Newspaper Page Text
2
Copyright, 1913, by the Star Company. Great Britain Rights Reserved.
ALL
OVLJL
Why
WOMEN
Should RIDE
ASTRIDE
By Dr. J. V. V. MANNING
0 . rnE anatomist and physician are aware that the
I bony framework of the human female is »» wo "'
' “ and even better, adapted to cross saddle riding
than is the framework of the human male. In the
female the pelvis, that bony basin from which the hip
bones are swung, is wider from side to side than is the
male pelvis, and consequently the articulations of the
hip bones are separated by a wider interval in the fe
male than In the male. The greater width between
the hip sockets, and the resultant approximation of the
knees, secure to the woman of equal weight and stature
an equally firm seat and knee grip with the man.
This holds true in spite of the fact that her contours are
not so sparingly cushioned.
The reasonable or prejudiced doubter of this state
ment may convince himself of its truth by comparing
well articulated male and female skeletons, and the
study is suggested to those who declare that a woman
is not constructed to ride cross saddle to advantage.
The English press in their quite unanimous refer
ence to cross saddle riding as “an American cow girl
innovation which can never appeal to English ladies”
has somewhat hastily assumed that the use or the side
saddle has the right of precedence. This is not so.
The Wyf of Bath rode three times to Jerusalem
with a “pair of scharpe spurs on hire fete.” During
the fourteenth century, when ladles almost spent their
lives on horseback, “hunting, hawking or traveling,”
“they rode astride, on saddles adapted from those of
SIDE SADDLES Are DANGEROUS and Liable to CRIPPLE the RIDER
the knights;” “they were not satisfied with spirited
palfreys” it is recorded, “but must needs ride afield on
chargers.”
The transition from the immemorial custom of rid
ing a horse astride to the sidewise position seems to
have taken place late in the fourteenth century. The
shape of the new saddle would indicate that it was at
first adapted for the use of the aged or infirm The
sambue, as it was called, was a broad, flat, silk covered
pad to which was sometimes attached a low semi-
circular chairback, to be seen in a woodcut by Hans
Schauflein. The rider sat at square right angles to her
mount, and could only have maintained her seat on the
most docile and slowgaited of sumpter equine*.
This position, however, permitted the lady to wear
a showy toilet, and it was therefore immediately adopted
as a part of the state etiquette of the many exotic
courts of the day.
According to Anstruther-Thomson the first real
gide saddles were adapted from those used by men,
by the addition of a pommel on the righthand side and
a second shorter stirrup on the left. “With this change
went all the finer qualities of horsemanship, all the
pliancy and strength, so striking in the riding of the
ladies" of the fourteenth century. “The poor ladies lost
all initiative, all horsemanship and all freedom of
action.”
The English woman’s saddle in
1800 had acquired a second pommel
which held the right leg on the out
side, bnt the left leg still hung free
to the stlrmp. “An Instant's loss of
balance made a fall unavoidable.”
A riding primer of the period warns
the novice: "The stirrup Is no secur
ity to the seat In any situation; the
right leg Is to be applied to the
horse’s shoulder with such firmness
as to keep yon down in the saddle,
but be mindful that in getting his
bead down he do^s not pull your
body forward, lest you lose your bal
ance and tumble over his head.”
In 1830 an Englishman’s wager
that he conld ride a steeplechase in
a lady's saddle resulted in the inven
tion of the third pommel, and defer
ring the era of innocuous desuetude
which awaits the side saddle. The
gentleman, Mr. Oldacre, is said to
hare found by preliminary trial that
his rash wager would never be won.
He thereupon attached to the two-
pommeled saddle a third pommel,
placed at such an angle above the left
Compare the Male Pelvis on the Left with the Female Pelvis on tha Right; Thi* Diagrar
Show, the Different Angiea at Which the Mala and Female Femur Are Attached to th
Pelvi. and Seem, to Prove Woman la Better Adapted to Ride Aatride Than Man.
V
knee that the purchase obtained between the left strir-
rup and the new pommel enabled the rider to at last
maintain a comparatively firm seat.
The writer, like most of the girls two decades ago,
was taught to consider cross saddle riding in question
able taste, and rode with a side saddle exclusively in
early years tn North Carolina. The knowledge of
anatomy gained in later life determined the use of the
cross saddle, grid as it happened during the first ride
undertaken, a fractious saddle would have surely thrown
the rider, save for the extraordinary advantage of the
knee grip.
TVhat is the mechanism, and what are the advan
tages and disadvantages of the modern twelve-pound
English side saddle?
After an excellent analysis of the complicated
forces a woman rider must exert to maintain a firm
seat In the side saddle, Mr. Anstruther-Thomson won
ders with much naivete why "bad riding Is so universal,
and good riding so rare?”
The neurologist can answer that question. It Is be
cause of the needless, the criminal waste of nervous
energy. The girl who rides the plantation mule bare-
back at a wild gallop, or the girl who rides an Indian
broncho cross saddle is not harassed by a similar ex
penditure of vital force to keep her seat!
The cross saddle rider, man or woman, sits squarely
in the saddle; it is the natural position, and the rider’s
weight is evenly distributed. The first requirement of
the novice learning to use a side saddle is that she
also must “sit square.” How is this accomplished
when three-fifths of the rider’s weight Is transferred to
the left side of her mount?
For the rider of a side saddle to "sit square’’ face
front it is necessary first that the saddle girth should
be extra tight. A fashionable woman's mount has the
disadvantage that his abdominal breathing space is les
sened arfd confined. The profile view of a saddler
carrying a lady in a side saddle demonstrates the break
in the abdominal curve. The girth used for the cross
saddle makes no break in the belly line of the mount,
and it circles the barrel immediately behind the shoul
der. The essential girth constriction for proper main
tenance of badly balanced side saddle and rider might
cause sufficient irritation, under certain circumstances,
to render a gentle mount fractious. If the side saddle
girth is not tight, unbalanced weight pulls saddle and
rider to the left. Women have been dragged to death
under such circumstances.
To return to the novice who is told to sit square.
Bepeated admonitions, vanity and will power result in a
square seat, with hip sockets at right angles to the
median line of the mount. This position is attained,
although the right knee and leg as well as left hip,
thigh, knee and leg, depend from the left flank of the
mount. There is at once a direct pull on the trunk
muscles of the right side of the body, and if the rider
is in the least delicate, a beginning lateral curvature of
the spine may be established.
A more immediate and disastrous result of this arti
ficial position may be the forced prolapse of the right
kidney. In the effort to maintain a square seat the
muscles of the right torso (the erectors of the spine,
the latissimus dorsi and psoas group, and the external
and internal abdominal oblique) become rigid with ten
sion and then relax. The right kidney, never too secure
in its moorings in the upright human animal, and now
deprived of the security ok,natural muscular tonus, may
be joggled by a violent trot or canter from its pocket
under the ribs and become that life long source of pain
lateral curvature of the spine and (4) discolated kidney.
The safety of the rider, all authorities agree, is duo
primarily to a firm seat and a light hand. What de
fender of the use of a side saddle will affirm that it
affords a safe seat? Would he trust his daughter in a
side saddle while mountain climbing? What advantage
does it offer when a horse rears? Or kicks? What hap
pens to the rider when a horse shies violently to the
left? Or right? When it whirls and bolts? Would tho
polo player trust his life to a side saddle? There 13
not one cat-like jump of a polo pony to which your
daughter may not be subjected the next time she is
cantering in the park.
The score the physician brings against the use o£
the side saddle for women riders consists of: (1 An
unsafe seat; (2) wasted nerve force; (3) incipient
lateral curvature and (4) dislocated kidney.
There remains the question of taste, or rather of
propriety. The mid-Victorian prude, with the aid of
crinoline, established a Action that female members of
the human species had no legs, but why should that
fiction be kept alive by coddling in the days of tha
graceful draperies and trim ankles of the twentieth
century? The woman who says that it is "not proper,
not becoming, not in good taste” for her sister to ride
a cross saddle, is casting backward to the prudish and
unhealthful customs of the last century. An American
authority reminded the equestrian public that the con
tinental Crown Princesses are never seen riding cros3
saddle even in military costume. We would like to en
quire what relationship this lack of anatomical hvgiene
bears to the American girl? The American college girl
has already developed an average stature which exceeds
the average stature of the soldiers of continental co'un>*\
tries proud of their horsemanship. She has already
made good.
'It has been by the use of the cross saddle, an out-of-
door life, untrammeled clothing and the disdaining of
temporary fashions which do not coincide with the laws
of health and grace that the American girl has come
Into possession of an abounding physical life and
How to Avoid Sleepless Nights
S LEEP is a habit. It is a very natural
and beneficial habit, but one that cuu
be easily broken through Injudicious
living uiul thinking. Poor sleepers are usu
ally lilgh-strmig, nervous people, who have
too active luxllcs or brains, or both, anil who
are ambitious and Inclined to neglect them-
sel ves.
Insomnia cannot U> cured by drugs. It Is
always dangerous to use drugs to produce
sleep, and they should seldom be resorted to
except In serious Illness, and then only on the
advice of a physician.
If you cannot sloop, and find that your sleep
lessness is becoming a habit, begin immedi
ately to go slower. Curb your ambition, leave
off all unnecessary work and learn how to
rest. Your body and your brain need repose
and rest, but the trouble with the people who
''cannot sleep” Is, they do not know how to
rest. They do not stop thinking, planning,
worrying, and go to btsl with active brains and
only partly relaxed bodies and then worry
becuuse sleep does not come. Perfect relaxa
tion of body and mind is the first essential,
and relaxation of either one helps to relax
tlie other.
There ts one exercise, which, properly prac
tised, will be found beneficial in more ways
than one. Stand erect, but without stiffness,
arms bunging easily at the sides. Now very
gently Inhale air through the nostrils, at the
same time lifting the arms straight out at the
side. Time the motion so that when the lungs
are fully inflated the thumbs touch above the
head. RuLse the face slightly at the same
time toward the celling Then, without hold
ing the breath, exhale gently, -weeping the
arms, hands together, downward and for
ward. so that when the exhalation is com
plete they again hang easily at the slides.
Extreme gentleness and slowness must be ob
served without force or haste 1-et the air
(low into the lungs, don’t force It in.
When wakefulness Is caused by a dull, sed
entary life, more physical activity, outdoor
sports and brisk walking are good. Slow out
door walking and deep breathing are very
beneficial to those whose wakefulness is the
result of worry or fatigue.
Make yourself comfortable in bed, in a cool
room and realize that the bed is holding you,
not you the bed. Feel ns heavy as you can.
Then don’t count or con dull sayings; you
want to make the mind a blank, stifle thought,
and lids can bp done with a little practise.
But if thoughts persist in presenting them
selves a mental repetition of the words. “Let
go—relax, relax,” will aid you In relaxing and
letting go. Then if you cannot sleep, don't
worry over It. for any kind of worry will only
prolong your wakefulness. Be content to rest
and after a while sleep will come.
Go to bed early, even when you cannot
sleep, and do not get up ton early, unless you
positively have to. Even a short morning nap.
when you have lain awake many hours of the
night, is very refreshing.
Above all; go to bed In a pleasant state of
mind. You need not expect to sleep If the
brain is burdened with anxiety, worry, jeal
ousy. regret or anything else uudesirable. A
clear mind, a hopeful spirit and an optimistic
view of life are powerful aids to sleep as well
as to digestion and the general bodily health.
The Serious Harm CARELESS SURGEONS Often Do
Y yARDLY a week goes by that some patient who
? I“n has undergone an operation does not find that
I ^ * he has been enriched by a pair of scisisors, a
lancet, a piece of gauze, a finger-ring or some similar
foreign body, which, through the negligence of the
■ surgeon or his assistants, has been sewn up in the
wound.
How It happens that even the best surgeons are thus
frequently exposing themselves to the charge of gross
carelessness or even malpractice can be more easily
accounted for than excused.
i ln up-to-the-minute hospitals no operation, however
simple, is performed by a surgeon singly handed.
Usually the operating surgeon is assisted by at least
two or three other doctors, three nurses and an anaes
thetist, besides an orderly who carries the various arti-
! cles needed back and forth. All of the doctors and
) nurses are fully covered from head to foot in white,
| sterilized linens. Their hands, arms, faces and hair
J are thoroughly disinfected, and even eyeglasses and
| finger-rings are carefully freed of germs.
\ After the Incision has been made the busy assistants
j and nurses adeptly and in a flash stitch up each bleed-
j ing spot. So quickly is this accomplished nowadays
i that even in a tedious operation on the kidneys or
f appendix lasting several hours it is rarely that the
s patient loses more than a thimbleful of blood.
\ Between the skilful moves of the chief surgeon the
i others staunch the drops of blood with pincers, forceps,
needles and sterile gauze. Everything that reaches
the wound is thoroughly sterilized and perfectly free
of germs.
But with twenty busy hands, two hundred busy
fingers and thumbs, all at work at the same time over
a gaping wound and handling many hundreds of small
instruments, such as lancets, scalpel, forceps, scissors,
needle-holders, bits of gauze and silk, it is hardly any
wonder that every now and then one of the instru
ments or a piece of gauze is stitched up in the wound.
According to the doctors, none of these “foreign
bodies,” if free of germ life, can do any harm. Human
tissues, they point out, cannot be injured by steel,
iron, gold, nickelqilated or linen materials. Instru
ments, gauze, or even rubber, may be allowed to
remain in a clean-cut for years without harm of any
kind resulting.
But despite the utmost care of the nurses responsible
for the sterilizing of the instruments and other articles
to be used in the operation it is quite possible that
germs may still remain or find lodgment after the
sterilizing process has been completed.
Despite the assurances of the doctors, therefore, the
patients interested are loth to admit that foreign
bodies thus left in their wounds can in no way harm
them. It is true that the only reason a splinter, a
rusty nail, a pin or a needle that gets into one’s throat,
foot or finger causes ^damage, sometimes death, is be
cause of dirt and microbes that cling to them. Al
though everything animate and inanimate that gets
near the white-marbled operating rooms of a modern
hospital is supposed to be made free of ultra-micro
scopic life, it is conceivable that germs may find their
way into even those well-guarded precincts.
The viewpoint of the patient rather than that of the
surgeons is the one which has been taken by the
courts.
Only a few weeks ago a judgment of $1,000 was
rendered against Dr. Guy L. Junner, of the Johns Hop
kins Hospital, for leaving a piece of ga»ze bandage in
a wound in a patient, and Mrs. George E. Bates, wife
of a well-known New Yorker, alleging carelessness of
the surgeon, has filed a suit in the Supreme Court for
$5,000 damages against Columbia University as pro
prietor of the Sloane Hospital for Women. She alleges
that surgeons who operated on her at the hospital
carelessly sewed up in her abdomen a rubber finger
stall.
Mrs. Bates went to a hospital last January to be
operated upon for the removal of a tumor. After tha
incision was made she alleges the surgeons decided
not to proceed with the operation and sewed up tha
wound. Some weeks later the finger-stall was dis
covered.
And so the New York courts will have to decide
whether the surgeons should be made to pav for their
alleged carelessness in leaving the finger-stall in the
wound or whether, as the medical profession insists,
such mishaps are entirely harmless.
Wearing BUGS
Instead of GEMS
T HE practise of wearing bugs as jewels is much
more common than is generally supposed. The
insect most frequently used in this way is the
beetle, many species of which are highly colored and
make beautiful decorations. The Brazilian variety Is
perhaps most often used. Set in gold, it IS worn in
'bracelets, earrings, brooches and sleeve buttons.
Another common South American variety of beetle
is that known as EJuchroma gigantiu, a large insect of a
brilliant metallic color. The Indians of the west coast
of South America sew this bettle onto cloth to make
cuirasses. The insects are so bard when dried that
they clink together like pieces of metal.
Another member of the same beetle family is used
in Ceylon in making bed covers The covers are em
broidered very beautifully, and the beetles are worked
into the design symmetrically, making a creation very
interesting and probably very conducive to refreshing
dreams.
A very remarkable insect, called the Jewelled
beetle, has the appearance of being studded with ge«s,
and makes a good substitute for jewels in brooches,
earrings and stickpins. Another similar insect has a
close resemblance to the ruby and is used as such.
The European rose chafer;, which are very briltiast,
make gorgeous ornaments.
One of the handsomest of all insects is the gold-
beetle—very appropriately named, for almost every
part of the insect api>ears as it made of solid gold. A
single specimen of this insect sells for $2.50, while a
much rarer variety, the silvei^hued, is worth $15. The
•gold beetle is of a greenish-gold hue and makes a very
handsome ornament
Another South American beetle, used for decoratioa,
Is thd repulsive burying beetle. It makes a very de
sirable ornament, owning to its rather strange shape
and metallic luster. The most remarkable of these
burying beetles are the sacred scarabs of Egypt. Stone
^scarabs have long been In use in that country and are
etimes used in America. The ancient Romans use*
L oth as a t,-dismal . d I’liny recommended that it
forn ns a preventive of fever.
In South America and Central America several
species of living inacots are worn as ornaments. A
beetle found in the crevices of old walls is worn by the
girls to ward off evil spirits.
The NEW BREAD That Is NOT KNEADED
How to LIVE
P ROGRESSIVE housekeepers who wish
to eliminate all useless labor and se
cure the most nourishing food are cook
ing a new kind of bread. This new bread is
prepared without any kneading.
The new departure is something more than
a plan for avoiding the laborious task of
kneading the dough. The real reason for it
lies in the recently discovered fact that bread
which is not kneaded contains less raw starch
than when prepared In the old way.
Raw starch is something to be avoided, for
it is hard to digest and is one of the fruitful
causes of uric acid. Nine-tenths of the starch
in an ordinary loaf of bread Is entirely raw.
An intelligent Philadelphia housekeeper
stumbled upon the fact that kneading the
bread dougb forces this starchy matter into
the centre of the loaf where it is least affected
by the heat of the oven. Unless the outer
crust is baked to a crisp it remains there an
uncooked, indigestible mass.
Examination of many loaves of bread under
a microscope showed this to be true. But it
was found that when the bread is not kneaded
these starch cells are scattered throughout
the loaf where the heat can reach them, burst
them open and change them into digestible
material.
Here is the recipe for cooking four loaves
of bread without kneading: To a quart and
a half of lukewarm water* and two quarts of
flour add two cakes of yeast and three table
spoonfuls of sugar. Stir in a pinch of salt,
and then add two more quarts of sifted flour.
Stir the dough until stiff and shape into
loaves with the tips of the fingers. Handle
the dough as little as possible, for this lessens
the danger of concentrating the raw starch in
the centre. The loaves should stand until
about half raised, and then should be baked
in the usual way.
TRY THESE WAYS of CREATING LIFE
A CCORDING to Dr. Charlton B&stian, the creation
of life from non-living matter is an assured fact.
“Living organisms can be obtained almost
at will,” says Dr. Bastinn, In his work on "The Origin of
Life,” from solutions which have been heated in her
metically sealed vessels to a temperature very much
higher than that which is known to be their thermal
death point. This leaves no further room for doubt upon
the much-disputed point whether or not non-living mat
ter is still capable ot coming into existence.
Remarkable as It may seem, it does uot require any
large amount of scientific knowledge, or any costly
laboratory equipment to create life artificially. Accord-
tug to l)r. Bastiau tlie miracle can be performed with a
little patience right in your owu home. Here is how it
Is done:
Add to one fluid ounce of distilled water eight drops
of liquor ferri pernitratis and three drops of sodium
silicate.
Place this mixture in a glass tube which has first been
carefully sterilized to destroy all life aud bring it to a
steam
Dr.
boll. While steam is coming from the tube seal it her
metically with the aid of a olowpipe. This is done to
prevent any life germs entering from the atmosphere.
All forms of life are supposed to be killed at the tem
perature of boiling water (212 degrees Fahrenheit). To
make quite sure, however, the tubes may be inserted in
an oil bath having a temperature of 266 degrees Fahren
heit, and kept there for fifteeu or twenty minutes.
The tube is then removed, put carefully away in
diffuse daylight, and left there for several days. At the
end of that time the tube is broken, its contents poured
ou glass slides and examined microscopically.
Living bacteria ot various kinds may be seen in the
liquid—multiplying, and, apparently, perfectly happy!
Life—even if It is a low form of life—has been created.
In addition to the formula mentioned above, here Is
another which may he used in this experiment with
equally satisfactory results:
Sodium silicate, two or three drops: ammonium phos-
Bastian’. Simple Apparatus for pbate. four to six'grains; dilute phosphoric acid, four to
Creating Life. six drops; distilled water, oue fluid ouuce.
100 YEARS
T HE decrease in the death rate during the last cen
tury has been remarkable, but as every well-in
formed physician will tell you, it has been brought
about chiefly by lessening the number of deaths among
\ infants and persons under thirty-five years of age. After
' the latter age the danger of death is greater than ever
< in spite of all that medicine and surgery can do.
\ The famous British physician, Sir James Sawyer, be-
i lieves it is by no means a difficult matter for any human
( being to live to be a hundred years old. He has re
cently declared that anybody can attain this age, unless
j killed by accident, if he or she will religiously observe
) the following nineteen “Commandments of Health”:
J 1—Eight hours sleep every night,
i 2—Sleep on your right side.
< 3—Keep your bedroom window open.
1 4—Have a mat at your bedroom door.
J 5—Keep your bed away from the wall,
i 6—No cold bath in the morning, but a bath at the
' temperature of the body.
! t—Exercise before breakfast.
! 5—Eat little meat, and be sure that it is well cooked.
J 9—Drink no milk. (This applies to adults only.)
. 10—Eat plenty of fat to feed the cells which destroy
disease germs.
11—Avoid intoxicants, which destroy the cells that
combat disease.
13—Allow no pet animals in your living rooms, for
they carry disease germs.
1^—Live in the country if you can.
15—Watch the three D's—Drinking water. Damp alTd
Drains.
16—Have change of occupation.
17—Take frequent and short holidays.
18—Limit your ambition.
19—Keep your temper.