie level of the second rib (Angulus Ludovisi), sliould not be conspicuously prominent. 4. The general arch of the thorax tums upwards in its higher parts (up to the fourth rib), in the middle parts (up to the eighth rib) it bends forwards, and onlv in the lovvest parts (up to the twelfth rib) somewhat downwards. The arch should be quite uniform, in profile as well as en face. 5. The lower edge of the ribs forms an angle of nearly 90° in the pit of the stomach. It may be added that. as a general consequence of these properties, the clavicles and the shoulder-blades lie flat on the thorax when the convexity is good. The commonest causes of defective formation are rachitis, the disposition to consuniption, and tight-lacing. Rachitis causes curvatures of the vertebral colum, and thereby unsymmetrical development, uneven convexity of the ribs, which, owing to their softness, are distorted bv strain and pressure, inflection of the breastbone between the manubrium and the body (chicken breast) and inflammation of the costal extremities, the result of which is a thickening and marked inflection of the thorax within the lines of the nipples. Owing to the pronounced inflection of the ribs the thorax in general becomes flatter and broader, especially in the upper convexity, whilst its lower parts fall markedly away. The disposition to consumption is indicated by a long, narrow chest. A consumptive chest, compared with a healthy one, exhibits accordingly, ribs that stand far apart from one another, which have a strong tendency downwards in their whole course, the result of which again is a slighter convexity of the upper parts and a too-slight expansion in breadth. The consequence is that the clavicles are more strongly curved, project further and are prominent, like the shoulder-blades. Deeper f'ossae tlien form under the clavicles. The lower costal margin forms a much more acute angle. By tight-lacing the chest becomes much narrowed in its lower parts, the convexity becomes slighter, and in particular, very much sharpened in the middle parts, so that, starting from the fourth rib, the arch, instead of tending anteriorly, tends rather inferiorly. The lower costal margin is an acute angle. The distortion, which is clearly seen in Fig. 61, is due to all these tliree causes, though chiefly to the latter. Diseases of the lungs, especially pleurisy when it occurs in youth, mav profoundly affect a portion of the thorax in its development, through adhesions. Absorptions or swellings then occur in the spot which was diseased, which disturb the symmetry. In a living woman we can only feel the chest through the soft parts. We may judge, whether it is well-formed or not, by its uniform rising and sinking in the act of breathing, and also by the shape of the soft parts, which is affected by the structure of the chest. Of the larger soft parts, it is especially the great pectoral muscles (pectoralis major), that influence the shape of the breast (Fig. 64). Their bundies spring up on the whole anterior surface of the breast from the lower costal margin, the edge of the breastbone and the lower surface of the clavicle, and combine in a pronounced venter musculi, whose tendon is attached to the bone of the upper-arm. The lower edge of this muscle forms the anterior demarcation of the armpit, which deepens when the arm is lowered, and becomes obliterated when it is raised. The stronger the muscle is, the more conspicuous is this line of demarcation, and the more evenlv does the upper arch of the breast merge into the shoulder. If the muscle is badlj developed, the shoulders come forward and there is a deep pit between shoulder and breast belovv the clavicles as far as the arm-pit (Cf. Fig. 26). The breasts lie on the great pectoral muscles, jutting only a little over the exterior edge of them (Cf. Fig. 64), on the level of the third to the sixtli rib. It follows frorn this relation between them, that the thorax, as well as the pectoral muscle, may have a very profound effect on the form of the breast in its narrower meaning. But before we occupy ourselves with the breasts, we must briefly consider the relations of the skin. The skin is especially tender and thin in the region of the nipples; in the centre, towards the breast-bone, it becomes somewhat thicker, and clings fast to the bony foundation on which it directly lies in this part. Towards the shoulders it also becomes thicker, and is again rather closely attached to the lower boundary of the underlying pectoral muscle; but a larger deposit of fat developes there at the same time, which cusliions the armpit, pushes between the second pectoral muscle and the thorax, and gradually merges in the lower boundary of the muscle anteriorly. Between the skin and muscle, above the fourth rib, beneath the nipple, is the position of the lacteal gland in a child, which does not come to development in boys, but begins to grow in girls from about the tenth year, and finally occupies the space between the third and the sixth rib. The lacteal gland, first of all, consists of a flat, disk-shaped body, whose excretory ducts lead to the nipples. They and their axis have an outward direction. Later on, two half-globular protuberances arise, which are primarily attached to the great pectoral muscle in their whole circumference. The larger the glands become, the more they stretch the skin in their vicinity, and thrust themselves between these and the underlying parts. But as the skin, when well-developed, clings firmly to the breast-bone, the looser skin becomes more stronglv drawn trom the axillary region, whilst a slight hollow, the bosom, is formed over the sternum, between the growing breasts. At the same time, the axis of the nipples turn rather more anteriorly. At the stage of first maturity the growing glandular body arclies Fig. 67. Austrian girl of 14 with a good setting of the breast towards the anterior axillarv boundary (right side). a little over the outer margin of the pectoral muscle (Fig. 64), so that the half-spherical breast stands oft' at a sliglit angle from the fold of the skin, which contains the pectoral muscle, and terminates the anterior axilla (Fig. 67, Cf. also Fig. 5). Round about the growing gland the fatty layer also increases more or less, which gives greater roundness to the form of the gland and makes the transitions to the surrounding parts softer. The more developed the gland is, the harder and more elastic the breast, whilst, if the adipose tissue is more strongly developed, the breast becomes larger and softer. The more firmly the elastic subcutaneous connective tissue is attached, the more difficult it is for fat to become deposited there, and therefore, a breast which predominantly consists of glandular substance, is generally found in union with a springy, elastic skin; but for the same reason, it is much more closely and intimatelv connected with the skin as well as with the underlying pectoral, muscle. The growing breast is prevented from hanging-down by the elasticitv of the skin and the close adhesion, and forms ,a halfsomething between a disk-shaped and half-spherical protuberance, which, when the skin is evenly stretched, rises evervwhere in soft lines out of the environment. But the tendency to put on fat generally goes hand in hand with a slighter development of the connective tissue and a slighter elasticitv of the skin. Breasts, therefore, which are predominantly constituted of fat are more flaccid, hang down, and are lower situated. and more apt to raise the skin in a fold at their lower edge, than in the first-mentioned conformation. The natural-historical value of the breast, however, depends on the development of the glandular body, so tliat, from this standpoint, we mav require tliat the breast sliould be hard and elastic, and not too big, and should be between a disk and a ha 1 f-sphere in shape, that it should adhere properly to its substratum as well as to the skin, tliat lts position should be between the third and sixth rib, with the nipple not lower than the fourth, and tliat there should be no fold of the skin u 11 der the breast. Moreover, the nipple must be properly and uniformly developed, and project a little above the areola. The dis tan ce between the n i p p 1 e s should always be meas- ured. When the breasts are \ve 11-deve 1 oped, the distance should not be less than 20 cm. The same point of view has always been taken in Art, and, above Fig. 68. North Gerraan girl of 16. High-Set breasts. all, in Greek Art, and so, in this case too, the normal coincides with the beautiful. Since we connect the idea of pendulousness with a low position ot the breasts, we consider tlieir high position beautiful. Figs. 68 & 09 may serve as exaniples. They represent two girls ot 1(5, the tornier of whoni is certainly more developed for lier age. Her youthful breasts are placed remarkably high; whilst in the latter case they are set strikingly low, in spite of their small size. The beauty of a high-set breast has a scientific foundation, because, when the thorax is well arched, the ribs are closer to one another and run more horizontally, so that the upper part of the thorax Fig. 69. Munich girl of 16 with low-set breast. affords a broader surface for the attachment of the breasts, a surface which is further broadened and rounded offby a powerfully developed pectoral muscle. In the case of a consumptive thorax the breasts are lovver, because all the ribs, and therefore the fourth rib corresponding to the nipple, run obliquely downwards and stand further apart from one another. Moreover, the breasts foliow all the more readily the laws of gravitv, the more sloping the chest is and the more flaccid the tissues. A fold of the skin forms under them for the sarne reason. (Cf. Botticelli's Yenus, Fig. C). Fig. 70 may serve as a pattern of a vvell-made breast. The thorax is well and uniformly arched, the clavicles do not Fig. 70. Well-formed breast. project, the breast is uniformly arched beneath them with a broad upper surface, without the ribs being visible. 1 he powerful de\elopment of the pectoral muscle can be noticed, apart trom the uniform convexity, by the marked conspicuousness of the anterior axillarv line that merges in the arm. The breasts are half-spherical, in a high position. they lie on the pectoral muscle for the most part, and form no fold of the skin. That they are ingrown with the underlayer, is visible in the right breast, which rises up together with the raising of the right pectoral muscle. The lower edge of the ribs forms a right angle in the pit of the stomach. Plate II shows the same proportion with smaller breasts, and Fig. 32 also, with a rather slighter development of the muscle and a larger deposit of fat. Fig. 71 may serve as an example of the badly-formed breast: it represents the consumptive type. The thorax is flat, narrow and but little arched, the clavicles and shoulders project conspicuouslv. The second rib and tlie position of the third, on the right side, are clearly visible in the side liglit. The pectoral muscle is weakly developed, so that the anterior axillary line is scarcely prominent. The breasts are sunken, and have drawn down the skin and the breast with them, which has given rise to an oblique line from the breast-bone outwards, which ends in a fold of skin under the breast. The nipple is betvveen the fif'th and sixth rib. As, in spite of all those defects, one cannot deny the figure a certain youthful charm, I am again reminded of the Venus of Sandro Botticelli, which represents the same type. Even disease may have its charm, but it is not beautiful. We have shown that the constitution of the breasts is dependent, apart from the glandular body itself, on the shape of the thorax, the strengtli of the muscles and the elasticity of the skin, and that the result is that a defect in one of those elements always means a disfiguration of the breasts. The thorax and the muscular structure have already been discussed, but the elasticity of the skin has only been mentioned by the way, in so far as a greater tendency to the formation of fat goes together with a smaller degree of elasticity. But, besides this, a diminution of elasticity may temporarily or even permanently disfigure the originally beautiful form of the breasts. Diminution of elasticity commences, when flaccidity follows a great tension or when the limit of extensibility is overstepped. The first occurs in cases of great emaciation and in pregnancy; the latter in cases of tendency to corpulence. Great emaciation, if it be a consequence of acute maladies or of a fatiguing mode of life, may easily be remedied by rest and good Fig. 71. Badly-formed breast. fare; and the temporary tumefaction of the breasts, caused by pregnancy, may be remedied without leaving a permanent disfiguration, and, in truth, if properly treated, this happens far more frequently than is generally believed to be the case. One of my lady-pat ïents, who lias had six children, showed neither in her breasts, nor in any other part of her body, the least traces of the pregnancies she had gone through. On the other hand, a tendency to corpulence generally spoils the form of the breasts permanently, and the more probably in cases in wliich it is united with unsuitable alimentation. It is a defect, which makes the breasts of by far the greater number of artists' models useless in a very short time. Those girls, who mostly belong to the poorer class, grow up with an inadequate meat-diet in meagre somatic conditions, in consequence of which. at the time of maturity, a certain fullness of the form results through a large deposit of fat, but, owing to the defective elasticity of the skin, it is of extremely short Fig. 72. Fully-developed breaBt of a duration. Bohemian beauté du diable. pjf, 72 shows a tran- O * ' sitory beauty of this kind. The forms of the tigure are thick-set, but pleasing; still, their rotundity is not produced by strong muscles, but by the fat-accumulation of youthful maturity. The breasts are round, well-filled and elastic; still there is not a good development of the anterior boundary of the axilla, which would prove the existence of a powerfiil pectoral muscle. The slanting line, which runs from the breastbone outwards and downwards, and separates the right breast from the bosom, proves the heaviness of the breast lias already dragged the skin down. With the least increase in weight the lower demarcation of the breasts will become a fold, and that happens when the youthful fullness vanishes by reason of a fatiguing mode of life or after pregnancy. The highest prime has been reached, perhaps it bas already gone by; it is bound to fade awav in one manner or another; it is the beauté du diable. Yery pretty and very true is the anecdote, which I believe, was told by Cabanel. He had hired as a model a very beautiful girl, and paid heavily on condition that she should lead a strictly retired life. One day he found her clianged and dismissed her. The night before, the voung woman had, for the first time, deviated from the mode of life prescribed for her. Fig. 72 may at the same time serve as an example of the proposition advanced above, that the quality of breasts is one of the best criteria for determining the highest prime of a woman. It may be said generally, that any diminution of a fullness once attained affects the body injuriously, and the breasts are the part of the body in which the slightest emaciation becomes first and most clearly visible. Before the time of highest prime there is a constant increase in the rotundity of the forms. After that time emaciation appears in them, or else a redundance of fullness accompanied by over-tension of the skin. During the highest prime, the form of the breasts must accordingly be such, that the least increase or decrease of their size damages the form. Both cases are characterised by the circumstance that the upper portion of the breasts becomes flat, whilst the lower portion becomes rounder, in consequence of which the axis of the nipple tends rather upwards at the same time. It may be further deduced from all the foregoing, that the highest prime lasts the longer, the more the form of the breast is shaped by the glandular body and the elements of the connective tissue, whilst, on the other hand, it lasts the shorter time, the more it owes its form to the fat-deposit. Small, flat, high-set breasts, with a finelv-arched thorax and a strongly developed muscle, last longest. Age lias little to do with the beauty of the breast; I have seen a girl of 15 with pendulous breasts, and a lady of 60, who, thanks to cold water and bodity exercise, lias, in spite of several childbirths, preserved the perfectly-beautiful form of her breasts. Abdomen. The abdomen is bounded above by the lower margin of the ribs, below by the iliac crests and the inguinal ligaments. lts form chiefly depends on its muscular tegument, and the form of the upper and lower osseous boundary. The conditions already mentioned for the lower costal margin also hold good in the case of the abdominal formation. The thorax must have a uniformly-arclied lower boundary, which meets the breast-bone at very nearly a right angle, in order to afford the abdominal muscles a broad surface of attachment. The pelvis (Cf. Fig. 37) lies, for the most part, concealed in the interior of the body; only the iliac crests and the symphysis pubis are close beneath the skin. In a woman's normally-built pelvis the greatest space between the iliac crests sliould be as least 28 cm., whilst their most anterior extremities, the iliac spines, should have an interval between them of at least 26 cm. Yet more important than the measurements themselves is the difl'erence between them in any given case, which should average 3 cm. and never be less than 2 cm. A third latitudinal measurement is the distance between the hips at the condyle of the femur (trochanters); it must be at least 31 cm., or 2 to 3 cm. more than the distance between the crests (Fig. 73). The difference in these three measurements allows of inferences being dravvn as to the form of the pelvic canal, and is therefore of great importance for obstetricians. The longer the measurements and the greater their differences between themselves, the better-arched the pelvis is and the more spacious its cavity. The normal average measurements, which have been established by numerous measuring, are: breadth of spines 26 cm., breadth of crests 29 cm., breadth of hips 31.5 cm. (difference 3 and 2.5 cm.). Fig. 78. Female pelvis. CC, breadth of crests, SS, breadth of spines, TT, breadth of hips, XX, symphysis pubis. A broad pelvis is a natural-historical proof of the fitness of the woman possessing it for reproduction, and is therefore the most important secondary sexual character. And it is regarded at the same time as a beauty from the artistic standpoint. So that there again we have eloquent proof, that the normal and the beautiful must often unconsciouslv obey the same laws. The smaller the arch of the pelvic hollows of the os sacrum, the more the spines must project outwardly, until tinally tliey are as distant from one another as the crests at their greatest distance. It may even happen that the spines may exceed in breadth the average distance between the crests. Experience teaches that in that case the pelvic cavity is greatly narrowed, and that such defects in the developnient of the pelvis are, in by far the greater number of instances, consequent on rachitis. But, simultaneouslv with the slighter convexity of the pelvic hollows, there is a slighter convexity of the muscular abdominal wall that springs from it; because, as the size of the osseous basis is smaller, it has to bear a greater burden, and, if it is not equal to its task, it sinks downwards, and a pendulous stomach results. The symphysis pubis lies behind the mons veneris, so that its upper boundary coincides above with the boundary of the pubic hair. lts most anterior point, when the attitude is upright, lies approximately in the same vertical surface as the spines (Cf. Fig. 42). From here, the inguinal ligament proceeds on each side towards the spines: it is closely bound up with the bones, and determines the lower limit of the abdomen. The anterior abdominal wall consists entirely of muscles and skin. The most important of the muscles is the rectus abdominis (Fig. 04), which descends from the middle of the lower costal margin to the os pubis. When it is well developed, two furrows should be perceptible on the right and left of it. It tliey are wanting, it is a sign of insufficiënt development. The rest of the abdominal muscles lie laterally above the crests and form the iliac region, which passes posteriorly to the loins; tliey should also be well developed, since they determine a proper transverse tension of the abdomen. Fig. 64 shows the position of the muscles, which, when well-developed, should produce two long central, and two short lateral, protuberances on the abdominal surface. This formation is to some extent affected by the distribution of the fatty deposit, which, in a woman, accumulates somewhat plentifully in the region about the navel and on the mons veneris. As this distribution of fat is a female secondary sexual cliaracter, it should, in normal conditions, be well developed. If we take it further into account that the lower belly is bound to be flattened and pressed back by the muscular masses proceeding from above and from the side, in so far as it lies beneath the muscles (i. e. the umbilical region is not intended), we may note the following points in a well-made abdomen : The abdomen is flatly arched; in the median line as well as on each side, at about a hand's-breadth from it, two furrows descend, which are gradually merged in the umbilical region that projects markedly and yet softly, but they become again rather more noticeable beneath it. The navel lies in a deeper cavitv, which is caused by the accumulation of fat. The iliac region is more strongly arched outside the later al furrows. The transition of all these furrows and convexities must be soft. Between the umbilical region and the mons veneris the profile shows a slightly undulating line, from which the mons veneris visibly protrudes. (lig. 74). Every deviation from these requirements is a defect, caused by bad nutrition, defective demarcation of the bones after rachitis &c., improper distribution of fat, inadequate development of the female sexual characters, and lastlv, tight-lacing. But, besides such defects, the conditions caused by them likewise become more and more pronounced. When the nutrition is bad, i. e. when there is insufficiënt meatdiet, the quantity of food necessary is larger and the intestines are more extended, so that there is an increase in the abdominal tension without any increase in the strength of the muscles: the abdominal wall becomes thinner, protrudes markedlv, and is badly shaped, with the result that there is a pointed belly. When an excessive deposit of fat is evenlv distributed over the whole abdomen, the outcome is a frog-belly which is uniformly round and unrelieved in its formlessness by any furrow. F ig. 24 gives a well-developed example of such formation. When the thorax is narrow, the course of the abdominal wall towards the pelvis is too much broadened, but the action of the rectus abdominis is especiallv injured when the breadth is small. When the convexity of the pelvis is inadequate, as especially often occurs in rachitis, a similar condition is brought about by the outward trending of the crests, a condition which is aggravated when there is at the same time a narrow thorax. The whole weight 10 Fig. 74. Undulating line of trunk in profile. of the abdominal viscera in that case rests 011 the lower portion of the muscular wall, which itself is situated in unfavourable conditions and projects more and more downwards: a pendulous stomach is the result. An excellent way of producing sucli deformities is the misuse of corsets. If the middle of the body be laced in, the inferior circumference of the thorax is first of all constricted, so that all the muscles are confined to a small surface. The rectus abdominis, on whose development the beautiful form of the lower belly mainly depends, is unable to contract, because the furrows caused by the pressure pass right over it; its superior parts are condemned to inactivity, whilst the inferior parts have to bear the whole burden of the down-pressed viscera. The iliac region is laced in laterally, and here, too, the muscles fade away and the fat sinks downwards. A single childbirth is sufficiënt to change permanently all these eleinents, which have been robbed of their resisting capacity, into a flabby, pendulous sack, and the birth itself causes the patiënt in question much more pain than was ever intended in the curse pronounced on woman after the Fall. Pregnancies in normal conditions onlv leave permanent traces, when they are very numerous and occur frequently, one after the otlier. But when the body is tight-laced, the gradations are: wasp-waist, pointed shape of belly, difficult child-birth, pendulous stomach, second difficult child-birth, wrinkled pendulous stomach. The beauty of the abdomen disappears quicker still, if it be tight-laced during pregnancy, whilst, on the other hand, it is preserved by being strongly compressed after child-birth. The scars of pregnancy, if the elasticity of the epigastrium is sufficiënt, vanish entirely, or at any rate, in great part. The abdomen passes at the groin in soft lines into the thighs; in the centre it is continued in the inons veneris. The slight, transverse fossa above it is at the same time the upper margin of the pubic liair. The growth of hair higher up is peculiar to man, and therefore a defect in woman. It has already been indicated that the layman, influenced by the traditions of plastic art, feels disposed to consider the hair on the mons veneris as ugly. The doctor, who is accustomed to see it, finds it natural, and therefore not ugly, when it is moderately developed. A strong development of hair is a fault, because it recalls animals and men, and thereby injures the female sexual character. Brücke (1) has discussed in detail the boundary lines below the belly and the tliighs of a woman. He distinguishes two chief forms; in the one, the lines of separation form an acute angle between the mons veneris and the thighs, run steeply upwards and unite with the pelvic line that leads downwards from the spines; whilst, in the second form, the lines of separation form a more obtuse angle and run further downwards towards the thighs. whilst the pelvic line descending from the spines passes above into the furrow between the mons veneris and the umbilical region. The first form is conditioned by a slight inclination of the pelvis, high iliac fossae, and spines situated near one to another; the second by a pronounced inclination of the pelvis, broad iliac fossae, and spines placed far from one another. Now, as a pronounced inclination of the pelvis (Cf. Fig. 42), as well as a broad pelvis, are characteristic of the female sex, we may, without hesitation, give the preference to the second form. Since, in this case, when there is a greater inclination of the pelvis, the rima vulvae also proceeds more downwards and backwards, it further follows that the form of the abdomen is the more normal and therefore the more beautiful, the less visible the pubic cleft is from in front in an upright attitude. An example of the first form is afforded by Fig. 67, in which the pelvis has not yet attained the full female development. Fig. 75 gives an excellent development of the second form; it shows a trunk which is also entirely faultless in other respects. Richer (2) mentions a third line, that runs rather higher and transversely between the navel and the mons veneris, as characteristic of the female sex. I agree with him, but still I consider the line to be an artificial product, as I have only seen it together with other consequences of tight-lacing. (3) (1) Brücke, Schönheit und Fe hier der menschlichen 6 e s t al t, p. 111 sq. (2) Anatomie artistique, p. 188. (3) Cf. Briicke, l.c. p. 87. Fig. 75. Body of an Austrian woman, with bpautifnl boundary-lines between trunk and thighs. The second line, which runs between the navel and the mons veneris, should, as Langer (1) also points out, only be visible at (1) Anatomie der aüsseren Formen p. 209. the sides and should be Hattened to a sliallow furrow in the median line. It only becomes prominent when there is an excessive fattv formation. The navel may be small or large, flat or deep, high or low. As a large navel is the outcome of a defective closing of the umbilical ring, a small navel must be beautiful, because it is the outcome of a better development. And as, in a woman, a large accumulation of fat about the navel, which at the same time deepens it, is one of her secondary sexual characters, a deep navel is preferable. The navel is lowest in a child, and, as the development of the body goes on it moves up higher and higher, in both sexes: a high position of the navel is accordingly a sign of good development. With regard to a woman's navel, we may therefore describe it as faulty, if it is large, flat and low in position, and as excellent, when it is small, deep and high in position. When there is a proper inclination of the pelvis, not more than the anterior third of the pudenda can be seen from in front, in an upright attitude. When the development is good, the labia form two elastic tuberosities which pass posteriorlv from in front and which, even when the legs are spread moderately apart, adhere to one another at the pubic fissure and cover the underlying parts. When the legs are stretched wide apart, the nymphae appear as a light-red, cock's-comb-like formation in the depths. Any flapping of the pubic fissure or jutting-out of the nymphae over the labia are defects. The latter is a frequent occurrence, even in Europe. In such cases, the nymphae acquire a brown colour. Among Hottentot women, the defect is very common and verv pronounced; it is called in German the " Hottentottenschürze" (Hottentot-apron). Back. The back constitutes the common reverse side of the breast and belly. The beauty of its form depends first and foremost on the normal structure of the bony substratum; and the principles I have just laid down apply to it also. ■ The vertebral column must,, when looked at froni behind, be quite straight. Curvatures, which must be regarded as so many faults, may arise from rachitis, from an improper mode of life, especially an over-strain in the early years of life, with or without rachitis, or from tuberculous diseases of the vertebrae. The vertebral column, in profile, should, in the upper part of the breast, bend a little backwards, in the lumbar part, forwards, whereby a slight roundness is produced in the region of the shoulders and a depression in the loins; tliis latter should be especially pronounced in a woman, because, taken together with the greater inclination of the pelvis, it forms a secondary sexual character. An excessive roundness of the upper portion of the back, the so-called " round back ", is a defect. Where it exists, the thorax is tlirust right back, so that the breast becomes flat and the shoulders droop forward. It is well known (1) that a formation of the kind is hereditary in certain races, and that it is of especially frequent occurence among the Jews. Fig. 76 exhibits the typical "round back". Hoffa alleges that such laxity of attitude results mainly from weakness of will. But a glance at Fig. 26 teaches us, that a defective muscular development is bound to have the same eftect. In the one case. accordinglv, it should be possible to abolish the defect by muscular tension, in the other, it would not. A too-pronounced depression in the lumbar region, a hollovv back, is also a defect, which must in turn cause a marked protrusion of the belly forwards and of the nates backwards. It happens physiologically in the later period of pregnancy, in which the preponderance of the greatly-distended belly is balanced by the backward-sinking of the upper part of the body; but it also happens in the case of all excessive inclination of the pelvis, as can especially be seen in inflammation of the hip-joint. A hollow back goes hand in hand with feeble development of the dorsal muscles. A curvature, such as is seen in profile in 1 ig. 42, may be regarded as norm al. (1) Cf. Hoffa. Orthopadische 0 h i r u r g i e, p. 221. Fig. 76. Round back. The spinous processen of the vertebral arch are clearly to be feit through the skin, and are partly visible, 011 the middle line of the back; the seventh cervical vertebra is most prominent to the eye in the nape of the neck. Lateral curvatures of the vertebral column are always accompanied by a defective formation of the thorax, as a consequence. The thorax must be well and symmetrically constituted behind, as well as in front. If the breast is flat and the thorax is overarched, the shoulder-blades become too projecting, and the shoulders sink forwards. If, as when there is a tendency to consumption, the thorax is too long and too narrow, the shoulders sink down and thrust out the lower angle of the shoulder-blades. If it is unevenly developed, one shoulder-blade stands higher tlian the other, and the one angle is more distant or is more slanting in regard to the median line than the other. Slight defects of the vertebral column, as well as of the thorax, may therefore be best judged bv the position of the shoulder blades. Thus, in Fig. 77, we notice a low position of the right shoulderblade, together with a pronounced protrusion of its lower edge; it is the first sign of an incipient curvature of the spine towards the convexity of the right half of the Fig. 77. Low position of the right shoulder, in a case of incipient spinal curvature, in a young woman of 23, of DutchEnglish origin. left, accompanied by a niarked That excessive narrowness of the pelvis is bound to spoil the conformation of the back is proved by the fact, that the sanie relation must exist in the case of the back between the breadth of the shoulders, of the waist, and of the hips, as 011 the anterior side of the trunk, and that a diminution in the breadth of the hips abolishes the female sexual character. But the sacrum is of especial importance. It is very much broader in a wonian than in a man, and contributes the more to the form of the back, since it lies close under the skin: to the right and left of it lie the posterior spines of the iliac crests that come from in front, and the distance between which gives the upper breadth of the sacrum, and must be at least 10 cm. The more uniform the arch of the iliac crests, the better the arch of the back in the loins; and the latter arch must correspond to the infero-posterior arch of the ribs, in order to make a uniform tension of the muscles attached to it possible. Whilst nearly all the lower-lying dorsal muscles run parallel with the vertebral column, and connect and round off the skeletal parts and allow their transitions to pass away, the higher-lying dorsal muscles, i. e. those precisely that give relief to the surface, all turn towards the shoulder (Fig. 65). In order to understand the delicate relief of the dorsal muscles, an accurate knowledge of them is necessary; it is sufficiënt for our purposes to point out, that most of the muscles lead to the shoulder-blade and from there to the shoulder, but that the great trapezius muscle and the latissimus dorsi lie above on each side in such a way that, besides their own movements, the movements of the underlying scapular muscles are, though veiled to a certain extent, marked in them in changeful play. Since the muscles proceed right and left from the centre, a groove will be formed between the bellies of the muscles, when the bodily development is good, and the groove will be the deeper the more the shoulders are thrown back. The groove ends flatly in the sacral region, because the bony structure is there attached to the skin. The relief of the back is completed by the skin with its padding of fat. We shall deal later on with the distribution of the fat on the shoulders; as regards the rest of the back, it is important to note that, in a woman, a thick deposit of fat extends from the hips upwards over the iliac crests and accumulates greatly to the side of and above the sacral region in the loins, and so rounds them that they slope away to the hips in a uniform arch. Richer lias drawn especial attention to the fact and has pictorially recorded the sexual differences in tliis regard (Cf. Fig. 4 7). The iliac crest is always more manifestly visible in a man. The skin in the sacral region always adheres more closely to the bony substratum, but it adheres most closely in the region of the posterior spines, where, when the formation of fat is adequate, two dimples, the sacral dim pies, are formed, which are clearly visible in a sidelight, and are a characteristic sign of beautiful, female bodily form (Fig. 78). It should be reckoned as characteristic of a well-constituted woiuan, that the distance bet ween those dimples is at least 10 cm. (breadth of the sacrum), that they are uniformly round and not Ion gis h (broad arch of the pih- I-'ig. 78. lieautifully modelled back of a young Javanese woman. bone), and tliat their union with the upper end of the fissure between the buttocks makes an angle of 90" (greater shortness of the sacrum than in a man). Fig. 79. Back of a Parisian woman Hattened by tight-lacin<,'. The young Javanese woman, Muakidya (Fig. 78), shows this contiguration of the back, and in her case it is certain that she never wore corsets. Tight-lacing, it is true, disfigures the back less and later in life than the breast and abdomen, but still it has a slowly-increasing injurious effect, especially on the development and conformation of the longissimus dorsi. That is why women, who are used to corsets and leave them off for a time, complain of spinal neuralgia. The injurious effect is externally visible in the weakly-developed iliac region and the flattening of the middle dorsal furrow ; later on, the whole back becomes Hatter, the muscular relief disappears altogether, the shoulderblades stand out, and the sacral region becomes hollow. Fig. 79, a young Parisian woman, shows the first stage, though the arcli is still wellpreserved. Besides clinging to the sacrum, the skin Fig. 80. Back of a young woman of Scheveninsticks close to the gen, with well-formed sacral f'ossettes. spinous processes in the whole course of the vertebral column, so much so, that, in some rare cases, shallow dimples are formed there. The more uniform the attachment is, the more clearly prominent the central dorsal furrow becoines, which is therefore dependent, on the one side, on a good attachment of the skin, and on the other side, 011 a strong development of the muscles and a proper convexity of the thorax. Fig. 80 shows a very beautiful development of the back generally, and of the central dorsal furrow in particular; it also shows a fine, well-marked sacral fossette. In Fig. 83, which is the side-view of the person represented in Fig. 75, the central dorsal furrow is especially well-developed. We see there, at the same time, that the beautiful form of the back coincides with that of the breast and belly, because the beauty of all those parts depends, on the whole, on the same conditions. Connections of the Trunk with the Head and Limbs. I have departed from the usual practice and treated, in the first place, of the head and the trunk: and it is only now that I am about to deal with the neck, as the limb connecting those parts of the body. But although, on the one hand, I cannot altogether avoid the risk of repeating myself, as also later on when I come to consider the shoulders, yet, on the other hand, I think I shall thereby gain in clearness. When the demarcations are undefined, it is, at best, difficult to draw a sharp line of separation, as I have already pointed out. Neck. By " neck * is meant the connection between head and trunk, and generally only the anterior side, the hinder part being described as the " nape ". The ideas are, in this instance, somewhat confused; anatomically, it seems best to describe the whole connection as neck; to call its posterior half, reaching to the shoulder-blade, the nape, and the anterior half, bounded by the clavicles, the bust. In everyday usage, the two latter terms have, as a rule, much wider meanings; in satires about women's fashions the meaning of the word " bust " is extended as far as the navel. The osseous basis of the neck consists in the cervical portion of the vertebral column, which is the sanie length in uil human beings, to a few millimetres. It proceeds in a gentle, anteriorly convex arcli. The upper line of demarcation is formed, in front, by the lower jaw, behind, by the base of the skull; the lower line, in front, is formed by the clavicle and, in the suprasternal fossa, by the sternum, behind. by the ftrst thoracic vertebra, together with the first rib, which is attached to it, and by the shoulder blade. As can easily be seen by comparing Figs. 37 and 39, the posterior boundaries are higher than the anterior, so that the neck, as a whole, is bounded above and below by two planes which run obliquely forwards and downwards. It obviously follows that, as the length of the cervical vertebral column is always the sanie, the apparent length of the neck depends solely on the position of the upper and lower lines of demarcation. The neck seems short, when the lower jaw protrudes downwards, or when the clavicles and thorax are raised iu front and the shoulders at the sides. Fig. 81 makes the relations clear. With respect to the upper boundary, we already know that a woman's lower-jaw should be small and shallow; it is a female sexual character which lias an effective influence on the formation of the neck, as we sliall see. The lower boundary depends, in the first place, on the formation of the thorax. Woman has, contrary to man, a rather narrow, long thorax, so that the neck does not stand out so prominentlv from the arch of the thorax. But if, as in the case of the thorax of consumptive persons, the ribs run forwards and downwards and stand far apart, not onlv is the chest flattened, but the upper margin of the sternum is also bound to sink down, and, with it, the inner extremities of the clavicles. At the sanie time, the shoulders also descend on the sloping thorax, so that there is an apparently long, t li i n neck, which is characteristic of consumption and therefore abnormal. But it must be remembered that a woman's clavicle is distinguished by tlie fact that it is more delicate, straighter and less prominent than a tnnn's, and that, when the thorax is normally formed, it is closely attached to it and descends a little Fig- 81. Female neck and shoulders in profile. I, II, III, IV. First to fourth ribs. K, sternocleidomastoid muscle. M, trapezius muscle. D, deltoid muscle. towards the shoulders. The defective formation, which produces the illusion of a long neck, may be perceived in the clavicles by the fact that, whilst the thorax is narrow and sloping, the curv at ure is more marked, so that they project more and the inner extremities are lower at the suprasternal fossae. When there is early ossification through rachitis, the outcome is a bulky, broad thorax, which, however, is also frequently Hat and even depressed, accompanied by thickening and curvature of the clavicles. The thickened and irregularly-curved ribs constitute, together with the prominent clavicles, a far thicker and buikier mass, which is at the normal level but makes the neck seem shorter and thicker through increase in mass. But, for the same reason, the shoulder bones at the same time project more, and in a more upward direction, vvhereby the shortness of the neck is further intensified. We thus see that the formation of the neck, so far as the skeleton is concerned, finally depends on the smallness of the lower-jaw, the straightness and slenderness of the clavicles, and the proper, uniform convexity of the thorax. We must accordingly reckon as defects; a strong development of' the lower-jaw in length and breadth, a pronounced curvature, thickening and projection of the clavicles, and a thorax which is too narrow and sloping, or too broad and bulky. Among the muscles, it is mainly the sternocleidomastoid and the trapezius that affect the shape of the neck. Their course can be perceived from Figs. 81, 64 and 65. The sternocleidomastoid runs on both sides from the suprasternal fossa and the inner edge of the clavicles upwards behind the ear. The anterior part of the neck betvveen them is occupied by the larynx, the trachea, the oesophagus, and the minor muscles surrounding them. The trapezius proceeds from the lateral extremity of the clavicle and upper margin of the shoulder-blade fanwise towards the vertebral column and the occiput. Their arch forms the line of the nape. The middle part of the clavicle is free between the two muscles, as can be seen in Fig. 60, and above that part, when the growth of the fatty cushion is inadequate, are formed those much-dreaded cavities, which are called in German Salzfiisser (salt-cellars). The other muscles of the neck do not alfect its outward form. The two sets of muscles above-mentioned are visible whenever the 11 liead is moved, if the development is good and uniform; but when the liead is held straight, upright and frontvvays, thev are nierged in the uniform rounding of the neck, with the exception of the anterior attacliment of the sternocleidomastoid near the suprasternal fossa. This latter should be clearly percepitible (Cf. Fig. 26); the lack of it indicates a swelling of the underlving thyroid glands, and, therefore, a disposition to goitre, which is morbid and ugly. The skin of the neck is tender in front; in the nape, it is rather thicker and adheres more closely to the otlier soft parts. The underlying adipose tissue rounds ott' the form of the neck. On the anterior side, between the sternocleidomastoid muscles, it envelopes the lower-lying organs, of which the larynx is the most important. And since the pomum Adami projects considerably in a man, a flat, uniform convexity of larynx must be considered as a characteristic and special excellence in the female sex. When talking of the liead, I mentioned that the deposit of fat accumulates largely on the sides in the buccal regions. When the lovver jaw is narrow, the fatty deposit passes evenly into that of the neck, so that \ve must regard the abolition of the submaxillarv angles and the soft transition of the cheeks to the anterior cervical sur face as female excellences, because tliey are suitable to the sex. For the same reason, the outline in profile from the chin to the neck should be soft and form, ifpossible, an obtuse angle, as the opposite can onlv occur, when there is a pronounced masculine development of the lower jaw. I have already spoken about the proper filling of the clavicular fossae. When all these conditions are satisfied, the neck, starting from the cheeks, constitutes in front a uniformly-rounded surface, which graduallv gets broader, and which passes evenly without any sharp demarcation over the clavicles into the thorax. Above the larynx are one or more horizontal furrows, the socalled * necklace of Venus"; they are a sign of proper tension, elastic skin and normal adipose tissue, and are always found in children and younf, well-nounshed individuals. Since they can only occui when the forms are soft, they are an especial excellence of female formation. These lightly-marked transverse lines over the larynx must not be confounded with the higher transverse folds, which form under a double-chin when there is an excessive development of fat. The line of the nape, which reaches down to the shoulder, is, as I have said, formed by the upper arch of the trapezius, which spreads itself evenlv at the dorsum and the posterior region of the shoulder, and allows the nape to dovetail in soft lines with the dorsum and shoulders. Excessive development of the latter muscle in athletes constitutes the so-called " bull-neck ", and is therefore uglv in women. When there is a uniform development of the muscle, the skin, and the osseous basis, the nape should descend towards both shoulders in a uniform arch, and gradually become flat in the middle beneath the seventh cervical vertebra to the central dorsal furrow. A thin neclc has been looked upon as a token of earlv'womanhood, and it has been asserted that even a single sexual connection is at once betraved by an increase of thickness in the neck. 1 ha\e not personally been able to corroborate the truth of tliis assertion. Brücke(l) has refuted the idea that the circumference of the neck should be equal to that of the calf, and he has shown by measurement that, when development is uniform, the calt is alw ays thicker than the neck. Shoulders. The connection between the trunk and upper lirnbs is the shoulder. lts form depends, tirstlv, on the osseous substratum, about which we have already spoken in detail. Normal proportions, therefore, require a good, uniform convexity of the thorax, a straight, tense clavicle that merges in the contour of the breast, and a well-litted, flat shoulder-blade. The muscles, that lead from the shoulder-blade to the arm, aie all covered by the great scapular muscle (deltoid, Fig. 81), which, when the proportions are otherwise good, chiefly determines the lorm (1) 1. c. p. 16. of the shoulder. It rises from the lateral inferior margin of the clavicle and from the crest of the shoulder-blade, and is thus a continuation of the trapezius muscle beneath that bony ledge. lts position and influence on the form of the shoulder are easily distinguishable in Figs. 64, 65 and 81 ; it is very beautifully developed in Figs. 27 and 92. lts main use is to raise the arm and keep it in a raised position. The great pectoral muscle, which is fixed near it to the bone of the upper arm, joins it directly in front. On the proper development of the scapular muscle depends the uniform, strong rounding of the shoulders, which is readily to be distinguished from another kind of roundness of the shoulder that is due to excessive accumulation of adipose tissue. The latter is a sign of more mature age and therefore a defect, because it conceals the underlying bellies of muscle. The beautiful form of the shoulder may be produced by muscular exercise, raising the arm etc., and may also be maintained thereby. Brücke(l) points out that the Albanian women, who carry their burdens on their heads or raised arm, have especially beautiful shoulders. On the proper formation of these muscles, which, in normal proportions, implies an analogous growth of the rest of the muscles, depends a development of the female shoulder, which manifests itself more or less clearly even in repose; it consists of one or two fossettes at the point where the skin is more closely attached to the crest of the shoulder-blade, at the boundary between the trapezius and the scapular muscles. When the arm is raised, and therefore the scapular muscle is shortened and thickened, those fossettes become a half-moonshaped furrow, which forms about the posterior and superior point of attachment of the muscle. (Cf. Fig. 159, right arm). This phenomenon is therefore to be regarded as a sign of good muscular formation, and should be considered a beauty. The position of the shoulders is very changeable. The shoulders (1) 1. c. of every individual rise and fall with every breath. Each movement of the arm alters the outline and position of the shoulders. (Cf. Figs. 64 and 65). So, for purposes of comparison, we should always insist on the symmetrical position of our subject, with arms hanging down; the movements, especially when there is lateral illumination, may give us valuable information as to the development of the muscles. The armpit is only visible when the arm is raised. As I have already stated, its limits are marked, in front, by the lower margin of the great pectoral muscle, and, behind, by the outer margin of the great dorsal muscle. Inwardly it is provided with a thick cushion of fat, which is particularly strongly developed between the pectoral muscle and the thorax. lts norinal formation depends on the proper development of the muscles constituting it, and on the proper convexity of the thorax. The skin in the armpit is, owing to the great mobility of the arm, very loosely attached to the substratum, whilst, at the shoulder, it is rather more closely united to the underlying muscles. As regards the hairiness of the armpit, what lias already been said as to the hairiness of the rest of the body holds good. A delicate down is normal, as a sign of maturity, and therefore beautiful: great hairiness is ugly in a woman, because it is reminiscent of the male and animal. Hips and buttocks. The osseous basis of the hips and buttocks consists in the pelvic hollows of the os sacrum, which are separated from one another in the middle by the sacrum, that thrusts itself in like a wedge. The fernale sex is characterized by a broad and low pelvic hollow of the os sacrum, by a sacrum which is broad and at the same time short in its upper part, and a pronounced pelvic inclination, by which a depression of the back is produced. When the bodily formation is good, the osseous basis must satisfy those requirements, and, further, the pelvis must be symmetrical and not be marked in any way by rachitis. Exteriorly, beneath the skin, there is only the upper margin of the pelvic hollow of the os sacrum, the crest, which is most manifestly perceptible at the anterior spine, and should go backwards in a uniform arch which is liigher at the side; its posterior extremity is recognisable by the fossettes I have already mentioned above the posterior spines. The latitudinal measurements, of which I have spoken, hold good for the appreeiation of the correct proportions. The anterior muscles of the hips extend in depth from the pelvis to the tliighbones, so that, taken toffether with the femoral muscles, they form a mass, which is sharply separated from the belly by the crural arch. When the thigh is bent, the line of demar/m/iuotu. j. gone into the fact that the Fig. 124. Easj' attitude on the . . . . .„ whole sole. wearing of heels, ït they are Fig. 125. Stiff attitude with not too high and too narrow, raised heel . , . , is by no means to be con- denined, as, on the contrary, it increases the beauty of the body, especially where short leg.s are concerned. We are only interested here in the fact that the form of the (1) Cf. Frauenkleidung p. 164. body may be decidedlv favourably affected by artificial heels, owing to the heightening, but well-built women with long legs can do without them. A variation of the natural easy posture is the position ot equilibrium, in which the pelvic parts are drawn backwards and the shoulders forwards. This is the typical attitude of many statues of Aphrodite: it is especially noticeable in the Venus de Medici. But, in this instance, a tension of the longissimus dorsi is requisite in order to prevent the body, which is slightly bent, from falling forward. It is generally supposed that the attitude of the Medicean \ enus is typical of the feelings of sharae. (1) It is not, however, correct, When a woman who is used to clothing is surprised in a nude state, she assumes a different position. The trunk is slightly inclined forwards, the shoulders are elevated and both arms are crossed above the breasts. The genitals are concealed as far as possible by placing one thigh over the other. That is the natural attitude which expresses the feeling of sharae. The attitude of Aphrodite which Art lias consecrated, is, in my opinion, a blending of this natural position with the original conception, according to which the goddess pointed with her hands to her breast and genitals as symbols of fruitfulness. In the eyes of the artist the goddess has more and more become a woman, for it is unthinkable that a goddess of beauty sliould be ashamed of her naked body. When the muscles of the back, thighs and nates are stretched, the natural easy posture passes into the extended upright posture; in the anterior aspect, this is the same as the symraetrical, upright, bodilv posture which has already been mentioned (Fig. 35). This posture, which is being used in modern Art more frequently than it formerly was, makes the severest demands on normal bodily relations. The slightest asymmetry of the two halves of the body can be recognised at a glance, and only a perfectly beautiful body (1) Cf. Havelock Kllis, Geschlechtstrieb und Schamgefühl. German trltn. by Kotscher. 1900. can make a good impression in that position. Nevertheless it is the basis on which all the other upright positions rest. In this position (Fig. 126), the axis of the trunk is perpendicular to the connecting lines of the shoulder and hip joints which it cuts in the centre, the axis of the legs runs nearly parallel to the trunk axis, and the weight of the body is equallv divided between the two legs. By lowering one hip and lateral displacement of the other the symmetrical position is converted into the " hip position", the " position hanchée" of the French. In this case the centre of gravity is changed, so that the chief weight of the body is borne by the leg of the higher hip, the "standing leg", whose axis runs slantingly outwards. The centre of gravity of the trunk is adjusted by the bending of the vertebrat column in the direction of the standing leg. The leg corresponding to the other hip, the "free-leg", is artificially prolonged by the lowering of the hip joint. The prolongation is balanced by a bend in the knee or by an outward-turning foot. Richer distinguishes two varieties of .sxr «»• * ,f«- i27>- In the one case (on the left) the axis of the trunk (a b) runs parallel to the axis of the standing leg (c d); in the other (on the right) the prolongation of the trunk axis (a b) cuts that of the standing leg (c d). In the first instance, in order to preserve the equilibrium, the upper part of the body must be much more bent over towards the Fig. 127. Hip-position, after Richer. side of the standing leg. At bottom, both attitudes are but variations of the hip position as a whole. If we applv the axis to a quite normally-made body in an easy hip-position (Fig. 128) in such a way that regard is had to the tlexion Fig. 128. Girl of 20 from the Rhine, in an easy hip-position. of the lumbar segment of the vertebral column (Fig. 129), we obtain a position which corresponds to Richers first "position hanchée . But we at once perceive, that onlv the upper part of the axis of the trunk runs parallel with the axis of the standing leg, whilst the lower part cuts the axis of the leg. Fig. 129. Proportions of the young Rhenish woman. If we now imagine that the young woman rocks herself on lier hips in this position, the right hip will move alternately laterally and towards the medium line, and at the same time the corresponding leg axis will pass to the ground in a more or less oblique line. The centre of gravity of the upper part of the body is Fig. 130. Two girls of 16 in hip-position. Back view. Photograph by Recknagel. adjusted by a corresponding greater or lesser inclination of the lumbar segment of the vertebral column. The further the hip moves laterally, the more the body approaches ■ Richer's second position: the more the hip of the standing leg approaches the median line, the more it corresponds to the first position. The bodily form is influencea by the hip-position in this way, that half of the body, which corresponds to the standing leg, becomes flexed. whilst the other half becomes extended. Since the line of the pelvis and hip and, therefore, the female sexual character, is strongly marked in that posture, which is so great a favourite in plastic art, it must be considered an advantageous posture which heightens the beauty of the forms. It can be endlessly niodified by greater or lesser flexion, by rotation of the trunk or its parts, by movements of the arms and of the head. Knock-knee, which is a very common defect in women, is entirely concealed, if the posture in question be skilfully adapted, but it is easier in the anterior aspect and in profile, than in the posterior aspect. Fif 130 affords an excellent example of the good and bad effect f5 * of the hip position. In the case of one of the girls, who has a perfectly normal body, the youthful female sexual character acquires enhanced beauty throufh the pronounced convexity of the left line of the hip and pelvis. In the other case, there is knock-knee, the skin is slack and the back is over-arched in the region of the shoulder. The inwardturned knee becomes more ugly in this attitude. A conspicuous skin fold has formed over the left hip, and the irregular curvature of the back is more prominently defined. In the first case the position enhances the excellences, in the second, the faults. From what has been said we may draw the conclusions, that the extended upright position is only beautiful where a perfectly made body is in question, and that by the hip position the beauty of the normal body maj be enhanced and trifling blemishes bidden. The sitting position. An inclination of the thigh towards the trunk is an indispensable condition of the sitting position. The trunk may, at the same time, 16 be in the most diverse stages of extension, flexion and rotation. Figs. 102, 103, 108, 120 and 121 afford a number of examples, to which we can refer. Since the line of the body as a whole is interrupted by the flexion of the thigh, a beautiful body will never be able to reveal its excellence so iully in a sitting posture, as in an upright one. On the other hand, all bodies possessed of legs that are too short, or that are not quite straight, look far better sitting than standing, because a comparison of the longitudinal measurements of the upper and lower body is impossible to the eye on account of the sitting position, The same is, of course, true of the kneeling, squatting, riding positions etc. We may notice the changes of the form of the trunk in different sitting positions, in their uttermost extrenies in two photographs of the Fig. 131. Sitting posture, with flexed upper body and elevated arms. same person (Figs. 131 and 132). The upper body of the young wonian sitting (Fig. 131), who is of fairly normal frame, exhibits all the signs, that have been described above, of the third stage of flexion. A doublé waist-kink and the pectoral fold appear as a result of her rather slack skin. When the trunk is extended and the arms are elevated, the excel- lences of the trunk are brought into splendid relief, especially the breasts, whose form is perfect. It follows that the sitting posture is the more beautiful, the more extended the upper body is at the same time. Fig. 132. Sitting posture, with extended upper body and elevated arms. Having regard to what has already been said about extension and flexion, we may lay it down as a rule for the sitting position and its influence on bodily beauty, that perfectly beautiful bodies are seen to less advantage in the sitting than in the standing position. In the case of short or crooked legs, accompanied by a beautiful trunk, the general impression of bodily beauty is enhanced by the sitting position. It is a position which affects the bodily form advantageously, in ratio of the extension of the upper body. Fig. 133. Girl of' 13, sitting with legs apart. A union of the sitting posture with postures indicative of violent motion of the limbs is only endurable, when the tension of the skin is verv elastic, otherwise the harmony of the forms is impaired. Fig. 133 may serve as an instance of the extreme limit of the allowable: it represents a girl of 13, whose attitude corresponds to that chosen by Klinger for his nymph. In the case of an adult the position would give excessive prominence to the hairy genital region, and the figure would acquire an unwomanly character. The lying position. Numerous transitions from the sitting to the lying position are conceivable, which are mainly differentiated from the former by the slighter flexion of the legs. Fig. 134 may be taken as an illustration. The trunk is in the third stage of flexion: the flexion-folds are more pronounced towards the left side, owing to rotation in this direction : and, owing to elevation of the arms, the character of the flexion is toned down, especially on the right side, where the vigorous raising of the arm coincides with extension of the right upper half of the trunk. On the other hand, on the left side, the flexion of the trunk is balanced by greater extension of the leg. The body, in spite of its full forms, appears in an advantageous light, through the coincidence of these factors; a lowering of the right arm would suffice to spoil the impression. In the lying position, properly so-called, we have principally to consider the laws of gravitation, apart from the factors of extension, flexion and rotation. All the soft parts, which are not supported by bones, fall towards the lowest point, and the more so, the heavier they are, and the less they are held back by the elasticity of the skin. A few examples will suffice to elucidate the different effects. The most propitious conditions imaginable occur together in the case of a slim body, with an elastic skin, in an extended dorsal posture (Fig. 135). The right half of the body is somewhat higher than the left, and the tense abdomen is in consequence more flattened on the right side than on the left. Owing to the simultaneous extension of the arms, the breasts are raised high and at the same time flattened, but still we notice that the left breast, following the law of gravitation, has gently drooped into the armpit, and is clearly marked otf at its anterior margin. When women have weak breasts, the breasts become so flattened in this posture, that their presence can only be recognised by the somewhat noticeable fullness in the Fig. 134. Half-sitting, half lying position. armpit. This position therefore makes the general impression of the female trunk more youthful, and, when the breasts are inconsiderably developed, approximates it to the fornis of a child. In Fig. 136 we see a young Austrian woman of distinct stoutness and whose skin has little elasticity, in a half-bent dorsal position with slight rotation towards the left. The character of the flexion is intensified by the lowering of the arms. Fig. 135. Extended dorsal position. ltalian woman of 20. Photograph by Plüschow, Rome. We see much more clearly here, that the principal bulk of the lower belly, obeying gravitation, has sunk towards the right; the breasts have sunk towards both sides and downwards, and the left breast has developed a fold at its lower circumference, ovving to the pronounced flexing and displacement of the arm. In this case, the raising of the left arm would not, as in Fig. 136. Flexed dorsal position. Austrian woman of 20. Photograph by O. Schmidt. Fig. 134, suffice to give the breast a fine shape, because the fold would still remain under the breast, owing to the bending of the left half of the body. The slightest bending would bring out the blemishes in a body of that type. We may conclude the list of examples with a comparison of the different positions of a model, who is not altogetlier faultless. All the photographs were taken by O. Schmidt in Vienna. We have the same person in an upright attitude with lowered arms (Fig. 137), in an upright attitude with arms raised (Fig. 138), in an extended dorsal position with arms raised (Fig. 139), and in a flexed, lateral position with lowered arm (Fig. 140). We notice in the first position (Fig. 137) that the model has vigorously developed breasts, which, owing to their weight, and the lessened elasticity of the skin, have fallen down and are to a slight extent pendulous. There is a compression-furrow running obliquely above the waist, as a consequence of unsuitable clothing, the abdominal muscles are hardly prominent, and the abdomen is too convex in its lower parts; indeed, owing to the hip-position being on the right side, the excessive convexity is more noticeable on the left than on the right. These blemishes are diminished in the extended position with arms raised (Fig. 138), but they are not removed. The breasts are only a i>'ig. 137. Female model in upright little liiglier, they drop a attitude, with lowerod arms. great deal over the lower edge of the pectoralis major, and the pendulousness of the breasts is still clearly recognisable. The oblique compression-furrow remains, Fig. 138. The same, with arms raised. Fig. 139. The same, in extended dorsal position. Fig. 140. The same, in flexed lateral position. whilst, on the lower belly, the muscular relief is rather more visible in the median line, because of the tension of the rectus abdóminis. In the extended dorsal posture (Fig. 139), nearly all the defects have been remedied. The abdomen is flatter, and is even a bit sunken in on the right side. The convexitv of the breasts is good: they are no longer pendulous on the lower surface: and it can only be observed that something is not as it should be, because the left inferior pectoral segment deseends too low into the armpit. In the flexed lateral position, the want of elastic tension in the skin may be recognised first of all by the excessive prominente of the waist-kink above the right hip, but mainly by the extraordinary hanging-down of the abdomen over the right thigh : the right iliac region has become quite hollow, and the half of the abdomen which is situated on the left side of the navel is pressed flat and broad on the substratum. Although the right arm hides the breasts almost completely, their pendulousness can be detected on the right side because of their lower fold. We observe by this example, that, when the bodily structure is indifferent good, the extended dorsal position is decidedly the best for concealing and mitigating defects. As the back, owing to the powerful development of its skeleton on the greater part of its surface, is but little affected in any positions by the weight of the soft parts, its forms, especially in the recumbent position, do not change far so much as do those of the breast and abdomen. Still, even the back gives evidence of good or bad bodily formation. Fig. 141 shows the back of an Italian girl with a slim body, an elastic skin and a developed muscular system ; Fig. 142 shows an Austrian girl of 18, with slack skin, considerable adipose tissue and a feeble muscular development. The first shows a bodily outline which is soft in all parts and yet strong: the form of the buttocks is, in spite of their small size, particularly fine and is not in any way flattened. The other body corresponds to what the French call "potelé". All the forms are softer, the right buttock, which lies underneath, is much flattened, and the lower boundary of the left buttock Fig. 141. Italian girl of 13: recumbent position: back view. Fig. 142. Australian girl of 18: recumbent position: back view. proceeds more markedly downvvards than in the Italian girl. A waistkink, which is a defect in this position, lias developed itself over the hip. It may be remarked, in conclusion, that any shortness of leg or arm can scarcely be noticed in the lying posture. The reason is, because our eye is much more readily accustomed to applv a standard in a perpendicular position, and therefore finds it far harder, and often altogether impossible, to distinguish smaller longitudinal differences in a horizontal direction. An admirable illustration is afforded by Therese Schwartze's (Plate VI) beautiful hand-drawing from a model with faultless proportions, whom I had myself the opportunity of measuring. The legs seem at first sight too long: but if the picture be looked at in an upright position, the uniformity of the body becomes obvious. The exact opposite is the case with the well known Yenus of Urbino, whom Titian clearly represented in a recumbent attitude, solely because the legs of the model were too short. The conclusions to be drawn, as regards the beauty of positions of the body when at rest, are as follows: A beautiful female body is beautiful in every position, and the slimmer it is, the more beautiful. Nevertheless good points are shown to best advantage in extension in all positions. The extended dorsal position is the most favourable. Trifling blemishes may be to such a degree concealed by appropriate positions that the body seems normal. But, in choosing such bettering positions, care should be taken that the elements of extension preponderate over those of flexion. Defects in the axes of the extremities can be toned down and concealed in the flexed, sitting and lying positions; defects in length disappear in the sitting and lying positions. Even gross defects of the trunk can be glossed over in the extended posture. The fact that, especially in painting, in which perspective foreshortening lias greater value than it has in sculpture, the recumbent posture is preferably utilised in the representation of the nude woman, is probably in no slight degree due to the eifort to hide as far as possible, by means of the chosen posture, all the insignificant imperfections of the model, and to set her excellences in a better light. 2. Positions of the body in motion. It was stated in the second chapter of this book that the ancient Greeks and the Japanese were able to reproduce, with perfect truth to Nature, those movements of living creatures which are so difficult to perceive. We, on the other hand, have in the course ofcenturies, developed a traditional conception of walking and running in painting and plastic art, which is entirely at variance with Nature. If even the majority of artists, in spite of their trained artistic vision, unconsciously adapted themselves to the ruling tradition, the sanie was a fortiori found to be the case with the great mass of the rest of mankind. Without further ado, the conception of walking and running, that obtained in painting and the plastic arts, was transferred to daily life, and assumed to be true. It is only quite lately, that it has been proved, by instantaneous photography, that the ruling conception is altogetlier false and unnatural. The photographic plate shows all details far more sharply than the shifting human eye; it also makes it possible to record pictorially, for further consideration and study, every phase of a rapid incident; and the final result of that study was, that none of the pictures of walking and running human beings, as they had hitherto been represented in art, have any reality whatever in existence, and that, misled by them, we believed we saw things, which do not actually occur. There are various opinions as to the influence which the admission of the error may have on us and on future artists. Fritsch says that our eye is unable to grasp more than a certain number of pictures, say, nine in a second; the photographicapparatus sees more sharply and quickly. But the artist, whose endeavour it is to reproduce the impression of movement, must substitute for single phases, following one after the other, a new conception, created by himself, by which all the impressions received may be reproduced at one blow. The representation of a human being in 17 inotion will therefore remain traditional even in the future; at the utmost, the tradition will be purged by higher knowledge. Richer is of different opinion. He appeals to the example of the ancient Greeks, whose conception corresponded fully to the natural one; he appeals to the endeavours of isolated later artists, who strove, it is true often in vain, to approach truth in their works; and he is convinced that science will succeed more and more in convincing the artists and, with them, the public of their mistake. I incline to the latter view. The might of truth, when it is once admitted, exerts sooner or later its invicible influence; are we not actuallv witnessing now-a-days the fact, that the so-called " modern tendencies" in painting and the plastic arts are nothing but the unconscious and ever-growing influence of the Japanese artistic conceptions, which are seemingly so naive, but which are so infinitely superior in true observation of Nature, on the antiquated European traditions, that have no relation to Nature? We have however, first of all, to deal, not with the representation of movement in Art, but with movement itself, or rather only with the effect which movement lias on the forms of the living female body. We owe wliat scanty material there only is, unfortunately, up till now, first and foremost, to instantaneous photography. Richer (1) has scientifically utilised the results far more freely than Fritsch. His studies, the subjects of which were chiefly nude men, may be summarised as follows. In Fig. 143 we see the impressions of foot soles in a quick-march. The direction of the step is indicated by a straight line a b. Of the lines that cut it, the shorter one in every case corresponds to the connecting line of the hip-joints, the longer one to the connecting line of the shoulder-joints. At a, the body rests in a symmetrical position on both foot soles, and the axes of the shoulder■and hip-joints run parallel. At the first half-step, the right leg is thrust forward, and with it, at the same time, the right hip; the axis of the hip is oblique and the axis of the arm is oblique in the opposite direction, because (1) Physiologie artistique. Doin: 1895. the left shoulder is projected, in order to maintain equilibrium with the right hip whilst the trunk is twisted. At the end of the movement, the body rests on both feet, which are placed one in front of the other. The left foot is now raised, displaced from the ground and hurled forward. When the left leg is raised, the body rests upon the right foot alone, whilst at the same moment the axes of the shoulder and hip again run parallel. As soon as the left foot is set on the ground, the first stepping position is repeated inversely; left hip forwards, right shoulder in front, body resting on both soles. Walking is therefore nothing but a continuous falling of the body from one position of equilibrium into another, in the course of which one or two points of support are used alternately; at the same time the axes of the pelvic and shoulder-joints intersect each other continuously. It is now proved by instantaneous photography that the phases of falling pass much more quickly, whilst, on the contrary, the phases of rest at the alternating points of support last much longer in each case, and can therefore be more easily observed. Richer accordingly distinguishes the phases d'appui, unilatéral droit, bilatéral, and unilatéral gauehe. Thus we have the longer-lasting phases: doublé support, support on the right, doublé support, support on the left etc. and, between them, the shorter phases of the falling of the body from one supported position into the other. Fig. 143. Scheme of human gait, after Richer. I Figs. 144—149. Gait of woman on bare feet. I, II, III, IV, V, VI. With a little practice, one can easily accustom one's eye to recognise all the phases of support, wlien the walking is not too quick, whilst the transition-phases more readily escape observation. But photography can immediately record all the different phases, and with precision. Now, as the artist has only to regard the human eye in his representation, it foliows that only the phases of support can be of importance to him in the representation of walking. Richer has given in his book a splendid analysis of the instantaneous photographs, but unfortunately only in the case of a man. Muybridge, (1) from whom Fritsch has taken some plates, gives a large number of instantaneous photographs of a nude woman walking. This is, so far as I know, the only collection of the kind. Unfortunately I was not in a position to collect a series of that description. There are two defects in Muybridge's series, which render his observations almost valueless for my purposes. First of all, his model walks like a man; she makes long strides, like Richer's men, whilst women in real life make much shorter steps. Moreover, the effect of artificial heels is neglected in his pictures. In order to get a correct picture of the way in which a woman actually walks, the model should either be made to walk in a state of complete nudity, except for her shoes or boots, or a suitable nude model should be taken and exercised beforehand in the method of walking on bare feet; unless she has such practice, she walks either tiraidly or clumsily. The latter is the case with Muybridge's model. I was enabled to make observations of European women who had been accustomed, during their sojourn in the tropics, to walk bare-footed, which Herr Spyker has reproduced diagrammatically (Figs. 144-149) according to my specifications, taking Richer s results as the basis. The gait of a woman chiefly differs from that of a man in the facts, that her steps are shorter, the projection of the hips more (1) Animal locomotion. An e 1 e c t r i c o-p h o t o g r a p h i c I nvestigation: üniversiiy of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia. 1887. pronounced,^the phases of support longer in relation to the transition-phases, and that the compensatory movenients of the upper body are less strongly supported by movement of the arms, and more by rotation in the loins. A man's walk has a pushing, active character, a woman's a rocking, passive character; whilst the man seeks to reach the equilibrium that flies from him, the woman strives to preserve the state of things as it is. The changes, which the form of the female body undergoes in the act of walking, are nothing but the various factors of flexion and extension. which have already been treated of at length. The bodv passes from Fig. 150. Viennese girl of 18, walking: 0ne position of the hip fr°mbehind' into the other, and the straddle-position, with doublé support, is but a brief transition from the first hip-position of one side into the second hip-position of the other side, a rocking in the hips. When, then, is the body of a woman walking beautiful, and when not? After wliat we have said, we may define the beauty of the female gait thus:—The gait of a woman is beautiful, when it is of the swaying, female type, and when the factors of extension preponderate as much as possible over those of flexion. Figs. 150 and 151 give, as an illustration, two photographs of the same model walking, in the posterior aspect. In the first position (Fig. 150) the regularity of the forms is preserved by a correct division of extension and flexion, in the second position (Fig. 151) an ugly fold lias sprung up over the left hip, through the lower- ing of the left arm, and Fig. 151. The same, in a faulty attitude, the excessive twisting of the thorax towards the side of the standing-leg, although the womanly type of the gait is fully preserved in the position of the legs. Fig. 152. Girl going upstairs. Back-view. Wo do not need to discuss more closely the shifting displacement of the buttock-folds in the act of vvalking, in the posterior aspect; what has already been said about the hip-position holds good of it also. The various other postures, which the female body may assume in the various kinds of gait, are subject to the same laws. One example (Fig. 152) is sufficiënt: it represents a young woman, of faultless bodily structure, going upstairs. The left pelvic region, which is projected by the hip-position, the sacrum, which appears yet more depressed because of the backward inclination of the upper-body, and the right leg, which is thrust backwards in extension, enhance the female sexual character and the roundness of the forms, whilst at the same time the bodily excellences are heightened by all these factors of extension. The same laws hold good, in general, for a woman running as for a woman walking. This movement is naturally much more lively; but here too, the womanly character may come out in strong contrast to the masculine. Whilst, in the case of a man, the active striving-forwards is expressed by a marked bending-forwards, in the case of a woman, her special character is indicated by a holding-back of the upper-body accompanied by a vigorous projection in the hips. In the man's case, the lowering of the head increases the impression of force, in the woman's case, the backward inclination of the head increases the charm of movement. Richer has laid down the definition of running, according to the results of instantaneous photograpliy, in the same way as walking, withpoints d'appui. As in walking, he distinguishes an " appui unilatéral gauche" and " droit"; but the "appui bilatéral", the "doublé support" becomes, in running, the " phase de suspension", the phase of suspension. In the diagram (Figs. 153—158), Fig. I. is the support on the right, into which the body falls out of suspension, and out of which it jumps upwards again in III. and IV.; V. and VI. are the stage of suspension out of which the body next falls into the support on the left. We are unable at the moment to produce photographic vouchers for all the various movements of the female body. Anyhow, the Fig. 153—158. Girl running. I, II, III, IV, V, VI. illustrations given suffice to prove, that the body in motion can also be judged in a quite objective way, and that a standard can also be applied to it, which, as in the case of beauty at rest, fixes the limits within which the innumerable instances of beauty in movement, of female grace, are to be found. XIV. Practical value of the scientific conccption of Female Beauty. Scientific research is only of general value, when it has been made to serve a practical purpose. Considering that the female body, as such, has, since the abolition of the slave-traffic, no longer any market-value, it is needful to be able to judge it by a fixed standard, and to acquire a certain expertness in it, as in the case of connaisseurs of horses or wines: in general, no more is necessary. But, nevertheless, bodily beauty has even now a high value for the woman who possesses it, the more so since it is at the same time a sign of bodily health. The development and formation of female beauty can be voluntarily furthered or injured, and especially during the years of growth. A fixed standard for judging beauty is, therefore, of great value for everybody, who has to watch over growing girls. It is the sacred duty of the parents, and especially the mothers, to tenderly guard the budding body of the future woman from all injuries, and enable it by loving care to develope and unfold in beautiful blossom. I think with gratitude of several among them, who have had sufficiënt confideuce in me, to favour me with a share in this exalted task of theirs. Secondly, the knowledge of the normal female body has a practical value for the artist, in the choice of his models, and for the critic, in his review of Art-work. Artistic perception and a knowledge of anatomy are not sufficiënt for the former, as I have already shown by a few examples, which might be multiplied by numerous others. A fixed standard is yet more important for the critic, if he takes his calling seriously, since he lias to judge both the model and what the artist has made of it. Before we treat further of these special purposes, we shall first test the practical value of the results so far obtained, by examples. It has been believed, that it never happens that all bodily excellences occur together in one woman. Through my profession I was several times able to convince myself of the incorrectness of the idea, and to rebut it objectively. As, however, it was some time before I fully worked out the basis for an objective judgment, my first memoranda are not all so complete that I can turn them to account. Besides, I was not, as will readily be conceived, always in a position to undertake all the desirable measurements with the required care and precision. Women are prevented, by more or less justifiable prejudices, from exposing their person before a man more than is necessary. Such prejudices are certainly rarer in beautiful women than in those who have defects to hide. At any rate, it is the duty of the doctor to spare their feelings as much as possible, and it is seldom he meets with women who are so unconstrained and so little narrow-minded, that they are not ashamed of their body, I have accurate data about 8 women, which make it possible to attest their beauty in words. Twelve others, about whom I have memoranda, possess many excellences and only a few, trifling defects. The whole 20 belonged to old families of the better class, and they had all grown up in very favourable external circumstances. I take for an example one of the last 12. Woman of 24, married young. Length of body, 168.5 cm. Length of head, 21 cm. Length of leg, 90 cm. (up to tlie condyle of the femur). Length of step, 82 cm., with leg stretched out, 84 cm. Chest-circumference 88.5 cm. Length from nose to os pubis (modulus), 62.o cm. Breadth of shoulder, 38.5 cm. Breadth of waist, 21 cm. Breadth of hips, 34.5 cm. Distance between nipples, 23.5 cm. P e 1 v i s. Breadth of spines, 26.5 cm. Breadth of crests, 29 cm. Breadth of hips, 34 cm. Posterior breadth of spines, 12 cm. Weight of body, 60 kilos. These measurements, first of all, exhibit the rare phenomenon that the length of the head is contained nearly 8 times in the th length of the body. As the length of the step is 82 cm., the middle of the body is only 2 V» cm. higher, that is to say, below the upper boundarv of the pubic hair. The leg is 6 cm. longer than 4 heads. The difference between the shoulders and the waist is 17.5 cm, between hips and waist 13.5 cm., or 1 */« cm. more than necessary in any given case. The shoulders exceed the hips, as prescribed, by 4 cm. At the pelvis, the breadth of the crests exceeds the spines by 2.5 cm., and the breadth of the hips that of the crests by as much as 5 cm. The distance of 12 cm. between the posterior spines proves an especial breadth of the os sacrum. The distance between the nipples also exceeds the required measurement by 3V2 cm., although in tliis case the breasts themselves were not large. We tlius see that the longitudinal measurements as well as the latitudinal exceed in places quite considerably the norm of beautiful proportions. If we calculate the weight of the body by the length of the chest-circumference, we have 61.2 kilos. Instead of which we have here only 60 kilos, or 1.2 kilos too little. We may conclude from the otherwise normal proportions that the highest prime is not yet reached. As a matter of fact, the delicately-constructed body gave a general impression of extreme youthfulness. The only fault I could discover in this otherwise faultless body was a somewhat crooked insertion of the fore-arm. As however the capitulum did not project, and the wrist was very narrow, rachitis could not have been the cause in this case. I have elsewhere (1) published an exactly similar example. The measurements were: Length of body, 167 cm. Length of head, 21 cm. Length of leg, 88 cm., to the condyle of the femur. Breadth of shoulder, 38 cm. Waist, 22 cm. Breadth of hips, 34 cm. P e 1 v i s. Anterior spines, 26 cm. Crests, 29 cm. Hips, 33 cm. Posterior spines, 10.5 cm. In both women, the pelvic region was especially beautifully formed, the lower boundaries of the sacral triangle made an angle of exactly 90" and the sacral dimples, corresponding to the broad os sacrum, were very well-marked, especially in the latter woman, in whom I could not find a single blemish. (1) Zeitschrift für Geburtshülfe und Gynakologie, 33, p. 121. I cannot, unfortunately, add their photographs as vouchers for what I say. The second woman, it is true, allowed me to puhlish a dioptric sketch of her back in the journal I have mentioned, but it has not, for our purposes, the objective value of a photograph. The matter becomes more difficult, when we have to rely solely on one or more photographs in order to arrivé at an opinion. In using photographs for determining proportions, one must weed out all those, in which, through the focus being directed to the head, the lower body is much fore-shortened perspectively. This very common fault can easily be seen from the accessories, and the visual point can be fixed. Absolutely sure results can only be obtained by taking the smallest possible photographs from the greatest possible focal distance, and afterwards- enlarging them. Even then it is advisable to make the measurements on the negatives, because the printing-paper, when it is mounted, becomes pulled in the direction of the greater ductility of the paper. At the same time many, if not most, of the questions of detail may be settled with fair certitude in good photographs; but an accurate fixing of the proportions is only possible, when the photograph is taken in a symmetrical position from straight in front. And even then it is impossible to fix the length of the body, or the circumference of the chest, in centimetres, and it is consequently impossible to deterinine the weight of the body. Nevertheless, results which are satisfactory to a certain degree may always be obtained. I take as an example the photograph of a Viennese girl, which I got through the kindness of Amsler & Ruthard, the art-publishers (See copy of it in Plate 1). As the upper part of the body is bent slightly backwards, the Fritsch modulus cannot be applied, but the proportions of the figure may be determined by lengths of the head (Fig. 159). If the head be marked off near the outline on a scale, it can first of all be seen that, in this instance, too, the bodily length is only a little less than 8 heads. If the figure be imagined quite upright, the relation would be about 73A heads. The length of the legs amounts to pretty nearly 4 heads, so that the centre of the body lies below the upper limit of the pubic hair. The position of the shoulder-breadth, waist- and hip-breadth is indicated on the figure by dotted lines; on the topmost line, the probable position of the joints, as well as of the exterior shoulderbreadth when the arms are lowered, is marked by little crosses. Fig. 159. Measurement of the Viennese girl (Plate 1) in heads. It may be proved, by measuring, that the relation of the three measurements corresponds to the requirenients, and the more so, as the fore-shortening is about the same in all the three lines. The right leg is so placed that, with the aid of the Mikulicz line (Cf. Fig. 94), we are able to verify with certainty its perfect straightness. It may, firstly, be generally said that the body offers good proportions, but that the length of the legs exceeds not inconsiderably the normal average measurement. For the sake of comparison, I have drawn Fritsch's construction on the outline of another photograph of the same girl (Fig. 160). To begin with, in spite of the unsymmetrical posture. the line from the nose to the os pubis can there be determined with somewhat greater sureness. The predominance of the shoulder-breadth over the rest of the latitudinal measurements becomes still more apparent. If Fritsch's fio-ure be constructed, the crown O of the head fits exactly into it. The same is the case with the left shoulder and breast. The right shoulder is, together with the breast, somewhat lowered. But this low position depends merely on the attitude ; for the navel and hip-joints are on the proper level. The longitudinal relations are correct in the arm ; for as soon as the low position of 18 Fig. 160. Measurement of the Viennese girl according to Fritsch's modulus. the shoulder is righted, the measuring-points fall in the joints. They are rather higher in the legs; and the total heiglit is greater bv li x than is required bv the construction, at the expense of the legs. The breadth of the head cannot be fixed bv either of the figures. Both measurements accordingly produce the identical result, that ■lil the proportions are correct, hut that the legs exceed the usual proportions. That is not a defect; on the contrary, we may look upon it as a beauty, because the middle of the body is, in consequence, bv so much lower in the trunk. And, moreover, the form of the right leg is ascertained to be perfectly normal by the position of the Mikulicz line. It lias at the sanie time a slender bone, and, if we draw the inner tangent, we see that it touches the upper third of the thigh, the knee and the inner ankle-bone The slightly-developed calf does not reach the line, and this, taken in connection with the otherwise correct relations, is a proof that we are dealing with the imperfectlv-developed body of a young woman. tor the rest, all the above-mentioned good points may be recognised in the Plate; we may point out the round elbow, the well-arched thorax, the fine position of the youthful breasts, which are not yet fully developed, and the well-formed foot with the long second toe. It is especially worth noticing that, in this instance, there is no tracé of rachitis or consumption present. We have before us a beautiful, healthy bud, which lias not yet reached its highest prime. Fig. 93 shows the head of the same girl, photographed three years later, in about her twentieth year, by Schmidt in Vienna. She reminds one a good deal of Kaphael s lornarina. The fuller forrns of the later photograph have not in any way impaired the beauty of the kindly face, as, indeed, the remarkable regularitv of the features might have led one to expect. Attention may be more especially directed to the beautiful structure of the eye and its surrounding parts, which is particularly noticeable. We have already mentioned the pure shape of the hands. We have, as a contrast to the slim body of this young woman, the photograph of another Viennese girl of 17, whose forms are fully developed, from the Heid series (Figs. 161, 162, 163 and 164), which has been taken from in front, from the back, and in profile. It should first of all be remarked that the girl, whose lieight is a little more tlian 7 heads, is quite normally proportioned, when measured by the Fritsch canon (Fig. 164). A more suitable photograph of the same model was chosen for the measurement of the proportions. The centre of the body is directly above the upper edge of the pubic cleft; that is to say, especially low. The legs, measured by the Mikulicz axis, run quite straight, and equal 23/-t heads, that is to say, a quarter of a head more than half the length of the body. Basing our conclusions on the photographs, we may indicate as excellences: bodily forms which are soft and round, and yet strong, beautv-folds over the eyes, a dimple in the chin, a small, deep navel 'in the head (especially noticeable Fig. 161. Viennese girl of 17, of' quite normal proportions. Photograph by Heid. high situation, abundant hair on in Figs. 162 and 163), little hair on the body, round elbows, a long, softshaped hand with dimples and straight, tapering fingers, straight, long, round legs, narrow knees, round, vigorous calves, softly-outlined, and well-formed feet, with the second toe longest. In the posterior aspect, I may point out the gentle and yet strong transition from the nape to the shoulder, the well-developed middle dorsal furrow and beautiful sacral dimples, the round, elastic buttocks with a second, doublé convexity beneath them at the inner thigh, the marked prominence of the muscular sinews at the knees, and the womanly shape of the calves. The straightness of the legs is particularly conspicuous in Fig. 162. The same from behind. tlie posterior aspect. In profile, the beautiful form of the breasts is noteworthy, in spite of the slack posture. The right breast, which is situated very high, has not fallen, although it is of superabundant fullness; the connecting line with the armpit is clearlv indicated by the powerful pectoral muscle. In the extended arm, the dimples at the elbow are clearly visible. Among defects we notice the rather coarse features of the face, the large ears, and the thick ankles. The early fullness of development of the girl is due partly to her strong muscular system, partly also to her pronounced tendency to stoutness, which is bound very soon to spoil her beautiful, youthful forms. She has so few good points in her face that, when dressed, she would make little or no impression, because, even when only slightly clothed, she would appear clurnsy. From the artistic standpoint, the girl was born to be nude, a quality she possesses in common with several classical statues of goddesses. In the case of a young woman of Scheveningen of 22, who poses as an artist's model, I found very few measurements that deviated from the normal. She is said to be the best professional model of the day. Fig. 165 shows her in national costume; Fig. 166 shows her nude in the same size, in order to draw attention to the different nosition of her waist. In the , ,, , _ . , . ,, Fig. 1G3. The same in profile. clothed ngure, the waist is rather high up, and divides the body in about the ratio of 1 to 2, which when compared with the total length, approxiniates to the division in the golden cut. The young woman has never worn a corset. The measurements are: 1. Body-length, 152 cm. 2. Middle-lengtli, 80 cm. 3. Head-length, 20 cm. Fig. 164. Proportions of the Viennese girl of 17. 4. Leg-length, 83.5 cm. 5. Length from nose to os pubis, 58 cm. 6. Shoulder-breadth, 36 cm. 7. Breadtli of waist, 22 cm. 8. Breadth of hips, 32 cm. 9. Distance between nipples, 22 cm 10. Length of foot, 23 cm. 11. Circumference of chest, 90 cm. 12. Breadth of posterior spines, 10 cm. Pelvis: Breadth of spines, 23.5 cm., breadth of crestes, 26 cm. breadth of hips, 31 cm. Half the length of the body amounts to 76 cm., so that the centre of the body lies 4 cm. above the lower edge of the pubic hair. The total length of the body is 7-3 heads. The legs are longer than 4 heads: and the length of the body is equivalent to 6.6 lengths of the foot. It is a defect that the waist is 2 cm. too wide. When compared vvith Fritsch's canon (Fig. 167), we find that all the principal measurements absolutely coincide with the normal figure, and even exceed them in respect of shoulder-breadth. The coincidence is remarkably striking in the extremities. The nipples, it is true. are lower than is normal, but at the same time they tend further outwards. The photograph given in Fig. 166 shows that the arms and legs, in especial, are of singularly pure form. The axis of the arm runs perfectly straight (as is clearly visible in the left arnj), whilst in the standing-leg (the left) the Mikulicz line cuts all the joints in the centre. The breasts exceed the limit of the normal and are beginning to droop. It is accounted for by the particularly large chest measurement (90 cm.) and the low position of the nipples. This, and the fact that the waist is 2 cm. too wide, prove that the young woman lias passed her spring-time. Nevertheless, the body has very beautiful forms. The region of the shoulders is extremely powerfully developed. Fig. 80 exhibits the posterior aspect. The young woraen of Scheveningen are mainly notable for their wonderfully white, delicate skin and tresb, red cheeks. I hey constitute the prototype of " milk and blood " faces. Our model possesses this natural excellence in a high degree. In this case, I had at my disposal both measurements and photographs in various positions. Another exaniple is a Berlin girl of 17, Margarethe E. I was Fig. 165. Girl of' 22, from Scheveningen. able to take all the measurements mvself, whilst Professor G. tritsch took photographs in different positions and was so good as to hand Fig. 166. The sanie undressed. (Posterior aspect. Fig. 80). theni over to me. And, nioreover, Mrs. 1'aczka lias turned tlie model to artistic account in the most amiable wav. Thus we have before us, for purposes of coniparison, the measurements of the girl, the photographs of her which are true to Nature, and the artistic conception of the girl. The measurements are : Length of body, 166 cm. Length of head, 23 cm. Length of leg, 85 cm., up to the condyle of the femur. Length of step, 79 cm. Chest-circumference, 85 cm. Length from nose to os pubis (modulus), 66 cm. Slioulder-breadth, 38 cm. (Circumference, 92 cm.) Breadth of waist, 22.-1 cm. (Circumference, 65 cm.) llip-breadth, 32 cm. (Circumference, 90 cm.) Distance beween nipples, 19.75 cm. Height from crown to step, 87 cm. Pelvis. Breadth of spines, 23 cm. Breadth of crests, 27.25 cm. Hip -breadth, 31 cm. Posterior breadth of spines, 11 cm. It foliows from tliis, in the first place, that the length of the head is contained 7.2 times in the length of the body, and that therefore the head is disproportionately large. The leg is 7 cm. shorter than 4 heads. The centre of the body lies below the upper limit of pubic liair. The difference between shoulders and waist is 15.6 cm., and between hips and waist 9.6 cm., or 4 cm. and 2.4 cm. respectively too little. The shoulders exceed the hips bv 6 cm. instead of 4 cm. We mav infer therefrom a pronounced preponderance of the shoulder part, which is reminiscent of a male formation, or suggests a too small development of the pelvis. The pelvic measurements have a difference of 4.25 cm. and 3.75 cm., but are at the same time generally small; so we have a typicallv femininely-formed pelvis, which is nevertheless not par- ticularly strongly developed in proportion to the size of the body. Since the posterior distance betvveen the spines is 11 cm., or 1 cm. beyond the measurement, it may be inferred that the pelvis itself is feminine, but that the hollows are only slightly developed. With regard to the other measurements, it is noteworthy that, in spite of over-short legs, the middle of the body lies below the upper limit of the pubic hair. If we refer to the measurements alone, the fact is inexplicable. What can we infer from the measurements alone ? First of all, that the girl is not yet fully developed, since the body is too small for the head, and the pelvis, in spite of good measurements, is too small for the shoulders. We have, besides, to take for granted some defect that caused the shortening of the legs. This is connected with the shortening of the whole length ¥iS- ^ c>inon of the y°un* M o n Schevemngen woman. of the body, which, calculated according to the Fritsch system, should be 10*3 submoduli (here = 10.5), or 170.5 cm. instead of 166 cm., and is therefore 4.5 too short. Of the various photographs of the girl taken by Professor G. Fritsch, two are reproduced in Figs. I(i8 and 169. They were taken under not especially favourable esternal conditions ; no artistic value is, of course, attached to them; they are intended to be nothing but scientific documents. I have, to begin with, introduced, for comparison with the absolute measurements, into the outlines of the first photograph (Fig. 168), a few points of the joints and the modulus, and next to it, I have constructed the normal measurements in full line on the modulus, and, following Fritsch's injunction, I have added in dotted lines Margarethe's real measurements. (Fig. 170). Finally, Fig. 171 represents a scale in head-lengths, with a profile drawing of the girl dioptrically restored after the photograph. We may now, on comparing the figures, explain a whole series of plienomena, that struek us when we Fig. 168. A 17 year-old lierlin girl. after , ,. a photograph by G. Fritsch. compared the measurements. It is noticeable in Fig. 171 that the sacral region is but little inclined inwards, and in Fig. 168 (corresponding to Fig. 170) that the lines of demarcation of the i'ig. 109. The same girl, from behind. abdomen towards the thiglis form a very acute angle. It results therefrom that the pelvic inclination is a very trifling one, that in eonsequence a large portion of the rima vulvae can be seen"from in front, and that the high position of those parts explains wliy the centre of the body is below the upper boundary of the pubic i'ig. 170. Margarethe s proportions eompared witu Fritsch's canon. hair, in spite of the short legs. If, the relations being otherwise the same, the pelvis were more inclined, the centre of the body would be much higher in the abdomen. The apparent contradiction is thus explained by the coincidence of two defects: an over-slight inclination of the pelvis, and excessive shortness of the legs. The shortness of the legs, as appears from Fig. 170, depends mainlv on the shortening below the knee, and, if we look at Fig. 168, we see that we have to deal with a lower leg which is rather crookedlv inserted, and at the same time curved, and, besides, with a sliglit amount of flat-footedness. In the same way the arms are shortened in the fore-arm, and in Fig. 168 we distinctly perceive the projecting capitulum in the right arm. Besides the shortening and curvature of the lower leg and fore arm, and besides the projecting capitulum, we have thickening of the wrist and the ankle-bone, which are so many signs of earlier rachitis. But, in spite of the abnormal shortening of the leg, there still remains a certain disproportion between the length of the head and the length of the body; for even with a length of 170.5 cm., the length of the body is onlv equal to 7.4 heads. Now, such a proportion shows that a body is not yet fully grown. But it can also be perceived that, in spite of well-developed muscles, which are very beautifully marked, especially in the upperarm and back, the forms are somewliat angular; moreover, the collar-bones and the overlying muscles are very prominent, all Fig. 171. Dioptric profile drawing, according to head-lengths. in consequence of poor developraent of the fat-layer of the skin. This, too, is a token either of bad nourishinent or of incomplete growth. But the fornier alternative is rebutted by the povverful muscling, the well-developed breasts and the smooth skin. So we have a nuniber of signs that point to the fact, that the girl has not by any means reached her full maturity, that she is half a child, half a young woman. In an otherwise thin body, the relative size of the mammary glands is remarkable, whilst there is a comparatively small interval between the nipples. This is explained by the great elasticity of the skin, which may be regarded as the greatest excellence of the body in question. Although the skin at the bosom, as may be particularly seen in Fig. 168, adheres closely to the sternum, it has not yielded in that place at all to the growing mammary gland, and it has only reluctantly yielded in the axilla, so that the largest mass of the gland has turned laterally ; but the nipples have remained at an equal distance one from the other. Another good point is the beautiful structure of the eye. Numerous other defects and excellences may easily be discovered on a comparison of the illustrations that are given. The chief charm is mainly the youthful freshness ; the chief fault, the remains of the English illness. We shall see in the following chapter, what an artist can make of it. I think the instances I have furnished sufficiently prove that any given body can be judged by fixed rules, without any matter of personal taste entering into the question ; and so we now proceed to the practical utilitarian application of the aggregate impressions. XV. Valuc in art and art-criticism. Models. As we know the model, we cannot help admiring the refined feeling with which Mrs. Paczka has exalted its excellences and concealed its defects, without, at the same time, ever renouncing the original and therewith fidelity to nature. Plate V is a faithful copy of the artist's work, which was drawn directly on the aluminium plate. The attitude chosen reminds one of the Praying Boy in the Berlin Museum. Mrs. Paczka did not know that the girl had had rachitis, but nevertheless she considered the signs of it ugly and so far toned them down that they are not a disturbing influence. The legs presented the greatest difticulties; it was a matter of concealing the slight knock-kneedness, the flat-footedness, the thickening of the ankle-joint, and the curvature and shortening of the lower leg. First of all, the left leg is, as a whole, turned somewhat outwards, whereby its slight knock-kneedness is less strongly marked. In the right leg, the knock-kneedness is motived in a natural way by the inward inclination of the knee, so that it does not produce the impression of a defect. Moreover, by giving marked prominence to the inclination, the defect is almost made to vanisli from the leg which is not bent. The curvature of the lower-legs escapes the critical eye, owing to fore-shortening on the right side and a turning on the left, and the deficiency in their length is improved. The outward-turning of the left foot is sufficiënt to defeat any measuring of straightness by means of the Mikulicz line, and yet again the turning is not so considerable as to expose to view the 19 flat-footedness, as seen in the lowness of the inner margin of the foot. The defective position of the right foot is entirely obliterated by the movement represented. The ankle-bones are set a little higher, and drawn as being somewhat more slender. And so Mrs. Paczka has fulfilled her task in the happiest way by a well chosen position and a few trifling improvements. The ratio of the head to the length of the body is, in the artwork, as 7 to 1, i.e. still more developed in favour of the size of the head. The line of demarcation bet ween trunk and legs forms an obtuse angle, and the position is so chosen tliat the pelvic inclination is greatest. Bv means of the same movement, the pelvic part is brought more forwards, it appears larger and niarks the muscles more distinctly. The beautiful development of the breasts, and of the muscling of the model in the upper part of the body, is preserved unaltered. The object of all these artifices is the same, viz., to give yet more prominence to the womanliness and youth of the model. As she stands before us, she is a half-opened maiden-bud, who saunters with easy step to embrace the smiling future with heiopen arms. It was far more difficult to conceal the existing faults in the view from behind (Plate VI); in the right leg, which is partially covered, the problem is again solved by the flexing in the knee; in the left, the inward position of the knee is toned down, by putting the pelvis towards the right lower in the hip-joint. But it is undeniable, that the defect has, nevertheless, not entirely disappeared. The amiable artist must pardon me for using her work in order, at the same time, to analyse a little the artistic soul; but I found the opportunity too enticing for showing that the genuine artist unconsciously bears in himself the standard of the beautiful, and, obeying his feelings, avoids as ugly what we men of science stamp as morbid and defective. In giving this example, I have said at the same time what my book is intended to be for an artist. It is not intended to teach hini anything new, it is only intended to provide him with the scientific proof that his feeling is the right one; it is intended to be a sign-post for him in the domain of the beautiful, and to show him that his sense of beauty is subject to the same laws to which we all must bow. We fancy we are impelling, whilst all the time we are being impelled. It follows from what we have said, that the work of an artist is to a great extent dependent on his model. We have already mentioned at the commencement, that the works of others afford but a bad substitute for it, because they, too, are affected by the model chosen, as well as by the fashion of the period. We may refer again to Dürer's golden words, to return to Nature, and again to Nature. "Art and Nature are one and the same thing," says Lessing. Thus, for instance, Burne-Jones, in his enthusiasm for the PreRaphaelite ideal, forgot nature, and abandoned his sound, healthy painting in favour of consumptive pictures of the ideal. And, as Fritsch points out,' Stuck, too, in his " Vertreibung aus dem Paradies ", has provided Eva with a layer of fat and made her rickettv. Curiously enough, the same defects occur, though much less conspicuously, in the Birnbaum monograph (Knackfuss 42, Fig. 117, in the study of a model.) The artist has reproduced the defects of the model in an intensified degree. But, still, one must take heed not to regard everything that occurs in Nature as sterling gold; one must either have a very well-trained artistic perception, or, in doubtful cases, call in the aid of science. Every painter cannot paint what he pleases; he is often obliged to paint what he can get. This is not only true of portrait-painters, who are often obliged to paint the ugliest faces, for the simple reason that the male or female possessors of them are blessed with earthly goods, but it is also true of painters who are perfectly free in the choice of their subject. I could mention hundreds of instances, especially among the large number of modern painters, from whose works a fully-occupied hospital might be gathered. The artists either had no better models, or they did not perceive their faults. It is not altogether improbable that, as Brücke thinks, in the latter case, love plays a great part. If we consult literature on the point, we find that, in truth, most writers have observed that it is love, whicli leads a woraan to offer her body to the view of the adored artist. That is the case in Heyse's Paradies and in Zola's L'Oeuvre; and, in Goethe's Briefe aus der Schweiz, the experienced old matron says, that it is much easier to find a woman who would yield her body to love, than one who would yield it only to the eyes of a man. Hendrik Ibsen has put the strongest expression of this idea in the mouth of Irene in his play, "When we dead awake". She says in the first act: "I stretched three fingers towards the heavens and vowed to follow you to the end of the world, to the end of life. And to serve you in all things—in free, unveiled nakedness. I served you with all the beating heart-blood of rny youth, and feil down at your feet, and served you.—But you have sinned against my in most being. I exposed myself to view, as one does when one deliberately means to do so—(in a low voice) and not once did you touch me". Further on: Ru bek: "You gave me your beauty, quite naked." Irene: "But you have forgotten the greatest gift. I gave you my young, living soul—and was empty-breasted—without a soul ". Irene expresses herself yet more strongly and passionately in the second act: " I never loved your Art, before I knew you —and not then even. "The artist I hate. — When I stood before you quite nude as I did, I hated you, Arnold. —I hated you because you were so unmoved—or, at any rate, so self-controlled. And because you were an artist, only an artist—not a man". It is only human nature that the artist often finds it hard to preserve his objectivity, where a woman in love is concerned. Another, and, in my opinion, higher conception occurs in Du Maurier's Trilby (p. 95.) * She was equally unconscious of self with her clothes on or without; she could be naked and unashamed." It is the same feeling as we see in an uncorrupted child; the first awakening of love destroys it, as is also the case with Trilby. I have onlv found the highest conception in a single writer, namely, the Dutch Poet Vosmaer. The beautiful Marciana, in bis Amazone, will only consent to act as model to the artist, after she lias become convinced that lie does not love her. She is a woman who knows she is beautiful, and undresses herself out of pure love for Art; not in the presence of the man but of the artist, and the great artist. A similar spirit inspired the beautiful Frau Charlotte Fossetta, the model of Dannecker's celebrated A r i a d n e. She ofïered herself to the artist, whose house she used to visit, with the words: * And do you verily believe that my bodily forms would actually further your Art? Very well then, I am at your disposal, if you think you can create something new, a work of genius". But there are few woman like Charlotte Fossetta, Agnes Sorel, Paola Borghese, Diana of Poitiers, Lady Digby &c. Those are far more common, who offer themselves as models, for love of the artist. Take for example, the women of Rubens, \ an der Werff &c. G. Eberlein had a very strange experience. A girl, whom he had used as a model when a child, came now and then to his studio to offer her services. Whilst she was growing up, her body was thin and was not suitable for artistic purposes. But when she reached sixteen and the period of maturity, her forms filled out. And when she visited Eberlein again, he was so astonished by the regular beauty of the young woman's body, that he made in a few days an exact copy of her, according to Nature, in the attitude in which the girl stood nude before him. He took all the measurements himself accuratelv, with the compass, even to the length and breadth of each single finger, of the nails and of the toes, so that, as he said, " there was really no artistic idea in the matter: 1 was simply copying accurately from Nature." The figure was quite perfectly beautiful (Fig. 172). The model came a month later, not in order to be copied, but to be used i'or Art purposes. VVhen she was undressed, the forms were seen to be different: not a single measurement corresponded with the earlier ones: the body had grown coarse and fat. So Eberlein had caught on the wing the girl's lost, irrecoverable beauty, aud preserved for posterity what life itself created for that brief month's spring-time of existence. By an extraordinary coincidence, Professor G. Fritsch took a photograph of the same girl a few months previously (Fig. 173). The body at that time, as can be seen by the picture, was still quite childike in form. By far the greater nuniber of artists have to put up with paid models, who are chiefly recruited from the poorer, badly-nourished classes, so that it is an exception to n I ru F1^'.172' find beautiful figures among them. Gustav Eberlein s young woman. ° ° One of the most perfect artist's models I have ever seen, is the girl of 1G, from whom Iherese Schwartze made her study. The girl, who was born in Amsterdam, had not only a strikingly refined, white complexion, blue eyes, glistening, red-blonde hair, and a healthy, red colour on her cheeks, but also an especially elegant formation of the joints and Fig. 173. Original of Fig. 172, taken two months earlier. limbs, and absolutely normal proportions. I had an opportunity of seeing her in the artist's studio. She had not the smallest traces of rachitis, or disposition to phthisis. Ihe body-measurements were . Body-length, 165 cm. Shoulder-breadth, 38 cm. Waist, 20 cm. Hip-breadth, 31 cm. Height of thread, 21 cm. Distance between nipples, 21 cm. Length of trunk to the step, 85 cm. Length of leg to hip-joint, 97 cm. Pelvis : — Breadth of spines, 24 cm. Breadth of crists, 27 cm. Breadth of protuberances, 31 cm. The height of the body, therefore, amounted to over 8 heads— a rare phenomenon. The hands and feet were of an uncommonlv beautiful shape.—The girl fully corresponded, in her style, to the description of Trilby. She moved " with easy step" and with rare grace, when she observed that we looked upon her only as a subject of Art, and not merely as a human being. She liked being photographed, too, but, unfortunately, she refused to be photographed again, when the first photograph turned out a failure, and— unwitting of her beauty—she did not visit the artist again, because she had found a better berth as a servant. So the picture, which was to represent a sleeping Psyche, was never finished, because the little Psyche wanted to go int° the kitclien, instead of soaring to Olympus in effigie. But sucli beautiful models are very exceptional. Among the 100 pictures in Koch and Rieth's well-known " Act", not a single one of the artist's models who are reproduced has a normal body, any more than in Koch s 50 Ireilichtstudien . In Max Peiser's " Kinderact", there is only one girl (Plate 41), who is of normal build. That is to say, one out of 200 whose profession is to pose as models. It is quite exceptional to find, among the numerous collections of photographic studies, photographs that make an artistic impiession, and give proof of a proper use of the model. As a rule, the model is not advantageously postured, or the impression is spoilt by tasteless accessories. Tliere is, however, a distinction to be made in the case of Heid's Viennese studies, whieh are unfortunately rather antiquated, a few of O. Schmidt s \ iennese photo- Fig. 174. Munich model of 17, with Russian greyhound. graphs, and a Munich series of Recknagel, which must be allowed to possess artistic feeling. Fig. 174 is a Munich model of 17. The illumination and grouping are harmoniouslv chosen, the contrast between the slender, smooth girl's body, and the shaggy dog's body is well brought out, all he beauties of the fairly faultless model are done justice to, and the defects are cleverly hidden; the whole makes a complete artistic impression, whether the group be described as " A nymph of Diana or "A girl with a dog." If, as often happens, the artist helps himself, by taking one part of the body from one model, and another part from another, he outrages Nature by destroying the individuality. He will never be able to create a harmonious picture in that way. There are only two ways: either a faultless model, or the expert improvement and concealing of defects, as in the works of Mrs. Paczka. And, in the latter case, a doctor's opinion may often be useful. I am indebted to my friend, Gustav Eberlein, for an astonishing example of hovv it is possible for an artist to give a defective bodj the appearance of perfect form, solely by posing. Figs. 175 and 176 represent one of the young women who servei Fig. 175. Berlin model of 20. Eberlein as model for liis " Nymphs and Silenus" (1), and Fig. 177 displays her proportions, compared with Fritsch's canon. The legs are too short, turn inwards with the knees: the lower legs are curved sabre-fashion, the joints are coarse, and the fore-arms rather short: there is also a certain degree of flat foot. The thorax is broad, but flat, and spoils, in consequence, the shape of the breasts. There are, in addition to these signs of previous rachitis, a morbid lordosis, which is probably also based on rachitis, and an excessive lumbar curvature, which produces a flat sacrum, and an excessive projection of the abdomen forwards and the nates backwards. Whilst the body exhibits too rnuch fatty formation at the hips, buttocks and thighs, it has good points in its (1) Cf. Njmphet u n d Silen von G. Eberlein. Stratz. Erster Issay. F. Enke, Stnttgart. 1900. Fig. 176. Fig. 175 is posterior aspect. Fig. 177. Proportions of Fig. 175. strongly-developed muscular system, and its pleasing roundness of youthful form beneath a tense, elastic skin. The figure is of the type of a beauté du diable, and its chief defects are the short, curved legs, and the pelvis which is too narrow in relation to the chest. Fig. 178 and 179 represent photographs, posed by Eberlein himself, of the same model; and, in these photographs, the many faults of the model cannot be seen. The upper part of the body in Fig. 178 is perspectively shortened by the marked inclination forwards, so that the legs appear longer; and the curvature, which is only quite obvious when the leg is extended, is rendered altogether invisible by the slight flexion in the right knee, and the pronounced flexion in the left. Ihe thickset type of the figure is entirely abolished by the extension of the arms, which are seen to the best advantage, with the fine modelling of their muscles. The pelvis, which is too narrow in relation to the other latitudinal measurements, is more exposed to the light by the lateral projection and heightening of the right hip, whilst the left hip is lowered, so that it comes into bold relief in outline. The hollow sacrum is no longer faulty, because it is motived by the necessary extension of the trunk in movement. The arm, which is stretched upwards in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the body, makes the whole figure seem longer and slimmer, and gives full prominence to the good form of the left breast, which is drawn upwards. I he position of the hands renders the rachitic thickening of the elbows invisible. The faults of the living model are similarly bidden in the posterior aspect. Gustav Eberlein told me later himself, that he was, at the time, quite unaware of the anatomical defect of the model. He simply obeyed his artistic feeling in choosing a posture, which should be most suitable and advantageous for artistic purposes, and yet, at the same time, he succeeded, with almost scientific accuracy, in avoiding and concealing the defects. Here again we have an illustration of the doctrine put forward in the chapter on movement, that the natural attraction of a body can be increased by a proper union of the various factors of flexion and extension. A great deal is requisite for the creation of a work of Art, but almost more is required for a correct appreciation of it. Fig. 178. The model of Fig. 175, posed by Eberlein. Fig. 179. The same, posed in posterior aspect. The complete critic sliould accurately know the history, the technique of Art, as well as the object represented, and in the case of most men the conibination is almost impossible. The fact tliat there are so many critics, in spite of it, results from the excessive self-esteem of men in general. It never comes more clearly to light than in the appreciation of the portrait of a well-known personage. Everybody thinks he is justified, and is able, to discover all possible and impossible faults. To pronounce an opinion, whether in praise or in blame, is easy; to give reasons for it is difficult, and yet it is the actual duty of an expert critic. I trust that the brief indications which I have strewn in, in the course of my work, may contribute to the purging of the better among the art-critics in this respect too. It is necessary to know something, in order to be able to judge. XVI. Directions for the Mainteriancc and improvcmcnt of Femalc Beauty. The man, who has been initiated into the mysteries, is astounded at the abundance of means possessed by woman, for the purpose of simulating advantages she has not got, and thus concealing defects so cleverly, that they are turned into advantages. Woman is mistress ot those arts, and it would be presumptuous to attempt to give her further instructions about them; it would be carrying coals to Newcastle. All means are allowable to the person who has defects and wants to hide them, and if a woman intends, in the service of fashion, to spoil her body yet more, which was originally defective, in order to resemble her more lucky sisters, she does not need any outside advice. It is not my intention to publish, as in a cookery-book, recipes for beauty, or a list of the numerous secrets of the toilet, which have become known to me; I wish rather to point out how every woman may best develope the gifts lent her by Nature, and, since they can be most affected, favourably or unfavourably, in the growing age, I address my words chiefly to mothers. 1 have already stated that beauty is individual, that we have therefore no niathematically defined form of beauty, but that it consists in the highest development of an individual within the unalterable, permanent bounds of normal g r o w t h. Directions can, therefore, be given only for the permanent bounds; but, even liere, the advice and experience of an expert is frequently necessary, and I will gladly take upon myself the reproach of holding an oratio pro domo, after first pointing out how great a part in woman's life is played by the doctor. I do not believe that it is unnecessary. At any rate, it has been for years customary in England for a wliole family, and especially its fernale members, to make a yearly pilgrimage to the dentist, in order to have their teeth examined, whether they are good or bad. No people, however, but the English, show their teeth, so long as they are still sound, and all other parts of the body are neglected by everyone, English included. There are certainly a few exceptions, and it has happened to me, as, no doubt, now and again, to every doctor, that a mother has had her daughter examined, in order that she may be sure that she is not ill. How much niischief could be prevented, if that custom were universal, and if, in such cases, neither the mother nor the doctors allowed themselves to be prevented, by a kind of false shame, from making the examination as thorough as the seriousness of the matter demands. It is generally much easier to recognise a clearly marked malady, than to examinine a body for the purpose of ascertaining that it has no malady, or traces of any. 20 Care for the body of a girl really begins before her birth, because excessive tight-lacing during pregnancy is capable of spoiling the child's body for live. But the most grievous sins are usually committed in the period of growth and maturing. I do not imagine to myself that I shall succeed in niaking many proselytes—old Sommering died nearly a century ago, and corsets are still worn—but, if I have converted only one or a few mothers, this book has not been written in vain. Thefirst rule is: Loose clothes before and tightclothes af ter the childbirth, in the mother's interest and in that ot the child. Every pressure disadvantages the space for the child that is coming, and hampers it in its development. The abdominal wall, which is at great tension, even at this period, becomes forced by outside pressure yet more out of its natural position, the muscles gi-ow slack. and are never able to regain their former elasticity. In the last months of pregnancy, bandages are advisable in the place of corsets; these bandages support the bellv below the navel, and raise, without pressing. In order to maintain the elasticity of the skin, and, consequently, the beautiful form of the breasts and lower-belly, it is well, especially in the latest period of pregnancy, to wasli those parts thoroughly and frequently, at least twice a day, with a solution (as cold as possible) consisting of alcohol 30 percent above proof. After childbirth, especially during the first weeks, the abdominal wall sbould be held in its place and supported by tight-fitting clothes, until it lias regained its full elasticity. This is generallv the case after six weeks. Every day less is one stone more 011 the grave of beauty. In England, when a girl marries, she has an abdominal bandage o'iven her at the same time, which exactly fits the shape of her maiden bellv. It is put on immediately after childbirth, and presses a little on the first and second days, but afterwards operates beneficially, through the support it gives, and preserves the vouthful form of the abdomen. Indian women, whose example is now folio wed by many Dutch «omen, bandage the lower-belly very tigbtly after childbirth using for the purpose the .Japanese gurita (Fig. 180). The gurita is a bandage consisting of two four-cornered linen Fig. 180. Indian gurita. flaps joined together in the middle. The outer flap is split, on each side, into from five to ten strips. The inner, unsplit flaps are drawn tightly round the bell.y, and, where necessary, a folded cloth is laid under tliem in order to increase the pressure, and then the ends of the outer strips are tightly tied in the middle. Every single knot Every single knot can then be tightened or loosened, as may be required, without taking off the gurita. A gurita, that reaches to the middle of the thigh (a), gives still more support. But Germany, France, and other civilised countries, in which the lacing-in of the lower-belly after weaning is neglected, and even foolishly condemned by some doctors, are the homes of pendulous paunches. Tiglit-fitting garments are suitable for the mother after childbirth, and loose ones for the child. The more freely it can move, the better its limbs and thorax can stretch and develope. Therefore, the second golden rule for a growing girl is: Loose clothes and free movement. And this holds good not onlv of the suckling, but during the whole period of growth. Natural as it appears, it is a rule which is very generally disobeyed. The idea of free movement is, especially often, wronglv conceived. The playing of children, which is naturally inborn in them, furthers their development much more than the systematic practise of gymnastics, in which every child is expected to do the same thing, without consideration for individual bodily strength. Attempts made too early to teach a child to walk are injurious. When it has the needful strength, it will run of its own accord. But if it is forced to do so too early, its weak legs beconie bent. Idle children are generally also weaklv children. When a child grows, it has more need for rest than an adult. It is well to advise children to sit straight; but to put them on bad chairs without a back, in order to compel them to it, is a sin, for which the child, when grown up, atones with a bent back. The third golden rule is: Strengthening nourishment, fresh air, and plentiful sleep. They are for the intestines, lungs and nerves, what loose garments and free movements are for the bones, muscles, and, consequently, the bodily form. And, as all parts of the body are connected together, it is necessary to take care of all uniformly. The fourth golden rule is: Pay attention to the skin, and, for that purpose, the dailv use of abundant soap and water is an article of female cosmetics, which is far from being sufficientlv appreciated. Dirty children may be beautiful, but, after all, it is only a testimony to the indestructibility of huraan nature, and is no argument against the counsel to increase the activity of the skin, and therewith the beauty of the body, bv the most scrupulous cleanliness. Who knows, how much prettier Murillo's gipsy boys might not have been, if they had washed regularly! When a girl ripens into a young woman, she falls a victim to the corset, and the less " figure" she lias, the sooner. Brücke (1) has already pointed out that it is precisely the Backfische with thick-set forms who '"grow into the most beautiful figures", as soon as they shoot up. The earlier the corset is put on, the more the tigure and the complete development of the bodily forms are spoilt. I have already dwelt on the pernicious consequences of corsets. Let me again state here, that I by no rneans condemn the corset as such, but only its abuse. The corset is an excellent support for the burden of the clothes which cover the lower part of the body, and it helps to distribute their pressure over a larger surface. In order to answer that purpose, it must satisfv three requirements :— It must rest on the hips, so tliat it does not press the soft parts too much. It must sit loosely, in order neither to hamper the movements of the body, nor to cramp the subjacent organs, the stomach, the liver and the intestines. It should not reach up high, so as neither to hinder the breathing, nor to check the dorsal muscles in their movement and development. It should lastly be added, that the weight of the underclothes ought to be as small as possible; the fewer and the lighter the underwear, the easier the task of the corset. Of all the varieties known to me, the corset ceinture, like that of which a model is exhibited in Paris by Madame Gache- (1) 1. c., i>. 71. Sarraute, doctor of medieine, and wbich is also suited for stout persons, is the best and most natural. The question when to begin corsets is as difficult to decide generally, as the moment of highest prime. Before that time, ït is harmful ; during and after it, advisable. But since the moment, as I have explained above, comes sometimes in the fifteenth year, sometimes in the thirtieth and still later, a decision is only possible in an individual case. It may, at any rate, be said, that a corset should not be worn, until the hips are so broad that they afford a support without laci ng. And will you now, respected reader, lay aside your corset V No, certainlv not. Pray, then, have pity at least on your innocent daughter. and prevent her from distorting her body too early. Later on, she will, of course, do so of her own accord, but then you will certainly have nothing to reproach youi'self for. The second dark spot in our humanization is the foot. Mrs. Paczka assured me that she had never seen a beautiful female foot. I have been more fortunate, but not very often. The feet, too, are generally spoilt in vouth, and not in the Middle Kingdom alone. Innumerable are the sisters of Aschenbrüdel, who hold no sacritice too great in order to force their feet into boots too sniall for them. The monstrous custom would only cease, if naked feet or sandals were again to come into faslnon. That that, however, will never come to pass, is ensured by the numerous representatives of the fair sex, whose feet are no longer fit to be seen. Only a few will have the courage to give up the boot which is too small for them, in order to possess a beautiful foot. Proper garters are now commoner than they were a few years ago; but there is much improvement needed even yet. It is best for children and young girls not to wear stockings, but soeks, which do not hamper the leg anywhere (1). (1) There is a very detailed discussion, from the scientific and yet general standpoint, which is especially valuable in regard to the making of clothes, in L. Pfeiffer's Handbuch der angewandten Anatomie, 1899, Spanier, Leipzig. In conclusion, I modestly venture to give the advice, that a woman's doctor should be allowed the opportunity of nipping in the bud, by timely treatment, the morbid germs which are often carefully hidden. And now, 1 think, I have rougbly mentioned everything that can be done for the salvation and well-being of a growing woman. The future will show, whether I have been preaching to deaf ears. One thing, ho wever, is certain, namely, that the beauty of the female body is nothing but the conception of its highest health. And the beauty of the soul? Happy is he who lias been in a position to know thorouglily a beautiful woman's soul. But to write about it is a sin, for it can onlv be feit in the deepest depths of the heart.

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Fig. 76. Round back.

The spinous processen of the vertebral arch are clearly to be feit through the skin, and are partly visible, 011 the middle line of the

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