le on
the foot. In a well-fitting stocking the foot can be more accurately
measured than otherwise, and the comfort of the foot is sadly impeded
by an ill-fitting one.

The feet should be bathed every morning, and for those who walk much,
a daily change of stockings is advisable. This daily change is more
than advisable, it is necessary, for persons who suffer from
perspiring feet. Regular washing of the feet preserves their strength
and elasticity, and helps to keep them in shape. At least once a week
they should be washed in hot water, with plenty of soap, rubbing them
with a ball of sandstone, which will be found a very useful article
for toilet purposes, also a tablespoonful of Kretol in the water. The
nails should then be carefully pared, and, in drying the feet, much
friction should be used in order to stimulate the skin to healthy
action.

When corns appear, they may be accepted with resignation as lifelong
acquaintances. Seldom, indeed, do they quit the victim, who has
invited them by ill-advised pinchings and squeezings. All that one can
do is to keep them under control by constant care. The treatment
recommended is the same as that used for warts--viz., to pare the hard
and dry skin from the tops, and then touch them with the smallest drop
of acetic acid, taking care that the acid does not run off the wart
upon the neighboring skin, which would occasion inflammation and much
pain. This should be done once or twice a day with regularity.

We should, no doubt, easily get rid of all our corns if we could make
up our minds to do without shoes, or even to wear them of such a large
size as would prevent all pressure upon the corn. This disagreeable
effect results quite as often from badly made boots as from
injudiciously tight ones.

There is a particular knack to be observed in paring a corn. It should
be cut in such a manner as to excavate the center, while the hardened
sides are left to protect the more sensitive portion against the
pressure of the boot. When the corn is small and yet young, the best
application is a piece of soft buff-leather spread with adhesive
plaster and pierced in the center with a hole of exactly the size of
the summit of the corn. There are two varieties of corn, the hard and
the soft. The latter occurs between the toes, and is quite as painful
as, and less easily guarded against, than the hard variety.

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOCIAL LIFE***

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