Medicine: Posture Lady

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To sit down. Stand with one foot slightly forward, hands hanging freely from shoulder. Rise slightly on the toes, bend the knees slowly, tilt the trunk forward as the leg muscles lower the body onto the chair. Do not start to sit down with the feet together. This "closed foot position forces the trunk into an extreme diagonality [and] brings the buttock mass into unbeautiful prominence. It protrudes as if searching for the seat."

To stoop. Start from the foot-forward, scissors position. Bend one knee until it almost touches the floor. Bend the other knee less. To pick up anything use the hand on the side of the lower knee, simultaneously swinging the other arm to the rear for counterbalance.

To iron clothes, with the right hand. Keep the right knee stiff and the body's weight mainly on the right leg. Keep the left leg slightly to the rear, bending the knee and raising the heel slightly to keep the hips level.

To don a coat. Use the arms only, keeping the head directly above the pelvis and avoiding any twisting of the trunk.

To walk. Dr. Mensendieck is proud of her analysis of walking. There are two methods says she:

"First, after the foot is placed, pointing straight ahead, in the foot-forward position without weight, we can, by raising the heel of the backward supporting leg shove or propel the trunk weight into the forward leg. This raising of the heel of the back leg to propel the weight of the trunk forward into space, until it rests over the advanced foot, is known as the propulsive step.

"The second method by which the trunk weight can be transferred until it rests over the forward foot, is called the suction step. This suction step, which starts from the same straight foot-forward position, is not the work of the backward leg, but makes the transference of the weight the task of the front leg. The forepart or ball, of the forward foot (heel raised) must be implanted upon the floor, and must 'grip' the floor so firmly that the forward leg is able, by means of this firm 'grip,' to draw the trunk forward by gradual pulls exerted successively by the muscles of the lower leg, thigh and buttocks."

Dr. Mensendieck prefers the pawing step, because it "strengthens the legs, improves their shape and has a permanently beneficial effect on the arches," compels full extension of the knees, keeps the groin taut, and "being measured and controlled, is the flowing and beautiful step." Last week meticulous Dr. Mensendieck, 60, wearied from compiling her new manual of functional postures, shunning the kudos she expected its publication will bring upon her, rusticated in southern France. She lives alone. Once she had a husband, who died shortly after their marriage. As close-mouthed about her personal life as she is loquacious about her system, she seldom refers to her widowhood and never to the significance of the nine-strand collar of pearls which for more than 30 years has been her only ornament. Dr. Mensendieck calls the dancing legs of the late Anna Pavlova monstrously disproportioned. Likewise she scorns Tennist Helen Wills Moody's strong right arm, and Max Schmeling's entire musculature. Says she: "Tennis and basketball players coming down from their leaps resemble the comic stance of a drinking giraffe."