plaister, spread either on leather or linen-some cut a hole in the centre of their plaisters. In a few hours the tenderness so common will have subsided, and the cut surface, where touched by the caustic, will have a brown or blackish look, when the pressure of the shoe can be comparatively well borne. Mind not to apply the caustic beyond the hard horny spot, or you may make a sore where it touches the sound skin.

21. If you should happen to be teazed by that inflamed state of things, over the large joint of the great toe, which is called a bunnion,* wet it, soap it, and

if very large and protuberant-then cut cautiously round it so as to loosen it by degrees out of its bed, and clear the stem at last by means of grubbing round it as you would do in digging out a piece of stick frozen in the ice:-a sharp-pointed bodkin is the most accessible instrument to the generality of people, though an imperfect substitute for the lancet-pointed quadrille of the chiropodist :-by such means, delicately and dexterously employed, the point of the stem may be got at, when it may be forced up, lifting at the same time the crown by the fingers, or far better, by a small pair of forceps or strong tweezers. Thus with care and without pain may this thorn, as it literally and figuratively is, be removed. Not a drop of blood should be drawn; and if all the stem or stems (where more than one, so acting for each) be eradicated by dint of patience and cautious practice-pressure on the spot will test the success of the operation by the most welcome relief obtained from all pain,-place a slip of diachylon plaister on the part and round the toe, and then another of gold-beaters' skin, or oil-silk, and leave undisturbed for some days, when the plaister should be removed: afterwards extracting any stems, observed to have been leftthus guarding against the continuance of the cause, and so a complete cure may be effected. If a corn has excited inflammation, known by redness around and shooting pulsating pains, rest and emollient applications, such as a linseed poultice, a fig, &c. will relieve it.

N. B.-Avoid by all means the cutting of a corn till it bleeds, which may be very serious, especially in advanced life.

* A bunnion is a many-stemmed corn, seated in tumefied flesh, bulbous, flabby; the scarf-skin coming off in flakes, leaves

draw gently the caustic over it, so as to touch each part of the surface once. This process, from the caution here enjoined, may require, in non-medical hands, a repetition two or three times even, before a full relief is obtained; however, this is better than, by overdoing it at first, to irritate the inflamed part. In a day or two there will be a marked diminution of the pain and swelling. The bunnion is mostly seated, as above mentioned, on the upper part of the large joint of the great toe, and often inflames from increased walking; and, from the bending of the joint at every step, painful pressure is made on the inflamed and cushiony cluster of corns or bunnion, causing thereby great distress in the act of setting down and raising the foot on the ground.

22. Chilblains must not be passed over, though this is not the place to enter upon any scientific statement, or curative details, other than a very simple allusion to their cause and cure. Damp and cold, conjoined with a constitutional aptitude, as languid circulation, &c. are the remote and near causes; extremes of temperature suddenly experienced, spirituous potations, and sedentary habits, increase greatly the tendency to such. The feet should be kept dry, and of a uniform temperature. The subjoined quotation, from an author from whose work several of these early hints are culled, is so much to the point that it ought not here to be

stems, like millet seeds, roundish and conical. Callosities are only thickenings of scarf-skin, superficial, insensible; they may not only be cured but prevented, by rubbing with pumice-stone or sand-paper.

The value of the above will prove itself on giving attention and trial. For length of note, apology will be therefore needless. Substantially quoted from a rare book published twenty years ago, entitled, "The Art of preserving the Feet."

omitted:"Sportsmen, therefore, in snipe or grouse shooting on the moors, may always avoid them (chilblains) by a careful attention to the dryness of their feet, both during the period of their day's sport and after their return; but let them remember that the feet, if damped only by perspiration, are as liable to the disease as if the wet were to penetrate through their shoes or boots. Care must, therefore, always be taken to dry the feet on return from shooting, before any refreshment is taken, and most especially before the feet are placed near a fire." It is better to walk up and down a room after drying wet feet or cold feet, than to put them before the grate to be toasted. Gentle friction with flesh-brush, or horse-hair scrubbing-brush, and the use of such stimulating applications as brandy, whiskey, turpentine, eau-de-Cologne, camphorated spirits of wine, &c. will often dismiss the promise of 'itchy chilblains." If inflamed and very tender, cooling lotions will be best. A little acetate of lead solution (sugar of lead) in rose-water, or equal parts of acetate of ammonia solution and rose-water, or common water, or, brandy or vinegar and water, or, in winter, rubbing with snow, may be resorted to. Enveloping the part in oiled silk will be of great service and comfort after employment of the foregoing. The nature of a chilblain, if not discussed early, is to form a blister, which bursts and developes a troublesome, sluggish ulcer, that, in addition to soothing and digestive applications, often calls for constitutional remedies, which must be here left, as belonging to the province of the family medical attendant; only, every pedestrian should know the outline of those common annoyances, which may, at any period of his rambles, bring him for a day or two's rest at some little country inn, where

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physic is not likely to be the first-rate qualification of the gudewife, and yet it may be that no other " medical skill" is within reach.

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23. The nails are generally quiet in their behaviour, or, at least, may be kept so by the scissors or nail nippers; however, a word need not be despised hereupon. If they are suffered to grow too long, they have, in the foot, an especial tendency to grow downwards and inwards or backwards, often causing serious discomfort, either by growing into the flesh" at the sides, or by the pressure made upon them by the upper-leather of the shoe. On the other hand, if too short, they do not defend the pulpy extremities of the toes, the exquisite sensibility of which, from the minute nervous network laid down there, (whereby danger may be warned to the body,) would be diminished: their being either too long or too short may interfere with the firmness of the step by impeding that due expansion of the toes whereby the base of the locomotive pivots is extended for further security. The best mode of trimming is by cutting them off square, and not too short, lest the bed of the nail should be injured. It is stated that hard walking "has actually had the effect of forcing off the nails of the great toe, attended by loss of blood from rupture of small vessels connected with the epidermis!" Nails will grow again where this ever does happen. Extreme cold too, as everyone knows, will cause them to drop off, being then "frost-bitten."

If, by the pressure of too short a shoe in long walking, the corner of the nail (generally that of the great toe) has been forced into the flesh, and become very painful, cutting out such corner is not always the best plan, but, with a piece of glass or knife edge, to scrape thin the convex portion or back of the nail, from root

to the free edge. This will draw out the offending part, by the middle of the nail having been thus artificially weakened, so as to let the sides collapse nearer to each other. If the nails are split or cracked, or injured by any accident, fold them round with plaister, to defend them.

24. There is such a thing as "riding" of the toes, as it is called. This is where one toe bends over its neighbour, and it is very prejudicial to good or long walking. Such requires proper surgical advice and treatment, unless where it is only beginning, and will submit to being kept in its place by a ribbon interlaced amongst the toes, so as to bind all in their places.

25. Sometimes the nails will hook round towards the next; and this is not uncommon to a partial extent. It is a source of much annoyance to the pedestrian,* and is to be remedied very differently from the way which he would naturally adopt, viz. cutting away the hooking part; for he must cut often the opposite side, on the plan of "flogging the willing horse." He will say, "Possibly very true; but How," he will inquire, "does it so happen?" It is replied, " Because the more a nail (or the hair) is cut, the faster it grows; and thus the hooking tendency is counterbalanced." The science of medicine is not without its analogous facts of a far more striking character. The shoes must be neither tight over the toes nor short.

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"In the army it must be peculiarly disadvantageous; and in pedestrian excursions over Wales or the Lakes, or in walking matches, it often operates like a bill of suspension of Habeas Pedes."- Art of preserving the Feet.

If the reader has any thirst for this kind of knowledge and illustration of Nature's adaptive code of laws, such works as Dr. Arnott's" Elements of Physics," and Dr. Davis's “Manual of Health," will gratify him.

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