WATCH YOUR STEP

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23330, 23 October 1937, Page 25

WATCH YOUR STEP

The hiker's boots or shoes should be well-fitting, with perfect freedom for the toes,\and a sufficiently wide sole (writes a doctor in an exchange). Very pointed and badly-cut shoes induce hammer toe. Bunions, like corns, are produced by shoes that chafe or squeeze. • Shoes should be solidly soled, but avoid too thick footwear. Choose boots or shoes that are softly resistive to the outer border of the foot and that allow the inner curvature to be free from pressure. Wear inside a cork sock, which should be changed frequently. It is advisable to take two pairs of shoes on the holiday for wear on alternate days. Woollen stockings are better than silk for hiking. Do not encourage callosities by wearing coarse ribbed stockings or those which have been darned. Stockings should not be too short or the big toes may be pulled upon, with resultant pain in the nails. Change your stockings frequently. Prepare for a hiking holiday at least two weeks beforehand by bathing the feet daily in a pailful of water containing a handful of alum, and at night sponging with methylated spirit or eau-de-Cologne. This will harden the feet ... Before an excursion, sponge with surgical spirit, allowing it to evaporate upon the skin. Then dust with boric powder or French chalk. Grease the soles with soap to prevent friction, and dust the inside of stockings. After exercise take a hot footbath containing a little washing soda Follow this by a cold dip. Afterwards rub the feet with a cut lemon. Do not take hot soda footbaths more than once a day. Any tendency to hard skin may be corrected with pumice stone and lemon juice. Make use of sea water. It will tone up the skin and tissues of your feet provided that your skin is. not over-sensitive to the salt Alternate hot and cold footbaths are bracing to tired and relaxed muscles. A USEFUL TOE TIP Walk barefooted as often as possible on the sands or grass, but when a tramp has resulted in hot and tender feet, bathe them in a hot footbath containing a tablespoonful of powdered borax to each gallon of warm water. After drying, rub into the soles a little castor or olive oil Dry between the toes carefully to prevent the occurrence of soft corns and well dust with talcum powder Jf you sudor from excessive perspiration, the feet should be bathed daily with water containing a teaspoonful of formaljn to each bath or you can use a 1 per cent formalin spray A good astringent powder is this prescription:—Salicylic acid 15 grains, alum powder Joz. boric acid £oz, lycopodium loz Dust with this after you have taken a permanganate of potash footbath, or an alum footbath (loz to a pint of warm water). An ingrowing toenail will spoil your holiday. Prevent it by cutting a little V-shaped notch in the upper part of the centre of your nail Then raise the edge that is growing into the flesh and slip under it a shred of clean lint or b tinv piece of cotton wool dipped it> a weak solution of boric acid. This will give the nail a chance to grow properly over the fleshy part of the toe. Never cut your nails too finely at the corners. Cut them squarely, more toward* the centre than the sides.