The Massachusetts spy, and Worcester County advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1825-1831, 1829-12-16
From the Journal Of Health.
WET FEET.

EIA' AHe CHilu Wnlcn ndd Deen playing
about IN the morning in all its infantile love-
Illness and vlvacty, is seized at night with
Group from wet feet, and in day or two is
a corpse. The youthful form of female
beauty, which few months before glad
dened the eyes of every beholder, is now
wasting IN slow, remediless decay. What
was the origin of her malady9 Wet feet
Let US hope that the exposure was incurred
IN a visit of mercy to a helpless widow OF
distressed orphan. Whence come the lin
gerlng disease, the pain and suffering Of
that fond mother? Still the same response
getting her feet wet, while providing suita-
Bile winters clothing for her children-as il
tenderness for her offspring justified her
dispensing with all the rules of prudence for
herself Thus we might continue the mel
ancholy list Of diseases, at best harassino
and alarming, often fatal, to which the
heedlessness of youth, the pride of man
MOOD, or the avarice of old age, are volun-
tarily and causelessiy exposed by neglect
OF one lesson OF every day experience.
1t needs no medical lore or labored rea-
sonlng to show the great influence which
impressions on the feet exert over the rest
OF the body at large. The real martyrdom
produced by tickling them, and the cruel
punishment of the hastinado, are sensible
evidences of their exquisite delicacy of feel
ing. Of this fact we have more pleasurable
experience in the glow diffused through the
whole system, when, chilled and shivering,
we hold them for a while to the fire; or
when, during the prevalence of the dog star,
we immense them in cold water to allay the
heat which is then coursing through our
veins. Are the internal organs of the body
a prey to wasting inflammation, as in the
hectic fever of consumption. There is
! sensation of burning heat in the feet. Is
the body feeble, and the stomach unable to
perform its digestive functions. These parts
are habitually cold. In both health and dis
ease there is constant sympathy between
the feet and the different organs of the body
Whatever be the weak part, 1t suffers with
untalling certainty from the impressions of
cold and moisture on the feet. No matter
whether the tendency be to sick headache,
or sore throat, hoarseness and cough-pain
of the stomach, or rheumatism, govt
severally and all they will be brought on by
getting the feet wet, or at times even by
these parts being long chilled, from stand
ing on cold ground or pavement. And who,
it might be asked, are the chief victims to
such exposures? Not the traveller caught
day-laborer, who cannot always watch the
appearance of the clouds, and pick their
steps with an especial avoidance of muddy
soil, or wet streets-O we must look
for the largest number of sufferers among
the rich, the fair, and the lovely of the land
those who need only walk abroad when in
vited by the fair blue sky and shining sun
or who, if pleasure calls at other seasons,
have all the means of protection against the
elemental changes which wealth can COM
mand OF ingenuity and labor. They it is
who neglect suitable protection for their
| feet, and brave the snow and rain with such
frail covering as would make the strong
man tremble for his own health, were he to
be equally daring.
At season like the present it would
seem to be matter of graduation, that
! shoes and boots can every where be OBJ
tanned Of such materials as to preserve the
| feet dry and warm. Leather of various
kinds, firm, or pliable and soft, is at the
shortest warning made to assume every va
riety of shape and figure, called for by con-
venience or fashion. But we mistake; fash
ion, that despotic destroyer of comfort, and
too often a sworn foe to health, will not al
low the feet of a lady to be incased in leath-
er. She must wear, forsooth, cloth shoes
with thin leather sole, and even this latter
is barely conceded. A covering for the
feet never originally intended to be seen
beyond the chamber or the parlor, is that
now adopted for street parade and travel !;
and they whose cheeks we would not that
winds of heaven should visit too roughly,
brave in prunello the extremes of cold and
moisture, and offer themselves as willing
victims to all the suferings of the shivering
ague, catarih, and pains rheumatic. Tell
them of a wiser course argue with some on
their duties, as mothers and as wives, to pre-
serve their health-with others, as daugh-
tiers of beauty who are risking by approach
| ing disease the loss of their loveliness and
they will reply, that they cannot wear those
horrid large shoes-that leather does not fit
so nicely on the feet, and that India rubber
shoes are frightful. They do not reflect
that beauty consists in the fitness and har-
mouy fittings, and that we cannot associate
it with the ideas of suffering and disease,
The light drapery so gracefully and ele-
gantly arranged as to exhibit without OBJ
truding her figure, is worthy of all admra-
ton in Grecian nymph, under a Grecan
sky, and when its bearer is warmed by a
southern sun. The muslin robe of one of
our beauties of the ball room is tasteful and
appropriate when lights and music are ad-
ditions to the scene. But could we preserve
our admiration for the Grecan nymph, or
the modern belle, if in these costumes they
were seen walking the streets mid sleet and
wind Pity they would assuredly command:
but will female be content with the offer
ing which any beggar is sure of receiving ?
We have gazed on the finest productions of
the chisel and the pencil-we have studied
beauty with the admiration of a lover, and
the purposes of an artist, and we do assure
our female readers that however much we
may admire small and finely turned foot
when seen tripping through the mazes of
the dance, we cannot look upon it with a