WATER BOOTS. 291 



heated by thejire, as well as wetted, being previously stamped with 

 a wadding-punch, by which means, from having no angles, or corners, 

 it will stick as fast as your own skin ; provided that, when on and 

 dry, you put over it a little cold cream, or any kind of grease, in order 

 to repel the damp. 



The application that has been usually recommended to me by 

 surgeons is diachylon-plaster, which, in cold weather, curls up, and 

 torments you so much in walking, that you soon become lame again, 

 and then wish the doctor at Jericho. Go to Godfrey's, or some other 

 first-rate chemist, in order to get the sticking plaster in perfection, 

 as many a one has poisoned his skin by not having the genuine 

 article. 



Let this edition supersede the recipe for cure, by 

 giving what is better, a preventive. 



Get a square silk pad, similar to a kettle-holder. Then have 

 sewn, on two opposite corners of it, pieces of list long enough to go 

 twice round, and tie on, the ancle. No wrinkle of a water-boot can 

 then cut or bruise your " tendon Achilles," or back sinew, pro- 

 vided you secure the pad firmly, by putting it over your common 

 stocking, and under your yarn stocking. I was stupid enough not 

 to think of this plan till 1828. Thus, if we were to shoot for a cen- 

 tury, we should always be finding out something useful ; however 

 frivolous it may appear, when mentioned to a reader who is not in 

 immediate want of it. 



