The clothing ought always to be proportioned to the constitution and habits. A person of strong constitution, who takes much exercise, needs less clothing than one of delicate and sedentary habits. According to this rule, women need much thicker and warmer clothing, when they go out, than men. But how different are our customs, from what sound wisdom dictates! Women go out with thin stockings, thin shoes, and open necks, when men are protected by thick woollen hose and boots, and their whole body encased in many folds of flannel and broadcloth.
Flannel, worn next the skin, is useful, for several reasons. It is a bad conductor of heat, so that it protects the body from _sudden_ chills when in a state of perspiration. It also produces a kind of friction on the skin, which aids it in its functions, while its texture, being loose, enables it to receive and retain much matter, thrown off from the body, which would otherwise accumulate on its surface. This is the reason, why medical men direct, that young children wear flannel next the body, and woollen hose, the first two years of life. They are thus protected from sudden exposures. For the same reason, laboring men should thus wear flannels, which are also considered as preservatives from infection, in unhealthy atmospheres. They give a healthy action to the skin, and thus enable it to resist the operation of unhealthy miasms. On this account, persons residing in a new country should wear such clothing next the skin, to guard them from the noxious miasms caused by extensive vegetable decompositions. It is stated, that the fatal influence of the malaria, or noxious exhalations around Rome, has been much diminished by this practice. But those who thus wear flannel, through the day, ought to take it off, at night, when it is not needed. It should be hung so that it can be well aired, during the night.
But the practice, by which females probably suffer most, is, the use of _tight dresses_. Much has been said against the use of corsets by ladies. But these may be worn with perfect safety, and be left off, and still injury, such as they often produce, be equally felt. It is the _constriction_ of dress, that is to be feared, and not any particular article that produces it. A frock, or a belt, may be so tight, as to be even worse than a corset, which would more equally divide the compression.