Sex efficiency through exercises : special physical culture for women / by Th. H. van de Velde ; [photos, by E. Steinemann].

I have already quoted from Sellheim's essay in the Medizinische Welt, and may further cite his remarks on this necessary concurrent practice and protection of the abdominal muscles. He writes : " The abdominal muscles change their size. In the evolutionary phase before birth, they grow larger and, in the subsequent involutionary phase, they decrease. The natural processes must be supported and assisted in any remedial measures. We must aim at restoring the abdominal muscles ad integrum—that is, to their state before gestation began—after involution. And the crucial points here are the tissues of the abdominal walls. How can we promote, first the growth and then the waning, the involution of such structures as the abdominal walls ? " They must be spared needless strain. If the tissues are to revert to their initial state—as do the muscles which form a constituent part of the tissues—the natural process must be supported by contractile exercises. This is the sum of the matter : contractile exercises—and suitable counterpressure on the muscular areas.* In actual practice this means, (a) bandaging, and (b) contractile exercises of the muscles, compressed by the bandages, thus giving a functional stimulus to the muscles which pregnancy has distended and relaxed, and developing that stimulus to its maximum. " Thus the possible recovery can become actual. And that means a great deal. Most of the women who are correctly bandaged and practice contractions of their abdominal muscles with the support of the bandages during the six to eight weeks of puerperal involution, recover an almost virginal firmness of the abdominal walls, if their other individual conditions permit.'' * Sellheim is, of course, speaking of the period after child-birth—the puerperium.