Clothing
Sources:
Papers On Health
Clothing should be light yet warm, and sufficiently free so
as not to interfere with bodily movements. The clothing next the skin
should, we think, be linen, as being more porous and absorbent than
wool (see Underwear). No woman who values her health should submit to
any tight lacing. The organs of the body require every inch of space
for the proper performance of their functions, and if they are unduly
squeezed many s
rious complaints may result. Besides the skin is a
breathing organ, and it is most important that air should readily reach
it (see Tight Lacing).
Long trains should not be worn, as they are most effective agents for
sweeping up germs of diphtheria, consumption, etc. Skirts should not be
hung from the waist, but from the shoulders, and should be light in
weight. Tight boots and high heels are both to be condemned.
The practice of wearing mufflers, or any tight wrapping round the neck
region, is injurious and enervating to this part of the body. The
sailor, though exposed to more rough weather than any other class, is
free from throat or chest trouble, and can stand both heat and cold
better than soldiers. Sailors are, indeed, the only sensibly dressed
men in our country. Soldiers, in their tight-fitting tunic and stiff
collars, are the worst. They constantly die of heat and apoplexy, when
farm labourers doing more work are nothing the worse.