DRESS.
This should be easy-fitting and comfortable. Woollen under-clothing is required during nine months of the year in our climate; and, except it should disagree with the person, ought to be worn. It carries off the exhalations better, leaving the skin dryer and less liable to colds. The weight of the material can be varied to suit the changing seasons. For the summer months a mixed article, of wool and cotton, is desirable; but in no case should a change be made from all wool to all cotton. It is better to continue in the use of wool altogether than to commit this error. It is not a hardship to wear woollen through the hottest season of the year. Half of all our seamen do it, even while sailing in the tropics, and both their health and comfort is undoubtedly increased by it. It is, indeed, essential for many patients to wear it as a guard to some extent against summer complaints. If any inconvenience of heat is experienced at mid-day, it is better to change the outside clothing, adjusting that to the thermometer, rather than to disturb one's underwear. There are some sensitive-skinned people whom, we know, cannot endure the contact of flannel; such can, however, usually wear, without inconvenience, the mixed goods—especially if it be washed once or twice before it is used.
It is important that all the clothing worn through the day should at night be laid aside, and a nightdress substituted, which should be a flannel wrapper coming nearly or quite to the feet. Changes of underwear ought to be made once each week, and special care taken that it be well aired and dried.
Never go without a chest protector. Considerable relief is afforded by the use of this convenient and inexpensive article. Every old asthmatic appreciates their value, and we have known such people, years ago, who wore them. They warm the chest, and thereby loosen and soothe a cough. They may be of any woollen material almost, so that it is soft and warm. The best article is a piece of buckskin, lined upon one side with a single thickness of flannel made in the form and size of a dinner plate, with a piece clipped out to accommodate the throat; and to the corners of the clipping attach pieces of tape. This tied around the neck and over the under-clothing will prove not only a great relief, but will help the system to better resist a cold; and, for gentlemen, it ought to be in constant use, whether well or ill, as it serves to equalize the clothing over the chest, which is now partially exposed by the fashion of their vests. This invaluable little article can be obtained, when there are no loving fingers to make it, at almost any city drug-store. By wearing it in the manner indicated, it will not require to be washed at all.
The absurdities and crimes of fashion in dress we have discussed elsewhere, and only stop now to say that they should be laid aside by the invalid. Tight lacing, tight collars, knee bands and garters, and thin, tight shoes and boots, are not only foolish, but incompatible with high health. Great good sense has, however, characterized both men and women within the last few years in regard to the covering for the feet. Every person who has occasion (and all should have) to be out of doors in cold and even wet weather, ought to be provided with strong thick-soled boots or shoes, large enough to admit a patent insole, which will keep the feet dry, and at night this should be removed and dried. The security from colds is almost assured whenever this precaution is taken; at least they are a great preventive of colds, and they give, in addition, a sense of solid comfort beyond that which is derived from anything else, save, perhaps, a warm fire on a cold day, or a generous bank account.
They should be an easy fit, as well as thick-soled; and, without this virtue, the other is rendered null. Indeed, better have loose thin boots or shoes, with holes in them even, than tight thick ones. But they can and should possess both of the characteristics named. It is safe to say that any consumptive who has neither courage nor sense enough to adopt the kind recommended, might as well be given over at once, and without further ado.
Persons whose health is so perfect that they can for the time indulge and endure anything, and who cannot be said to have had any experimental knowledge of lame backs, sides, or weak stomachs, and who do not know practically whether they have any such members at all or not, will not be expected, at present, to pay any regard to what we have to offer under the head of