CHAPTER XIII
CLOTHING AND HOW TO USE IT
Kinds of Clothing.—People are beginning to learn that the wearing of the right kind of clothing has much to do with keeping them well. Many persons wear too heavy clothing in winter. Keeping the body too hot makes it weak.
Some kinds of clothing are much warmer than others. Some are expensive and others are cheap. Cheap clothes will often serve the same purpose as the more costly ones. If you look at your handkerchief or stockings, you will see that they are made of threads running crosswise to each other. All clothing is made from threads. Some of these are wool, some are linen, a few are silk, and many are cotton.
Woolen Clothing.—Woolen clothing, such as overcoats and fine cloth dresses and suits, is made from the wool cut from sheep. Enough wool can be sheared from two sheep in one year to make an entire suit of clothes. The raw wool is first twisted into threads and then woven by machines into cloth.
Fig. 50 —At the left is a bunch of flax gathered from the field, and on the right is a spool of thread made from the flax and ready to be woven into linen.
Linen.—Linen is used in making collars, cuffs, and handkerchiefs. It is made from fine threads taken from the flax plant. On a piece of ground as large as a schoolroom enough flax can be raised to make a half dozen collars. Garments to be worn in warm weather are sometimes made of linen.
Silk.—Silk is used in making neckties, gloves, ribbons, and dresses. Silk cloth is woven from the cocoons made by silkworms. A silkworm is about as big as your largest finger. It grows to this size from the egg in one month. In three or four days it spins a shell of silk thread completely surrounding itself. This shell is called a cocoon. Within this it changes to a moth.
Fig. 51 —Photograph of silkworms changing mulberry leaves into silk.
Fig. 52 —These fibers from the lint about the seed of cotton are woven into cotton cloth.
When the cocoons are to be used for silk, the worm is killed by heat as soon as it has woven its home so that it may not change to a moth and eat off some of the silk in getting out. Many thousand worms are needed to get enough silk for a dress. The worms are raised largely in China, Japan, Italy, and France.
Cotton.—All calico, muslin, and most cheap clothing are made from cotton thread. This is made from the cotton fibers surrounding the seeds of the cotton plant ([Fig. 52]). The cotton used in this country is raised in the Southern states.
Cotton clothing is stronger and wears much longer than silk or wool, but it does not look so well and is not nearly so warm.
The Use of Wraps and Overcoats.—Outer wraps and overcoats should never be worn in a warm room or while working hard. They cause much sweat to form on the body, and as soon as one goes out of doors the sweat begins to pass off. This makes the body feel cold and in some cases leads to a long sickness.
When riding in cold weather, extra wraps should be worn. Scarfs and furs should not be worn about the throat except in extreme cold weather. Bundling up the neck and chin is likely to cause sore throat.
Danger from Wet Clothing.—Many children have caught severe colds leading to serious sickness by wearing wet or damp clothing. Wet clothing causes the heat to pass off from the body quickly, so that it is chilled before we know it. This may be shown by wrapping two bottles of warm water in cloths. Wet one cloth and let the other remain dry. In twenty minutes the bottle with the wet cloth will be cool, but the other one will still be warm. If your wet clothing cannot be changed at once, keep exercising or throw a heavy coat about you.
Untidy and Soiled Clothing.—All boys and girls should learn to keep their clothing as clean as possible. Do not wipe the hands on the clothing, or sit down in the dirt, or let food smear the front of the coat or dress.
The sweat is constantly bringing waste matter out of the body. This soils the clothing next to it. On this account clothing to be washed every week or oftener should be worn next to the skin. Very thin cotton underclothing should be worn in summer. Woolen clothes give more warmth for winter.
Fig. 53 —Showing how to prevent the shoe from pressing on corns caused by wearing tight shoes or socks roughly darned.
Shoes.—Badly fitting shoes cause sore feet and much pain. A shoe that is tight across the toes is sure to cause corns. A corn is a thickened part of the top skin which presses on the more tender part beneath. Soaking the feet in hot water and filing off the top of the corn or using a corn plaster will help it. Shoes should always be a half inch longer than the foot. Waterproof shoes or rubbers should be worn in wet weather. Rubbers should not be worn in the house.
Alcohol and Clothing.—Many persons think that a drink of whisky will make them warm when taken on a cold day. For this reason whisky is sometimes used when clothing is really needed. The use of whisky or any other alcoholic drink will not make the body warm. It may make one feel warm because it loosens the muscles in the blood tubes of the skin and so lets more blood come to the surface. In this way the body becomes colder because too much blood gets into the skin and is then chilled by the cold air. As alcohol deadens the feeling it may prevent one from feeling cold when the body is really very cold. Too little clothing and too much alcohol have been known to cause men to freeze to death.
Experience in using Alcohol to keep the Body Warm.—Doctor Hayes, who went as physician with Doctor Kane to explore in the Arctic regions, said that he would never again take alcoholic drink with him on such a trip. He declared alcohol was of no use in helping men to keep warm. He found from actual experience that those who use alcohol cannot endure cold so well as other people.
Doctor Carpenter, a well-known physician, tells of a crew of sixty-six men who tried to stay in Hudson Bay all winter. They used some alcoholic drink. Only two of the party lived through the winter. Later another party of twenty-two men passed the winter in the same place. They used no strong drink at any time and as a consequence all but two of them were reported well and strong in the following spring.