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ON CLOTHING.

HAVING in a former article described the functions of the skin, and remarked upon the important consequences that await their being duly performed, and the share which Clothing has in securing that object; and having also given a comparative sketch of the qualities of the different kinds of cloth, and of the degree of excellence of each as an article of dress, I shall now endeavour to point out the circumstances that deserve attention in adapting our dress to the exigences of our situation.

It has been shown that the real end proposed by Clothing ought to be protection from the cold; and it can never be too deeply impressed on the mind, (especially of those who have the care of children,) that a degree of cold that amounts to shivering cannot be felt, under any circumstances, without injury to the health; and that the strongest constitution cannot resist the benumbing influence of a sensation of cold constantly present, even though it be so moderate as not to occasion immediate complaint, or to induce the sufferer to seek protection from it. This degree of cold lays the foundation of the whole host of chronic diseases, foremost amongst which are found scrofula and consumption.

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Persons engaged in sedentary employments must be almost constantly under the influence of this degree of cold, unless the apart ment in which they work is heated to a degree that subjects them, on leaving it, to all the dangers of a sudden transition, as it were from summer to winter. The inactivity to which such persons are con demned, by weakening the body renders it incapable of maintaining the degree of warmth necessary to comfort, without additional clothing or fire. Under such circumstances a sufficient quantity of clothing of a proper quality, with the apartment moderately warmed and well ventilated, ought to be preferred, for keeping up the requi- site degree of warmth, to any means of heating the air of the room so much as to render any increase of clothing unnecessary. To heat the air of an apartment much above the ordinary temperature of the atmosphere, we must shut out the external air; the air also becomes extremely rarified and dry, which circumstances make it doubly danger ous to pass from it to the cold raw external air. But in passing from a moderately well warmed room, if properly clothed the change is not felt, and the full advantage of exercise is derived from any opportunity of taking it that may occurlo nos ant nɔowied T

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It is scarcely necessary to repeat here that the only kind of dress that can afford the protection required by the changes of temperature to which this climate is liable, is woollen. Nor will it be of much avail that woollen be worn unless so much of it be worn and it be so worn, as effectually to keep out the cold. Those who would receive the advantage which the wearing woollen is capable of affording must wear it next the skin, for it is in this situation only that its healthpreserving power can be felt. It is necessary also that the whole of the body should be covered with it. Some are indeed content with protecting the chest or the bowels with a small piece of flannel, thinking themselves thoroughly secured if those parts are not violently

VOL. I.

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cold; but a sensation of warmth is required, and that is not to be expected from so inadequate a defence. It certainly is desirable that the chest and the stomach and bowels should be protected in a superior manner; but it is necessary to health that the whole surface of the body should be of an uniformly comfortable warmth; and I repeat again this cannot be preserved in the ordinary temperature of this ¡ climate unless flannel be worn next to the skin, and unless much more clothing be used than is done at present, especially by females.

Another circumstance that requires attention, with regard to our clothing, besides having enough of clothes made of the proper materials, is that they should be so adapted to the figure of the body as to allow the full exercise of all its motions, The neglect of this precaution is productive of more mischief than is generally believed. The misery and suffering arising from it begin while we are yet in the cradle. The infant is night and day so carefully wrapped with bandages about the chest as to have its breathing considerably impeded: it cries and struggles, but in vain, unless it screams so vehemently as to excite the fears of the nurse; in that case it is sometimes undressed lest a pin might have been by accident so placed as to prick it. Soon as the bandages are loosed its distress ceases; but they are applied again, though perhaps with a little less severity than before, and he consequently ceases to complain. But the effect of a bandage constantly restraining the action of the chest at this period of life, when each day brings with it an increase of bulk, is that the ribs instead of describing a circle, as they would do if nature were allowed fair play, become flattened on the sides, and the breast-bone is projected forwards, and altered in its form in various ways, all tending to contract the chest. Every variation from the circular form shows that the chest has been prevented enlarging, and that the very means which nature has been taking to increase its dimensions have had the effect of diminishing them. Nothing is so necessary to strong health and long life as a well-formed capacious chest nothing is so universally present in the vast multitude who die of consumption, as flat sides and a narrow chest. What can a parent bestow on her child that can compensate for a feeble constitution? How can the mother forgive herself whose ridiculous prejudices have entailed on her offspring a miserable and diseased existence, and a premature death? Yet such a hare the effects of bad management during the first two years of life. Escaped from the nurses' hands, boys are left to nature, who often, succeeds in making a hale man of a very sickly child. Girls have for awhile the same chance as boys in an escape from bandages of all kinds; but as they approach to womanhood, they are again put into trammels in the form of stays. The bad consequences of the pressure of stays are not immediately obvious, but they are not the less certain on that account; the girl writhes and twists to avoid the pinching which must necessarily attend the commencement of wearing stays so tightly laced; the posture in which she finds ease is the one in which she will be constantly, until at last she will not be comfortable in any other, even when she is freed from the pressure that originally obliged her to adopt it. In this way most of the deformities that young people

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Pare subject to originate; projecting shoulders and hips, and twistings of the back-bone have very rarely any other cause, and unfortunately it is not often that they are perceived until they have become considerable, and have existed too long to admit of remedy.

But these are minor evils; for though the deformity is in itself bad enough, it is not to be compared with the devastation that is made on the health, by the excessive pressure of stays impeding the functions of the stomach and bowels. The intestines of all animals have a motion similar to that by which the earth-worm moves itself forwards, which enables them to force on their contents: it is called the peristaltic motion of the intestines. If this motion should cease, no nourishment could be conveyed into the body, and the bowels could not be relieved of the undigested remains of the food. If this motion be impeded, these processes are proportionably injured, Can it be supposed but that such considerable pressure must interrupt this necessary motion? That it does is pretty evident by the indigestions, flatulencies, pains in the sides, and sluggish bowels, with which all young women are more or less affected.

It is not enough that the stays are laced so tight, as scarcely to leave room for them to breath, but they increase the mischief such pressure would occasion, by keeping themselves constantly on the stretch, by a stiff piece of whalebone or steel introduced in front. When in a sitting posture, nature directs us for our ease to bend the body gently forwards; in this position the muscles of the belly are relaxed, and the bowels have a greater freedom of motion; but to women this indulgence and the advantages of it are denied. It is to those females who are obliged to labour for their subsistence, that I more especially address these observations:-to maid-servants, and young women who are engaged in sedentary employments. All such persons would do well to wear stays made of some soft and warm material, which would protect them from the cold, and afford a moderate support, such as might be worn without injury; and if they must wear bones or steel to stiffen them, to take care that they leave themselves full power to assume any posture that is conducive to their ease.

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I cannot leave this subject, without saying a few words on the injurious consequences of dressing growing girls in stays long enough to enclose the hips. The enlargement and expansion of the bones, which ought to take place, is prevented, and an internal deformity is occasioned, by which the dangers attending child-birth are alarmingly increased. Miscarriage and premature delivery are others of the consequences; and the injury done to the breasts is often so considerable, that the mother cannot afford to her child its natural nourishment. As a part of this subject, the injurious effects of wearing tight garters deserve notice; such tightness occasions a disease of the veins of the legs, which is attended with very painful and offensive ulcers, extremely difficult of cure. And shoes too small, and not well adapted to the form of the foot, produce corns, and enlargements of the joints, attended with considerable pain and deformity, and not admitting of cure unless large easy shoes be worn, and woollen stockings. Indeed, the wearing stockings of cotton would appear sometimes to be sufficient to produce corns; at all events, changing cotton stockings for woollen will often effect their removal.

J. C.

Monthly Retrospect of Puhlic Affairs.

THE proceedings upon the Bill of Pains and Penalties against the Queen terminated, in the House of Lords, on Friday the 10th of November; on which day the Third Reading of the Bill was decided upon by a majority of nine. There was a larger majority upon the Second Reading;-but the number was lessened by the conscientious scruples of several Peers, upon a particular branch of the measure. The judgments of their Lordships, as to the policy of proceeding with the Bill, being so nearly equal, Lord Liverpool judged it expedient to defer to so strong an expression of opinion, by withdrawing the Bill-or what is equivalent, by moving that it should be passed that day six months.

Amidst the variety of political sentiments which the whole course and/ object of the proceedings against her Majesty have called forth, it would not accord with the purpose of this Miscellany, were we to advance any opinion upon the conduct which was developed in evidence before the House of Peers. But it is our duty to call the attention of our readers again and again to the manifestations of a noble and impartial spirit-to the patience, the acuteness, and the perfect justice which was displayed in that noble assembly, throughout this inquiry. The spectacle which was there exhibited from day to day very satisfactorily disproved all the calumnies with which that Noble House had been so outrageously assailed; and the issue of their proceedings, if it were not entirely satisfactory to those who had thought it their duty, fearless of consequences, to pronounce upon the Queen's guilt, has shown that no power, and no influence can prevail in this country-and that the perfect freedom of opinion with which this momentous and solemn question was treated, leaving room for every shade of doubt to have its effect, will manifest to after ages the independence of the three great branches of our Constitution.

There is a good deal of ferment in the country-and there are not wanting artful and dangerous men to keep alive the worst spirit amongst us. Those who love their country, who respect its laws, who venerate its institutions-those who would cling to the sources of private happiness and of public prosperity-will uphold, with firmness and with tomper, the Government under which they live-a Government not of will but of law-against every assailant.

Μου. 29.

EDITOR-K

The Reader is requested to correct the following error, in No. X.

At page 487, line 14 from the bottom, for "25 millions,” read “ 45,” (the present^^ interest of the National Debt.)

The Christian Monitor;

NO. XII.

LECTURES ON THE LITURGY.

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LECTURE V.

THE CREED. PART II.

What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Can faith save him?—ST. JAMES, ii. 14.

HAVING, in my last Lecture, examined the several Articles of our Creed, as far as the doctrine of Christ's Resurrection, we next declare that

"He ascended into Heaven.”

The purpose of Christ's Ministry on Earth being now accomplished -having delivered his instructions during a period of three years, in which he taught his Disciples-having completed all the prophecies which he came to fulfil, by laying down his life as an atonement for our transgressions, and rising again for our justification, he accomplished another of the prophecies of David, by ascending into Heaven, in the presence of all his Disciples, at Bethany, a village near Jerusalem, whither he led them forth for this awful occasion." And he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into Heaven.”

"And sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty.” This is an expression used by our blessed Lord himself, in reference to the following prophecy of David :-"The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool." St. Paul says, "When Christ had by himself purged our sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty of the Heavens."And St. Peter, "Who is gone into Heaven, and is on the right hand of God, Angels, and Authorities, and Powers, being made subject unto him."

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The glory of Christ's heavenly authority is thus prophesied by Daniel," And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve him dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away; and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." 41

VOL. I.

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