Health, or, How to Live

BEACH AND 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, etc. HHTL 269.2

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 experience more suffering with a very great quantity of clothing. HHTL 269.3

AGE. Youth, in consequence of the rapid circulation of the blood, requires less clothing than middle and old age. HHTL 270.1

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. HHTL 270.2

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. HHTL 270.3

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, etc., 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. HHTL 270.4

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. HHTL 271.1

“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. HHTL 271.2

“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, etc. 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.” HHTL 271.3

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. HHTL 271.4

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, etc., — and they, in consequence, were healthy. In these days it is the reverse. By the present mode of fashion in dress, thousands of females are injured, if not killed. HHTL 271.5

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.” HHTL 272.1

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. HHTL 272.2