Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 30.djvu/100

88 the contrary, they prove the value; for as consumption is most rare in extreme northern climates, and at great elevations, so in these localities are variations of climate less marked. It remains yet for statistics to show whether in the most favored patches of earth, where, with the absence of climatic variations, there is a genial but temperate warmth, the disease is less prominent and less fatal.

The Dress of the Consumptive Patient should be adapted to equalize the Temperature of the Body, and so loose that it interferes in no way with the Animal Functions.—Instinctive sensations both in health and disease naturally dictate the above rule. But it is too commonly the fact that these sometimes are disobeyed. Some persons think it a hardy, and therefore a beneficial, plan to dress lightly in all weathers. Foolish mothers send out their children in mid-winter with bare legs and chests; young ladies go to balls and evening parties with the upper part of their light dresses open over the throat and bosom. Others go on a different tack: they must at all seasons be smothered up in flannels and outer dresses, layer upon layer, carrying with the severest fatigue as much weight of cloth as they possibly can. Such persons on both sides evidently misunderstand the uses of clothes, or think them only ornamental appendages. Clothes are useful, in a sanitary point of view, simply as equalizers of temperature. Heat is transmitted slowly through flannel, so flannel is warm. For this reason, flannel which should be worn in winter is unnecessary in summer, unless it is of light and porous structure.

I speak here of the body in health. In the consumptive patient, the principle is modified. He, from the deficient play of his lungs, is virtually always living in winter; and we may find him on the hottest days breathing with anxiety, and with his hands and feet and brow cold.

For the consumptive, therefore, flannel clothing is always required, and it should cover the whole of the body. The thickness of flannel must vary according to the sensations; as far as is possible, the feeling of absolute cold ought to be at all times prevented. The consumptive should sleep also in flannel; not in the dress worn during the day, but in a flannel gown. The shoes worn should be lined with flannel.

A common practice in the selection of clothes is to imagine that the weight of a garment conveys an idea of its warmth-sustaining power. This is an absurd error, and for consumptive persons this mistake about heavy clothing must be carefully avoided. They may safely trust to flannel of so porous a texture that it can be breathed through without offering any appreciable obstacle to the breath, and they may then walk out as warm as they can be made by clothing, without the risk of being wearied from the burden beyond their powers of endurance.

All absurdities in the way of hare-skins, warm plasters, and the