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ON FETID FEET.

169

morning and evening with equal parts of tincture of iodine and solution of ammonia, which, after all, is perhaps the best means we have yet suggested.

We spoke at considerable length about offensive breath, but the odor of fetid feet is still less tolerable. It is impossible, with any comfort, to sleep in the same room with a person so afflicted, and not a few married women have traced their domestic unhappiness to this cause. It is not owing to lack of cleanliness, though this accusation is ever laid at the door of the unfortunate sufferers. The disturbed secretions of the skin may be at fault, and these must be changed ere we can look for any permanent amendment. This is a question for the physician, as the fetor is often connected with disease elsewhere, which must first be remedied.

But we can offer some excellent suggestions as palliatives. The stockings must be woollen, and changed daily, and the shoes frequently. The latter should be large enough to admit a thin sole of felt, which should be steeped several times a week in a solution of permanganate of potash, twenty grains to the ounce, and then dried and inserted. Several pairs of such soles should be kept on hand. The feet themselves should be washed morning and evening in cold water, containing a few teaspoonfuls of alum, then well dried and anointed thoroughly with the following ointment:

Ointment of oxide of zinc
Crystallized carbolic acid

one ounce;
five grains.

In one instance of a young lady, faultless in the cares of the toilette, seemingly in excellent health, but with such an offensive perspiration to her feet that she could not remain at boarding-school, we tried with complete success, so far as we have since learned, the troublesome but efficient method recommended by the distinguished Professor Hebra, of Vienna. It is by means of strapping the foot assiduously with diachylon plaster, after having smeared it thoroughly with an alterative mercurial ointment.

The care of the toe-nails is essentially the same as that of the finger-nails, and should occupy quite as prominent a place in the daily duties of the toilette. They should be kept clean, cut a little shorter than the toe itself, the skin prevented from encroaching upon them, and occasionally polished with a little nail powder.

Sometimes the nail, especially that of the great toe, grows into the flesh, causing a most painful sore. The surgeon's remedy is to tear out the whole nail, or one half of it, with the tweezers. Patients, however, are not easily persuaded to submit to this, and we recommend, therefore, the method of bandaging. This is done by placing a small pad firmly against the flesh, and binding it in that position by adhesive plaster. We have also used, both alone and in connection with bandages, the sesquichloride of iron, which destroys the vitality and sensitiveness of the flesh without causing any pain.

SOME DEFORMITIES.

171 Of the many deformities to which the foot is subject, such as club-foot, enlarged joints, tumors, and so forth, we shall say nothing. They belong, indeed, within the scope of cosmetic surgery, but to that higher branch of it which demands earnest study and professional skill, not to that which any intelligent individual may compass. Suffice it to say that modern art has devised many means by which such malformations may be redressed, and the crooked made straight, promptly and without causing pain. Therefore, those who are thus afflicted should not be deterred from taking proper advice, and obtaining that large increase in the beauty and usefulness of the member which they may legitimately expect. Orthopedic surgeons of repute can be found in all our large cities.

THE SKIN AND COMPLEXION.

FROM THE ANATOMIST'S STAND-POINT.

A CHARMING subject, this of beauty, you would

think, and one that ought to inspire the prosiest pen; but in fact, when Destiny decreed that we should read up the literature that concerns it, she condemned us to the perusal of many a dry page. We say this in order to speak of one of the exceptions. This is the little book of Jacob le Bibliophile, Confessions archéologiques et cosmetiques. It is both witty and learned.

Everybody who knows that old bookworm, knows that he is an original thinker. He has his own views about beauty too.

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"Beauty," he tells you, "is simply the skin. solve me the problem of preserving the skin, and the preservation of beauty is no longer a problem."

"Thus it is easy to foresee the time when all women will be beautiful, for, without a doubt, certain precautions carefully conned and punctually observed, will maintain the lustre and fresh hue of youth and health. ( 172 )

THE AGE OF BEAUTY.

173

"I tell you we shall certainly have the Age of Beauty, and it will come, I fear me, before the Age of Wit, or the Age of Virtue, or the Age of Happiness."

This prophecy of the venerable lifre-lofre so cheers us, that we continue our labors with a feeling as if we were the heralds sent to announce the great time coming, when there shall be no more rivalry among the belles, for they shall all be equally lovely. Mindful of his definition of beauty, we shall be very minute in what we have to say about the skin.

What is the skin?

Any doctor will answer you with alacrity, that it is the protecting cover to the exterior of the body, that it is composed of two layers, the epidermis or scarfskin on the outside, a structure usually thin and without sensation, and the derma or true skin, a sensitive layer of fibres with minute eminences, immediately beneath the epidermis. The epidermis is composed of numerous cells. These contain the coloring matter which gives the dark hue to the brunette, and to the brown and black races of men. It is the epidermis which rises when a blister has "drawn." Blister a negro, and when the epidermis comes away, you will find the spot is white. His color, which we make such an ado about, is not even skin-deep; it is barely scarfskin-deep.

So it is with freckles, moles, moths, and most kind of spots on the skin. They are very superficial, and

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