the chapter on
Temperature, is the great principle which should guide us in regard to
dress. But although we should always keep a little too cool rather than
a little too warm, it is by no means desirable to be cold. Any degree of
chilliness, long continued, interrupts the functions which the skin
ought to perform, and thus produces mischief.

The same rules, in this respect, apply to eating, as well as to dress.
It is better to eat a little less than nature requires, than a little
more. It is a generally received opinion, however, that mankind
frequently, at least in this country, eat about twice as much as health
requires. This is owing to habit; and perhaps the power of the latter is
as great in this respect as in regard to dress.

The great point in regard to food or dress is, to _begin_ right, and,
observing what nature requires--studying at the same time the testimony
of others--to endeavor to keep within the bounds she has assigned. It
has already been more than intimated, that if the nursery be kept in a
proper temperature, a single loose piece of dress is, for some time, all
that is required. In pursuance of this principle, through life, I
believe few persons would be found who would need more at one time than
a single suit of woollen clothes, even in the severest winters of our
northern climate.

I have always observed that they who wear the greatest amount of
clothing, are most subject to colds. There are obvious reasons why it
should be so. This, then, if a fact, is one of the strongest reasons in
favor of acquiring a habit of going as thinly clad as we possibly can,
and not at the same time feel any inconvenience.

But after all, whether it be winter or summer, we must vary our clothing
with the variations of the weather, as indicated by the thermometer, and
our own feelings. Sometimes, in our ever-changing and ever-changeable
climate, it may be necessary to vary our dress three or four times a
day. Some cry out against this practice as dangerous, but I have never
found it so. I have known persons who made it a constant practice; and I
never found that they sustained any injury from it, except the loss of a
little time; and the increase of comfort was more than enough to
compensate for that. There is one thing to be avoided, however, whether
we change our clothing--our linen especially--twice a day, or only twice
a week--which is, _dampness_.

SEC. 5. _Caps._

The practice of putting caps on infant