Posture

Abstract

The Golden Age of Greece was marked by an endeavor to produce a people physically fit. The statuary of the fifth century B. C. still represents the best to be found anywhere, not only in art, but also in physical perfection of form. "A sound mind in a sound body" was their slogan and their standard. During the Victorian era the reverse idea prevailed, that a weak or crippled body fostered greatness of mind and soul. From this false premise the pendulum has swung far so that today, more than at any time since the days of classic Greece, one finds a general interest in bodily perfection. Perhaps no small factor in this renaissance is the modern style of dress. The body must be seen to be appreciated. When all sorts of defects could be concealed under bustles, flounces and false fronts, no one cared much what the body was like. When women wore such long skirts that their toes played hide and seek with the outer world, I remember wondering in my boyish mind whether women really had legs like men.In those days, too, one was taught to throw the shoulders back, and to stand and walk with the feet at an angle of 45 degrees, in bliss¬ ful ignorance of the fact that this produced sway-backs, pot bellies, pelvic distortion, lumbar pain and flat feet. Today the prevalent debutante slouch indicates an equal lack of knowledge of the funda¬ mentals of proper posture.Esthetics is a strong stimulant, stronger than a vague promise of better health. The requirements of health and beauty combine to demand the finest physical type. The physician's attention has been so centered on illness, from colic to cancer, that posture is perhaps the least cultivated field in the range of pediatrics.