American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1875-01-30
The Proper Clothing for Winter.


26 has the following: 1.-The extreme
and continued severity of the weather
has called public attention to the best
means of combating the fatal influence
exercised by the iOwness of the tempera-
ture on the vital powers of the young,
the feeble and the aged. Many sugges-
tions have been made for the purpose of
keeping up the amount of vital heat Fec
essary to counterfeit the depressing ac-
ton of the extreme cold, of which none
excel, If they equal, the sensible advice
contained in MIR. Rawlinson's letters,
lately published in the Times In these
communications he advocates the en-
plOymcnt of warm clothing, SO as to
economize the vital heat generated in the
body, and to prevent it's radiation. He
points out the inutility of warming
rooms to an excessive degree and at the
same time wearing thin clothing, since
vital heat is generated in the body itself,
not absorbed from the outside 1t there
fore becomes question what material is
best adapted to retain the heat and to
prevent its radiation to the outer air
Experiments conducted by Dr. Kriegcr
tend to show that flannel and wooden ma
terials answer this purpose more fully
than any other manufactured materials
The same series of experiments also dem
onstrate that loose-fitting garments tend
to keep us much warmer than tight fit
ting ones. The reason of this is
that our clothing not only renders
the air still around us, but it
also regulates its temperature by the
heat that leaves our bodies. We heat our
garments and they continually heat the
air passing through the meshes and pores
of the skin. We do not feel the loss of
heat which our clothing undergoes as we
should if the air were to strike our sur
face without having been previously pre-
pared by our dress; the differences of
temperature balance themselves within
the material we are clothed in, and of
which the ends of our cutaneous nerves
form no part. Inside our dress our tenn
perature averages about 1874 degrees
Fahrenheit, which is best kept in by
rough, loose wooden textures, while gar
ments of silk and linen should be avoid
ed. Another correspondent of the Times
points out the value of fur as a non-con-
ductor of heat from the body, and rec
ommends more general use of the
cheaper kinds of furs and skins, especial
ly for persons obliged to be much in the
open air. There can be no question as
to the physiological soundness of this
recommendation. A fur is so arranged
that its fine projecting hair intercepts all
the heat which flows from the surface by
radiation and conduction. and distributes
this heat through the air which clrculates
between the single air-cylinders; the finer
the hair of the fur the more it takes up
the outgoing heat and, however cold the
| air may be, it reaches the nerves of the
skin as warmed air. Furred animals in
winter when touched specifically give
very cold sensation. 1t is only near
the skin that the hair feels warm. In a
severe cold, certainly little of our animal
heat comes as far as the points of the
hair, from which it would radiate or be
conducted into the air. The current of
air in the fur cools the air from its points
toward the roots, and severer cold
penetrates only a little further into the
fur without necessarily reaching the
skin of the same. All this tends to show
that in very severe cold the outflow of
heat by the skin into the air contained
in the fur, or within the dress, occurs
through one route Only-that of cOnduc
ton. When a fur is worn no heat comes
to the surface for radiation as soon as
the points of the hair have the tempera-
ture of the surrounding air. EvapOra-
| ton also sinks to a minimum, because at
sixty weight degrees Fahrenheit under
freezing point all formation of aqueous
vapor already ceases, and nearly all the
heat in the fur and the dress is employed
to heat the arriving air, whose velocity
increases according to temperature.
These researches made by Prof. Petten-
kotier and DIR. Kriegcr, all go to prove
the soundness of the conclusions arrived
at by Mr.. Rawlinson and the Times cor
respondent, to whose recommendation in
favor of fur clothing we have referred,
and demonstrate beyond doubt that all
persons, old or young, feeble or strong,
who value their health or their lives,
should, as far as possible, in Indictment
weather, clothe themselves in tiannels,
wooden and fur garments, eschewing
silk and the lighter materials until the
advent of more favorable season"