Year: 1875

THE London Sanitary Record of Dec


26 has the following: "The extreme


and continued severity of the weather


has called public attention to the best


means of combating the fatal influence


exercised by the lowness 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 counteract the depressing ac-


tion of the extreme cold, of which none


excel, if they equal, the sensible advice


contained in Mr. Rawlinson's letters,


lately published in the Times. In these


communications he advocates the en-


plOyment of warm clothing, so as to


economic the vital heat generated in the


body, and to prevent its 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.. Krieger


tend to show that flannel and woolen 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 it's 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 1894 degrees
Fahrenheit, which is best kept in by
rough, loose woolen textures, while gar
ments of silk and linen should be avoid
ed. Another correspondent of the Times
points out the value of fur as non-con-
ductor of heat from the body, and rec
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
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 circulates
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. Furrsd animals in
winter when touched superficially give
a 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 it's points
toward the roots, and severer cold
penetrates only 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 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 minimum, because at
sixty-eight 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
researches made by Prof. Petten-
kofier and DR.. Krieger, all go to prove
the soundness of the conclusions arrived |
at by Mr.. Rawlinson and the Times cor
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 inclement
weather, clothe themselves in fannels,
wooden and fur garments, eschewing |
silk and the lighter materials until the |


e L H.