American Woman's Home: Or, Principles of Domestic Science;: Being a Guide to the Formation and Maintenance of Economical, Healthful, Beautiful, and Christian HomesStowe, Harriet Beecher
Religion
American Woman's Home: Or, Principles of Domestic Science;: Being a Guide to the Formation and Maintenance of Economical, Healthful, Beautiful, and Christian Homes
Stowe, Harriet Beecher
Home economics
A friend of the writer informs her that her daughter had her wedding
outfit made up by a fashionable milliner in Paris, and every dress was
beautifully fitted to the form, and yet was not compressing to any
part. This was done too without the use of corsets, the stiffening
being delicate and yielding whalebones.
Not only parents but all having the care of young girls, especially
those at boarding-schools, have a fearful responsibility resting upon
them in regard to this important duty.
In regard to the dressing of young children, much discretion is needed
to adapt dress to circumstances and peculiar constitutions. The leading
fact must be borne in mind that the skin is made strong and healthful
by exposure to light and pure air, while cold air, if not excessive,
has a tonic influence. If the skin of infants is rubbed with the hand
till red with blood, and then exposed naked to sun and air in a
well-ventilated room, it will be favorable to health.
There is a constitutional difference in the skin of different children
in regard to retaining the animal heat manufactured within, so that
some need more clothing than others for comfort. Nature is a safe guide
to a careful nurse and mother, and will indicate by the looks and
actions of a child when more clothing is needful. As a general rule,
it is safe for a healthful child to wear as little clothing as suffices
to keep it from complaining of cold. Fifty years ago, it was not common
for children to wear as much under-clothing as they now do. The writer
well remembers how even girls, though not of strong constitutions,
used to play for hours in the snow-drifts without the protection of
drawers, kept warm by exercise and occasional runs to an open fire.
And multitudes of children grew to vigorous maturity through similar
exposures to cold air-baths, and without the frequent, colds and
sicknesses so common among children of the present day, who are more
carefully housed and warmly dressed. But care was taken that the feet
should be kept dry and warmly clad, because, circulation being feebler
in the extremities, this precaution was important.
It must also be considered that age brings with it decrease in vigor
of circulation, and the consequent generation of heat, so that more
warmth of air and clothing is needed at an advanced period of life
than is suitable for the young.
These are the general principles which must be applied with modification
to each individual case. A child of delicate constitution must have
more careful protection from cold air than is desirable for one more
vigorous, while the leading general principle is retained that cold
air is a healthful tonic for the skin whenever it does not produce an
uncomfortable chilliness.
XIII.
GOOD COOKING.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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