THE TEMPERATURE OF THE BODY 501 



clothes are equally good e.g., flannel or flannelette of the same 

 thickness; but flannel prevents heat loss much better than cotton 

 when wet. The wet cotton touches the skin while the wet elastic 

 hair fibres stand off and keep air entangled. Silk or cotton is 

 the coolest garb for summer, and flannel the best for damp, cold 

 Aveather. Overclothing throws out of use and weakens the natural 

 defensive mechanisms of the body against cold. Man has immense 

 innate powers of withstanding cold, evolved in his long struggle with 

 Nature. Excessive exposure to cold produces local death, or death 

 of the whole body; but if a man survive exposure e.g., after a 

 shipwreck he recovers, and does not suffer from such ills as are 

 commonly attributed to chill. Darwin describes the inhabitants, 

 including mother and baby, of Tierra del Fuego standing in the cold 

 sleet naked, but greased with fish oil, and they have to keep down 

 the population to the food supply by infanticide Babies, especially 

 among the poorer classes, are generally overclothed and kept in too 

 warm and stagnant atmospheres to the detriment of their vitality. 

 This is a cause of the high mortality of infants ih industrial towns. 

 The amount of clothes worn by individuals depends much on habit. 

 We can accustom ourselves to few or many clothes. The young and 

 vigorous want few clothes, while the old, in whom the fires of life are 

 weakening, want many. 



