CLOTHING. 



277 



origin of a consumption is an ordinary cold ; and that 

 cold is frequently taken through the want of a pro- 

 per attention to clothing, particularly in females. 

 We shall, therefore, offer a few general remarks upon 

 this subject, so important to the health of all classes 

 of persons. 



Nothing is more necessary to a comfortable state 

 of existence, than that the body should be kept in 

 nearly a uniform temperature. The Almighty wis- 

 dom, which made the senses serve as instruments of 

 pleasure for our gratification, and of pain for our pro- 

 tection, has rendered the feelings arising from excess 

 or deficiency of heat so acute, tliat we instinctively 

 seek shelter from the scorching heat and freezing 

 cold. We bathe our limbs in the cool stream, or 

 clothe our bodies with the warm fleece. We court 

 the breeze, or carefully avoid it. But no efforts to 

 mitigate the injurious effects of heat or cold would 

 avail us, if nature had not furnished us, in common 

 with other animals (in the peculiar functions of the 

 skin, and lungs), with a power of preserving the heat 

 of the body uniform under almost every variety of 

 temperature to which the atmosphere is liable. The 

 skin, by increase of the perspiration, carries off the 

 excess of heat ; the lungs, by decomposing the at- 

 mosphere, supply the loss ; so that the internal parts 

 of the body are preserved at a temperature of about 

 98 under all circumstances. In addition to the im- 

 portant share which the function of perspiration has 

 in regulating the heat of the body, it serves the fur- 

 ther purpose of an outlet to the constitution, by which 

 it gets rid of matters that are no longer useful in its 

 economy. The excretory function of the skin is of 

 such paramount importance to health, that we ought, 

 at all times, to direct our attention to the means of 

 securing its being duly performed ; for if the matters 

 that ought to be thrown out of the body by the pores 

 of the skin are retained, they invariably prove injuri- 

 ous. When speaking of the excrementitious matter 

 of the skin, we do not mean the sensible moisture 

 which is poured out in hot weather, or when the body 

 is heated by exercise, but a matter which is too sub- 

 tile for the senses to take cognizance of, which is con- 

 tinually passing off from every part of the body, and 

 which has been called the insensible perspiration. 

 This insensible perspiration is the true excretion of 

 the skin. A suppression of the insensible perspira- 

 tion is a prevailing symptom in almost all diseases. 

 It is the sole cause of many fevers. Very many 

 chronic diseases have no other cause. In warm wea- 

 ther, and particularly in hot climates, the functions 

 of the skin being prodigiously increased, all the con- 

 sequences of interrupting them are proportionably 

 dangerous. Besides the function of perspiration, the 

 skin has, in common with every other surface of the 

 body, a process, by means of appropriate vessels, of 

 absorbing, or taking up, and conveying into the blood- 

 vessels, any thing that may be in contact with it. It 

 is also the part on which the organ of feeling or touch 

 is distributed. The skin is supplied with glands, 

 which provide an oily matter, that renders it impervi- 

 ous to water, and thus secures the evaporation of the 

 sensible perspiration. Were this oily matter deficient, 

 tlie skin would become sodden, as is the case when it 

 has been removed a fact to be observed in the hands 

 of washerwomen, when it is destroyed by the solvent 

 powers of the soap. The hair serves as so many 

 capillary tubes to conduct the perspired fluid from 

 the skin. The three powers of the skin, perspiration, 

 absorption, and feeling, are so dependent on each 

 other, that it is impossible for one to be deranged 

 without the other two being also disordered. For if 

 ~a man be exposed to a frosty atmosphere, in a state 

 of inactivity, or without sufficient clothing, till his 

 "limbs become stiff and his skin insensible, the vessels 



that excite the perspiration and the absorbent vessels 

 partake of the torpor tliat has seized on the nerves of 

 feeling ; nor will they regain their lost activity till 

 the sensibility be completely restored. The danger 

 of suddenly attempting to restore sensibility to frozen 

 parts is well known. If the addition of warmth be 

 not very gradual, the vitality of the part will be de- 

 stroyed. This consideration of the functions of the 

 skin will at once point out the necessity of an 'especinl 

 attention, in a fickle climate, to the subject of cloth- 

 ing. Every one's experience must have shown him 

 how extremely capricious the weather is in this coun- 

 try. Our experience of this great inconstancy in the 

 temperature of the air ought to have instructed us 

 how to secure ourselves from its effects. The chief 

 end proposed by clothing ought to be protection from 

 the cold ; and it never can oe too deeply impressed 

 on the mind (especially of those who have the care of 

 children), that a degree of cold amounting to shi- 

 vering cannot be felt, under any circumstances, with- 

 out injury to the health, and that the strongest con- 

 stitution cannot resist the benumbing influence of a 

 sensation of cold constantly present, even though it 

 be so moderate as not to occasion immediate com- 

 plaint, or to induce the sufferer to seek protection 

 from it. This degree of cold often lays the founda- 

 tion of the whole host of chronic diseases, foremost 

 amongst which are found scrofula and consumption. 

 Persons engaged in sedentary employments must be 

 almost constantly under the influence of this degree 

 of cold, unless the apartment in which they work is 

 heated to a degree tliat subjects them, on leaving it, 

 to all the dangers of a sudden transition, as it were, 

 from summer to winter. The inactivity to which 

 such persons are condemned, by weakening the body, 

 renders it incapable of maintaining the degree of 

 warmth necessary to comfort, without additional 

 clothing or fire. Under such circumstances, a suffi- 

 cient quantity of clothing, of a proper quality, with 

 the apartment moderately warmed and well ventilated, 

 ought to be preferred, for keeping up the requisite 

 degree of warmth, to any means of heating the air of 

 the room so much as to render any increase of clothing 

 unnecessary. To heat the air of an apartment much 

 above the ordinary temperature of the atmosphere, 

 we must shut out the external air ; the air also be- 

 comes extremely rarefied and dry ; which circumstan- 

 ces make it doubly dangerous to pass from it to the 

 cold, raw, external air. But hi leaving a moderately 

 well warmed room, if properly clothed, the change 

 is not felt ; and the full advantage of exercise is 

 derived from any opportunity of taking it that may 

 occur. 



The only kind of dress that can afford the protec- 

 tion required by the clianges of temperature to which 

 high northern climates are liable, is woollen. Nor 

 wul it be of much avail that woollen be worn, unless 

 so much of it be worn, and it be so worn, as effectu 

 ally to keep out the cold. Those who would receive 

 the advantage which the wearing of woollen is capa- 

 ble of affording, must wear it next the skin ; for it 

 is in this situation only that its health-preserving 

 power can be felt. The great advantages of wool- 

 len cloth are briefly these : the readiness with which 

 it allows the escape of the matter of perspiration 

 through its texture ; its power of preserving the sen- 

 sation of warmth to the skin under all circumstances ; 

 tlie difficulty there is in making it thoroughly wet ; 

 the slowness with which it conducts heat ; the soft- 

 ness, lightness, and pliancy of its texture. Cotton 

 cloth, though it differs but little from linen, approach- 

 es nearer to the nature of woollen, and, on that ac- 

 count, must be esteemed as the next best substance 

 of which clothing may be made. Silk is the next in 

 point of excellence, but it is very inferior to cotion 



