Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 17.djvu/204

192 woman, with the one exception of the graceful outer gown or robe, as a supplement to her own superior grace and beauty.

It is told of the late eminent surgeon Mr. Cline, the teacher of Sir Astley Cooper, that when he was consulted by a lady on the question how she should prevent a girl from growing up misshapened, he replied, "Let her have no stays, and let her run about like the boys." I gladly reecho this wise advice of the great surgeon; and I would venture to add to it another suggestion. I would say to the mothers of England: Let your girls dress just like your boys, make no difference whatever in respect to them—give them knickerbockers, if you like—with these exceptions, that the under-garments be of a little lighter material, and that they be supplemented by an outer gown or robe which shall take the place of the outer coat of the boys, and shall make them look distinctively what they are—girls clothed cap-à-pie, and well clothed from head to foot.

In speaking of these mechanical arrangements of dress I have as yet made no mention of the throat and the head as parts requiring to be clothed. In suggesting that girls should be clothed as fully as boys, I have incidentally conveyed that the chest of the girl should be covered, and I would add that in both sexes the throat should be covered also during the period extending from October to April. The throat is one of the most important parts to protect, and it is, as is well known, one of the most common parts of the body to become affected during cold weather. In this past bad weather it has been my constant—I had nearly said, daily—observation to see some affection of the throat, attended with cold, and so often has this occurred in those whose throats have been uncovered as compared with those who have used careful moderate covering, that I can not doubt that the absence of such coverings has had, and has, a very deleterious effect.

Of coverings for the head I should say that they should be always light and free, whether a bonnet, or a cap, or a hat be the subject under dispute. I think the gypsy hat beats the Quaker bonnet for the fairer sex; and, although for men I can not say anything in favor of the tall chimney-pot that will redeem it from its ugliness, I must claim for it that, when it is light and well ventilated, it is healthy. The felt hats are too closely fitting, though some are becoming. The stiff felt hat, with narrow, turned-up brim, and which looks like a Roundhead's helmet without the metal, is in respect to health miserable, and in respect to appearance simply hideous. The most graceful of all headdresses for either sex—and it suits either—is the fine old Geneva cap, sometimes called the "Leonardo da Vinci," which I wear on occasions, by right, as the doctor's cap of the old University of St. Andrews. It is not merely a handsome head-dress, it is healthy also, and adapts itself to heat and cold. I, for one, would willingly give up the particular privilege of wearing it, to see it more widely adopted.

II. From the subject of mechanical adaptations of dress I pass to