THE HULL 



LITERARY & PHILOSOPHICAL MISCELLANY. 



No. IV. JANUABY. Vol. I. 



INFLUENCE OF CERTAIN POPULAR ERRORS 



ON THE 



PHYSICAL CONDITION OF MAN. 

 BY DR. AYRE. 



(Continued from page 86.^ 



The instances now given of popular errors are chiefly speculative, 

 and we may next proceed to notice those of a more practical kind, 

 and where the evil wrought out by them is more wide in its extent, 

 and more considerable in its degiee. Of these, the first we may con- 

 sider are those that are entertained and acted on in the matter of dress. 



There are two purposes for which clothing is used, and to which I 

 would now call your attention — namely, first, as a means by which 

 the body may resist the extenial cold ; and, secondly, to obviate 

 or repair some imperfection in the development of the fonn. 

 To render myself more intelligible on the objections which may be 

 urged against the opinion and practice of the multitude on these points, 

 I must request your consideration for a moment to an explanation of 

 the principles which should guide us in the selection and use of 

 clothing. 



First, then — the materials used for clothing, whether it be fur, 

 or wool, or cotton, or linen, or a mixture of these, have no power to 

 impart wannth to the body, but only to retain it there when generated, 

 the power of any given quantity of clothing to retain it there being 

 greater as the dillerence between the natural temperature of the body 

 and that of the external air is less ; so that thus the clothing which 

 is adequate to this purpose in winter, must be more than is needed in 



