Mosher, Clelia Duel (1863–1940)
Mosher, Clelia Duel (1863–1940)
American physician. Born Clelia Duel Mosher, Dec 16, 1863, in Albany, NY; died Dec 22, 1940, in Palo Alto, CA; dau. of Sarah (Burritt) Mosher and Cornelius Duel Mosher (physician); cousin of Eliza Maria Mosher (1846–1928, physician); Stanford University, AB, 1893, MA, 1894; graduate of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 1900.
Externed as Dr. Howard Kelly's gynecological assistant at the Johns Hopkins Hospital dispensary; at Stanford University, worked as a hygiene instructor (1894–96), as a professor of personal hygiene (from 1910), as a women's medical advisor (from 1910), as the Roble Gymnasium director (from 1910) and as a professor of hygiene (associate from 1922, professor from 1928); advocated deep-breathing and isometric exercises, later known as "the moshers"; patented and coinvented a posture-analyzing device, the schematograph (1915); conducted an unpublished longitudinal survey of women's sexual habits that refuted traditional Victorian notions of women's sexuality; attributed menstrual disorders to poor posture, psychology, inactivity and poor breathing habits. Wrote the popular book, Woman's Physical Freedom (3rd ed., 1923), and many journal articles.