PRESERVATION OF HEALTH. 



confined to the surface, the internal organs being 

 as yet in a very weak state. In such circum- 

 stances, to plunge the child into cold water, from 

 an idea of making it hardy, as is customary in 

 some countries, and among ignorant persons in 

 our own, is the height of cruelty and folly ; for the 

 unavoidable consequence is, that the blood is 

 thrown in upon the internal organs, and inflamma- 

 tion, bowel-complaints, croup, or convulsions, are 

 very likely to ensue. A baby requires to be kept 

 at a temperature above what is suitable to a grown 

 person ; it should be warmly, but not heavily 

 clothed ; the room where it is kept should be 

 maintained at a good, but not oppressive heat ; 

 and it should never be put into other than tepid 

 water. It should not be exposed to the open air 

 for some days after its birth. 



At all periods of life, it is most desirable to avoid 

 exposure to very low temperatures, especially for 

 any considerable length of time. To sit long in 

 cold school-rooms or work-rooms, with the whole 

 body, and especially the feet, in a chilled condi- 

 tion, is very unfavourable to the health of young 

 people. It is not possible that a condition so 

 adverse to the healthy action of the cutaneous 

 vessels should not lead, if long persisted in, to 

 very bad consequences. Those who are com- 

 pelled to be sedentary, should make it their 

 endeavour to obtain a sufficiently high tempera- 

 ture, either by warming their apartments suffi- 

 ciently, or thickening their clothing. Common 

 fires, though delightful from their cheerful look, 

 are confessedly very inadequate, in most circum- 

 stances, to heat large work-rooms, school-rooms, 

 or even the larger class of sitting-rooms ; not to 

 speak of the great objection which has been made 

 to them on the score of economy, three-fourths of 

 their heat being sent off through the chimney. It 

 is most desirable that some means in which the 

 public could have confidence were devised for 

 thoroughly, and at the same time healthily, warm- 

 ing large apartments. Stoves inclosed in large 

 iron-plate cases (Arnott's stoves), pipes of hot 

 water or of steam, and blasts of heated air, are 

 amongst the most conspicuous plans tried within 

 the last few years. (See WARMING, No. 31.) 



Clothing should be in proportion to the tempera- 

 ture of the climate and the season of the year ; 

 and where there are such abrupt transitions from 

 heat to cold as in our own country, it is not safe 

 ever to go very thinly clad, as we may in that case 

 be exposed to a sudden chill before we can effect 

 the proper change of dress. Very fatal effects 

 often result to ladies from incautiously stepping 

 out of heated rooms in the imperfect clothing 

 which they ludicrously style full-dress : all such 

 injuries might be avoided by putting on a suffi- 

 ciency of shawls or cloaks, and allowing them- 

 selves a little time in the lobby to cool. The 

 under-clothing in this country should be invariably 

 of flannel, which is remarkably well calculated to 

 preserve uniformity of temperature, as well as to 

 produce a healthy irritation in the skin. While 

 the value of comfortable clothing is fully acknow- 

 ledged, we should never lose sight of the value of 

 exercise for keeping up a kindly glow upon the 

 surface, and for the support of a high tone of 

 general health. Any one who, neglecting this, 

 should live constantly in a warm apartment, or 

 only go out of doors muffled up in a mass of 

 clothing, would speedily suffer from a relaxed 



state of the system, and become so susceptible of 

 damage from the~ slightest change of temperature 

 in the atmosphere, that the most dangerous con- 

 sequences might be apprehended. 



Wet clothes applied to any part of the body, 

 when it is in an inactive state, have an instantane- 

 ous effect in reducing the temperature, this being 

 an unavoidable effect of the process of evaporation 

 which then takes place. Hence it is extremely 

 dangerous to sit upon damp ground, or to remain 

 at rest for a single minute with wetted feet, or any 

 other part of the body invested in damp garments. 

 Dampness in the house in which we live has the 

 same effect, and is equally dangerous. The chill 

 produced by the evaporation from the wetted sur- 

 face checks the perspiration, and sends the blood 

 inwards to the vital parts, where it tends to pro- 

 duce inflammatory disease. Few persons seem to 

 be aware of these truths. We find young men 

 heedlessly getting their feet wet, and sitting with 

 them in that condition, thereby incurring the most 

 deadly peril. Young women commit a similar 

 folly when they walk out in thin shoes in a wet or 

 cold day. Exposure to wet, damp, or cold, is of 

 comparatively little moment when the body, by a 

 course of exercise or training, has been prepared 

 to endure these conditions. Thus a person brought 

 up delicately, or much within doors, would be 

 killed by that which would have little or no effect 

 on a ploughman. 



Errors in Dress. 



This is perhaps the most appropriate place in 

 which to introduce some remarks upon errors in 

 dress. The integuments which nature calls upon 

 us to put on for the sake of warmth, are too often 

 made the means of inflicting serious injury, either 

 through ignorance, fashion, or caprice. It is 

 therefore necessary, in a treatise on the preserva- 

 tion of health, to advert in emphatic terms to this 

 subject. 



It is scarcely too much to say that there is no 

 part of the human frame, from the sole of the foot 

 to the crown of the head, which has not been, and 

 is not at this moment, mistreated by fashion. We 

 laugh at the Chinese ladies, who have their feet 

 constrained by iron moulds into mere bulbous 

 appendages to the limbs; but we never reflect 

 that, amongst ourselves, errors only inferior in 

 degree are constantly committed. The foot natu- 

 rally spreads out, fan-like, from the heel to the 

 toes. But instead of having our shoes formed in 

 the same triangular shape, they are made in a 

 lozenge form, truncated at the front, the toes 

 being thus perverted from their radiating arrange- 

 ment into one exactly the opposite ; so that they 

 become crushed under one another, and deprived 

 of a great part of that muscular power by which 

 they were designed to propel our bodies in walk- 

 ing. In the greater height usually given to the 

 heels of shoes, another important deviation from 

 nature is committed. When the heel is raised 

 above the level of the ball of the foot, a complete 

 derangement takes place in the muscles of loco- 

 motion ; the power of the limb is impaired ; and 

 the whole body is thrown off its equipoise. It is 

 impossible, in such circumstances, to exercise the 

 body as it ought to be. The foot is also forced or 

 plugged down into the narrow front of the shoe, 

 where the toes become liable to the grievance of 

 corns. Thus the free healthy play of the various 



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