1;jO Our Winter Coverings. [Marcli, 



And how it found its way into tlie columns of the Gazette, thus wearing 

 the "fool's cap and hells," is to us a matter of no small wonder; for it 

 would seem that even their " devil " ought to have known more about 

 the " philosophy of keeping warm " than all that amounts to. Cover- 

 ino-s, " impervious to water and air T "not weight, but imperviousnces 

 wanted 1" Now, that the Kussian serf may wear " closely-woyen canvas, 

 almost impervious to water and air," we can conceive of as possible — ■ 

 especially when we come to consider that he can probably get nothing 

 else; but, that an impervious covering is wanted for any human 

 Christian to wear, or to sleep under, is a proposition so hugely absurd 

 as to be almost sublime ; yet lacking of this but one step— it becomes 

 simply ridiculous. 



If this " philosophy of keeping warm " be sound, then tin, or sheet- 

 iroii would make the best bed clothes imaginable, to " keep the warmth 

 in," bc'jause they are " impervious to water and air." Therefore, upon 

 going to rest, a person had better just can himself up ! 



The writer, moreover, adduces the fact — certainly most hostile to his 

 tlieory — that " nature thatches animals with fur, that their animal heat 

 may not escape." Yes, and for a similar purpose, man should be simi- 

 larli/ "thatched;" but for sztc/i-a purpose, nature has never yet been 

 detected in the blunder of covering an animal with a " thatch " imj^cr- 

 vioiis to icater and air ! Hence, it is obvious, that the mode proposed 

 by this sap-ient writer is the very opposite of nature's " philosophy of 

 keeping warm." 



To his mind it seems never to have occurred that the adult human 

 body is daily giving off about forty ounces — two and a half pounds — of 

 effete and excrementitious matter by elimination through the skin and 

 lungs ; and that a check to this eliminating process of transpiration, by 

 any impervious covering around the body, forces this effete and carbona- 

 ceous matter back upon the circulation, by absorption from the surface, 

 to the unavoidable detriment of the vital functions of organic action. 

 Thereby are induced fevers, catarrhs, congestions, consumption, and 

 almost " all the ills that flesh is heir to." Hence, philosophy, guided 

 by an enlightened physiology, directs that our coverings, so far from 

 being impervious, should be porous — ^just like the furry " thatch " of 

 animals, and like that also, should be non-conductors of hot and elec- 

 tricity, in order that the " animal heat may net escape." In this prin- 

 ciple is found the marked superiority of those fine and soft, but not 

 ''closely tvoven," blankets — commonly called "rose blankets," some- 

 times known as "Quaker blankets "—as the winter covering for our 

 beds. A^ith cotton or linen sheets between their woolen surface andtho 



