Anatomy and Physiology Designed for Schools and Families
In the early Victorian period and onward, home health guides shifted focus from previous medical illustration which put emphasis imposing beauty to standards on women to grappling with the damage said standards caused to female bodies.
Anatomy and Physiology Designed for Schools and Families does just this. Written by Dr. Calvin Cutter in 1845, the health guide draws attention to the problems of corset wearing. Over several pages images of female waists and ribs are compared for the sake of tracking the condition of "contracted chests."
Dr. Cutter goes so far as to trash the fashion magazines which promote the harmful beauty standard of corset wearing: "The style of dress which at the present day is almost universal is a proflific cause of contracted chestes. These baneful fashions are copied from the periods so widely circulated...ought not those to be suprrsessed that have a tendencey to induce a course of conduct so adverse to health, by rendinger the blood impure?" . This is such a familiar action that it makes the reader question if any time at all has passed since Anatomy and Physiology Designed for Schools and Families was published.