The Art of Living in Australia: Together with Three Hundred Australian Cookery Recipes and Accessory Kitchen Information by Mrs. H. Wicken

in the sleeping apartments, as they are a constant source of foulness to the air. All unclean linen ready for the wash had better be kept away from the bedroom in one of those long baskets which stand upright and are furnished with a lid. They are admirably adapted for the purpose, and may be obtained for a few shillings from any of the institutions for the blind, where they are made by the inmates. A word of advice, by the way, to those about to travel on a long voyage, is never to forget one of those canvas bags for the soiled clothes: they are invaluable at sea. CHAPTER V. CLOTHING, AND WHAT TO WEAR. It is worth considering somewhat minutely what are the requisites of perfect clothing, and what properties our different kinds of wearing apparel possess. Without doubt any reflection on the question of what is usually worn and what ought to be worn is not only of considerable interest generally, but of great moment likewise from a health point of view. It cannot be maintained too strongly that the question of the proper material for a suitable covering for the body takes a footing nearly equal to the very important one of diet itself. Now, there is no form of clothing which on its own account creates heat, or has the property of bestowing warmth upon the body, but the difference in it consists in its power of preventing the escape of the body heat. These qualities in the different varieties of wearing apparel will depend to a great extent upon the thickness of the materials, and also upon the varying power which they possess in detaining air within their meshes. It is this latter property of retaining the air, which is warmed by contact with the body, in their interstices, which constitutes the great difference in the various clothing materials. This is also an explanation of the well-known fact that loose garments are always warmer than tightly fitting ones, for in the former there is the layer of warm air in contact with the body,