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The colder season is upon us and the change in clothing makes a big difference when we’re trying to keep warm. (The older you get the more the cold bothers -- that's why many go south while we freeze in the north!)
An article by "The Housewife" in the 1800s tells us what should be worn for our own good health.
"Cotton is injurious when worn next to the skin. The fibre [sic] of which it is composed does not absorb the perspiration of the body, which is forced back again in a chilly state upon it. To wear linen or cotton is like bathing in cold water and putting one's clothes on without drying. It is certain to produce colds, and very frequently, if persisted in, induces a person, so disposed, to consumption. Wool alone is the material out of which, summer and winter, our undergarments (by which I mean those worn next to the skin) should be made. Wool is not impervious like cotton, it absorbs the moisture of the body and helps keep the skin at a comfortable, even temperature. It permits ventilation also, an excellent thing for the healthy skin.
In the form of vests, combinations [a one-piece undergarment combining shirt and drawers], and stockings, woolen fabric should therefore be worn and worn always. But you will possibly object. How uncomfortable it would be in summer to wear hot vests, and above all hot stockings! So it would, I admit. But it must be remembered that there are various degrees of thickness in woolen fabrics, and that it is therefore possible to adapt one's woolen clothing to the state of the weather. For example, there is thick lambs wool for winter wear, and all-wool merino for summer of such gossamer [gauzelike fabric] lightness that you would not fancy it to be wool at all. One great point to be observed, be your clothing thick or thin, is that it be made of pure, unadulterated wool. You will have to pay more for it, certainly, than for a mixture of cotton and wool, but, with the great demand there has been of late for pure wool goods, the supply has come forth, and all wool clothing does not cost half of what it used to cost."
Wouldn't the "housewife" be amazed with what has been done with cotton over the years? It should be remembered that even bathing suits were made of wool in the not too distant past! Anyway, keep warm. The Vermont winter is looming just ahead.
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