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Health: or How to Live Number Five

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Health: or How to Live Number Five

Ellen G. White

Steam Press of the Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · 1865

HOW TO LIVE.

Dr. Trall on Clothing.

PHYSIOLOGICAL NATURE OF CLOTHING.— It is an obvious physiological fact, that the more the whole surface of the body is exposed to the external air, within certain limits, the more vigorous is its functional action performed, and the better is it enabled to preserve its own proper temperature, as well as to resist all morbific impressions from vicissitudes of weather, or the extremes of heat and cold. Clothing, therefore, which the usages of society, and the severity of climates render indispensable, should, as an invariable rule, be as light and loose as possible without bodily discomfort. We must, however, recollect that comfort is very much a matter of habit, and make a due discrimination between the natural sensation of health, and the morbid sensitiveness produced by false customs. Some persons wrap their whole bodies in flannel under-garments, and yet are ready to go into a “shivering fit” at every unusual breath of cold air; while others eschew those garments entirely, and endure the coldest weather of this climate, with much less discomfort.
MATERIALS OF CLOTHING.—The substances principally employed in the manufacture of clothing in civilized countries are, linen, cotton, silk, wool, and hair or down. Those materials which are bad conductors of caloric, afford the greatest immediate protection from cold, as woolens or flannels; but, for the same reason, they are more debilitating to the cutaneous function; they are only to be preferred in cases of temporary exposure, or in very cold climates, or as a “necessary evil” in persons whose external surface isdebilitated by bad habits of dress, until its vigor can be restored by bathing and other hygienic processes. Cotton and linen are better adapted to temperate climates, especially during the warm season; and linen for under-clothes, is the best of the two in hot weather. Flannel next the skin, I am persuaded, is invariably hurtful as a habit. When woolen clothing is worn, it should be the outside garments; these may be of any quantity or thickness necessary to keep the body comfortable, while cotton or linen only comes in contact with the skin. The discrepancies among medical authors on this subject, are almost ludicrous; some advocating the use of flannel next the skin, at all times and in all seasons; others condemning it as a fruitful source of colds, coughs, pulmonic and rheumatic affections, etc. “As regards the chest,” says Sir George Lefevre, “a very light kind of woolen waistcoat should not be dispensed with even in the dog-days.” I would much rather prohibit it in winter than prescribe it in summer. In the last cholera season (1849) the New York Board of Health, by authority of their Medical Council, recommended, as among the preventive measures, “the wearing of flannel next the skin,” during the hot weather of June, July and August. And on this hint a medical adventurer has since invented medicated aprons and bandages to keep the bowels warm, or, as the proprietor says, “retain the animal heat,” and thus prevent bowel complaints. These notions are too absurd for serious refutation. Silk is a bad conductor, and for this reason females find silk dresses very uncomfortable in very warm weather. Furs are worn in this country more for ornament than use. They are the warmest clothing materials known, and by overheating the part of the body to which they are applied, render it extremely susceptible to cold. Fur neckcloths, caps, etc., are very pernicious.
COLOR OF CLOTHING.—In a strictly hygienic regulation of dress, color cannot be wholly disregarded. White colors reflect the rays of caloric; black absorbs them. Light-colored clothing is therefore more comfortable and sanatory in warm weather than dark-colored,because the former repels the heat, and the latter readily receives and retains it. Various experiments have shown that the heat-reflecting or heat-retaining property of different fabrics, varies exactly with their lighter or darker shades of color. This difference is, however, much greater in the luminous rays of light, than in the non-luminous. When, therefore, we are not exposed to the sun, the subject of color is of less importance. The absorbing power of dark surfaces renders the skins of dark-colored animals, as well as of the darker persons or races of the human family, less liable to be scorched or blistered by the direct rays of the sun, than are those of a lighter color.
PARTICULAR GARMENTS.— Fashion seldom consults hygiene in the matter of dress. The hat is generally too stiff, heavy and hot. It ought to be as light and soft as possible, and as thoroughly ventilated as a bed-chamber. This could easily be accomplished without marring its beauty. The common neck-stock or cravat is one of the worst articles known: by confining and heating the throat, it predisposes to colds, rheumatism, quinsy, bronchitis, etc. I have known several persons in New York city, who were habitually the subjects of two or three severe attacks of quinsy a year, entirely cured by exposing the neck in all weathers, and bathing it daily in cold water. That the natural clothing of an unshaven beard is a protection against affections of the throat and lungs, I have no doubt. But if we will render ourselves preternaturally susceptible by shaving, we should not aggravate the susceptibility by binding up the neck with tight clothing. Females are generally debilitated by too heavy an amount of clothing about the back and hips. The custom with some females of oiling the hair, then combing it very smooth, and fastening it in a bunch on the top of the head, is very injurious to the scalp and brain; in fact, a common source of headache and nervousness. Stockings of cotton and linen are better than flannel, except when the feet are exposed to both extreme cold and moisture. Garters are a common cause of varicose veins in the lower extremities.Fur gloves are a bad article; so are india-rubber shoes, except as over-shoes to slip on temporarily. Straps for fastening the pantaloons tightly to the boot or shoe, I believe are almost or quite out of fashion; it is well they are so, for they render all the motions of the body stiff and awkward, and cause an injurious pressure to be exerted on the knee-pan and shoulders. Several cases of synovitis, attended with extreme weakness of the muscles around the knee-joint, have lately come under my notice, produced, without any doubt, by wearing pantaloon straps. Suspenders, when the trowsers are loose and easy, are not objectionable; although the sailor, whose vocation requires the utmost freedom from all restraint in the muscles of the chest and upper extremities, finds it more convenient to support the trowsers by the tightened waistband.
Custom has dealt more cruelly with infants than with adults in the style of clothing. Swathing, bandaging from head to foot with the view of getting the body in shape, and bandaging the abdomen to prevent the child from becoming “pot-bellied,” are fashions happily fast going into disrepute, under the teachings of hydropathic and physiological writers. The newborn infant wants no bracing or supporting from the clothes. All the clothing required in infancy and childhood is easy, loose, flowing garments, sufficient to preserve the requisite temperature.
BED AND BODY LINEN.—It is always of importance that the bed and body linen be well aired daily, and frequently changed. Strict attention to the depurating function of the skin, requires that the under-garment or shirt worn during the day, should never be slept in during the night. The sheets, too, which collect more or less of the matters of perspiration, should be well exposed to the air every day. How often the shirts worn in the daytime require changing, depends something on the amount of exercise, perspiration, etc.; generally two or three times a week are advisable.
GENERAL RULES.—The first physiological rule of dress is, to have all garments as light in texture andas loose in fashion as is consistent with bodily comfort, and as will admit of the most perfect freedom in the exercise of every muscle of the body. The second is, to observe regularity and uniformity. Boots, shoes, hats, caps, thin and thick stockings, gloves, mittens, neck-dresses, head-dresses etc., when worn at all, should be always worn under similar circumstances—not indiscriminately changed or alternated. As intimated in a preceding chapter, inequality of clothing is a far more frequent cause of “colds,” than deficient clothing. If a person exposes a part of the body usually protected by clothing to a strong current of cold air, he will take cold sooner than by an equal exposure of the whole body.—Hydropathic Encyclopedia.

Dress of Children.

Many of the most serious consequences are conferred on the human race by bad management in infancy, and not unfrequently many diseases may be attributed to the mode of dress adopted by parents and nurses for their children.
The state of infancy and childhood is impatient of restraint, through the restless activity incident to youth, which makes it delight to be in perpetual motion, and to see everything around it. See the happiness and delight a child expresses, by its features, every time it is undressed and rubbed with a soft hand; observe the pleasure it experiences as soon as it is taken out of the fetters in which it is bound. It instantly ceases crying; no sooner is it undressed, than it begins to smile, and to show signs of joy; even though it should be hungry now, it proves by its joy and its movements, that it wanted liberty still more than the breast. Bandage it up again, it becomes uneasy, its countenance is sad, and its cries are renewed. It should be borne in mind that the sole object of clothing a child is for warmth, and not for the purpose of giving it support, as is generally supposed. Upon the first sight of a new-born infant, every one is struck with the idea of its weakness and helplessness: it isdesigned to be weak and tender in its infant state, as indeed is every other object around us. Take a survey of nature, from the first opening leaves of the vernal flower, or the more delicate foliage of the sensitive plant, to the young lion or the elephant; they are all, in their several orders, proportionably weak, and can not exist without some exterior support. But they stand in need of nothing but what nature has prepared for them. If seed be cast into a proper soil, it wants only the surrounding elements to insure vigor and maturity. So if the tender infant be born of healthy parents, and at its full time, it is usually sufficiently strong, proper food and nursing are the elements whose fostering influence it requires; if it have these, it will need nothing more.
It is true, the new-born infant is very weak; but is it, therefore, to be tightly rolled, under the idea of supporting it, and giving it strength? A child is nothing more than a mass of tender vessels through which a fluid is to pass, undisturbed, to be equally distributed throughout the body, and which are, therefore, surrounded by a soft medium, capable of yielding to the impetus of their contents. Hence we cannot but conceive how injurious any great pressure must be to so delicate a frame.
Nurses, indeed, appear to feel it a part of their duty to bind infants up with thick rollers, flannels, pilches, and wrappers, all ingeniously tightened and fastened, with so many strings and pins, that you feel amazed at beholding how adroitly they succeed in placing the poor little child in so much misery and confinement.
Looseness is very important in an infant’s dress; there should be a free circulation of air between the skin and the clothes, as well as a slight friction upon the surface. All confinement distresses, and when it amounts to tightness, it may, and does frequently, occasion deformity before the evil is suspected. Full room should be allowed for the increase which is continually and rapidly going on. For this reason every part should be fastened with strings; and in tying these strings, the greatest care should be taken not to draw them too tight. And it is proper, after the stringshave been tied, particularly those under the chin, and round the waist, to ascertain by feeling with the finger that the dress is not drawn too tight. Pins should be used as seldom as possible. The growth of children is so rapid, it is proper to examine, frequently, their clothing, as a few weeks will make a great difference in relation to the size, and the pressure or restraint is often the cause of much crying and fretfulness; it is, therefore, proper that children’s dresses should be made so that they may be easily enlarged, particularly round the waist, throat, arm-holes, and across the chest and back. Bandages round the head, or tight caps, or anything which compresses the brain, should be strictly avoided. Many instances of idiotism, fits, and deformity, are owing to tight bandages; not unfrequently infants are very restless at night, owing to tight night clothes.
The more easily the dress can be put on and off, the better and more comfortable for the child; there should be no other fashion than what is dictated by convenience and comfort. The fashion of long clothing or skirts confines the infant, and prevents the activity of the limbs, so essential to a free circulation of the blood and advancement of its growth. Loose gowns, fastening in front, are therefore preferable to frocks, for two or three months, however less fashionable. All unnecessary tight or stiff clothing should be avoided; every thing which surrounds the body of an infant should be soft, and of a yielding nature, so as to prevent any painful pressure upon the muscles or bones, or excoriation or chafing of the skin. Every article of the child’s dress should be made and arranged—regardless as to fashion—so as to be adapted to its comfort and health; this will be found to consist in guarding against the variations of external temperature, in preserving a genial warmth for the maintenance of the various functions, and in protecting the body and limbs against external injuries. Pride and fashion must always be laid aside when it interrupts the comfort or health of the child. This, however, unfortunately is not the case with some foolish mothers, who would rather risk the life of their infantsthan deviate from the last style of dress which Madame Humbug has lately received from Paris.
Were it possible for us to visit our fashionable circles, we should behold the embroidered lace, worked ruffles, and stiffly starched linen, scratching and chafing the tender skin of the poor infant, with some important regions of the body entirely unclothed and exposed, and others superabundantly clad, and amidst this empty pride, every consideration of comfort, and the health of the child, is entirely overlooked. On the contrary, a course nearly opposite is pursued by those filling the humbler walks of life, whose means are not adequate to the ever-varying demands of fashion, and who have the satisfaction of seeing their children in the enjoyment of uninterrupted health and vigor of constitution, by pursuing a course from which their circumstances will not permit them to deviate; and this is usually the cause that health is, in particular, the blessing of the poor, while the rich are more generally the subjects of disease.
One of the most important parts of an infant’s clothing is a soft flannel bandage, commonly called the belly-band, which is intended to give support to the abdomen or belly, particularly the navel; and it likewise supports the internal covering of the intestines, and prevents the child from any distension, or, in plain language, a big belly.
In putting on this support, or bandage, you must recollect that there is distinction between support and pressure; the first is very important to health, the second is the cause of many serious diseases, such as rupture, which is owing to neglect or ignorance in putting it on properly, so as to avoid pressure, or, in plainer language, tightness. Besides, the action of the bowels is impeded by this compression, occasioning great pain and costiveness. It should be taken off morning and night, and put on smooth and carefully, and a clean one put on every two or three days, as it is apt to get wet and rumpled, and unfit for use till washed and ironed. With some children I have found it necessary to use it for many months, to prevent an enlargement of the abdomen or belly, and delicatechildren are sustained by it in their attempts to sit up.
As regards the quality of clothing best suited to the infant, flannel is perhaps more extensively and advantageously used than any other article of which clothing for children is made. Public sentiment, as much as it is perverted on many subjects connected with the management of infants, appears to be right on this.
The superiority of flannel to other substances used, consists, 1. “In its protecting power against sudden reduction of temperature;” i. e., its non-conducting power prevents the natural heat escaping from the surface of the body when the surrounding temperature is materially lower; wool being a better non-conductor of caloric than flax or cotton, is consequently better adapted to the purposes of wearing in cold or variable weather. 2. In guarding the body against the cooling effects of evaporation. When the surface of the body is bedewed with perspiration, the flannel prevents too rapid an escape of the warmth from the body; and as it passes off gradually, the moisture is absorbed by the flannel, whence it evaporates from the body imperceptibly. Thus it is perceived, that the temperature of the body can be but little affected during the process of “drying up the sweat,” as it is called, which must be otherwise, were linen or muslin employed in its stead, because they conduct off the heat much more rapidly, and absorb the moisture with less facility; hence a cold dampness must of course pervade the surface of the body during the drying process, and hence the advantage of flannel next to the skin. 3. In producing over the surface of the body a healthful and “agreeable irritation,” by means of which insensible perspiration is advantageously promoted—a function indispensable to the health of the child; its use, in this respect, approaches in effect that of the flesh-brush; by producing this grateful action upon the skin, it equalizes the circulation; the blood is being constantly invited to the surface, which lessens the liability to congestion of the internal organs, by its being thrown upon them in too great abundance.
From these considerations it is evident that flannel next to the skin, in cold and variable seasons, not only adds to the comfort, but also exerts a salutary influence on the health of the child, so much so, that its adoption cannot but be considered an important, if not an indispensable item in the successful management of the infant.
Flannel is to be preferred for children; it keeps the body in that degree of heat which is most agreeable, as well as most suitable to the functions and actions of health. The perspiration is necessarily increased; the matter perspired is conveyed through the flannel to the atmosphere, and the skin remains dry, warm, and comfortable. Flannel co-operates with the powers of generating heat in living systems, and thus constantly preserves us in that temperature which is most pleasurable, as well as most natural and beneficial.
Doctor Dewees, Professor of Midwifery, of Philadelphia, says: “There is a very common error upon the subject of flannel, which deserves to be corrected: namely, that it can remain longer dirty, without doing mischief by its filth, than any other substance; but in this there is no truth—flannel, from its very texture, is capable of absorbing a great deal of fluid, which it will retain so long, if permitted, as to allow a fermentative process to go on, and gives rise to the extrication of some deleterious gases; therefore flannel should not be worn even so long, on this very account, as linen substances.
“The flannel should always be of the white kind, where the circumstances of the parents will permit it—not that the first cost of the white need be greater than that of the colored, but because it will, for the sake of the eye, require to be more frequently changed, as it will more readily show any dirt that may attach to it; but, for this very reason it should be employed, whenever it be practicable. Another reason may also be assigned: the white can always be procured of a finer quality, which sometimes,”—we would say always—“is desirable.”
The principal articles of clothing are to be made offine flannel; they generally are called the underclothes; fashion, caprice, or fortune may regulate the rest, provided the garments for the feet and legs be excepted.
We are confident that if more attention were bestowed on the real necessities and wants of children in this particular, or, in plain language, suitable clothing, and the system preserved from sudden changes, infantile suffering would be greatly diminished, to say nothing of the long list of chronic complaints by which it is to be tortured in after years, and its whole life doomed to wretchedness and misery by fashion, and neglect in preserving a uniform warmth over the whole body and limbs, as a legitimate means of insuring health and comfort to the child.—Gunn’s Home Book of Health.

An Appeal to Mothers.

Much has been said to mothers on the education of children, and much which ought to be imprinted on the heart, as with the point of a diamond. But there is one part of the lesson, which if noticed at all, has been superficially glanced over, as tangible only to the physician and anatomist: I mean the physical education of children; I mean the mechanism, in all its bearings and uses, and the best helps to keep its ten thousand strings in harmonious tune.
The untiring assiduity with which the mother watches over the tender infant, is a strong indication that nature has peculiarly adapted her for an office, which no one can so effectually fill. Yet thousands have withered in the mother’s arms, and generations have gone down to the dust, not by neglect, but through profound ignorance of the simplest, and plainest laws of our nature; simplest, because it does not require the ingenuity to trace nature in her untrammelled windings, as it does to devise the artificial helps, which serve only to retard her healthy progress, and pervert all her rational laws. When the watchful mother sees the high flushed cheek, and feels the accelerated pulse, whatdoes she do? She immediately sets about devising specifics; and when this and that fails, she applies to her physician, without scarcely thinking of inquiring the cause, which requires not half the skill to trace, as to seek out effectual remedies. Disease does not come by miracle. Look at the vegetable kingdom. Does the shooting tree ever wither in its first putting out, without some blighting frost—some scorching fire—some worm at the root—or some knife of the mischievous truant is applied? No; it blooms on, beneath the genial sun, and distilling dews, till matured into the wide-spreading tree, lodging the fowls of the air, giving shade to the way-worn traveler, and braving the tempests of years, and sometimes centuries. So in the animal kingdom. The lamb frolics in the meadows; the birds sing and hop among the branches; and do they feel pain? No; unless tamed and domesticated by man, they are free as the air they inhale, and their blood is as pure as the water they love. And should you, mothers, love to see your little ones sporting about you, in the sunshine of health; should you love to see their beaming eyes kissing the first dawning of light, with the happy lark; should you delight to see their expanding minds, drinking copious draughts at the perennial fount of knowledge, with untiring zeal? You may have it so, if you will; only learn that “nature’s wants are few.” And do you ask what they are? They are the pure breezes of heaven; the limpid waters that emanate from ten thousand hills; the nectarine milk from the lowing herds; the blushing orchards, and the whitening harvests of grain, to provide bread “to strengthen man’s heart.” These are the rich bounties of Heaven, scattered with a liberal hand, wherever the industry of man has been applied, and they bring no alloy.
But does the mother ask, “How am I to secure all these blessings of health to my children, unless I am a physician?” Then be a physician. This is no difficult task. A few simple lessons are to be learned, and the work is done; and these lessons are almost, if not entirely inherent in our natures.
When the infant is put into the mother’s hands,what does the Master say? “Take this child and bring it up for me. It is the chief of all my work. I have ‘fenced it about with bones and sinews.’ I have clothed it with flesh. I have placed sentinels at every dangerous post. I have provided food convenient for it, and to you I commit this charge. See that you mar not my handiwork.”
Now, what is the mother to do? If she be a judicious one, or one of common observation, she knows that milk is the wholesome nourishment provided for all its wants; she knows that this alone will give proper strength, and facilitate its growth; she knows that the body must be washed in pure water; that it must have quiet sleep, and be kept free from ligatures, so that its breathing may be free, and its growth natural. Now, as I am speaking to the judicious mother, let me ask, what more does her infant want in the first months of its existence? Does the regular-moving machinery need any tonics, any decoctions of tea, coffee, or warm toddy, to accelerate its motions? Does the healthy throbbing of its little heart need any urging forward, or its tender brain want steeping in any of these fumes? Let common sense answer. Let the aborigines of any country answer, who have followed nature in all its bearings. Then, as this is all the needed medicine, can you not be the physician?”—Health Journal.

Beach on Clothing.

Those who wish to pay a due regard to their health, must attend to their clothing. It should be adapted to the climate, the season of the year, age, &c.
CLIMATE. The principal object of clothing is to preserve a right temperature of the body. Hence persons in very cold climates require much more clothing than those in warm. Custom or habit, however, has a great influence. The natives of this country live throughout the most rigorous winters almost without any clothing, while we apparently experiencemore suffering with a very great quantity of clothing.
AGE. Youth, in consequence of the rapid circulation of the blood, requires less clothing than middle and old age.
SEASON. The dress should be adapted to the season of the year, as every one knows that winter requires much more clothing than summer. But the greatest caution is necessary to make the change very gradually. Woolen garments should be put on early in the fall, and worn late in the spring. This is the more necessary, by reason of the sudden and great changes of our climate: one day the thermometer rises to a hundred, the next it sinks to forty; which racks the constitution, and proves very destructive to health. These vicissitudes must be guarded against by proper clothing, which should never be very thin, even in midsummer.
FASHION AND FIGURE. More consequence is now attached to figure and form than to health and convenience. Persons must dress fashionably, no matter how ridiculous or dangerous it may prove. Hence fashion and shape are continually changing, without regard to health, climate, or comfort. In order to reduce the body to a fine shape, the stomach and bowels are squeezed into as narrow a compass as possible. By this reprehensible practice, indigestion, fainting, coughs, consumption and other complaints are produced.
BANDAGING, ETC. Garters, when drawn too tight, not only prevent the free motion and use of the parts about which they are bound, but likewise obstruct the circulation of the blood, which prevents the equal nourishment and growth of these parts, and occasions various diseases. Tight bandages about the neck, as stocks, cravats, necklaces, &c., are extremely dangerous. They obstruct the blood in its course from the brain, by which means headaches, vertigoes, apoplexies, and other fatal diseases are often occasioned.
QUANTITY OF CLOTHING. A judicious physician, in speaking upon this subject has the following excellent remarks: “Robust persons are able to endure cold better than the delicate, and, consequently, may clothe lighter; but the precise quantity of apparel which may be necessary for any person cannot be determined by reasoning: it must be entirely a matter of experience; and every person is the best judge for him or herself, what quantity of clothes is necessary to keep him or her sufficiently warm and comfortable.”
“While treating on clothing, I would recommend to every person to be careful in observing that their clothes are properly dried previous to being put on. This precaution will be particularly necessary in the winter months, as washer-women are then obliged to dry chiefly by the heat of a fire, and this is apt to be very imperfectly done. Many lives are annually sacrificed by persons putting on damp linen, as well as by sleeping in sheets not properly dried.
“Due care should be taken to change the stockings and other clothing as soon as possible after their becoming wet by any exposure to inclement weather, rain, snow, &c. Many persons are so imprudent as to neglect this very necessary change, and to suffer their clothes, after such an exposure, to dry on them, assisted probably by going near a fire for some time; but such a practice is always attended with risk, and not unfrequently gives rise either to rheumatism, fever, pleurisy, cough, consumption, or some other disease of a dangerous or even fatal nature.” *
In the sultry days of summer every precaution should be taken that the body be not suddenly exposed to cold when overheated by exercise, by throwing off a portion of the clothing, as is customary with many.
It is lamentable to see the great departure there is now from the former modes of dress, as well as in other respects. Our ancestors were in the practice of dressing very warm and comfortably—stout cloaks, thick shoes, &c.,—and they, in consequence, were healthy. In these days it is the reverse. By thepresent mode of fashion in dress, thousands of females are injured, if not killed.
In concluding this chapter, I will quote the remarks of Buchan on this subject. “Nothing,” says he, “can be more ridiculous than for any one to make himself a slave to fine clothes. Such a one, and many such there are, would rather remain as fixed as a statue from morning till night, than discompose a single hair or alter the position of a pin. Were we to recommend any particular pattern for a dress, it would be that which is worn by the people called Quakers. They are always neat, clean, and often elegant, without anything superfluous. What others lay out upon tawdry laces, ruffles, and ribands, they bestow upon superior cleanliness. Finery is only the affectation of dress, and very often covers a great deal of dirt.”
The remarks of the celebrated Cobbett on dress occurs to me, and, although not immediately connected with the preservation of health, affords a useful lesson. “Let our dress be as cheap as may be without shabbiness; attend more to the color of your shirt than to the gloss or texture of your coat; be always clean as your situation will, without inconvenience, permit; but never, no, not for one moment, believe that any human being with sense in his skull, will love or respect you on account of your fine or costly clothes.”—American Practice.

Graham on Clothing.

CLOTHING, then, is an evil so far as it prevents a free circulation of pure air over the whole surface of the body, or in any manner relaxes and debilitates the skin, and increases its susceptibility to be unhealthily affected by changes of weather and by the action of morbific agents; it is an evil so far as, by compression or otherwise, it prevents a free and equal circulation and return of the blood; it is an evil so far as it prevents the free action of the chest and lungs, or in any manner or measure restricts respiration; it is an evil so far asit interferes in any degree with the digestive organs; it is an evil so far as it prevents the most perfect freedom of voluntary action, and ease and grace of motion and attitude, or prevents the full development of any part of the system, or serves by the substitution of artificial means for natural powers, to relax and to debilitate the muscles, or render the tendons, ligaments, cartilages, and bones, less healthy and powerful or in any measure to abridge the control of the will over any organ of voluntary motion; it is an evil so far as it serves to increase the peculiar sensibility of any organ of animal instinct, and to augment the power of that instinct on the intellectual and moral faculties; it is an evil so far as it serves to enfeeble the intellectual faculties, and render the mind sluggish and sensual; and it is an evil so far as it serves to excite an unchaste imagination, and cause the sexes to act towards each other more from the impulse of animal feeling than from the dictates of sound reason.
The application of these general principles to the regulation of clothing is perfectly easy, and cannot lead any intelligent mind into error. It requires—1st, that whatever climate man may inhabit, he should endeavor to preserve that state of general health and vigor of body which will render the least quantity of clothing necessary for the preservation of a healthy temperature; 2nd, that the materials used for clothing should, as far as consistent with the proper temperature of the body, be such as serve in the least degree to relax and debilitate the skin, and through it the whole system; 3d, that the clothing should be so adjusted as in the greatest possible measure consistent with the proper temperature of the body, to admit of a free access of air to the whole surface, and of the most perfect freedom of circulation, respiration, and voluntary action, and attitude; and 4th, that the fashion of the clothing should be such as in the least possible degree to excite an impure imagination.
After having so fully laid down the general principles in regard to clothing, it is hardly necessary that I should say that corsets, stays, garters, and every kind of ligature or compression, and all kinds of tightdresses, should be avoided, and especially by the young and growing, whose bodies are very easily and almost inevitably diseased, deformed, and distorted, to a greater or less extent, by such unnatural means. The growing body should be free as the air. The flowing robes of the ancients were incomparably more favorable to health and more graceful than modern dresses.
Much has been said by certain writers on hygiene, in favor of *wearing flannels next to the skin; and undoubtedly there are particular cases in which the habit being formed, had better be continued, than too suddenly abandoned. Yet it is certain that woolen serves to excite, relax, and debilitate the skin, and through it the whole system, and thereby to increase the very evils which it is worn to prevent, more than cotton, linen, and silk. While, therefore, I leave invalids and individuals to govern themselves on this point according to their particular circumstances and state of health, I lay it down as a general rule, with reference to the permanent interests of the human constitution, that it is better not to wear woolen next to the skin, when cotton, linen, or silk under-garments can be had.
What I have said concerning the regulation of the temperature of the body by means of clothing, is true in regard to the use of fire. In all cases it relaxes and debilitates the system, and diminishes the power of the body to regulate its own temperature; and, therefore physiological interests of our bodies require that we should, as far as possible, keep them warm by their own healthy and vigorous calorific function, and only use fires as a necessary evil, and under such regulations as will not expose us to greatly unequal temperatures at the same time, or to powerful heat on one side and severe cold on the other. Our rooms should be so warmed as to be of mild and equal temperature in every part.—Lectures
BREAD is the staff of life, and liquor the stilts—the former sustaining a man and the latter elevating him for a fall.

Words from Horace Mann.

Continue reading: EXTRACTS FROM HIS LECTURES.