I remember being very much struck by a highly educated gentleman, who was suffering from a severe cold on the chest, informing me that his mother had told him to put on a thick red flannel next the skin, and that if the flannel were not red it would do him no good. I have noticed also that among the poorer classes red is decidedly the favourite colour for children's clothes; and I fancy I am about right in stating that of patients applying for relief at children's hospitals, nine out of ten will be found to be wearing some article of clothing coloured red.
At the recent Health Exhibition Mr. Startin, of St. John's Hospital for Skin Diseases, showed a very interesting series of articles which had produced diseases of the skin through the poisonous colours employed in dyeing them, and concerning these he made the following remarks, which I quote in full, as they are at the same time both true and lucid:—
"During the last few years," he said, "articles of dress, especially those worn next the skin, such as stockings, socks, gloves, drawers, &c., have been coloured with dyes derived from coal tar, amongst which are magentas, reds, violets, blues, and yellows of great beauty. And so long as they are worn externally they produce no impression save admiration; but their application to articles of dress, such as named above, and worn in contact with the body, has shown that they are capable of producing irritation and eruptions of the skin, and in some instances constitutional disturbance.
