WHAT TO DO FOR THE FEET
The beautiful foot is that of the baby. It is beautiful because it is
natural, unmarred by ill-fitting, cramping, distorting shoes.
Just in so far as the foot has departed from its original shape and
habit is it less than perfect. It is hard, indeed, to find a beautiful
foot. The story is told of a New York sculptor who, searching for a
perfect foot, dismissed three thousand models who were applicants for
the honor, declaring that there was not one beautiful foot among them.
By the established modern standard, the foot should be neither small
nor large, though it is preferable that it be small rather than large.
The tiny foot of a large woman is absurd. It suggests deformity. So
does the short foot on the tall woman. The foot should seem to belong
to the woman, not to have been loaned to her for the occasion. Like
her hand, it should seem to be in perfect harmony with the rest of her
body. If the owner be plump, the foot should not be thin. If she be
thin, the foot should not be plump.
It should be neither bony nor too fat. The bones should be well
covered, but their outline should be plain, enough to give a certain
distinction called “character” to the foot. The toes should spread
comfortably apart, yet there should not be unseemly spaces between
them. The spaces should be slight and even like those between regular
and well-kept teeth. The skin should be smooth and pinky white. The
nails should be strong but smooth and semi-transparent and delicately
pink. Above all, there should be no blemish, no disfiguring corn on the
small toes, no enlargement of the joints, nor bunions, no calloused
spot upon the sole. The high-bred foot lies, according to existing
standards, not flat upon the ground, but rests upon the heel and front
part of the sole, so that a rill of water may easily run under it.
To correspond with this natural bridge, there must also be an arched
instep.
This is the standard. Now how to achieve it. First, wear shoes that are
large enough and let them be of soft, pliable leather. Large enough, I
said, but not too large. The foot that slips about in large shoes is as
likely to get callous disfigurements as the one that is pinched. Heavy
leather and thick soles have no place on a woman’s delicate feet. The
stiff, unyielding boot may be all right upon the masculine foot, and
it may keep more perfect upon the inch-thick sole, but the skin of a
woman’s foot is too tender for this. The leather should be close but
fine, the soles of medium thickness. But I cannot lay too much emphasis
upon the need of a straight, even heel on the shoe. The heel is to the
shoe what the cornerstone is to the house. It is quite as necessary
that it be well laid, straight and secure. The crooked heel threatens
the health as the insecure cornerstone the security of the house.
The run-down heel disturbs the adjustment of the internal organs. It
pushes some of them close upon each other, draws others away from their
natural support. It destroys the balance of the foot, causing blisters
and callous spots. It throws the weight where it should not be, doing
violence to the center of gravity.
Watch your heels as closely as you should the running time of your
watch. When the bottoms of the heels disclose an inclined plane at
the back or the sides, you will find a corresponding blister or newly
formed callous spot on the sole. Your ounce of prevention is sending
the shoes to a cobbler the moment you see the hint of crookedness in
the heels. They can be planed or built up to their former evenness at
very slight expense. The money spent thus is much less than the fee of
a chiropodist that you will save.
Having formed the habit of wearing comfortable shoes--and let me say
here that American shoes are the best and that I always wear them--see
that the feet are released often from their prison. Even the best pair
of shoes is a prison. In your own room wear the Japanese sandals that
protect the delicate soles from the floor, but that leave the toes free
to lie loosely apart, though they are secured by strong cross bands.
These give the muscles of the feet a chance to relax. They are much
better for this purpose than the felt slipper or shoe, which is too
closely woven to permit proper ventilation.
The feet, like that other extreme of the body, the hair, need sunlight.
Think how little the poor, imprisoned feet get. They need air. How
little of that they get.
Well-shaped feet are so much rarer to-day than they were in the days of
the Romans and Greeks, mainly because we imprison them in unventilated,
sun-forbidding shoes instead of wearing the sandal of the ancients,
which gave the feet the light and air they need.
It is unfortunate that the arbiters of fashion have not seen fit to
condemn modern shoes in favor of the ancient sandal. More harm is done
to the feet by the present-day footwear, than is done to the hair by
rats and puffs or to the vital organs by tightfitting corsets.
Some years ago it did become the fashion for children to wear sandals,
but their elders were not wise enough to follow their example. But
if you cannot wear sandals yourselves, there is no reason why you
shouldn’t have your children wear them, for it is even more important
that the child’s feet be properly taken care of than the adults.
In early life, the bones are naturally soft and may be readily forced
out of their normal shapes by any considerable exterior pressure. It is
obvious that to maintain the proper contour of the child’s feet, the
sandal is much more satisfactory than the shoe. The former permits the
feet to be flat on the ground and spreads the toes, the latter crowds
the toes and compresses the whole foot.
And adults can improve the condition of their feet by wearing sandals
in the house, even if prevailing fashion does not permit of their
wearing them out of doors.
To be healthy, the feet must be kept scrupulously clean. So much are
they exposed to the dust of the streets, especially by those who
wear low shoes, that they need more than the perfunctory share of
the morning plunge or shower. They should be bathed every night in a
foot-tub containing warm water. If the feet be tender, the water should
contain borax in the proportion of an ounce to a gallon.
Warm salt water is also very easeful for tired feet, especially useful
for reducing the congestion in swollen feet. This powder, sprinkled
into the warm bathwater, affords great relief:
Borax (powdered), 1 ounce; sea salt, 1 ounce; alum, ½ ounce. Use one
teaspoonful to a gallon of water.
For tired, swollen feet, lemon juice, sprinkled freely into the water,
is a means of alleviation. An easier way to apply it is to cut a lemon
in half and rub the soles of the feet with it.
Calloused spots may be removed from the sole by planing off the rough
surfaces with pumice stone.
English women give ease to their feet after a long walk by bathing
them in an infusion of rosemary leaves. Steep the rosemary leaves, a
half ounce to a gallon of water. When cool, bathe the feet for twenty
minutes in the mixture, adding warm water now and then, as the water in
the foot-tub cools.
For feet inclining to excessive perspiration a powder made of these
ingredients should be used in the footbath:
Tannin, 60 grains; alum, 2 drams; lycopodium, 6 drams. One teaspoonful
of the powder to a gallon of warm water is sufficient.
Sensitive feet are much relieved by this remedy, which is popular in
England:
Rosemary leaves, ½ pound; juniper berries, 3 ounces; dried mint, ½
ounce. Boil in three quarts of water.
Corns are merely hardened portions of the skin usually appearing upon
the top of the toes. Each speaks loudly of pressure by shoes. No Indian
ever had a corn until he began wearing the white man’s boots. Corns and
bunions are the record of the fact that the shoe, as many wear it, is
an instrument of torture. If the corns be new and not deep-seated, they
can be removed by self-treatment.
Soak the feet from fifteen to twenty minutes in warm water, softened by
a few drops of violet ammonia, or of benzoin. Bind a slice of lemon on
the toes, tying it securely with a bandage of white muslin. If the corn
responds naturally to the treatment it should be so loose after three
or four applications that you can push it out by gentle friction with a
towel. Never use your finger nails in extracting a corn, no matter how
loose it seems. Blood poisoning might result.
If the case is more obstinate, this, applied with a small camel’s hair
brush should be quickly efficacious:
Collodion, 4 grams; ether (65 per cent.), 2 grams; alcohol (95 per
cent.), 1 gram; tincture of Cannabis Indica, ¼ gram; salicylic acid, ½
gram.
Less expensive is this:
Collodion, 1 ounce; salicylic acid, 1 dram; fluid extract of Cannabis
Indica, 1 scruple. Apply several times a day until the corn is soft
enough to be scraped away.
If the corns are of the “soft” variety that grow between the toes,
absorbent cotton powdered with tannin or alum may be inserted between
them. Ring plasters to protect the corn from further irritation by the
shoe have their friends and foes. I think it much wiser to remove the
pressure permanently by abandoning the shoes that caused it.
Bunions, or enlarged and inflamed joints, are the greatest affliction
to which suffering feet can be subjected. A new broad pair of shoes
with low heels is the best remedy. To assist this remedy, the joints
may be painted three times a day with this simple but strong bunion
lotion:
Tincture of iodine, 2 drams; carbolic acid, 2 drams; glycerine, 2 drams.
A dainty foot powder should be on every woman’s toilet shelf or table,
especially if her feet perspire freely. An excellent one is made like
this:
Florentine orris powder, 100 grams; starch, 100 grams; alcohol, 10
grams; phenic acid, 5 grams. This should be sprinkled on the foot
before dressing it, especially throughout the summer.
And here is still another foot powder which I have used for a long
time, sprinkling a half ounce of it into a foot tub holding two gallons
of water, or dusting my feet with it after the bath:
Powdered alum, 1 ounce; powdered boracic acid, 2 ounces; talcum, 4
ounces; starch, 6 ounces; a few drops of perfume at pleasure.
This yet simpler powder is much used for perspiring feet:
Powdered orris root, 1 ounce; powdered alum, ½ ounce; rice powder, 3
ounces.
The nails should be cut square across, except when the formation of the
toes, acquired by close pressure of the toes upon each other, demands
that the nail be cut round to adapt itself to the shape of the toes.
At the first sign of an ingrowing toe nail each of two simple remedies
may be used. The corner of the nail at the side where the toe is
inflamed may be gently lifted and cotton thrust beneath it to relieve
the pressure. Also at the middle of the upper edge of the nail a tiny
V may be cut. Nature in extra efforts to heal this breach in the nail
withdraws her forces from the irritation of the side of the toe.
Light massage by a skillful masseuse is greatly beneficial to tired
feet. Dancers, pedestrians and female cyclists have used this unguent,
rubbing it well into the muscles and about the joints, to make them
more flexible:
Portugal extract, 1 ounce; rosewater, 1 ounce; brandy, 1 gill; olive
oil, 3 ounces; mutton tallow, 4 ounces; virgin wax, 1 ounce; ambergris,
½ grain.
Walking barefoot in the early morning is still a fad of many society
women and actresses and singers who have regard for the health of
their feet. Besides the beauty of the foot and the elastic carriage so
secured, walking with bare feet upon the bare earth is believed by many
physicians to be very beneficial in certain cases. It is recommended
also as a tonic for the nerves.
A good exercise to develop the elasticity of the foot is to sit with
the feet scarcely reaching the floor, and press the fore part of the
sole upon the floor. This also strengthens weak ankles.
No woman is ever pretty while her feet hurt; and a horrid male person
has been ungallant enough to say that the awkwardest thing in nature is
“a woman with a sore foot.” That he didn’t exaggerate, we must admit.
What shall we do to stop this wearing of beauty, this most excruciating
of the minor physical ills? We should first look to the cause.
Is the skin between the toes cracked and sensitive? It is possible that
this is a symptom of a uric acid condition. See your physician and let
him determine whether it is so. If you have joined the great army of
those who have the uric acid diathesis, be treated accordingly. If the
cracks between the toes are caused by the feet being excessively hot,
either of these should complete a cure in a short time:
Spread zinc ointment over the cracked surfaces; or, powder them thickly
with Fuller’s earth.
If the feet are bathed every night before retiring in tepid water
into which a little borax or common table salt has been sprinkled,
there is little likelihood of sensitive, swollen feet, or of hardened
or calloused portions on the feet. As the evening foot bath is a
preventative, so is it a cure for such conditions, unless they have
reached an extreme stage. If so, after carefully drying the feet--being
careful to dry them thoroughly between the toes so that no soft corns
will form there--rub the swollen portions of the feet gently with witch
hazel; or the hard, calloused portions with olive oil or cold cream.
Keep several pairs of shoes so that you need not wear the same pair on
two successive days. Wear a different pair of hose each day, turning
wrong side out and leaving to air the pair that you have worn the
previous day.
If the feet perspire this remedy is a good one--apply it by dusting the
feet with it:
Borax, 10 grams; starch, 10 grams; salicylic acid, 3 grams; powdered
alum, 5 grams; talcum powder, 50 grams; naphthol, 5 grams.
This simpler preparation can be applied with a camel’s hair brush:
Distilled water, ½ pint; bichromate of potassium, 1½ drams; essence of
violet, 1 dram.
The masculine habit of resting the feet upon another chair than
the one occupied by the sitter has its origin in the instinct of
self-preservation. The blood flows too freely into the legs and feet
that remain too long in a suspended position, engorging the veins and
causing discomfort. It is this condition which men seek to relieve by
placing their feet on desks and chairs. It is a habit which women may
well imitate when alone--at least to the limit of the height of a chair
seat. The “long chair” of the French meets the need of allowing the
legs to lie on a level with a portion of the body while the upper part
is in a sitting posture.
Rest the feet by wearing larger shoes and only cotton stockings. Wear
sandals without stockings in your room on warm days.