Manual of British Rural Sports by Stonehenge 17th Edition

654 GENERAL TRAINING OF MAN. subside on tbe use of the last-mentioned application. As I before said, more severe remedies are incompatible with training. VARICOSE VEINS .—By this term is meant an enlargement of the veins, generally of the leg, accompanied by a breaking down or insufficiency of the valves which are situated atshort intervals along the course, so that the veins bulge out in places, andbecome much more tortuous than usual. The disease appears to depend upon some natural or rather congenital weakness in the structure of the coats of the veins ;at all events, weknow noother cause. Many families are quite exempt, whilst others, again, are almost in every case predisposed to their occurrence. A radical cure may often be effected by the surgeon, but it is not unattended with danger. Still few of. those who suffer from them are capable of going through severework while afflicted in this way, and therefore, inmost cases, either the operation must be done, or all severe training mustbe abandoned. As a palliative measure, the elastic stocking may be tried, but the heat of the part is so much increased by its use that fewpeople wear it without suffering material inconvenience. In spite of the pain and danger of the operation, I confess that were I subject to varicose veins I should encounter both without a moment's hesitation. In some cases a thin slip of elastic band, about a quarter of an inch wide, may be worn with effect. It should be applied spirally from the top to the bottom of the leg at about two inches interval. This is not so hot as tbe stocking,and in mild cases acts equally well. CHAPPED HANDS .—In cold weather rowers are sometimes terribly annoyed by their hands and arms becoming chapped, oftento such a degree as to cause them to bleed ; and pedestrians often suffer in the same way about the hands, wrists, arms, and behind the knees. For this state there is no remedy tobe compared with glycerine, which should be freely smeared over the whole surface which is chapped, by means of a brush or feather. The application may be made nighl and morning.