72 
FOREST AND STREAM 
July 20, 1912 
I F I were the general of an army in full re¬ 
treat, and believed in the efficiency of prayer, 
I should petition the God of Battle to afflict 
every soldier in the pursuing army with a corn, 
bunion or ingrowing toe nail. I believe it was 
Napoleon who said an army traveled on its 
stomach. Had he said “'on its feet” he had been 
both literally and figuratively correct. The care 
with which the examining surgeon in the army 
inspects the recruit’s feet, and the promptness 
with which that recruit is rejected unless his 
walking extremities are in first class shape, has 
caused me to reflect upon the necessity of the 
man who goes hunting paying some heed to the 
same subject. When a man’s teeth trouble him 
he very promptly takes them to the dental sur¬ 
geon; if his stomach gets balky, he goes to the 
physician, but he will suffer from a busy corn 
with all the fortitude of a Spartan and never 
think of visiting the chiropodist. 
No man should think of going on a long 
tramp without first giving attention to the con¬ 
dition of his feet. While the selection of foot¬ 
wear is probably of the first importance, he 
should understand that no matter how well fitted 
his shoes may be, he will suffer unless they are 
fitted over feet free from corns, bunions, ingrow¬ 
ing toe nails, callosities and the like. 
There are some hints that have come to me 
from years in the woods which I am inclined to 
inflict upon the readers of this magazine. Many 
of these things have been learned from the In¬ 
dians, several from the Canadians, a few from 
the “river hogs” of the West. 
Let me assume that the reader has taken my 
advice and visited a competent chiropodist before 
setting out upon his journey. He has also fol¬ 
lowed the advice I shall give later with regard 
to the selection of his foot wear, but some eve¬ 
ning he arrives at camp with a large and angry 
chafe on his Tendo Achilles, where a blister has 
been. The chafe, unless cared for, will render 
his trip a horrible nightmare, make him a 
“grouchy” camp companion, and possibly destroy 
his chances for securing that head he has longed 
for so ardently. 
The remedy is to wash the chafe clean with 
warm soap and water, dry it, then cut a piece 
of zinc oxide plaster without which no man 
should ever enter the woods, apply this plaster 
over the chafe, taking care that it covers the 
edges fully half an inch. This same treatment 
should be applied to a bunion, or calloused place. 
First soak the feet until the epidermis is loosened, 
then scrape it down with a dull knife, tak'ng care 
not to reach the live skin beneath, apply plaster 
and allow it to remain. In the case of the chafe 
where the blister has been, it is well to renew 
the plaster every day. 
Ingrowing nails are really serious things. A 
person afflicted should take every precaution when 
in the woods far from surgical attention, for of 
their liability to become infected, and an infec¬ 
tion without surgical care is something of gravity. 
There are several ways of alleviating the evil. 
The old standby of paring the nail square across 
the end, then scraping it down the center until 
Care of the Feet 
By CHARLES STUART MOODY, M.D. 
it is very thin is a very good one. In most cases 
this gives relief. The best remedy, one often 
followed by surgeons when they do not wish to 
operate, but one that should be used with cau¬ 
tion, is to draw the flesh away from the affected 
side and instill a few drops of pure carbolic acid 
around the side of the nail, allow it to remain 
exactly one minute, then neutralize with pure 
alcohol. This is by far the most effective cure 
next to actual removal. Relief may be tem¬ 
porarily afforded by lifting the nail and insert¬ 
ing a thin piece of paper, like a cigarette paper 
folded several times beneath the nail. This must 
be renewed every day. 
Most of us are familiar—too familiar—with 
corns. Corns are an invention of the devil to 
destroy the pleasure of hunters. There is no 
such thing as removing a corn without medicines. 
The sufferer can only pare the thing down until 
he has reached the tender skin beneath, then 
dress it. A good dressing for a corn is to take 
a small pledget of absorbent cotton and saturate 
it with collodion. Apply this to the corn and 
add another small bit of cotton above it. Care 
should be taken that the pledget impregnated 
with the collodion is not too thick or it will irritate. 
Blisters on the feet and ankles should never 
be opened by an incision. If you wish to re¬ 
move the serum, puncture the blister at its lowest 
point with a needle and press the fluid out 
through the opening. The serum is nature’s pad 
and is placed there to protect the tender skin 
beneath. It is really best to allow the serum to 
remain. 
Anomalous as it may appear, there is such 
a thing as washing the feet too much. The feet 
of course should be kept clean, but when on a 
long tramp it is not best to remove the shoes 
and wash the feet. If they become hot and per¬ 
spiring, sore from walking, it may be well to 
sponge them off with a damp cloth, afterward 
drying them thoroughly before replacing the 
shoes, but they should never be soaked, as this 
has a tendency to loosen up the epidermis which 
supplies a protection. 
By far the greater number of foot ills might 
be eliminated by properly constructed and prop¬ 
erly fitting footwear. I have my own peculiar 
ideas of what constitutes propriety in this re¬ 
gard, based upon some thirty years in the moun¬ 
tains. If these ideas do not happen to coincide 
with yours, I am ready to listen to argument. 
It is an undeniable fact that when properly 
made, the moccasin is the very best foot cover¬ 
ing a man can wear. No man, however, can 
wear a moccasin without education. Unfortu¬ 
nately it takes longer to acquire this education 
than most of us are prepared to give. The feet 
must be habituated to their use before starting 
on a long tramp. We. who have been accus¬ 
tomed to heels, will find that a heelless shoe has 
a tendency to strain the muscles of the calf and 
make us lame. This can only be done away with 
by use. The deer skin moccasin of the Indian 
is noiseless; they are the thing for clambering 
over rocks and fallen logs; they are light and 
fit the foot like a glove. Of course they are not 
waterproof and useless to the civilized man in 
damp weather. The Indian does not care for 
this, but wears his moccasins winter and summer. 
Next comes that first cousin to the moccasin, 
the moose hide pac. I have practically aban¬ 
doned all other kinds of shoes for these. They 
generally come with a single sole of heavy leather 
which I rip off and attach a sole made from a 
piece of old rubber belting. The rubber belting 
is nearly indestructible; it is waterproof; it never 
slips and has just the right degree of spring to 
make walking easy. If the wearer desires a heel, 
he may add two thicknesses of the belting for 
that purpose. I wear two forms of pacs—those 
with half leg for snow and rain, and those made 
no higher than a moccasin for dry weather. 
The popular sporting boot with either half 
or full leg is not a great favorite of mine; the 
full leg boot not at all. In the first place these 
boots are made too heavy with the soles several 
times as thick as required. This is doubtless 
done under the mistaken idea that a walking 
boot needs a heavy sole. The sole of any boot 
should be no thicker than is necessary to keep 
the feet from being bruised by the inequalities 
of the trail, such as stones and sticks of wood. 
For comfort the sole must have a certain degree 
of spring. Shun the full leg boot unless you are 
to be in the saddle a great deal. A full leg boot 
is hot and constricts the play of the walking 
muscles. The same caution with regard to tight 
leggins or puttees. The ideal leg covering is a 
heavy pair of golf stockings which should be 
worn with knee trousers or at least with trousers 
opened from the knee to the ankle. If you ever 
do any mounatin climbing you will recognize the 
truth of the above statement. 
There should be as much care exercised in 
the selection of the hosiery as in the leather 
portion of the footwear. In summer medium 
weight silk is the most suitable, while in wet 
weather or winter cold, the light weight wool. 
No man should venture on a hunting trip with¬ 
out a number of pairs of hose. Nor should he 
ever wear one pair more than a day. They 
should be scoured at night in cold water and 
hung up to dry, a fresh pair substituted in the 
morning. Avoid the cotton sock by all means. 
Also reject any hose with a variety of colors. 
Red, blue and green dyes are decidedly irritant, 
and if you annex a chafe while wearing them, 
you are liable to a nice little case of blood 
poisoning as I have seen more than once. 
Having decided upon your footwear, the 
next thing is the fit. Care should be taken that 
the shoe is neither too tight or too loose, the 
latter worse than the former. A tight shoe will 
stretch, a loose one will also, and then misery. 
The shoe should pull on like a glove and feel 
comfortable when it is on. If it binds in some 
spot and feels loose in another, discard it. If 
it feels loose and “squashy” all over, do not 
wear it. If it binds in every part, but more espe¬ 
cially across the ball of the foot, cut it out. If 
you intend wearing half leg boots, see to it that 
they fit snug around the ankles and do not con¬ 
strict the bony prominences of the ankle joints. 
