Health & beauty in dress from infancy to old age / by Ada S. Ballin.

  • Ballin, Ada S.
Date:
[1893?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Health & beauty in dress from infancy to old age / by Ada S. Ballin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/282 (page 2)
    regretted that the subject should be so generally treated with a sort of contempt by the intelligent classes, and regarded somewhat as a necessary evil, which must be thought about as little as possible ; while, with the exception of a few health reformers, the only people who devote time and trouble to it are those who, looking on dress wholly as a means of display, employ their energies to outdo their neighbours in the brilliancy and costliness of their attire. The true value of dress as a means, under favourable conditions, of preserving health, or, under unfavourable conditions, of destroying it, is not understood as it ought to be ; and though I would not have it thought for a moment that I wish to discourage any one from taking pains to obtain “ things of beauty ” in the way of articles of dress for themselves and their children, I must contend that at least equal care should be taken that those things are such as to be conducive, not injurious, to health—for health, like beauty, is most assuredly “ a joy for ever.” From the earliest times the object of dress has been twofold—firstly, to cover ; secondly, to adorn. Amongst savage nations adornment has ever been considered the more important function, but sani- tarians are popularly regarded as having no sense at all of its importance. It is time, however, that true sanitarians should come forward to clear themselves from the imputa- tion which has, as it were, been cast upon them by the false prophets. Far from having no idea of the beautiful, we have what time will prove to be