838 
ON PROPER CLOTHING. 
BY EDWIN LANKESTER, M.D., E.R.S, 
W HILST fresh air is essential to health, there can be no 
doubt that one of the disadvantages that follows its 
possession is exposure to cold. Prom the earliest periods of 
his history, man has had recourse to various expedients for 
the purpose of maintaining the warmth of his body. His 
house and his clothes are arrangements which he makes for 
protecting himself from cold. It follows, then, in a natural 
sequence, that when we have spoken of the importance of 
fresh air, we should proceed to speak of the necessity of 
maintaining the warmth of the body ; and as clothing is one 
of the most natural ways of protecting the body from cold, 
we will now put together a few remarks on the matter of 
clothes. We shall take up here, the whole subject of Dress, 
and speak of its use and abuses. 
Clothing is not only employed by man for warmth, but also 
for coolness — contradictory as that may be — for protection, 
and for ornament. 
As, however, in this climate, dress is mostly worn for the 
sake of its warmth, we shall speak first of the reasons for 
this, and the kinds of dress which are most adapted for the 
purpose. 
If we take a Fahrenheit's thermometer and place it in con- 
tact with any internal part of a human body, we shall find 
that it rises to the temperature of 98°. This temperature, 
which is called on the thermometer “ blood-heat," is found to be 
constantly the same, whether the human being is living in 
temperate climes like our own, dwelling in the Arctic or Ant- 
arctic zones, or under the torrid sun of the tropics. Every 
animal with a perfect heart, as birds and mammals, has its 
own peculiar temperature, and each species maintains its own 
temperature, to whatever external temperature it may be 
exposed. Slow-moving animals, as the elephant, hippopo- 
tamus, and rhinoceros, have a lower temperature, whilst 
quick-moving animals, such as birds of rapid flight, have a 
much higher temperature than man. 
The constancy of this temperature of animals shows clearly 
