There are a large number of messy preparations made of lard, dripping, tallow, cream, and other "pantry drugs," which are advised for chilblains. They are none of them any good. A broken chilblain is a septic wound, that is, it is a wound that contains germs. It should therefore be treated as a septic wound. Wash the place gently in diluted carbolic acid lotion (1 in 80), or warm solution of boracic acid. Then cover the broken surface thickly with powdered boracic acid, and put on a bandage. If you do this, and attend to your general health at the same time, you get rid of your chilblains more rapidly than by any other method.
Warts are more common on the hands than anywhere else. Of their cause we know but little. Irritation sometimes causes them, and they are to a certain extent infectious from place to place. We used to be taught that lady-birds produced or cured them, according to which version of the story we heard. There is about an equal amount of truth in each doctrine.
The best way to treat warts is to first soak the hand in hot water, and clean it thoroughly with soap. Then paint the skin surrounding the wart with vaseline, and drop on to the wart itself one drop of glacial acetic acid. Wait one minute, and then well rub the wart over with a stick of lunar caustic (silver nitrate). This treatment may require to be repeated, but I have never known it to fail.
(To be continued.)
[GIRLS AS I HAVE KNOWN THEM.]
By ELSA D'ESTERRE-KEELING, Author of "Old Maids and Young."
PART II.
THE WITTY GIRL.