CLOTHING, ITS USES AND ABUSES. 109 



who are exposed to contagions influences in the sick room, or in 

 unhealthy neighborhoods, should wear light clothing. Dark 

 clothes favor the transmission of contagious diseases from house to 

 house much more readily than light. Dark clothing imbibes odor- 

 ous particles most readily, as the effluvia of the dissecting-room or 

 the smell of tobacco; and even the peculiar odor of city smoke is at 

 once detected in black clothing by country people. 



Frequent Changing and Cleansing: of clothing is 

 another point deserving attention. The practice of adopting dark- 

 colored instead of light-colored garments has frequently its origin 

 in economy, dark clothes tolerating an amount of dirt inadmissible 

 in light. It should be recollected, however, that dark garments 

 contract dirt after being worn a little time as much as light, and if 

 not changed and cleansed may favor the production or spread of 

 disease. Thick, heavy clothing, the tissues of which are close and 

 firm, is inconvenient. The textures of materials for clothing 

 should be loose and porous, and contain air in their interstices 

 air being a bad conductor of heat. The advantage of having num- 

 erous light instead of fewer heavy coverings to the skin are these : 

 The stratum of air interposed between each layer of covering being 

 a non-conductor, they are relatively much warmer than a much 

 greater thickness in fewer pieces; secondly, they can be more 

 easily laid aside to suit changing temperature ; thirdly, being 

 lighter, they are less apt to overheat the wearer, and thus lessen the 

 chance of consequent chill. 



In China, one of the most changeable climates in the world, the 

 variation in one day being frequently 35 or 40 degrees, this is the 

 mode adopted by the natives to protect themselves : a working-man 

 will often appear in the morning with fifteen or twenty light jackets 

 on, one over the other, which he gradually strips on as the day 

 gets warm, resuming them again towards night. 



General Advice. Other points may be briefly referred to. 

 Summer-clothes should not be put on too soon, or winter ones too 

 late. Thin-soled or high-heeled boots and shoes are destructive to 

 health. High-heeled boots or shoes tend to change the long axis 

 of the body, directing the trunk backwards, and this altering the 

 inclination of the pelvis is likely to influence unfavorably the pro- 

 cess of gestation. Other injuries that have resulted are, trouble- 

 some corns, inflammation of the ligaments of the ankle joints and 

 of their sheaths, and even dislocation of this joint. Only the anat- 

 omist knows the frightful misplacement of the internal organs of 

 the body that is caused by the suicidal habit of tight lacing. It 

 gives rise, more or less, to that depression of spirits so common to 

 young ladies; and worse still, occasionally originates or aggravates 

 organic disease of the most serious description. The muscles of 

 the body were intended to sustain it erect; but when stays are 

 applied they soon become indispensable, by superseding the action 

 of the muscles; and, in accordance with a well-known law of the 



