and posterior, form with the ground a right-angled triangle; the raising of the posterior foot from the ground is effected by a bending of the knee, while the foot and the toes remain extended. (p. 247.)

From the fact of the sole of the foot being raised at each step in walking, it follows that the length of the step is increased by the length of the foot, independently of the angle formed by the two legs.

The pendulum-like movements of the lower extremity are discussed at page 249, and MM. Weber lay down this important law, which Dr. Giraud-Teulon seems so much to doubt, that the greatest rapidity which a man in walking can attain without exhaustion of muscular power, depends on the length of the legs, and the rapidity with which they can swing propelled by their proper weight. The influence of atmospheric pressure is felt in all these movements, the length of a step in the quick walk being one-half the duration of the pendulumswing of the lower extremity. In the quickest walking, when we touch the ground with the ball of the foot and not with the heel, this interval of time is somewhat less.

"In running," say MM. Weber, "as contrasted with walking, the body is not continuously supported, but it is raised periodically from the ground, and sweeps forward for a short time quite free in the air.” (p. 278.) The elevation of the heel and bending of the knee take place the same as in walking, but the vertical oscillations are less.

MM. Weber next enter upon the Theory of Walking (page 305). The forces which exert influence on that movement are:

A. The extending power.

The

B. The power of weight-i.e., the weight of the body. C. The resistance, which the body experiences in walking. mechanism of walking, &c., consists in a constant change between the swinging and the supporting limb.

The extending power of the lower limbs is just so great and no greater than is necessary to support the middle points of the body always in one and the same horizontal plane. The direction of the

extending power always passes through the middle point of the body and the foot-point (Fusspunkt) of the supporting limb. The anterior limb rests vertically on the ground at the moment when the posterior leaves it.

The calculations and measurements instituted by the Webers, which are to a great extent dependent one upon the other, occupy a considerable portion of this work. They are scarcely fitted, valuable as they may prove to be, for the general reader, and constitute the reason why the work now before us has been popularized in its anatomical parts and neglected in the rest. It is undoubtedly a most valuable contribution to anatomical and physiological literature, and will long maintain its place unequalled as a book of reference to the special subject on which it treats.

46-XXIII.

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1. Recherches sur les Vêtements Militaires comme Moyens de Protection contre la Chaleur et le Froid. Par le Dr. COULIER (Journal de la Physiologie, Jan. 1858.)

H

An Inquiry into the Dress of the Soldier, as a Means of Protection against Heat and Cold. By Dr. COULIER.

2. On the Temperature of Man within the Tropics. By JOHN DAvy, M.D., F.R.S., &c. (Philosophical Trans.' for 1845-50.)

3. United States Army Regulations, 1857. pp. 457.

ON a former occasion we brought under consideration the food of the people; now we propose to offer some remarks on the clothing of the people, believing that dress has not received the attention it deserves, and convinced that properly regulated it contributes materially to the comfort and health of our race, and thus conduces, as asserted by Lord Bacon, to the prolongation of life. In treating the subject, we shall be guided by such lights as science and experience afford, irrespective of fashion, or of that fantastic taste which in its strange workings seems to be directed by caprice rather than by reason, mutabile et inconstans, without rule and without law.

T

Man, as regards the surface of his body, a very few parts excepted, differs from all other animals breathing by lungs and having warm blood, in possessing no natural protection from inclemencies of weather, neither from great heat or great cold, from the tempestuous blast or the pelting shower;-naked he comes into the world, left to his own intellect to supply those requirements which Nature has secured to other animals not so highly gifted with reason, and this with a wonderful and very instructive adaptation, according to the exact quality of climate, or kind of element, whether water, land, or air, they may inhabit. Thus, in the icy waters of the Arctic Seas, the aquatic mammalia, the walrus, the whale, the seal, are as it were insulated from the frigid element in which they swim by thick strata of oily matter. The land animals, such as the bear, the fox, the musk ox, are protected from the intensely cold atmosphere they are exposed to by an abundant covering of hair; the birds, the few that spend the winter within or near the same circle, or the many that resort to it during the genial season, are admirably guarded against the cold air by a dress of feathers of an elaborate kind, constructed and arranged so that whilst they retain with as little loss as possible a high temperature, they add but little to the weight, and increase greatly, as regards specific gravity, the buoyancy of their muscular bodies. These are admirable examples of clothing where animal life is endangered by the intensity of external cold. If we change the scene to the tropics, or the bordering regions as remarkable for high temperature and the powerful influence of the sun, we have examples of a different kind hardly less noteworthy. In the native animals we no longer find the warm furs or the copious shaggy hair of the northern creatures; instead, we see

animals with thick skins and sparse hair, such as the pachydermata, or with delicate, perspirable skins and short hair, such as the simiæ, not to mention other species, all in their natural covering equally adapted to the exact climate in which they are found.

How different is the condition of man-how singularly contrasted! He, designed evidently for all climates, and actually inhabiting the most diverse, bears in his outward appearance but slight marks either of the physical impress of climate on him, or of any special qualification for braving with impunity its varied agency. Thus, bringing us back to his nakedness, and how he of all animals is the one, the only one, designed by his Creator to provide himself with clothing, left, as we have said, to the guidance of reason to adapt his dress, according to varying circumstances, to his wants.

Let us glance at the manner in which, apart from fashion, this his reason has been exercised, commencing with extremes, which are often most instructive. The Esquimaux and the Hindoo are good examples, the climate inhabited by each being too tyrannical to allow of the play of fancy in habiliments so as to render dress in its qualities subordinate to usefulness. As in the instance of other animals, so in that of man; the pressing call in the Arctic regions is the preservation of animal warmth; in the tropical and bordering regions, the moderation of animal heat, and protection from the sun's rays and the hot winds. The Esquimaux, we find, uses no flowing robes like the Hindoo, and the Hindoo as carefully abstains from close covering garments, and Nature provides each with materials best suited to his wants,—the former, with the skins and warm furs of his own animals; the latter, with light and cool tissues fabricated by textile art from cotton and silk, the produce of his own plains.

If we now extend our view to other countries in which the climate is almost equally imperative, such as that of the Arabian desert, such as that of our own shores, in the one we find the Bedouin in his loose, flowing bernouse, his head well protected by the many folds of his turban from the intense rays of the sun, and his loins well girded and guarded by the many rolls of his sash, equally from the trying vicissi tudes of day and night, from the hot blast, and from the chill breeze; on the other, our own coast, we see the hardy fisherman and pilot clad in the short dreadnought jacket, a defence against wind and spray, his legs encased in waterproof, well-oiled boots, and his head helmeted in leather, overlapping behind, protecting the neck from wet and cold. The miner affords another example of man clothing himself according to reason under circumstances affording free scope for its exercise. Descending to great depths in our mines of copper, and tin, and coal, the temperature increasing with the depth, he has to put forth all his strength in a confined atmosphere, humid and hot, rivalling the sirocco in heat and moisture; he selects for his dress one that is light, moderately loose, and formed entirely of wool, which, however wet it may become from the sweat of his own body, and from the roof-drippings, will prevent his being chilled.

To these examples of rational clothing it would be easy to add instances of the contrary; they are chiefly to be met with in tempe

rate climates, these not exacting ones, like the preceding, and amongst people variously occupied and of vastly different conditions as regards their place in the social scale, and more or less subject to the disturbing influence of that tyrant of all tyrants, fashion. It is amongst people such as these that dress in its complications becomes a serious study. Giving our attention to the subject under this point of view, we shall consider not what is in use, but what seems to be wanted, so as to render dress most conducive to health, or in other words, best adapted to the warding off of disease.

Physiologically, as regards man's organic structure, what are the requirements? Are not the following some of the principal? That the feet should be kept cool, not cold (we think this and the following compatible with the well-known Boerhavian aphorism), the head warm, not hot; the neck, if at all, moderately and not closely or tightly covered; the abdomen supported by an elastic girding; the chest free, loosely covered, allowed to have its natural play of action in performing the function of respiration. The manner in which the head in both sexes is provided with hair, flowing, when allowed, over the neck, seems to point to the conclusion which we have come to; and the peculiar nakedness of the feet favours, we think, the inference we have made respecting them. That the head will bear much warmth, and may need to be kept warm, seems to be shown not only by its own high temperature, but also by the healthy action of the brain of those who as a part of their professional costume are under the necessity of wearing wigs; and the adoption of the turban amongst Eastern people, in countries where the sun's rays are intense, and this with marked advantage, may be adduced in confirmation. That coolness of feet is wholesome, we think is proved by the general good health of the peasantry, whether Scotch or Irish, who go barefooted, and also by the feeling experienced whenever the feet are unduly hot, amounting almost to torment. As in the finest machines, in highest order, when in action, there is least friction, most ease of motion, so in life, when the functions are best performed, are in their healthiest state, there is least sensation: and to speak generally, is not that mode of dress the best which preserves the body in the happy neutral condition, a via media between heat and cold? We make the remark, moreover, with special application to the extremes, the head and feet, those opposite parts in their requirements as well as position, and to qualify the preceding observation, liable to be questioned as paradoxical, respecting the temperature, as most approved of these parts, adding, that by coolness and warmth, as we use the terms, we would imply merely such a degree of each as is hardly perceptible, such a degree as the sensuous faculty is hardly conscious of, no more so t than the respiratory organs, or the heart when their action is most healthy. As to the propriety of leaving the chest unshackled the reason is most obvious, and the affording of support to the loins and lower belly is hardly less matter of reason, remembering the nature of the contents, the yielding quality of the parietes, and the weakness of certain parts of them, parts in which, under muscular exertion, the danger is ever impending of

rupture. A favourite position of the arms is the folding them over the abdomen, a position this, in itself, affording warmth and support; and amongst a people supplied with little clothing, the attitude, judging from our own experience, in Eastern countries is most common, especially in the cool of the early morning.

These premises granted, disapproval follows of all tight-lacing, confining the chest, so often practised by those of the female sex, more regardful of an imaginary beauty of form than of health, without which there is no satisfactory beauty; and also of that excessive attention to the feet to keep them dry by the use of clogs, water-tight and heating, and confining the natural moisture of perspiration, when taking exercise deserving of the name."

Other circumstances require consideration, and of these, the most important perhaps, in connexion with dress, are the different periods of life, the different seasons, or whether taking exercise or repose.

Physiologically viewed, as regards animal heat, there is a difference observable comparing infancy with old age, and these two periods of feeble life with that of mature age, one of established strength and power of endurance. Both extremes, it would appear, are most easily chilled, or in other words, lose their normal temperature soonest when exposed to cooling influences, unprotected, and are liable to suffer in consequencé. A distinguished physiologist sums up the results of his researches on this point, in the conclusion, "that the power of producing heat in warm blooded animals is at its minimum at birth, and increases successively until adult age."* Admitting this, how much is to be deprecated the too frequent practice of clothing children scantily, and especially the leaving exposed the upper and lower parts of the trunk. How contrary to reason is it that those parts which in the firm adult are covered and protected, in the child should be left defenceless! How often, how very often, may fatal diseases have been owing to such want of judgment, the parts alluded to being in early life very susceptible of diseased action--an action having its issue in some of the most formidable complaints of childhood. The so called, and most improperly called, hardening system, is full of danger, and mothers cannot be too strongly cautioned against it. How well very young children bear warmth is shown by their flourishing health, even within the tropics, provided the locality be free from malaria. Even the farmer, the breeder of stock, is become sensible of the evils of the system, so improperly named, and of the advantages of the opposite procedure in the instance of young animals. The approximation of old age to infancy in susceptibility of cold, and the need of warm clothing, are so well known as not to require proof. The warm bed, the fire-side, the padded vests, are the requirements of the old, and are most willingly, as it were a right, given to and adopted by them. Even with advancing age, it should be kept in mind that susceptibility of cold, or risk of suffering from a lowering of temperature, is an established fact. This is demonstrated by the

* Dr. W. F. Edwards on the Influence of the Physical Agents on Life.