Page:Personal beauty how to cultivate and preserve it in accordance with the laws of health (1870).djvu/179

 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      one ounce; Crystallized carbolic acid     five grains.