108 CLOTHING, ITS USES AND ABUSES. 



cotton shirt to sleep in, and strongly object to the common practice 

 of sleeping in flannel." 



Wearing Flannel next the Skin The prevalence of this 

 objectionable Habit suggests the necessity of a word of caution. 

 It is well known that, even in otherwise normal conditions, the 

 skin of some persons is highly irritable and most unpleasantly 

 excited by contact with flannel, and that when this exalted sensibil- 

 ity exists, the use of flannel next to the skin may develop decidea 

 physical alteration. It does this mechanically by retaining the 

 local heat and intensifying reaction. Cases of skin-disease often 

 come before us in which pruritus is thus aggravated and the affec- 

 tion prolonged, especially when combined with neglect of proper 

 washings. In congested conditions of the skin, or in diseased 

 states of the nerves of the skin, flannel is inadmissible; or if neces- 

 sary to guard against vicissitudes of the weather, it may be worn 

 outside a linen garment, as before suggested. The diseases in 

 \\hich this advice is especially applicable are, according to Dr. 

 Tilbury Fox, certain skin-diseases, certain syphilitic eruptions, in 

 their early stages, itch and prurigo. " A remembrance of this 

 little practical fact," says the above author, " will sometimes give 

 us the greatest cause to be thankful that we attended to it, trifling 

 though it be." Flannel, however, is of great value in our variable 

 climate and may be generally worn through the whole year as a 

 great protection to health and life. Even in summer weather flan- 

 nel should not be cast aside, but a thin, light garment of that 

 material substituted for a heavy one. 



Bed-clothes, Heavy Comforts, are Disease Pro- 

 ducers, and should be cast into the flames. Light quilts or blank- 

 ets, and more in number, should take their places, Heavy ones 

 throw you into a perspiration, and then you kick them off; this 

 gives you a chill and you are compelled to take them back again: 

 and so you go on, alternately roasting and freezing and constantly 

 cursing, through the whole blessed night. Those heavv 'comfort- 

 ers,' as the country people call them, should be banished! or burned 

 as abominations. The diseases, colds and profanity they have 

 occasioned are incalculable. They are not quite unendurable on an 

 extremely cold winter's night, 'if one could be quite sure they 

 would be found on his bed in no milder weather." Dr. Camv- 

 bell. 



Color of Clothing. The color of clothing is not unimpor- 

 tant, light being preferable for the following and other reasons: 1. 

 White reflects the rays of heat which the black absorbs; at the 

 same time it impedes the transmission of heat from the body. 

 Light-colored clothes are therefore best both for winter and sum- 

 mer, retaining the heat in the former season and keeping it off in 

 the latter. 2. Particles which emanate from diseased bodies as in 

 miasmatic districts, and unhealthy accumulations, are much more 

 readily absorbed by dark than by light clothing. Therefore those 



