First principles of hygiene / [W.D. Sturrock].

  • Sturrock, W. D.
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: First principles of hygiene / [W.D. Sturrock]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    more quickly, and partly for the same reason that they need more food—because so much of their energy is needed for growth. This latter reason obviously applies to babies as well as to older children. (ii) The materials of which clothes are made should be light and warm, that is, bad conductors of heat. The chief materials are woollens, cotton, and linen. Woollen materials are made from the fleece of sheep, and are, generally speaking, the best. Wool is light and warm, and, another important point, is loose in texture, so that it imprisons air, which, as already mentioned, is a bad conductor of heat. In addition to this, wool absorbs moisture w^ell and does not get wringing wet from per- spiration so readily as do other materials. There are tw'o disadvantages of woollen clothing. One is that it irritates the skin of some people ; this is, however, easily got over by wearing a light undergarment of cotton underneath the wool. The second is that it is expensive ; this is remedied, to some extent, by the manu- facture of materials made of a mixture of wool and cotton. Some of these answer their purpose very well, though none are so good as pure wool. One material known as flannelette needs special mention, because it is so in- flammable that it has been found to be extremely dangerous ; many lives have, in fact, been lost owing to flannelette clothes catching fire. Non-inflammable flannelettes are now manufactured, however, and these form an inexpensive and fairly good substitute for true flannel. Cotton, which is woven from the down overlying the seed of the cotton plant, is a very light and comfortable material; for its weight, too, it is warm, though not so warm as wool ; it also falls short of wool in its power of absorbing moisture. Cotton clothes are more likely to become cold and clammy after perspiration. Cotton may well be worn underneath w^ool when the latter is irritating to the skin, but when wool can be borne it is really best to wear light garments of this material even in summer.