CHAPTER XI 



CLOTHES AND HOW THEY PROTECT US 



CLOTHING protects the body against exposure to heat, rain, 

 and wind, and particularly against exposure to cold. In tropi- 

 cal regions, uncivilized man wears little or no clothing ; in cold 

 Arctic regions uncivilized man wears animal skins as a protection 

 against biting cold and bleak winds. Civilized man wears 

 clothes whether he lives in cold northern countries or in balmy 

 southern countries; but he modifies his clothing to suit the 

 various temperatures. In cold climates he wears heavy 

 woolens and furs, in warm climates, thin cottons and linens; 

 in winter he has additional clothes for out-of-door wear; in 

 summer he discards out-of-door clothes and uses the thinnest 

 and lightest materials for all purposes. 



Clothing is made of materials obtained from both animals 

 and plants. Wool is the hair of sheep and goats; silk, the 

 cocoon of the silkworm ; fur, the hairy skin of wild animals ; 

 cotton, the fluffy covering of seeds of the cotton plant ; and 

 linen, the slender fine strands running through the stem of the 

 flax plant. The hair of sheep, the fur of beaver, the threads of 

 cotton seeds, the strands of flax stems, are called fibers. Fibers 

 are flexible strands or hairs which can be twisted, plaited, or 

 woven together to form strong, firm threads. Individual fibers 

 are frail and weak, but when numbers of them are closely 

 united, they form strong threads or yarns. The individual 

 threads which show on the ragged edge of cotton material are 

 made by spinning together many single cotton fibers; the 

 yarn which is sold in hanks for knitting is made by twisting and 



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