The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1909-01-08
WOOL VERSUS COTTON.
A Protest Against Bad Advice-An
Old Practitioner Takes Issue With
the Independent.

Regarding the subject of winter cloth
ing in accord with climatic conditions
between Mason and Dixon's line and
the Arctic Circle, the publisher of the
Wayne Independent puts forth from time
to time in articles of considerable length
such advice as the following, which is
decidedly contrary to the teachings of
our profession.
"Old and young should wear open
woven linen next to skin, if they wish
to feel well and keep well. Wool is not
an absorbent and therefore does not keep
the surface of the body dry. Besides
the majority of people live in summer
temperature in winter in their homes,
shops and stores, and thus being made
tender by heavy and very warm under
clothing, frequently take cold because
their skin is made soft and fiabby and is
not capable of resisting the changes that
come from exposure"
For underclothing, open woven linen
| is decidedly the most comfortable, sani-
tary and healthful.
do not hesitate to assert that such
publications as the above are both per-
! nicious and dangerous perniciOus, be-
cause unphilosophical and contrary to
the science of the subject, and thereby
calculated to do harm dangerous, be-
cause the wearer of such clothing next
the skin, in the winter. season, whether
an invalid or healthy person, is not well
clad for personal comfort, nor for the
protection of the body from the severity
of the winter weather and he is con-
tinually losing his animal heat, which is
the prime cause of winter maladies.
What can our would -be-instructor mean,
when he says, "Wool is not an absorbent,
and therefore does not keep the surface
of the body dry" Such an idea is alb
surd in health, the skin is never dry.
Who wishes to keep the skin dry? Does
the wearer of linen in winter weather
keep the skin dry? If so it is deleterious
to the wearer. Physicians know the
Importance of skin functions, and the
danger of its being arrested, for they are
psychologists, and know what the drying
up of the cuticle means, with its twenty
eight miles of perspiratory tubing, and
its seven millions of pores opening
through the epidermis, and discharg-
ing daily two ounces of excrementi
tious matter, and not less than thirty
ounces of watery vapor. The physician
we'll knows, and can appreciate the re-
suits from the interruption of the ex
cretion produced from the drying up o
the cuticle, through which those pores
are transmitted.
In discussing the philosophy of the
subject it may be said, that of all.tht
materials of which our clothing is lH6die
wool is the worst conductor of heat, ar7t
it being bad conductor, makes it the
very best material for our winter under
clothing, to be worn next the skin, from
head to foot, thereby retaining the ami
NAL heat of the person, preventing it
escape into the colder atmosphere ant
promoting the natural insensible per
spiration. We are thus protected iron
the winter maladies, and it is quite th'
reverse of this when cotton and liner
fabrics are depended upon. The latte
are for hot weather, or for those not ia
from the radiator, where the animal hea
can be spared advantageously.
Nature does the same for the animals
of our climate, by giving them longer,
thicker, non-conducting coats in winter
which they very appropriately cast off il
the spring to their advantage; but a
the human animal cast off his hairy GOV
ering in his primeval state, he is obliged
to initiate the other animals, by substi
tuting wool and fur in winter, and cot
ton and linen in summer and the latte
for hot weather, and the former for coll
weather, which simple statement is sus
tanned by philosophy and commo
!