CLOTHING.
318. Do you approve of a boy wearing flannel next to the skin?
England is so variable a climate, and the changes from heat to cold, and from dryness to moisture of the atmosphere, are so sudden, that some means are required to guard against their effects. Flannel, as it is a bad conductor of heat, prevents the sudden changes from affecting the body, and thus is a great preservative against cold.
Flannel is as necessary in the summer as in the winter time; indeed, we are more likely both to sit and to stand in draughts in the summer than in the winter; and thus we are more liable to become chilled and to catch cold.
Woollen shirts are now much worn; they are very comfortable and beneficial to health. Moreover, they simplify the dress, as they supersede the necessity of wearing either both flannel and linen, or flannel and calico shirts.
319. Flannel sometimes produces great irritation of the skin: what ought to be done to prevent it?
Have a moderately fine flannel, and persevere in its use; the skin in a few days will bear it comfortably. The Angola and wove-silk waistcoats have been recommended as substitutes, but there is nothing equal to the old-fashioned Welsh flannel.
320. If a boy have delicate lungs, do you approve of his wearing a prepared hare-skin over the chest?
I do not: the chest may be kept too warm as well as too cold. The hare-skin heats the chest too much, and thereby promotes a violent perspiration; which, by his going into the cold air, may become suddenly checked, and may thus produce mischief. If the chest be delicate, there is nothing like flannel to ward off colds.
321. After an attack of Rheumatic Fever, what extra clothing do you advise?
In the case of a boy, or a girl, just recovering from a severe attack of Rheumatic Fever, flannel next the skin ought always, winter and summer, to be worn—flannel drawers as well as a flannel vest.
322. Have you any remarks to make on boys' waistcoats?
Fashion in this, as in most other instances, is at direct variance with common sense. It would seem that fashion was intended to make work for the doctor, and to swell the bills of mortality! It might be asked, What part of the chest, in particular, ought to be kept warm? The upper part needs it most. It is in the upper part of the lungs that tubercles (consumption) usually first make their appearance; and is it not preposterous to have such parts, in particular, kept cool?
Double-breasted waistcoats cannot be too strongly recommended for delicate youths, and for all men who have weak chests.
323. Have you any directions to give respecting the shoes and the stockings?
The shoes for winter should be moderately thick and waterproof. If boys and girls be delicate, they ought to have double soles to their shoes, with a piece of bladder between each sole, or the inner sole may be made of cork; either of the above plans will make the soles of boots and shoes completely water-proof. In wet or dirty weather India-rubber over-shoes are useful, as they keep the upper as well as the under leathers perfectly dry.
The socks, or stockings, for winter, ought to be either lambs-wool or worsted; it is absurd to wear cotton socks or stockings all the year round. I should advise a boy to wear socks not stockings, as he will then be able to dispense with garters. Garters, as I have remarked in a previous Conversation, are injurious—they not only interfere with the circulation of the blood, but also, by pressure, injure the bones, and thus the shape of the legs.
Boys and girls cannot be too particular in keeping their feet warm and dry, as cold wet feet are one of the most frequent exciting causes of bronchitis, of sore throats, and of consumption.
324. When should a girl begin to wear stays?
She ought never to wear them.
325. Do not stays strengthen the body?
No; on the contrary, they weaken it (1.) They, weaken the muscles. The pressure upon them causes them to waste; so that, in the end, a girl cannot do without them, as the stays are then obliged to perform the duty of the wasted muscles. (2.) They weaken the lungs by interfering with their functions. Every inspiration is accompanied by a movement of the ribs. If this movement be impeded, the functions of the lungs are impeded likewise, and, consequently, disease is likely to follow, and either difficulty of breathing, or cough, or consumption, may ensue. (3) They weaken the heart's action, and thus frequently produce palpitation, and, perhaps, eventually, organic or incurable disease of the heart (4) They weaken the digestion, by pushing down the stomach and the liver, and by compressing the latter, and thus induce indigestion, flatulence, and liver-disease. [Footnote: Several years ago, while prosecuting my anatomical studies in London University College Dissecting rooms, on opening a young women, I discovered an immense indentation of the liver large enough to admit a rolling pin, produced by tight lacing!] (5) They weaken the bowels, by impeding their proper peristaltic (spiral) motion, and thus might produce either constipation or a rupture. Is it not presumptuous to imagine that man can improve upon God's works, and that if more support had been required, the Almighty would not have given it?—
"God never made his work for man to mend"—Dryden.
326. Have you any remarks to make on female dress?
There is a perfect disregard of health in everything appertaining to fashion. Parts that ought to be kept warm, remain unclothed, the upper portion of the chest, most prone to tubercles (consumption), is completely exposed, the feet, great inlets to cold, are covered with thin stockings, and with shoes as thin as paper. Parts that should have full play are cramped and hampered, the chest is cribbed in with stays, the feet with tight shoes,—hence causing deformity, and preventing a free circulation of blood. The mind, that ought to be calm and unruffled, is kept in a constant state of excitement by balls, and concerts, and plays. Mind and body sympathise with each other, and disease is the consequence. Night is turned into day, and a delicate girl leaves the heated ball room, decked out in her airy finery, to breathe the damp and cold air of night. She goes to bed, but, for the first few hours, she is too much excited to sleep, towards morning, when the air is pure and invigorating, and, when to breathe it, would be to inhale health and life, she falls into a feverish slumber, and wakes not until noon-day. Oh, that a mother should be so blinded and so infatuated!
327. Have you any observations to make on a girl wearing a green dress?
It is injurious to wear a green dress, if the colour have been imparted to it by means of Scheele's green, which is arsenite of copper—a deadly poison. I have known the arsenic to fly off from a green dress in the form of powder, and to produce, in consequence, ill-health. Gas-light green is a lovely green, and free from all danger, and is fortunately superseding the Scheele's green both in dresses and in worsted work. I should advise my fair reader, when she selects green as her colour, always to choose the gas-light green, and to wear and to use for worsted work no other green besides, unless it be imperial green.