Helen started, and said she feared she had been sitting too long idle. – Maria Edgeworth (1768–1849), Helen, 1834

I believe most distempers proceed from too much sitting still. РMarie de Rabutin-Chantal, letter to her daughter Fran̤oise-Marguerite de S̩vig

[T]hey marched and counter-marched, clapped their hands, stamped hard upon the floor, and performed various evolutions for the purpose of circulating the blood, which by sitting too long is apt to stagnate, and render them, particularly in this climate, dull and sleepy. – Joseph Holt Ingraham, South-West, 1835 [Originally published anonymously, “By a

Throughout the illness the most obviously exciting cause of the attacks was posture, stopping over a writing-desk; and he ultimately had to do such work either kneeling or at a standing desk. – Lawson Tait, 1882