Dress and care of the feet /

by John Lord Peck

In connection with this matter, strong elastic cords for laces are suggested as worthy of a trial in Balmoral and Polish boots. If successful, they accomplish the same result as elastic goring, and, besides, may be drawn tightly or loosely to meet the defect of the boot, or suit the convenience or taste of the wearer.

Cloth and leather materials are joined together in ladies’ work in all sorts of proportions. In regard to this practice it may be said that those kinds of shoes in which the higher part is made of cloth or lasting, and the lower and forward parts of leather, are to be preferred for one reason: the softer part at the ankle allows of more freedom and ease to the muscles, while the leather below serves all the purposes it would if extending throughout, and thus the advantages of both are combined. There is no difficulty in making this union, whatever the cut of the boot may be—whether gored, laced, or buttoned.

Tender feet may find what suits their wants in the softer kinds of kid and morocco, when cloth is not preferred. There is no reason why a woman’s boot, though a heavy one, should be hard and stiff; as a good quality of oiled morocco, pebbled calf, or calf-kid leather, to be obtained almost anywhere, will commonly be found pliable enough, even for moderately sensitive corns. Still more softness may be given by double linings of flannel.

There is no leather worn by ladies that is water-proof, and that quality ought not to be expected. Their heaviest boots are made with a double sole and double upper, which give additional warmth, and protect against ordinary dampness. But the only thing they have as a sure protection against wet is rubber. Rubber sandals or shoes for the sidewalk or a rainy day, and high rubber boots for snow, are a complete security.

Men are, in this respect, better provided for. There are several kinds of leather worn by them which, if saturated with grease or special preparations, will be water-proof, though exposed for a considerable time. They have the benefit of rubber besides.

The Napoleon tongued boot, for a heavy one, is supposed to have a superiority of fit about the ankle, and is more tasteful in a general way.

The double-footed boot is considered, with some reason, to be warmer than a single one of the same thickness. For men’s feet that are very sensitive to cold, perhaps the best thing is a doubled boot, having the inside part, or foot-lining, made of fur-calf—calf skin dressed with the hair on—or some other kind of fur. Arctic overshoes are very excellent for riding in cold weather, provided they are not too small. Cork soles, covered with wool or flannel, for either sex, are another help toward keeping the feet warm, with which, in addition to flannel linings and other provisions, the most cold-footed ought to be tolerably comfortable. It must not, however, be expected to keep the feet warm in any kind of a covering that is tight.

But as this kind of sensitiveness is, in healthy persons, very much a matter of habit, it is perhaps quite as well for such to accustom themselves to wearing an ordinary doubled boot through the winter, unless much exposed, and put on a light boot, shoe, or gaiter for the summer. Appropriateness and adaptation to weather or circumstances are always to be considered. A heavy leather boot with double sole is as much out of place and time in a warm day, as a light cloth gaiter in a snow-storm. While the latter would expose the foot unnecessarily, the first, besides being uncomfortable, keeps the foot in an unnaturally sensitive condition. It is not intended to make any suggestions to invalids. We only state the well-known rule that exposure to cold makes the feet, or any other part of the body, more hardy, when there is an ordinary state of health, or sufficient blood in the system to be easily drawn to the surface by this demand. Where there is too little vitality for this, the experience of the person or the counsel of the physician is the best guide. So also in regard to dampness or wetting the feet. While making no law for sickly or feeble constitutions, it seems to us very evident that the more often the feet are exposed to damp or wet, the greater the ability acquired by the system to resist it;[12] and that when the feet happen to get wet only occasionally, the consequences of the exposure are proportionately more serious. It is probable that if care were taken to keep the feet comfortably warm when wet, either by exercise, as in walking, or in some other manner, there would be very little danger from the wet alone, unless in cases of invalid feebleness, or where they were dampened so seldom that the intelligence of the physical system was unprepared for such an occurrence.

One of the well-established facts of physiology is that anything worn upon the feet which, like rubber or patent leather, prevents the passing off of the insensible perspiration, is detrimental to the health. Those who regard the organic laws as having any sacredness, will not use patent leather boots covering the whole foot, for constant wear, but limit them to particular occasions. Rubbers ought to be removed, and something else substituted in their place, as soon as the feet come out of the wet which occasions their being put on. The same is true of all boots that are water-proof. They should be worn only when times of exposure make them necessary. This is sufficiently well known with regard to rubbers; but few know that leather boots are objectionable, for the same reason, in proportion as they are watertight. There are comparatively few of them which are perfectly so; yet there are many, which, worn as they are, day after day, in dry weather as well as wet, must, by retaining a large part of the foot’s perspiration, have an unhealthful effect. It is a good practice to bathe the feet after removing a pair of water-proof boots which have been worn during the day. With many men this is a necessity, and it would be such with many more if they knew all the requirements of the laws of hygiene, to say nothing of any other reason. To give the boots themselves a washing-out occasionally might be advantageous. The feet must be allowed to perspire naturally, or the skin in some other part is liable to be overtasked; and it is stated by medical authorities that skin diseases have been produced by neglect of the feet in this particular.

The following cure for abnormal sweating of the feet is taken from one of our first-class periodicals;[13] and from the nature of the remedy it would seem that it ought to have the effect indicated.