Health: How to get it and keep it. / The hygiene of dress, food, exercise, rest, bathing, breathing, and ventilation.

by Walter V. Woods

As to the proper amount of covering for the neck, much depends upon habit, and not a little upon individual requirement. The important point is to preserve uniformity, and to guard against sudden changes. The sailor with neck freely exposed is fully as exempt from colds as is the soldier whose neck is more warmly clad. If they should suddenly exchange their manner of dress, the result would be disastrous to both.

The important blood-vessels that supply the face, head, and brain, and the jugular veins which return the blood to the heart, all pass through the neck. The clothing about the neck should therefore be loose, so as to allow the freest passage of the food, breath, and blood, and the fullest movement of the head.

Male Attire.—While appearance demands that the outer clothing should be neat-fitting, comfort and health require that it should be sufficiently loose to admit of the freest movements of the body. It should be as light as possible to insure proper protection from the cold. Weight does not always count for warmth. Many persons prefer light flannels as outer garments for warm weather.

The trousers should be supported from the shoulders by suspenders. Belts involve more or less constriction of the abdomen, and are injurious. Men suffer greater disadvantage from their use than women. The practice of wearing a belt during the summer months is especially objectionable.

Female Attire.—Healthful and proper clothing implies, (1), the protection of the body against extremes of heat and cold, and the maintaining of an equable temperature in every part; (2), the absence of all superfluous material and needless weight; and (3), the non-interference with the normal functions of the body.

Mrs. Woolson, a writer on Dress and Health, says: The limbs have not half the amount of covering which is put upon the trunk of the body. Many garments have no sleeves, or sleeves that terminate a few inches below the shoulders. As to the legs, the clothing which should increase in direct ratio to the distance from the body to the feet, diminishes in the same ratio. Thin drawers, thinner stockings, and wind-blown skirts which keep up constant currents of air supply little warmth to the limbs beneath. The feet, half-clad and pinched in tight shoes, are chilled in consequence.

The trunk of the body has as many zones of temperature as the planet it inhabits. Its frigid zone is above, on the shoulders and chest; for, although the dress-body extends from the neck to the waist, most, if not all, of the garments worn beneath it are low-necked. The temperate zone lies between the shoulders and the belt, for that region receives the additional covering of undervest, corset, and chemise. The torrid zone begins with the belt and bands, and extends to the limbs below; for all the upper garments are continued below the belt, and all the lower garments come up as far as the belt, so that the clothing over the whole hip region must be at least double what it is over any other section. But it is more than double; it is quadruple, for the tops of all these lower garments have a superfluous fullness of material which is brought into the binding by gathers and plaits.

It will be observed from the above that the three rules laid down for a perfect dress are all violated. First, the unequal preservation of heat; second, the excessive weight, largely supported by the waist; and, third, the constriction of the waist and pressure upon the abdomen caused by the gathering of so many garments at this point.

The Petticoat.—Petticoats are objectionable in several ways. They seriously impede movement. They involve an unnecessary expenditure of muscular force by hampering the action of the lower limbs. They stir up and accumulate the dirt of the streets, or drag through mud and slush, often occasioning wet ankles and engendering disease. Thick woolen drawers reaching to the feet, or, better still, the one-piece underwear which covers the entire body except the head, hands, and feet, would furnish more warmth and distribute it more equally than the “many petticoat” plan, and save the weight and secure freer movement by enabling the wearer to dispense with one or more of these objectionable garments. This would add greatly to the comfort of the wearer, reduce the weight of the nether garments, prevent in large measure the undue heat of the abdominal region, and would not materially change the appearance of the outer dress.