Of the Salubrity of Warm Rooms. 573 



dwellings of the peasants are kept much hotter); but 

 though the ladies in that country are from their infancy 

 brought up with the greatest care, and are as little 

 exposed to hardships as the women of condition in 

 this or in any other country, they find no inconven- 

 ience in going out of these warm rooms into the cold 

 air. They even frequent the plays and the operas, 

 and go on sleighing parties, during the severest frosts, 

 and spend one whole month in the depth of winter (in the 

 season of the carnival) in one continued round of balls 

 and masquerades. And, what may perhaps appear to- 

 many still more incredible, they seldom fail, whatever 

 the severity of the weather may be, to spend half an 

 hour every morning in a cold church. 



But if in Germany, where the winters are incompar- 

 ably more severe than they are in this country, persons 

 tenderly brought up, and of delicate habits, find no 

 inconvenience whatever in living in warm rooms, and 

 in going from them into the cold air, why should 

 warm rooms be unwholesome in this country ? 



There cannot surely be any thing injurious to health 

 in the genial warmth of 60 or 65; and, if pure airior 

 respiration is what is wanted, the great height of our 

 rooms in England secures us against all danger from 

 that quarter. 



The prejudice in this country against living in warm 

 rooms in winter has arisen from a very natural cause ; 

 and though the prejudice is general, and very deeply 

 rooted, as its cause is known to me, I really have hopes 

 that I shall be able to combat it with some success. 

 I am perfectly sure that justice will be done to the 

 purity of my intentions in engaging in this arduous 

 undertaking, and that I look upon as a circumstance 



