DISEASES PECULIAR TO WOMEN 567 



terference from the other sex. It is not a question into 

 which sanitation enters. There are no statistics to 

 show that the partial exposure of the lower extremities 

 to the atmosphere, which more or less attends upon 

 the absence of trousers, leads to greater ill-health or 

 mortality than when they are more securely covered 

 with trousers. Eheumatism, sciatica, hip-joint disease, 

 white-swelling, neuralgia, etc., are more common in 

 men than they are in women. It is true that women 

 sometimes wear drawers in winter, but they are in 

 general a poor protection in themselves compared with 

 the close-fitting woolen drawers of men, and the super- 

 imposed trousers of even more compact material. As 

 a matter of fact, however, women endure cold weather 

 as well as do men, not because they are more warmly 

 clad, but because, owing to the flowing character of 

 their garments, and the fact that they are not in close 

 contact with the lower part of the body, a stratum of 

 air exists between them and the skin, and this, being 

 a good non-conductor of heat, prevents the rapid cool- 

 ing of the surface that would otherwise take place. 

 It acts just as does the two or three inches thickness 

 of air when double windows are put into a house." 



A Muddled Professor — What a pity that the dis- 

 covery that loose skirts are warmer for the legs than 

 closely fitting garments, should have been made at so 

 late a day as this! What an amount of earnest talk 

 has been wasted! How the advocates of dress reform 

 have waxed warm in condemning the prevailing style 

 in women's dress, on the ground that the circulation 

 is disturbed by the exposure of the limbs to chilling by 



the loose skirts, which Dr. has discovered are 



much warmer than drawers or pantaloons! As most 

 of the agitators of the dress reform question have been 



