Each hair is supplied with blood,
and the reason that the hair stands up during intense fear is that to
the lower part of the shaft is attached a little muscle. During fear
this contracts, as do other involuntary muscles, and then the hair
stands up straight instead of being oblique.
As a rule people protect the skin too much. The best protection they
have against cold is a good circulation. With a poor circulation it is
difficult to keep warm in spite of much clothing. Coldness is also
largely a state of mind. People get the idea of cold into the head and
then it is almost impossible for them to keep warm. On the same winter
day we may see a man in a thick overcoat trying to shrink into himself,
shivering, while a lady passes blithely by, with her bosom bared to the
wind.
The face tolerates the cold, because it is used to it, the neck and the
upper part of the chest likewise, and so it would be with the skin of
the entire body if we accustomed it to be exposed. We use too heavy
clothes. It is a mistake to hump the back and draw in the shoulders
during cold weather, for this reduces the lung capacity, thus depriving
the body of its proper amount of oxygen.
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