Health & beauty in dress from infancy to old age

Front matter

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Preface

The success of my book on “ The Science of Dress,” published some few years ago, has led to a demand for a cheaper and more popular work on the subject. Complete revision, and many alterations were necessary, and I have thought it best to produce the present work under a new title, although it consists, to some extent, of matter published in the former book. Part of the present volume is compiled from articles contributed by me from time to time to my own paper. Baby: The Mothers' Magazine^ and other periodicals, to the editors of which, and especially to Mr. Horace Cox, of the Queen, and Dr. Andrew Wilson, F.R.S.E., the editor of Health, I am indebted for permission to republish them in the present form.

I am also much indebted to my friend, Lieut- Colonel Petrie, for several valuable hints, of which I have gladly availed myself, and to Mr. Bernard Roth, F.R.C.S., for the excellent drawings which form the full-plate illustrations of this volume, and greatly^add to its value.

My previous publications on dress, have been so well received that they have been largely drawn upon in the newspaper press. In .some few

VI

Preface.

instances their authorship has been honourably acknowledged, but in the great majority of cases the passages quoted have simply been pilfered by authors and editors, and their true origin completely ignored. This being so, I am bound in self-defence to call the attention of my readers to the fact, lest they should say, on turning up a familiar passage in this book, “ Why, Mrs. Ballin has copied this verbatim from this or that journal,” while the contrary is the fact, the journal in question having calmly annexed the passage from some one of my writings.

My publications on the subject of healthy dress have gained many converts, as has been proved by the large number of letters I have received asking further advice on the subject. I believe, therefore, that the wide dissemination of rational ideas on dress has done some good ; but, although isolated articles and paragraphs may be useful in their way, it is very desirable that a consecutive treatise on the subject should be available ; and, in order to supply this want, I have endeavoured to make the present work as complete, comprehensive, and practical as possible.

AdAj S. Ballin.

15, Haverstock Hill, N.W.

Chapter I. Introductory

•

The importance of dress in relation to health — The ideal of beauty — Admired deformities — Fashion’s follies — The development of the science of health — Health and beauty— The beauty of decay — Popular neglect of health — The care of self a duty — Custom — The instincts of the lower animals a better protection to their young than the reason of woman — Ignorant mothers — Parents’ responsibility— The care of infancy

Chapter II. The Body In Health

The chief functions of the body, and the organs engaged in performing them — The functions of the lungs — The circulatioa — The excretory organs — Lungs, kidneys, and skin— The structure of the skin — Perspiration — The perspiratory and sebaceous glands — Cleanliness— Soaps— Toilet powders— Care of the skin in relation to dress — The complexion in youth and age— Beautiful for ever

Contents.

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Chapter III. , H Eat

Sensations of heat and cold— The theory of heat— Cold a relative term— Heat as a mode of motion— Radiation— Conduction — Good and bad conductors — Vital temperature — Oxygen as producing heat by chemical combination — Friction as a cause of heat — Heat and work— The development of heat by the contraction of muscles— Combustion in the body in relation to food — How and why we lose heat — Nature’s protections against this loss— A popular fallacy— Clothes supplementary to the skin — Primitive dress

CHAPTER IV. COLD, XnD the harm IT DOES

The action of cold on the human body — Insufficient nutrition — Danger from cold greatest in the case of infants - Diseases occasioned by cold — Infantile mortality — Mortality in Russia — Growth — Cold an enemy to growth— Normal growth-rate of children — Temperature of rooms —Ventilation — The sufferings of children from insufficient clothing — “Coddling” versus “Hardening” — The hardening theory a fallacy ...

Chapter V. How To Dress Infants

Evils of the fashionable layette — Swaddling — Bad old fashions — The binder — The sanitary binder —All sudden change dangerous — Too light clothing for infants — The liability of the infant nervous system to disturbance— Convulsions— The mortality therefrom— Convulsions caused by the careless use of needles and pins — Faulty construction of baby

Contents.

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PAGE

clothes — Rational baby clothing — Night clothing — Position during sleep— The danger of adults overlying children — Cots and cradles — The impropriety of rocking infants to sleep 55

Chapter VI. Outdoor Dress And Exercise*' For Young Children

Babies should not as a rule be carried — The reasons for this — How-to carry a baby — The use of the perambulator— Outdoor clothes for infants — Hoods — Outdoor clothing for older children — ^Weather — Suitable times for exercise and meals —Outdoor play — Sleeping out of doors — Liberty of action for the infant — Children should not be sat upright too early, nor urged to precocious walking — Learning to walk — The necessity of preventing the adoption of unnatural positions — The propriety of using the left hand equally with the right, and the reason for

Chapter VII. Clothing For Older Children

Combinations— A new method of supporting children’s clothes — Woollen dresses — Boys’ clothes — Jersey and sailor suits — Little girls’ dresses — Divided knickerbocker skirt — Pinafores — No stays for children — Children's shoes and boots — Choice of materials— Summary 94

Chapter VIII. Colour Of Materials For Clothing

The natural colour of the wool the healthiest — “Health will not be clothed in dirty raiment” — Popular views on cleanliness — Clean clothes —

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Contents.

PAGE

Poisonous dyes — Red aniline dye — Red flannel— Misuse of aniline dyes — Poisoning by aniline dyes — Arsenical poisoning from dyes— The choice of colours so as to avoid injury by poisonous dyes ... 113

CHAPTER IX. ■m

GIRLS’ CLOTHES.

Faults of the ordinary mode of dressing girls — Undue weight of clothing — Woollen materials afford the maximum of warmth with the minimum of weight — How to impede the loss of heat from our bodies—

The body’s atmosphere — Ventilating power of various clothing materials — Over-tight clothing — Woollen healthy wear for summer as well as winter — Skin irritation from woollen clothing as a rule transitory — Skin diseases brought about by the wearing of too thin clothing in summer— Woollen clothing not weakening unless the body is too warmly clad — The quantity and quality of clothing to be regulated according to the external temperature —Night clothing — Bedding and bed-clothes— High-necked and long-sleeved combinations objected to as incompatible with the wearing of low-necked evening dresses — How to avoid this objection— Advice to debutantes — How to detect adulteration in woollen materials — How to wash woollen clothes — Medical opinions on the value of woollen underclothing 119

Chapter X. The Use And Abuse Of Corsets

Underclothing— The chemise, and why it should be abolished— Tight-lacing— Fashionable deformities Nature’s warnings— The sensations as danger-signals— Instances— Nature’s adaptability to adverse

Contents.

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circumstances — “ Know thyself ! ” — Popular ignorance of physiology— Artificial and natural waists—

The physiology of the thorax and abdomen — The viscera — The pathology of tight-lacing— A test for tight-lacing— How to train the body to do without stays — Attempts to abolish tight-lacing — Abuse of surgical stays — The risk of injury by corsets diminished when growth is ^complete — Evils produced by ill-made stays— Rational stays for adults — Abdominal belts ^37

CHAPTER XL

A NEW SYSTEM OF DRESS FOR WOMEN.

How to fasten the clothes when stays are not worn— Over-loose clothing— Proper distribution of the weight of clothing — Seasonable clothing — The bodice— The weight of skirts— Dual garments— Drawers and their adoption— Trimmings of dresses — Princess robes— How to fasten the dress skirt — Jerseys— How dresses should be fitted .... ... 164

Chapter XII. Dress For Out Of Doors

The throat and collars— Tailor-made jackets— What cloths to choose for them and for walking dresses — Furs— Bonnets — Artificial flowers — Some causes of baldness — Hats, and how they should be made—

Veils — Gloves— Waterproofs 177

Chapter XIII. Suitable Dress For Exercise And Sports

Our girls’ need of exercise — Gymnastics : their use and abuse — Exercise and excess — Body and mind — Games — Lawn-tennis — Cricket for girls — Riding

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Contents.

PAGK

trousers, belts, and hats— Cycling— Its advantages — When to practice it — Lady cyclists — Salutary influence of cycling on women’s dress— Cycling costumes— General hints on dress for cycling, and on boots and shoes for that purpose i88

Chapter XIV. The Feet Anh How To Clothe Them

The evils produced by badly-shaped boots and shoes—

A common cause of anaemia — Some remarks on the history of foot-clothing — Chinese foot mutilations—European foot mutilations— Anatomy and physiology of the feet— The pathology of ill-made boots — Proper construction of boots — Boots and bootmakers— Healthy boots — Children’s boots — Infants’ boots — How stockings should be shapedindoor and dancing shoes — The harm done by pointed- toed patent leather shoes— Properly-shaped shoes — Winter boots— Corns and their cure — The ventilation of boots — Wet feet — Slippers 205

Conclusion

Adv ce to women — Some of the causes of fashions — Imitation — Conservation — Trade influence — The crinoline — Revivals of past fashions — Trade morality — The canons of beauty — The value of health— The care of health a duty 230

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No.

HEALTH & BEAUTY IN DRESS

CHAPTER I*

INTRODUCTORY.

In placing before the public a book treating of dress in a scientific manner, I may be allowed to remark that people are apt to look upon the subject in a wholly frivolous way. For my present purpose I will divide mankind into two classes, the people who t/imk and the people who do no^ think. Now the people who think, the intellectual part of the population, look upon dress as something beneath and quite unworthy their attention ; the people who do not think regard it wholly as a means of display. Yet it is in truth one of the great powers which preserve or destroy Health, and its iiifluence is unceasingly felt from birth to death — a matter, not of slight, but of vital importance, for it exercises a powerful, if often unrecognized influence on the health of the community.

Hence, attention to the subject should be considered a matter of duty, time spent on it ought to be very far from wasted, and it is much to be regretted that the subject should be so generally treated with a sort of contempt by the intelligent classes, and regarded somewhat as a necessary evil, which must be thought about as little as possible ; while, with the exception of a few health reformers, the only people who devote time and trouble to it are those who, looking on dress wholly as a means of display, employ their energies to outdo their neighbours in the brilliancy and costliness of their attire. The true value of dress as a means, under favourable conditions, of preserving health, or, under unfavourable conditions, of destroying it, is not understood as it ought to be ; and though I would not have it thought for a moment that I wish to discourage any one from taking pains to obtain “ things of beauty ” in the way of articles of dress for themselves and their children, I must contend that at least equal care should be taken that those things are such as to be conducive, not injurious, to health — for health, like beauty, is most assuredly “ a joy for ever.”

From the earliest times the object of dress has been twofold — firstly, to cover ; secondly, to adorn. Amongst savage nations adornment has ever been considered the more important function, but sanitarians are popularly regarded as having no sense at all of its importance.

It is time, however, that true sanitarians should come forward to clear themselves from the imputation which has, as it were, been cast upon them by the false prophets. Far from having no idea of the beautiful, we have what time will prove to be

CHAP. I.] The Ideal of Beauty. 3

the highest and purest of all ideals. Beauty for us is the perfect adaptation of the means to the end.

This definition will be found equally applicable to anything and everything in nature or art ; but in its application to the subject in hand — dress — it implies a great deal. The end of clothes, so far as we are concerned, is in warm weather to cover people without overheating them, and in cold weather to keep them sufficiently warm. Hence, as clothes to be beautiful must be perfectly adapted to this end, we must have no garments fitting so tightly as to impede the vital processes, none so heavy as to weary the wearer, none cut in such a way as to cramp her movements, and none dyed with poisonous substances.

What we want is reform^ 7tot revolution. We want in dress to obtain the maximum of health with the maximum of beauty. If our girls were taught the laws of health and a few of the principles of art as known to the ancient Greeks, they would soon see “ what a deformed thief this fashion is,” and would laugh at the squeezed-in waist, and the foot mangled and crushed by the high-heeled and pointed boots of recent times, as much as we now, who call ourselves civilized, ridicule the Australian with his nosepeg, or the Bongo negro who drags his lips down with a plug, and distends the lobes of his ears with discs of wood, in order to increase his personal attractions, or the foot of a Chinese lady artificially deformed in accordance with a fashion, which is, after all, only a slight exaggeration of our own.

B 2

Health and Beauty in Dress, [chap, i.

All over the world, “ II faut souffrir pour etre belle ” seems to have been the motto of men and women alike ; and, strong in that conviction, they have borne, and bear, without a murmur, heavy weights, heat and cold, pinchings and squeezings which displace the vital organs and produce all sorts of deformities, and, in fact, a series of tortures which, if they, instead of being inflicted by such an impersonal tyrant as Fashion, had been enforced by any individual monarch, would have speedily brought his head to the scaffold, and have caused his name to be handed down to posterity as that of the cruellest of men and worst of kings.

In this connection it is interesting to quote the words of a thoughtful writer, Mrs. Oliphant, who, in her book on dress, after reviewing some of the historical changes of costume, says, “ The reader will see from this rapid survey how persistently Fashion has sought the inconvenient and unnatural in opposition to the merely useful and pretty, and how little consideration that troublesome deity has ever shown to practical use or to the comfort of her votaries ; but, alas ! at the same time how universal has been her sway, and how little the higher intellect has done or tried to do against it. How to make locomotion most difficult, and limit the freedom of natural action ; how to keep the head hot and the feet cold, in direct opposition to all that doctors and gossips might say, has been apparently her favourite object. The hardy human race has struggled on through all, it has allowed itself to be stuffed out in different directions, now here, now

CHAP. I.] Fashions Follies.

there, with bran in its breeches, feathers in its sleeves, iron in its petticoats. It has submitted to have its head wrapped up in heavy folds of woollen, and its feet left free and airy in silk stockings and pointed shoes. It has ‘ come through ’ centuries of troubles of every kind and description, and, by dint of hardihood and patience, and immortal vanity, has lived on through all.”

Mrs. Qliphant is right in saying that in the past the higher intellect did little to combat the follies of fashion, and her statement is borne out by the fact that, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the brightest days of English intellect and the classical period of English literature, fashion in dress had reached a most absurd and unhealthy stage. But at that time there was a certain science which had not yet been born into England — the science of health, or Hygiene. That science may indeed be looked upon as the outcome of the present century. It is true that the ancient Greeks and Romans were good sanitarians, and that the Hebrews compiled the finest code of sanitary laws which has ever been made ; but during the Middle Ages all this valuable knowledge was allowed to lie shut up in books. Had the Bible been properly studied, those terrible epidemics which decimated Europe could never have happened ; yet, so great was the popular ignorance on the subject, that the Jews, whose obedience to the biblical laws saved them from may diseases then common, were, on account of this very immunity, accused of causing the diseases by witchcraft and by poisoning the wells.

Health and Beauty in Dress, [chap. i.

The present century, however, has witnessed a revival of the science of health. Health knowledge was never so widely distributed among the people as at the present time, when sanitarians are making every effort to increase it and to render it popular. In Shakespeare’s time the unhealthiness of certain articles of dress was not understood, so that it is not surprising that there was no revolt against them. At present, however. Fashion’s sins against Health are well understood by sanitarians, who are using their best endeavours to make the devotees of fashion understand them also, so that there is every hope that “ the higher intellect ” will gradually succeed in making dress truly beautiful, which it cannot be without at the same time being thoroughly healthy, for health and beauty go hand in hand.

This phrase that health and beauty go hand in hand is more than a mere alliteration, it contains a deep truth which is not sufficiently acknowledged. There is a hazy belief abroad in the beauty of decay — a belief which, to a certain extent, may be accounted for by the diseased and feeble members of society being so far in the majority that they have made a law for themselves, while a thoroughly healthy woman is such a rarity that she is almost looked upon as abnormal. The perfect example of the beauty of decay is the consumptive, with soft, silky hair, delicate skin, touched on the cheeks with a brilliant flush, large, dark, sparkling eyes, made to appear still larger by the black rings which surround them, slenderly formed limbs, and

CHAP. 1.] Health and Beauty.

tapering fingers with their filbert nails. Yet this is a beauty hardly to be desired : it is but the sign of a disease which before long will stamp it out for ever.

Delicacy is considered by some to be admirable, and women may even be met with who assume a state of ill-health for the purpose of getting sympathy. A great many people are always complaining, but still more go through life uncomplainingly, with a sort of dull, negative suffering, the result of a low vitality, which, if they think about it at all, they attribute to constitutional defects, but which, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, might be remedied by timely obedience to the laws of health.

If people are positively ill they call in a doctor, whose orders they follow more or less scrupulously, but usually without a glimmer of their true meaning ; of taking care of themselves, however, and so in most cases preventing the disease which he is often called in too late to cure, they have but the most rudimentary ideas. There is a story told of an old Jewi.sh doctor who, after performing a dangerous operation, said to his disciples : “ Two years ago an e i.sy operation might have cured this disease ; six years ago a wise way of life might have prevented it.” As it was, in spite of his skill, the patient died next day : and similar cases are happening every day. If people would pay attention to the care of their own and their children’s health, there would be a difference, not only in the mortality returns, but also in the general vitality.

Health and Beauty in Dress, [chap. i.

The majority are content to get through life with a minimum of vitality, and thousands struggle on to the appointed age of man without ever having been really ill, but yet without ever having been really well — their condition is summed up in the phrase “ feeble health.” This content is fatal to improvement ; it is like the mental position of the savage, who, knowing of nothing better, makes no progress towards civilization ; but the sanitarian wishes not only to imbue every one with the ambition of a “ fuller life,” but also to teach how it may be obtained. We would maintain, not the minimum of vitality, but the maximum ; we would have, not inert resignation to painful conditions, but that joy and glory in living which comes with the possession of perfect health, when the performance of every function is a pleasure. The old monastic idea of the mortification of the spirit through the fle.sh must die out, and be replaced by a more modern philosophy, which shall teach us to make life happy, and not to regard it as a trial to be got through somehow or other in a dull, pleasureless, if not absolutely painful, way. Without laying oneself open to the charge of selfishness, the care of self ought certainly to occupy a considerable amount of the thought and attention of every individual, and it is only by such care that the condition of the community can be improved.

This principle once acknowledged, no item, however seemingly trifling, which concerns the well-being of the individual can be looked upon as unimportant ; and, among other subjects, dress will

CHAP. I.] Dress Reform.

receive the consideration it merits as a factor in the making or breaking of health, instead of being left to the tender mercies of the ignorant, the idle, and the frivolous.

The battle of dress reform has for some time been vigorously fought, but the soldiers of the rebel camp have unfortunately adopted a mistaken plan of attack in falling upon the enemy just where he, or rather she, is the strongest. They have all endeavoured to make changes in the dress of the adult, forgetting that the customs and habits of adults are formed, and that the human adult mind entertains the strongest prejudice against change of any sort, even if it be for the better. There is nothing more difficult to alter than a habit once formed, while to prevent a bad habit from being formed is quite easy. The grown-up woman of to-day has been broken in from childhood to wear the ordinary garments and submit to the fashion of the time. She has grown accustomed to them, and custom has so dulled her senses that they utter no protest, however inherently uncomfortable, and even painful, tho.se garments may be. Hence she meets the attack of the dress reformer with the reply, “ I’d allow that your arguments are very plausible ; it does seem as if these things were wrong, but I don’t feel any inconvenience from them, so they really must be all right.”

In point of fact, this is a good reason why average men and women cannot understand the object of the contention of dress reformers — they like that to which they have grown accustomed. Of course lo Health and Beauty in Dress, [chap. i.

V

sensible people of all ages can and do make modifications in their dress, which render it both comfortable and healthy, and this is done quietly and without attracting any public attention. But if dress reform is to effect any material good for the community, it must be radical. It is no good to oppose the iron rule of custom ; we must strike at the root of it, and begin with the children, for, as a reviewer of my former writings on the subject justly remarked, “ it is in the hands of the mothers of to-day to effect for the coming generation that revolution in toilette against which the belles of to-day so stoutly or so scornfully array themselves.” To put the matter simply, we must begin at the beginning, instead of at the end, as the so-called reformers have tried to do.

If we compare the mortality of the young of the lower animals with that of children we find that there is no animal which loses its young in so large a proportion as women do. Is this not a disgrace to civilization ? Reason is justly considered to be a higher phase of mind than instinct, yet we find the instincts of the beast a better protection to her young than the reason of the woman.

There is a vague sort of maternal instinct in woman which, as in the beast, generally teaches her to love and to defend her children from violence, but which is wholly powerless to enable her to guard them against the insidious attack of disease or the misery of feeble vitality. Yet, on the strength of this feeling, mothers are apt to believe that the very fact of maternity confers on them the know-

CHAP. I.] Ig}iorant Mothers. 1 1

ledge of how best to rear their offspring. They resent almost as an insult the suggestion that a certain amount of study is absolutely necessary to obtain this knowledge.

Some time back I met with a good illustration of how thoroughly ignorant of the first principles of health a so-called “ highly educated lady ” may be. On one of the hottest days in July I was at a garden party amongst a group of young married women, when one of the guests chanced to say that her baby was very ill — “ it seemed to suffer so much with the heat.” The hostess then asked her if the baby was short-coated yet, as it was quite old enough ; whereupon she made an.swer that she had bought the clothes, but that, as neither she nor any of the servants knew how to put them on, she was waiting until her mother returned from the country.