Dr. Constantine Hering called attention to this drink as a valuable aid to old people fifty years ago. It prevents ossification in the tendons and arteries. It is also a valuable drink for laborers who toil in the hot sun. The heat-producing portion having been removed, there remains a drink cooling, refreshing and nourishing, and one that is far preferable to any sort of alcoholic stimulant.

There are a legion of other drinks used in the United States. In fact, in every land we find myriads of different forms of drinks made use of. In this country root beers, ginger ales, meads, etc., are the most used. Most of them are comparatively harmless, but many of them are composed of vile and worthless materials. The product of the black spruce makes a healthful drink, but a great many root beers are composed of such medicinal plants as should cause them to be rejected. Some of them are positively injurious. The best rule to be observed in any of these miscellaneous drinks is to find out the materials of which they are composed, and reject those containing hurtful or medicinal ingredients. Generally, those made by thoroughly reliable manufacturers are unobjectionable, but the indiscriminate use of all manner of herbs as we often witness in home-made drinks cannot be recommended, and the use of such drinks cannot be either advisable or healthful.

As a general result of using liquids we find less nervous troubles. The Germans, as a class, use large quantities of liquids as drink and food, and they are generally remarkably free from nervous or digestive troubles. They use large quantities of malt liquor, but it is plainly the water it contains, and not the alcohol, which contributes to their healthfulness. Our dyspeptic Americans are usually small drinkers, and this is also particularly true of those suffering from nervous affections. Thirst is a normal condition, and a want of appetite for drinks constitutes a form of dyspepsia similar to a lack of desire for food.

PERSONAL HYGIENE AS TO CLOTHING WORN.

BY LUCIUS D. MORSE, M.D.

In the struggle for existence, clothing is one of man's defensive weapons. As such it should certainly be made as effective as possible. In this matter, however, the laws of fashion are oftener obeyed, we fear, than the laws of health. It will be a long time yet, as society is now constituted, before the ideal of the hygienist will be reached as regards wearing apparel. Meanwhile, however, much may be done to disseminate sound notions and enable those who so desire to secure a very considerable amount of comfort in spite of the edicts of fashion.

The normal temperature of the human body has been fixed by a great number of observations at 98.4° F. There is little variation in these figures, whether the individual make his home amid the eternal snows of the North or under the vertical sun of the tropics. This body is a humid structure, exhaling moisture from its surface, and is subject to physical laws, being cooled, like inanimate objects, by radiation, conduction and evaporation. The surrounding medium presents a temperature sometimes lower, sometimes higher than the body itself, and is at one time dry and at another time surcharged with moisture. These are some of the chief points to be remembered in framing a solution of the clothing question.

The maintenance of health requires that there be protection from extremes of temperature and the effects of sudden changes, that free transpiration be not interfered with, and that constant access of air be allowed to the surface of the body. The chief object of clothing from a sanitary point is to retard the escape of animal heat and thereby prevent a too sudden cooling of the body. A fabric of non-conducting qualities saves the body heat from waste during the cold season, and in summer prevents, or at least modifies, the absorption of heat from without.

Woolen goods are the worst conductors of heat, and are, therefore, the best adapted to the purposes of clothing; with woolens may also be classed the furs of animals and the down of birds. Next comes silken fabrics, then cotton and lastly linen. The conducting powers of any given fabric are much influenced by texture. A loosely woven cloth, which will retain in its meshes a large amount of air, will prove a much worse conductor than a piece of closely woven goods containing the same amount and quality of material. On this principle two shirts or two coats worn one over the other are warmer than a single garment of similar texture containing a weight of material equal to the other two. The color of clothing makes slight difference as regards radiation of heat from the body. The same remark applies also to heat received from non-luminous bodies, but when it comes to luminous heat, color is everything and material little or nothing. Exact experiment has shown that when, upon exposure to the sun,

When cloth of the same material and texture but of different

colors is exposed to the sunlight, great differences are apparent, as will be seen by the following table:

It will be inferred that people who are much exposed to the sun in warm weather should not wear dark clothing if they wish to keep cool.

Water is a much better conductor of heat than air; and for this reason when the air in the meshes of any article of clothing is replaced by water, the body heat is conducted away more rapidly

and the person is rendered liable to cold. This accounts for the fact that a moderate degree of cold with a damp atmosphere is more penetrating and depressing than a much lower temperature with a dry atmosphere. Perspiration from the body almost constantly dampens the clothing more or less and frequently saturates it. So we must not forget that the efficiency of clothing, as a non-conductor of heat, is frequently impaired by moisture furnished by perspiration. Evaporation of the perspiration during the warm seasons plays an active part in reducing the temperature of the body.

There is a marked difference in fabrics as regards the power of taking up moisture. Linen absorbs readily, and on this account is selected as a suitable material for towels, napkins, etc. Cotton is less absorbent than linen, silk less than cotton, and woolen less than silk. Where woolen underclothing is worn its comparatively open texture allows the perspiration and vapors of the body to pass through and the garment does not then become saturated in its very fibers, as happens when linen or cotton is the material. There is far less risk of chilling the body by sudden cooling off when woolen is worn. For this reason, such fabrics are in favor with laborers exposed to great heat or compelled to take violent exercise. The mortality in the British navy was greatly diminished by compelling the marines to wear woolen shirts all the year round in every climate. Now and then a person is met with whose skin is so sensitive that woolen underclothing produces great irritation. In such cases gauze underwear may be put on next the body and the woolen over that. It is the opinion of the writer, founded on very considerable experience, that in our variable climate wool is the proper material for underwear during a greater portion of the year. The knit underclothing is, perhaps, more serviceable than any other, as it shrinks less and is more open in texture. That fabric through which you cannot see when it is held up towards a strong light is not fit for underclothing. A line of goods containing cotton and wool in admixture can be obtained for those who complain of the irritating qualities of all wool material. The popular notion which ascribes special therapeutic value to red flannel has little foundation in fact. It is not surprising in these

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days of liver pads, stomach pads, lung pads and kidney pads that "medicated" flannel should be offered to a confiding and easily deluded public. There are some dyes, notably those from aniline colors, which are positively injurious and should never be used for garments made to wear next the body.

The physician is often consulted with regard to the kind of clothing which should be worn at night, in bed. If woolen underclothing is worn during the day, the change to cotton at night is too great. That worn during the day should be taken off, however, and well aired during the night—a fresh suit being put on to sleep in. A long night gown of cotton over the underclothing is a good thing. Night caps are pernicious.

We have already spoken of the necessity of free access of air to the body. This should be borne in mind by those who wear water-proof garments of rubber or other material. Such garments should fit loosely, so as to give free circulation between them and the other clothing. All garments should fit easily about the neck; any constriction at this point, whether by collar or tie, is fraught with mischief. The pantaloons are best supported from the shoulders by braces or suspenders-if by the hips, the waist-band should be at least an inch and a half or two inches wide, so as to distribute the pressure. Nowhere should the garments be so close as to interfere with the functions of the body. The male sex is not given to wearing clothing objectionable on the score of tightness, if we except the covering of the feet; but the same cannot be said of the other sex. The evils of the corset and of tight lacing have been frequently set forth, but these evils have been very little abated for all that, and fashion continues to minister to deformity and disease. We do not feel like entering the fight on this subject. There is another point, however, to which attention may, perhaps, be directed just here with prospect of good. We refer to the wearing of tight garters. This habit is the prolific cause of that horrible complaint-varicose veins. The garter should be just close enough to accomplish its mission, and ought to be adjusted above instead of below the knee. In the former position there is much less danger of interfering, by undue pressure, with the circu