You know what really grinds my gears, when people think 18th century women wore corsets and had their lower two ribs removed in an effort to achieve a tiny waist. First of all, stays and corsets are completely different pieces of clothing. A corset is a 19th century garment used to shape the female torso by cinching in the waist. A pair of stays is an 18th century garment used to shape the female torso by flattening the front and lifting the breasts up, while providing support to the lower back. Fainting couches did not come around until the 19th century. Have you ever slipped on ice and fractured a rib? The break causes each breath to result in extreme agony. Even a bruised rib can restrict movement significantly.
Let us think about rib excision logically. Consider for a moment what could be called the three magic A's of modern medicine: Antiseptics, Anesthesia, and Antibiotics. Doctors in the 18th century still relied heavily on plants as treatments and believed the body had four humors that had to remain in balance. Protecting agains unseen organisms didn't cross anyone's mind.Imagine going into a surgery where the doctor didn't wash his hands, didn't have clean implements to use to cut you open--didn't even clean the site where the wound was to be made. You're infected with that first cut. The idea didn't occur to anyone until 1861 when Louis Pasteur started boiling water and doing experiments.
Now let's look at anesthesia. Local anesthetics were used in ancient Peru when Shamans used chewed up coca leaves, but of course no one listened to them because they weren't Christians. It wasn't until 1884 that cocaine was effectively used as a local. Other wise, there was no way to subdue the patient. Chloroform wasn't used until 1831, and ether wasn't used until 1846, and even then these chemicals could kill you if used in too high a dosage for the patient's body weight, which it often did.
And we all know that Antibiotics were not invented until 1928 when Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin. Therefore, in an age without antiseptics, anesthesia, or antibiotics it seems highly unlikely that women underwent elective cosmetic procedures.
