Morning journal and courier., 1883-06-09


The belief in black being the warmest color
for clothing, and white the coolest, has up to
late period passed as an undisputed fact,
which, if I mistake not, was myself the first
to challenge and pronounce erroneous, In the
Live Stock Journal, one of those lurking er-
rors that from earliest times have escaped the
detection of science. Why do polar hares
and foxes that are slate blue in summer turn
snow white in winter? Nature effects the
change, but with what object and for what
purpose The usual mode of accounting for
it, when speaking of the hare, is that this
defenseless creature by becoming white is as
simulated to the color of the snow, and SO es-
capes the danger of being sighted by preda-
tory animals. But the fox also assumes a
white dress precisely at the same period of
time, and, as he is one of these predatory an
imals his altered hue enables him the more
easily to approach this very prey. So thai
were that the design of the transformation we
should have nature making fool
of herself which nature never docs,
am acquainted with the usual
test of color temperature; the two
pieces of cloth, white and black, spread upon
snow When this proverbial problem comes
to be more thoroughly investigated it will go
the way of the fat earth and the spherical
bullet. While campaigning in a tropical
country under the hottest of suns became
aware that a black coat was cooler than a
SN-N AH@AN
texture, and thickness-in short, caeteris par
ibus, save the color. The fact led me to re-
fiection, to correlation of other facts and Cir
cumstances observed at the same time as on
other occasions. For one, I could see that
my negro servant alongside me, enveloped in
a coal black skin, did not suffer from the fer
vid rays of the sun half so much as I under
nv tripe- -colored epidermis What could this
be but provision of nature-mercifuln nature
made for him whose home was to be in the
torrid zone? And the longer | remained
within its limits the more could L acknoWl-
edge her kindness in tanning my cheeks, and
SO making them less sensitive to the scorch-
ing of the sun. From the coat upon my back
and the color of my skin thought wandered
to the black bears of tropical countries-al-
ways coal-black-to the brown species of
temperate chimes, and on the Arctic ice,
where Ursa is robed in white. Then, there
is night and day, shadow and sunlight, the
dark, baked ground, and the same covered
with snow-all in their opposed temperature
in conformity with my belief as above. Some
10 months later the Lancet, possibly inspired
by what had said in the Live Stock journal,
thus made illusions to the subject: 1--WE have
more than once asked attention for the un-
doubted effect of color on the radiating pow
er of clothing. Certain light colored sub
stances approaching to white do not part with
their heat SO readily as dark. The bear of
the polar regions is for this reason provided
with white fur, while her brother of warmer
climates has dark colored integument 1t
therefore seems desirable to prefer bright to
somber hues. and if this choice were made
the result would be an air of additional cheer
fulness in the public streets. The matter
may seem of small moment, but the life we
live is made up of small considerations and
little affairs" Now, this matter may not be
of such small moment, but one having Sc
rious consequences in a sanitary sense, and
SO deserving further Investigation.