Extracts.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VIII, Issue 504, 2 September 1857, Page 3

Extracts.

IS CLOTHING REQUISITE IN OUR CLIMATE. (From the Dublin Evening Mail) Some time ago the following paragraph appeared in a Cork paper, and has been largely copied in other journals :■ — "The subject of the costume of the ancient Britons has often been discussed ; it has been asserted that they were naked. Those who opposed that view adduced as reasons the coldness and variable nature of the climate. The question has been set at rest by an experiment which has recently been made on a child at St. Annie's, Blarney, near Cork. The child is 14 months old, and is the son of Mr.———, who determined to ascertain what the human frame would bear. The child is perfectly naked night and day ; he sleeps without any covering-, in a room with the thermometer ■at 38 degrees ; from this he goes into a bath at 118 degrees; he sometimes goes to sleep in the bath ; he is perfectly indifferent to heat or cold; he is lively, active, cheerful, and intelligent; his appearance constantly reminds the observer of the best painters and sculptors. Therein is the heau ideal; he is the reality. His simple, graceful. natural, easy, and ever-varying postures are' charming. He arrests the attention and commands the admiration of all who see him. The peculiar character of his skin is very striking; it is exquisitely healthy and beautiful. It may be compared to the rays of the sun streaming through a painted window. During the progress of the experiment he has cut three teeth without manifesting any of the disagreeable sympC toms usual to children in that condition.; He appears to be insensible to pain. Occasionally he has an ugly fall, but not a ■ sound escapes from his lips. Hi's manners, demeanour, and general behaviour are equally striking. His mode of saluting a person is to take the hand in a graceful manner and kiss it. He is under the com- _ plete control of his father, and is perfectly quiet during meals, and also whenever he is told to be so. He goes about all day, amusing and occupying himself in a quiet way. No one accustomed to children would know there was a child in the house. So incredible are these results that some of the residents at St. Annie's regard the whole matter' with mingled feelings of horror, amazement, and wonder. Those who have made a careful observation for themselves, and prefer the evidence of their eyes rather than their ears, see nothing but to admire and respect. No doubt some of them would even go so far as to repeat the experiment on their own children, were it not. for the fear of that terrible question,' What will Mrs. Grnndy say?'" Tlie following is an extract from the journal kept by the father of the child:—