Eastern times. [volume] (Bath, Me.) 1846-1857, 1852-04-15
MISCELLANY n Y .
The Science of Color in Dress.

Unfortunately for our health and comfort,
the teachings of science are too often disregard
ed, if they interfere with our habits. Science,
when not practically applied, loses its value;
it wants fixedness, stability. lis application is
lis embodiment; without it, it is a mere fig
ment of the brain. Its business is TO inform
the mind and remove erroneous impressions
and its highest aim is usefulness. The popu-
la: belief with respect 10 dress, that black
dress is warmer, both in winter and summer,
than white one, is erroneous. The truth is,
that the material being the same, black dress
is cool in winter and warm in summer-while
a white one is warm in winter and cool in
summer, that is to say, the one is cool when
we require warmth and warm when we re-
quire it TO be cool while the other is warm
when we are cool, and cool when we are warm,
and thus answers the purpose of dress, which
is, TO protect the body from the influence of the
weather.
Science teaches that dark colors absorb heat,
and part with it much more rapidly than light
ones, black and white being the two extremes.
/ How strange that this knowledge has not been
applied to dress. lfthe bowls of two spoons,
the one polished, and the other smeared with
SCOT, be held near fire, it will be found that
the backened one becomes hot much sooner
than the other; and if now they be both made
hot by holding them against the bars of the
CRATE, and then removed from the fire and sus-
pended in the air, it will be seen that The
blackened one will get cool much sooner than
the other. 1t is true that the difference in this
case is chiefly due TO the polish on one of the
spoons, but it is not altogether due TO it,
Again if hot water be poured into two YES
sells, the one white and the other black, the
water in the latter will cool before the other.
So likewise if two persons, one dressed in black
and the other in white-all other conditions be-
ing the same-were to go from the cold exter-
nal air into a heated room, the one in black
would feel the heat sooner than TIE other, and
on leaving the room would feel the cold soon
er consequently, would be more likely to
take cold than the other. Ii is therefore evil
dent that light colored dress is more condu-
Give to health and comfort than dark one,
since it prevents the external or cold air from
too suddenly reaching the body, and prevents
the body from too suddenly parting with its
heat; aud thus, that it keeps it in more equa-
BILE temperature.
We may how understand the reason why
animals in the polar regions are white-theii
, whlteness preserves the heat of their bodies
much better than any other color. So like.
wise the earth, in consequence of the white
ness of snow, is prevented from parting with
: Its heat. 1t is not so much by snow protect
> ing the earth from the external colds, that il
does such valuable service, as by its prevent
S ing the radiation Of the internal heat. Th
whiteness of snow, and of the polar animals
must not be looked upon as the result Of bin,
Y chance; it strikingly exemplifes the wisdom
: and goodness Of the Creator.
j The above observations are peculiarly appli
cable to the case of men engaging in arctic ex
I peditions. do not know what dress the
r usually wear, but it is quite clear that whit
! woollen one would be the most appropriate
and if it had gloss upon it, it would be 81