The scientific truth thus illustrated by ethnology, and recognised by agriculturists and sportsmen, applies with double force to children.  In proportion to their smallness and the rapidity of their growth is the injury from cold great.  In France, new-born infants often die in winter from being carried to the office of the maire for registration.  “M.  Quetelet has pointed out, that in Belgium two infants die in January for one that dies in July.”  And in Russia the infant mortality is something enormous.  Even when near maturity, the undeveloped frame is comparatively unable to bear exposure:  as witness the quickness with which young soldiers succumb in a trying campaign.  The rationale is obvious.  We have already adverted to the fact that, in consequence of the varying relation between surface and bulk, a child loses a relatively larger amount of heat than an adult; and here we must point out that the disadvantage under which the child thus labours is very great.  Lehmann says:—­“If the carbonic acid excreted by children or young animals is calculated for an equal bodily weight, it results that children produce nearly twice as much acid as adults.”  Now the quantity of carbonic acid given off varies with tolerable accuracy as the quantity of heat produced.  And thus we see that in children the system, even when not placed at a disadvantage, is called upon to provide nearly double the proportion of material for generating heat.

See, then, the extreme folly of clothing the young scantily.  What father, full-grown though he is, losing heat 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 tax on the system, from which he would shrink, he inflicts on his little ones, who are so much less able to bear it! or, if he does not inflict it, sees it inflicted without protest.  Let him remember that every ounce of nutriment needlessly expended for the maintenance of temperature, is so much deducted from the nutriment going to build up the frame; and that even when colds, congestions, or other consequent disorders are escaped, diminished growth or less perfect structure is inevitable.

“The rule is, therefore, not to dress in an invariable way in all cases, but to put on clothing in kind and quantity sufficient in the individual case to protect the body effectually from an abiding sensation of cold, however slight.”  This rule, the importance of which Dr. Combe indicates by the italics, is one in which men of science and practitioners agree.  We have met with none competent to form a judgment on the matter, who do not strongly condemn the exposure of children’s limbs.  If there is one point above others in which “pestilent custom” should be ignored, it is this.