clothing.

SEC. 10. _Remarks on the Dress of Boys._

Whatever tends to disturb the growth of the body, or hinder the free
exercise of the limbs, during the infancy and childhood of both sexes
is injurious. And as every mother has the control of these things, I
have thought it desirable to append to this chapter a few thoughts on
the particular dress of each sex. I begin with that of boys.

"Nothing can be more injurious to health," says a foreign writer, "than
the tight jacket, buttoned up to the throat, the well-fitted boots, and
the stiff stock." And his remarks are nearly as applicable to this
country as to England. The consequences of this preposterous method of
dressing boys, are diminutive manhood, deformity of person, and a
constitution either already imbued with disease, or highly susceptible
of its impression.

No part of the modern dress of boys is more absurd, than the stiff
stock, or thick cravat. It is not only injurious by pressing on the
_jugular_ veins, and preventing the blood from freely passing out of the
head, but, by constantly pressing on the numerous and complex muscles of
the neck, at this period of life, it prevents their development; because
whatever hinders the action of the muscular parts, hinders their growth,
and makes them even appear as if wasted.

It would be a great improvement, if this part of dress were wholly
discarded; and when is there so appropriate a time for setting it aside,
as _before we began to use it_; or rather while we are under the more
immediate care of our mothers?

The use of jackets buttoned up to the throat, except in cold weather, is
objectionable; but this is very fortunately going out of fashion.

Boots, if used at all, should fit well; to this there can be no possible
objection. What the writer, whom I have quoted, referred to, was
probably the tight boot, worn to prevent the foot from being large and
unseemly; but producing, as tight boots inevitably do, an injurious
effect upon the muscles, a constrained walk, and corns.

What can be more painful, than to see little boys--yes, _little_
boys--boys neither fifteen, nor twenty, nor twenty-five, walk as if they
were fettered and trussed up for the spit; unable to look down, or turn
their heads, on account of a thick stock, or two or three cravats piled
on the top of each other--and only capable of using their arms to dangle
a cane, or carry an umbrella, as they hobble along, perhaps on a hot
sun-shiny