so loosely, that, _when sitting in the posture
used in sewing, reading, or study_ THE LUNGS _can be as fully
and as easily inflated, as they are without clothing_. Many a woman
thinks she dresses loosely, because, when she stands up, her clothing
does not confine her chest. This is not a fair test. It is in the
position most used when engaged in common employments, that we are to
judge of the constriction of dress. Let every woman, then, bear in mind,
that, just so long as her dress and position oppose any resistance to
the motion of her chest, in just such proportion her blood is
unpurified, and her vital organs are debilitated.

The English ladies set our countrywomen a good example, in accommodating
their dress to times and seasons. The richest and noblest among them
wear warm cotton hose and thick shoes, when they walk for exercise; and
would deem it vulgar to appear, as many of our ladies do, with thin hose
and shoes, in damp or cold weather. Any mode of dress, not suited to the
employment, the age, the season, or the means of the wearer, is in bad
taste.

CHAPTER IX.

ON CLEANLINESS.

The importance of cleanliness, in person and dress, can never be fully
realized, by persons who are ignorant of the construction of the skin,
and of the influence which its treatment has on the health of the body.
Persons deficient in such knowledge, frequently sneer at what they deem
the foolish and fidgety particularity of others, whose frequent
ablutions and changes of clothing, exceed their own measure of
importance.

The popular maxim, that "dirt is healthy," has probably arisen from the
fact, that playing in the open air is very beneficial to the health of
children, who thus get dirt on their persons and clothes. But it is the
fresh air and exercise, and not the dirt, which promotes the health.

In a previous article, it was shown, that the lungs, bowels, kidneys,
and skin, were the organs employed in throwing off those waste and
noxious parts of the food not employed in nourishing the body. Of this,
the skin has the largest duty to perform; throwing off, at least, twenty
ounces every twenty-four hours, by means of insensible perspiration.
When exercise sets the blood in quicker motion, it ministers its
supplies faster, and there is consequently a greater residuum to be
thrown off by the skin; and then the perspiration becomes so abundant as
to be perceptible. In this state, if a sudden chill take place, the
blo