318 SCOUTING FOR GIRLS 
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depend on whether he is properly clad. Proper, in this 
case does not mean modish, but suitable, serviceable, 
proven by the touchstone of experience to be best for 
the work or play that is in hand. When you seek a guide 
in the mountains, he looks first in your eyes and then 
at your shoes. If both are right, you are right. 
“The chief uses of clothing are to help the body main- 
tain its normal temperature and to protect it from sun, 
frost, wind, rain and injuries. To help , mind you~the 
body must be allowed to do its share. 
“Perspiration is the heat-regulating mechanism of the 
body. Clothing should hinder its passage from the skin 
as little as possible. For this reason one's garments 
should be permeable to air. The body is cooled by rapid 
evaporation, on the familiar principle of a tropical water 
bag that is porous enough to let some of the water exude. 
So the best summer clothing is that which permits free 
evaporation — and this means all over, from head to heel. 
In winter it is just the same, there should be free passage 
for bodily moisture through the underclothes, but extra 
layers or thickness of outer clothing are needed to hold 
in the bodily heat and to protect one against wind ; even 
so all the garments should be permeable to air. * * *” 
“Underclothing, for any season, should be loosely 
woven, so as to hold air and" take up moisture from the 
body. The air confined in the interspaces is a non-con- 
ductor, and so helps to prevent sudden chilling on the 
one hand, and over-heating on the other. A loose tex- 
ture absorbs perspiration, but does not hold it — the mois- 
ture is free to pass on to and through the outer garments. 
In town we may endure close woven underwear in sum- 
mer, if thin enough, because we exercise little and can 
bathe and change frequently. In the woods we would 
have to change four times a day to keep * * * as 
dry. 
