Year: 1874

CLOTHING FOR COLD WEATHER.


The usual dress is sufficient in guam
tity, and often good in quality, but it is
very badly distributed. There is too
much about the trunk, and too little
about the lower extremities. If one
quarter of the heavy wooden overcast
or shawl were taken from the trunk,
and wrapped abont the legs, it would
prove great gain. When we men ride
in the cars, or in the sleigh, where do
we suffer? About the legs and feetl
When women suffer from the cold.
where is it? It is about the legs and
feet!


The legs and feet are down near the
floor, where the cold currents of air
move. The air is so cold near the floor
that all prudent mothers say, Don't
lie there, Peter; get up, Jerusha Ann;
play on the sofa; you will take your
death of cold lying there on the floor"
And they are quite right. If the room
be we'll ventilated, the air down near
the floor is very much colder than it is
up about our heads. And it is in that
cold stratum of air that our feet and
legs are constantly. A few Yankees
put them on the mantel-shelf, but the
great majority keep their feet on the
door.


Besides this, the feet and legs, on
account of their being SO far away,
and on account of their size, with the
air all about them, ere disposed to be
too cold, even without being in colder
atmosphere.


Under all these circumstances, men
wear one thickness of wool and cotton
and one thickness of black broadcloth
about their legs, and three or four times
as much about their chests; and now
they often add an immense pad called
"Chest Protector. And women in
dulge in still greater contrast.


Without discussing this blunder fur
ther, I will give you little practical
advice, which my observations and ex-
perience during more than thirty years
fully endorse.


During the damp and cold sea son, the
legs should be encased in uery thick
knit woolen drawers, the feet in thick
woolen stockings, (Which must be
changed every day, )'ana the shoe soles
must be as broad as the feet when fully
spread, so that the blood shall have free,
passage. If the feet ore squeezed in
the least, the circulation is checked.
and coldness is inevitable. This free
circulation cannot be secured by loose
upper with narrow sole. If when !,
the foot stands naked on sheet of pa
per it measures three and half inches.
the sole must measure three and q
half.


I will suppose you have done all this
faithfully, and yet your feet and legs
are cold. Now add more wooden, or if
you are to travel much in the cars, or in
a sleigh, procure pair of chamois-skin
or wash-leather drawers, which l have
found to be most satisfactory.


I have known number of ladies'
afflicted with hot aching head, and
other evidence of congestion about the
upper parts, who were completely.ie-
lieved by pair Of char1ois-skin drawers
and broad-soled shoes. Three ladies
in every four suffer from some conges-
ton in the upper part of the body. It
is felt in a.fullness of the head, in sore
throat, in palpitation Of the heart, tor
pid liver, and in many ether ways. It
is we'll known that hot foot-bath will
relieve for the time being anT and all of
these difficulties. This bath draws the
blood into the legs and feet, relieving
the congestion above. What the hot
foot bath does for an hour. the broad
soled shoes with, thick, wooden stockings,
and pair of flannel drawers. with
pair of wash-leather drawers added,
will do permanently; of course aN
speaking of cold weather. No one
hesitates to multiply the clothing about
the. trunk. Why. hesitate to increase
the clothing about the ,egsa As pre-
ventive of many common affections
about the chest, throat and head, in
Guiding nasal catarrh, I know Of moth
ing so effective as the dress Of the
lower extrsmities which I ara advocat-
ing. ' s-''s


The bath is good thing, exercise il
a good thing, frict:on is a good thing,
but after all, our main dependence IN