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Cold Feet.

Very many persons do not properly care for their feet. They use cotton stockings and thin shoes in winter; sometimes they sit, perhaps for hours, with their feet damp and even wet. It is not unfrequent for females to go about their household work half a day at a time with feet inadequately protected, while the cold currents of air cause a temperature forty degrees less near the floor than overhead. Some people become so habituated to cold feet as not to "feel" the chill—the long-continued cold having contracted the blood vessels and destroyed the proper sensibility of the nerves. Not a few persons go to bed in a cold room with the feet still cold, to have them yet further chilled by a cold bed. Now, the feet sustain a close nervous relation to the rest of the body. Hence it is that the physician applies heat to the feet to relieve a congested brain. The feet of one whose legs are paralyzed will kick when tickled, though the person is not conscious of the tickling, nor, except by sight, even of the kicking. This indicates, too, one of the reasons why a rusty nail in the foot causes that fearful disease, lockjaw. Good health cannot be enjoyed unless the blood circulates warm and strong through the extremities. Mothers should see to it that their children's feet are well clad, and should, from time to time during the day, remove their shoes to make sure that they are warm. They should further train them to right ideas and habits in this respect. With all persons the rule in winter should be woolen stockings and thick-soled shoes, and rubbers in wet weather. Extra soles, whether of cork, felt or even thick pasteboard, may be used to great advantage. Slippers or shoes that can be easily removed should be worn about the house. If the feet are permanently cold from the shrinkage of the blood vessels, this will tend to enlarge them again. In such cases they should be soaked every night for a time in quite warm water.—Youth's Companion.