CLOTHING AND THE ATMOSPHERE. 787 



of the services you can render is high, but I trust not exaggerated. 

 When your numbers shall increase, and the character of those who are 

 admitted remain of the same standard, your importance will grow. 

 In your hands will, to a great extent, lie the opportunity for removing 

 prejudices, spreading knowledge, healing and preventing disease. 

 Even those of you who will not always consent to serve in other 

 people's homes, will, by example and by teaching, remain in close 

 alliance and co-operation with such as intend to remain in the ranks 

 forever. As you now mean to leave us, endowed with the certifi- 

 cate of the required accomplishments, I can only add, while offering 

 my best wishes for your future, that I trust you Avail never forget the 

 place which gave you so ample opportunities for perfecting yourselves. 

 You will never forget the gentlemen who taught you, nor that accom- 

 plished young woman who impressed all of you with the fact that the 

 charms of womanhood will not suffer from hard work, from a classical 

 education, and thorough medical or other knowledge. Do not forget, 

 also, at the beginning of your independent career, the ladies to whose 

 care and sacrifices and labors you owe the existence of the school 

 which sends you forth as its first graduates, nor the great charitable 

 institution which, after having given you your practical training, hon- 

 ors you to-night by the presence of many of its officers, and designates 

 its president to deliver to you your diplomas. 



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CLOTHING AND THE ATMOSPHEKE. 



By M. R. RADATJ. 



CLOTHING is a kind of armor to help us in the battle against 

 the elements, the importance of which increases with the rigor of 

 the climate which man inhabits. The house may be regarded as an 

 amplified clothing, to be used less constantly, but as more enduring 

 than other clothing, and capable besides of furnishing a full shelter. 

 Both clothing and the house have been invented to protect us ; but a 

 very common error, which has given rise to many mistakes, has been to 

 regard the house and the clothing as designed essentially to isolate us 

 from the external air. The truth is, that they are simply regulators of 

 our indispensable and constant relations with the ambient atmosphere. 

 These relations can not well be comprehended unless we take account 

 of the complex phenomena by which the temperature of the body is 

 kept up in the midst of the most diverse influences. "We know that 

 animal heat is produced by chemical changes that are accomplished 

 in the tissues, and principally, but not exclusively, by the combustion 

 of the food which is assimilated and brought into the circulation, 

 where the inspired oxygen transforms it into alcohol and carbonic 



