COMMON-SENSE CLOTHING.

Evening Star, Issue 12964, 29 May 1908, Page 2

COMMON-SENSE CLOTHING.

[AH Bights Reserved.]

[By.Dr Harrt Roberts.] The first, rule to bear in mind in the selection of clothing is that it should be what is j known as a bad conductor of heat. As is \ generally known, some materials conduct ' heat much more rapidly than do others. If we touch in succession a. munber of substances, all of the' same temperature, we shall find that some of them feel very much colder than others. For example, if on a cold day, we take a piece of iron, a piece of wood, and a piece of wool, the first-named will seem very much colder than either of the others. The wool will be the warmest to the touch. This is siinp'.v due to the fact that iron is a good conductor of heat and wool a bad one, the former rapidly taking away heat from the hand, while the wool docs so with difficulty. Apart from its rigidity, therefore, iron would be a verv bad materia, tram which to make a suit of clones. This, 0 f course, is an extreme case, but between materials ordinarily used for clothing purposes there is a very great difference in heat-retaining sower. It has been found by experiment, however, that it is not so much the nature of the fibre of which the clothing is made that determines its value W u- a u < * >venn °. bllt the manner in which the 6bres are woven together. In connection with this, a curious and imoortant fact must he stated. It, is this: Air, the particles of which are kept from moving among themselves, is almost a r.on-conductor of heat, and therefore the idea! clothing from the point of view of warmth would be a layer of motionless air. This is the fact which explains the clothing value of most of the natural covering of animals: the hair, fur, or feathers serve to hold in place a considerable quantity of air entangled or imprisoned among them. In a similar way it is found that clothing fabrics retain heat better when they are of a somewhat loosely woven texture than when they are woven rlotely. Closely-woven materia!/, such as the linen of which shirts are ordinarily made. have thus a very slight warmth-retaining va!u<\ as compared with flannel or eveu flant nolens or cellular cotton. The absurd shiny j materials commonly used by tailors as a lin- i itig for coats and waistcoats"is an almost ideal I U.iistration of what to avoid. I —Our Natural Covering.— But the retention of animal warmth, while ' '■t uu c.uict, is only one ot the qualities wi-.k-u good clothing must possess. The skin : i< not a me e deau covering 10 the body it ; i* really one of our most important organs : Continuously the glands of the .-kin are re- I toOTiLg irom the blood certain waste producU I whicn they pass off into the air in the form i ot invisible perspiration. When we take ' exercise, or are exposed to heat, they act, ! more iree y, and the perspiration becomes i visible..\\e may get some idea of the re- ! su.ts which follow any interference with the ; action ot the sun when wo suffer from chill ; tti: immediate result of which is that poisons ! Wfiich, under healthy conditions, the skin • « : »nds would have removed from the blood ■ 'wnV'"™ 1 ? n s ? tcll \ "i g"e rise to head- i ache anil all the other symptoms of "a; coal There is, of course, the classic example ot the untortunate little boy who in ' meuieval Italy, was gilded ail ovei- to "race ■ th; pageant ot one ot the Popes. The natural ' rcaiiit was that the emanations of the skin' were unable to escape. The child became very _jj uaitway tluough the procession, and died in two or three hours. It is doubtful if « tntie is any possibility of recovery when <o ' niueaas even one-eighth of the surface of l the skin is- destroyed, as by a bad burn. It '■ • f obvious, therefore, that sensible clothin" wmu not impede the tree action of the skin o: hinder the passage of the skin's exhalations, .no matter how warm it might be wiiicrproot, md.auibber, or leather" would thus constitute a bad clothing material, and uj arc thus again led to the employment of ioosely-wove.n mate/ials, and 'to the condemnation ot the linen shirt and similar impervious fabrics. —Foolish Ideas.—--Nor is it enough to wear porous and noncowsucuiig materials next to the skin- simi--1.1 r material must form our outer coverin-s .11-.). .No obstacle mu.,t Tutcrfere with ttic pa-sage ot the animal exhalations from the -Kin to tne outer air. That is why padding aii'l st.ltemp and insanitary lmmgs arc so iiarmtul. Even when the-v give a feelin- of warmth is. is u stuffy waumn, verv diiiereiit, Horn inose tphngs of lightness and comfort wlncn sensiolo oothing gives. It should be '< UKiiccfsstici- at thb tune of day to point out that no article ot clothing should interfere with the iree use of any muscle of the body. But people i: «. still to be found stupid ! enough and as it stMa3 to me, wicked enough to detoiia their bodies by moans of tight corsets, boots, and gloves. I am convi.oed mat a very large proportion of the illnesses of you;:- .tnd middle-aged women is vinbiimble to this cause. Fortunately, mere i.- ,Ik to be an increasing tendency among i;;ti n.gcnt women to engage in outooi)i- pursuit;, and to allow no vagaries of f:.-mj!i to interfere with their health and cm. 'it in so dour.'. It is. perhaps, in the m:: ' t , er ,°; b ' JOts lbat disregard of rational ci'd heukiiy considerations is most nearly univr:s;:l. In spite of all that has been" said, i:b : ;uuiiy ugly and uncomfortable narrow-[MiiK-.e. boots with high and misplaced heels <:•"■,' inr.c to be worn. In our climate it seems ('.most necessary that some such material as iv.:. her—unsatisfactory as it is in many rcs; ect. : —'hould continue to furnish our footC'\;i;ng. It is still' and impervious and C "'i EjU: ;., at '""'' "' "'"J ° 3 shaped to our r ■■-(.;. Iho (■.-,, :y sensible shnue tor a shoo i is ; D <- sh'ije of the toot it is to cover. Boots s .ii ! a.v-vys he made to order, and in '"•'/-■' ( :'-- : a tracing should be made of the ' ! ;-•■ - I'J)'. p.ncui o:i a sheet of paper. In '-■ "■■'' -"i' 1 ""''J'" s i: is t0 bo hoped that I •> ey, id more and > lore study these quesi us of heairh ;v<> c .infort for themselves, auo tree thrmscivc- from "the degrading l."i'ii-e of ever following the folly "of the loiMMl. ' —The Vagaries of Fashion. - It is curious how almost un.*ersal has Peon, and indeed .-.till is, the government of oi-.ss by fashion. As a consequence, the majority of ccsl-.'.uks worn by mankind, and more especially by womanhood, seem to have been arranged with a view to producing the maximum of discomfort, and ill-health. Pa-Uled doublets, high ruffs, voluminous togas, stomachers stitfenod with iron stays, the little les3 ridiculous corsets which are only to-day being slowly discarded, pointed shoes, high_ heels, starched shirt-fronts, the silk hat which necessitates the permanent carrying of a special umbrella to protect it from a drop of rain—these are but a few examples of the curious power whereby ! fashion is able to override comfort, common sense, and even reasonable prudence. When Me. Pfeifier, in the course of her taa.Teb round the world from East to West, got m near home as Asiatic Russia, she says that she felt the necessity of wearing other than a travelling dress when she went to meet the authorities, for she " was now in a civilised country, where people are judged by their clothes." As Thoreau said, there is commonly greater anxiety to have unpatched clothes than to have a sound conscience. He was in the habit, of testing his acquaintances by such testa as this: Who could wear a patch or two extra scsims only over the knee? Most behaved a3 if they believed that their prospects for life would be ruined ■ware they to do it. In the matter of following the fashion it is difficult to get at <ha first great cause or dictator, which is. as It were, behind the throne. At Mattieu Williams nsed to say, it is not merely a game of fol!owiiuf-my-leader, but the following of aa absolutely unknown leader. Who is the dictator or designer of those caricatures that appear in the fashion books, ladies' newspapers, etc.? It ia some invisible unknown ring of millinery traders, whose business it i 3 simply to lead other victims on from one absurdity to another, never allowing any to be permanent, lest the poor sheep should fail to be fleeced at each succeeding season by continuing to wear the dresses or tho bonnets of the last season. However, people are gradually coming to see that it is possible, without apparently flying altogether in tho face of the current modes, so to modify them as to get rid of their worst features and improve their better ones. Thus the demands of comfort and common sense may be largely met without branding oneself as a crank or making oneself a victim for the ever-ready scoffer.