By 1906, doctors were warning women about the liver-mashing hazards of tight corsets. Trend-setting models in Paris began calling them "instruments of torture" and promoted the "bouncing health" of a woman's unconfined body. Alternative undergarments and cures soon arrived.
There’s disagreement just how dangerous corsets really were, and in at least one case in Josephine County, Ore., a corset saved a woman's life.
In June of 1910, a Hugo woman discovered on her early morning walk with her dog that her rigid undergarment could double as a bullet-proof vest. The Rogue River Courier reported that Mrs. W.H. Henry and two friends were headed to a cherry orchard when they were startled by gunfire. Mrs. Henry felt a thud and a slight burning sensation across her abdomen. The women quickly discovered that a young man with a 38-caliber cap-and-ball revolver had shot Mrs. Henry accidentally when firing at her dog.
Mrs. Henry wasn't seriously hurt, but her daughters insisted she seek medical attention. Her doctor told her if it had not been for the peculiar circumstance of the ball striking a steel stay in her corset, it would have passed directly through her abdomen and undoubtedly caused death.
Sources: "Corset saves life in peculiar manner." Rogue River Courier 24 June 1910 [Grants Pass Oregon] : 1. Historic Oregon Newspapers. Web. 18 Jan. 2016. http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn96088281/1910-06-24/ed-1/seq-1/#date1=1846&index=13&date2=2015&words=fire+fired&searchType=advanced&sequence=0&lccn=sn96088281&proxdistance=5&rows=20&ortext=fire&p; "Paris beauties give up corsets." The Sunday Oregonian 19 Aug. 1906 [Portland Oregon] : 42. Historic Oregon Newspapers. Web. 17 Jan. 2016.
