less rapidly as he does, and having no physiological necessity but to supply the waste of each day—what father, we ask, would think it salutary to go about with bare legs, bare arms, and bare neck?" Yet this is exactly what most people allow their children to do, ignoring the fact that, even if colds and the more serious diseases I have mentioned are escaped, injury must result to growth or structure—for, owing to the insufficient clothing, much of the nourishment which ought to supply the development of the organism has to be expended in keeping up its temperature. Exposure means loss of heat, and loss of heat produces dwarfishness, as proved by the stunted and hideous figures of the dwellers in the Arctic and Antarctic regions, and by the dwarfed vegetation of cold countries.
It is therefore impossible too strongly to condemn this custom of exposing children's arms, legs, and necks; for every inch of their bodies which is so exposed is a means of abstracting heat, and a loophole for health to escape by. I have not the slightest doubt that if only the amount of trouble spent by mothers on personal adornment, and on ornamenting their children's clothes, was devoted to preventing the exposure of children to cold, the mortality from the diseases I have mentioned, and the cruel mischief done by them, would be reduced to almost nothing. "We have met with none competent to form a judgment on the matter who do not strongly condemn the exposure of children's limbs," says Herbert
