Healthfulness of Woolens.
THE most suitable clothing for our variable climate, is a subject of much importance to all. In the last report of the National Agricultural Department, there is an essay upon this topic, some parts of which we condense with comments. Wool being an excellent non-conductor of heat, it is very suitable as material for clothing. Surgeons uniformly recommend it. Dr. Hall, in his Journal of Health, says: "In winter and summer nothing can be better worn next the skin than a loose, red woolen shirt; loose for it has room to move on the skin, thus causing a titillation which draws the blood to the surface and keeps it there, and when this is the case no one can take cold. Cotton wool merely absorbs the moisture from the surface of the body, while woolen flannel conveys it from the skin and deposits it in drops outside of the shirt, and by this exposure to the air it is soon dried without injury to the body. Having these properties, red woolen flannel is worn by sailors even in the mid-summer of the warmest countries. The common observation of all nations leads them to give their sailors woolen flannel shirts, for all latitudes, as the best equalizers of heat for the body." In the French "Annales d'Hygiene" the following remarks occur: "Diseases of the chest are early contracted by exposure to the cold without sufficient clothing. The greater portion of the children, from one to fifteen months old, who die in winter, are killed by the cold, or diseases resulting from cold. The use of woolen clothing in winter is necessary for all, at least about the upper parts of the body; and even in summer, the man who, from his profession, is compelled to work in damp places, and is exposed to drafts, should not wear light clothes. Woolen socks should everywhere be adopted, for cold feet are almost always the cause of catching cold (catarrh,) and an obstinate cough is known to cease from the exclusive use of this sort of clothing." We have heard some persons say that their feet have been kept as warm with cotton as with woolen stockings; and there are some persons who cannot wear woolen flannel next the skin without suffering from cutaneous irritation. There are exceptions to all general rules, but undoubtedly woolen flannel affords the best clothing to be worn next the skin in our variable climate for at least nine months in the year. But white flannel is just as good for shirts as colored flannel. The cause of flannel fulling and becoming thick is owing to the rubbing which it receives in washing, and flannels of all colors full up (felt) under similar treatment. All broadcloth dyed in the wool is fulled after it is colored. Flannels should never be rubbed upon a wash-board. The best way to wash flannels is to steep them in some strong soap-suds for about half an hour, then squeeze them between the hands for a short period, rinse them thoroughly in warm water and hang them out to dry without wringing. Woolen flannels are more extensively worn now than heretofore by ladies and gentlemen. This is due in a great measure to the very high price of cotton flannel, which is about 50 cents per yard—the quality being the same as that which sold for ten cents three years ago.—Scientific American.