If too tight about the waist and hips, it badly cripples the lower limbs and interferes with the proper movements of the diaphragm in breathing, and with the passage of the food and the blood through the bowels.
Your instincts are perfectly right that make you dislike to be squeezed or pinched or cramped in any way, or at any point, by your clothing; and if you will only follow these instincts all through your lives, you will be far healthier and happier.
The Texture of Clothing.

Just as for ages we have experimented with different kinds of food, so we have with different kinds of material for clothing.

We have used the skins of animals; mats woven out of leaves and grasses; the feathers of birds; the skins of fishes; cloths made of wool and of cotton; and even the cocoon spun by certain caterpillars, which we call _silk_.

But of all these materials, practically only two have stood the test of the ages and proved themselves the most suitable and best all-round clothing materials--wool and cotton.
Woolen cloth, woven from the fleece of sheep or goats or camels or llamas or alpacas, has three great advantages, which make it _the_ outside clothing of the human species.

First, it is sufficiently tough and lasting to withstand rips and tugs and ordinary wear and tear; second, it is warm--that is, it retains well the body heat; and third, it is porous, so that it will allow gases and perspiration from the surface of the body to pass through it in one direction, and air for the skin to breathe, in the other.
[Illustration: RESULTS OF TIGHT CLOTHING (1) The normal thorax.