CLOTHING FOR GOOD HEALTH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19783, 7 May 1926, Page 6

CLOTHING FOR GOOD HEALTH

“I! one must wear clothes, they should be loose. All tight and constricting garments are objectionable,” writes ‘ Lens in an able article in the New Statesman “Tight boots cause corns and bunions and hammertoes, tight boots and gloves, by interfering with the circulation, cause chilblains in cold weather; tight collars interfere with the return of blood through the superficial veins from the scalp, and have been suspected, like tight hats, of thus contributing to baldness. “All clothing next the skin should be absorbent. The skin sweats and the sweat must be dealt with. In general, there is trouble when skin touches skin, for this reason, binder natural conditions, the foot and toes are spread. With us the toes are tightly opposed and there is trouble. An absorbent _ tissue must deal with the sweat where this cannot naturally evaporate. , “Utter nonsense is talked about the value cf, for instance, wool next the skin. The question is not the origin of the material, but the type of texture. A flannel chest-protector is a perfect example of the worst possible kind of clothing, though it is made of wool.) Shetland wool, 6n the other hand, conforms as nearly as possible to the ideal. Both are wool, but one could not be werse and the other could not be better. Next the skin we may wear silk, artificial silk, cotton, linen or wool if we please, provided that it be loose and absorbent. A loose texture is a warm texture for its weight, thanks to the poor conduction of heat bv the air, which it holds in its meshes. “But the discovery has quite lately been made, that artificial silk transmits a large proportion of ultra-violet light: far mom than real silk, which is an animal nrotein, whereas artificial silk is a modiof the vegetable substance called cellulose, and is chemically very different indeed. Artificial silk has certain practical disadvantages, as that it loses its tensile strength when wet, so that it needs to he washed with much care and circumspection “But its property of transmitting ultraviolet light makes it valuable for garments of which only one layer is worn, such as stockings, or the shirts in which a man plays tennis or cricket. For bathing suits one must be careful, owing to the weakness of the very artificial fibres when wet. Such fabrics as ‘Luvisca.’ which has been tested, may be recommended ; but, again, we must note that the transmission falls off very rapidly if we use anv dve. White is the best wear, therefore ”