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CHAP. II.] poisonous. Arsenic is, for instance, sometimes found in violet powder. If, however, as in the case of young infants, some powder has to be used, the best is Messrs. Woolley, Sons, and Co.'s "Sanitary Rose Powder," which is slightly antiseptic and soluble.

Having seen what important functions the skin has to perform, it becomes obvious that nothing must be done which can in any way impair its action. If its action is stopped, death is the result. Thus the case is on record of a boy who, in order to grace a Roman procession, was covered all over the body with gold, the result of which coating was that he died from suppression of the excretions of the skin. Similarly a frog varnished by Spallanzani, the great physiologist, expired in three minutes.

Here then it becomes apparent that special care is required in the selection of clothes, which can exercise a strong influence, either for good or evil, on the performance of the skin functions, and here we find that wool, which is the natural clothing of man as of the lower animals—a statement to which I shall recur hereafter—provides for our necessities.

Wool allows that free transpiration which is one of the vital conditions of health, permitting the foul exhalations of the skin to pass freely away through it, and absorbing any excess of moisture. Vegetable fibre, however, is very little pervious to these exhalations; it absorbs until it is wet, and then leaves much unabsorbed moisture on the surface, chilling it, and checking the further action of the