This precaution should certainly never be neglected at any time when the weather is at all chilly, and in the winter especially it is foolhardy to dispense with it. Slight strains of muscles are best treated by partial rest and the use of opodeldoc, or a mixture of arnica and opodeldoc as an embrocation. Of late years, too, the runners have frequently taken to using Elliman's embrocation, a mixture which was originally used by trainers of horses alone. A composition still frequently used by pedestrians is that which was recommended by Charles Westhall in his little book to which we have referred before in terms of praise. Westhall's recipe is as follows: ' Spirits of wine, 1/4 pint; spirits of turpentine, 1/4 pint; white vinegar, 1/4 pint. Mix these with a fresh egg beaten up, and give the bottle a good shake before using the mixture.'

If the strain of the muscle be very severe, something else besides an embrocation is required. Complete rest must be the rule, and if there is a swelling from injury to a joint this should be reduced by bathing in hot water. People frequently make the mistake of putting a sprained ankle immediately under a stream of cold water; cold water is invaluable to strengthen the muscle after the inflammation has gone down, but a hot fomentation is what is required to reduce the swelling. When the swelling has gone down, the 'cold tap' and embrocations are useful. Upon the same principle, too, that horses are 'fired,' the outside of the ankle is often painted with iodine.

We have said before that one of the most satisfactory features about athletic sports, both to competitors and spectators, is that the winner wins on his own merits, and not from any superiority he may have obtained in equipment or apparatus. The oarsman may be helped to victory by a good boat, and the cyclist by a good machine, but the athlete can hardly win a race by having better shoes or knickerbockers than his opponent, though he often does win a race with worse legs than his rival, but with a better head. The apparatus of an athlete is simple and requires little description. His shoe should be of thin, good leather, which cannot possibly stretch, so that when once it fits the foot it may never wear loose. A shoe which slips on the foot in the slightest degree may not only impede the runner, but will assuredly blister the foot. The athlete, therefore, should get a pair of shoes to fit him like gloves, and then he will have all that mechanical skill can do for him. As we have said before, he will probably find it wise to wear a thin chamois-leather sock over the ball of the foot and toes. The ordinary running-shoe has only a single thickness of leather over the heel, and of course no spike there.

The hurdler and jumper, however, who have to take every precaution against slipping, have two spikes in the heel of their shoes in addition to those in the toe, while the walker has a similar shoe with double thickness at heel and toe, and without any spikes. One other point only has to be attended to, and that is the length of the spikes. Obviously the harder the track is the shorter the spikes should be, so that upon a grass-track longer spikes are needed than upon cinders. For the tracks at Oxford, Cambridge, or Lillie Bridge, spikes of less than 1/2 inch in length will probably suffice if they be sharp; but the hurdler or a sprinter, who may be called upon to run over heavy grass, wants a shoe with at least 1/2-inch or 3/4-inch spikes. Most 'cracks,' therefore, have several pairs of shoes with spikes of different length, and make their choice according to the state of the track over which they have to travel. In races over very long distances, shoes with very short spikes, and sometimes without spikes at all, are used, as the jar and concussion of travelling so far with a thin spiked sole may make the feet so blistered or tender as to drive the runner off the path or knock him to pieces before the end of the race.

Of the rest of the athlete's stock-in-trade there is little to be said. The knickerbockers or drawers, whether they be made of silk, merino, or thin flannel, are just knickerbockers and nothing more. They should be roomy enough not to interfere with the movement of the thighs, and should be short enough not to hamper the knee. A primrose to some people is a primrose and nothing more, and even to an athletic author a jersey is only a jersey. A word may perhaps be said, however, about the practice which some men have recently tried to introduce from America of wearing sleeveless jerseys, which display the whole of the shoulder and the armpit. There is nothing to be urged in favour of the practice. A light sleeve over the shoulder cannot possibly impede a runner any more than a cobweb would, and the appearance of a runner with his shoulders and armpits uncovered is far from picturesque. Happily, when a runner appears so clad, his usual fate is to be marched off the track, and told that he will be allowed to come on again as soon as he is properly dressed, so we are little likely to be troubled with sleeveless jerseys in the future.

As regards the athlete's dress, it is very curious to notice the difference of custom in and out of the Universities. In London and the provinces the different competitors appear in different colours of knickerbocker and jersey, and, in addition, many clubs have a club-badge or emblem which each runner of that club sports upon his jersey. The result is that a big handicap shows a pretty variety of different hues. At Oxford or Cambridge every runner appears in virginal white, save the selected few who have represented their University at Lillie Bridge, and are therefore privileged to wear their white knickerbockers and jerseys trimmed with the blue ribbon of their club.