CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY
The human foot, it appears to us, is one of those members of the body that have never received their due share of consideration. Like certaindowntroddenmembers of thesocialbody, it seems to have been looked upon as having fewer “rights that were entitled to respect” than those organs which occupy a higher place, as the hands and eyes. No other part has been so abused by pinching, squeezing, chafing, freezing, andcorning. The waist, of one sex especially, has suffered a good deal of compression, but not so much, we think as has the foot. It might perhaps be contended that the lowest parts of the system perform a function equally necessary with that of those above them and are therefore entitled to as tender care; but whether this be so or not, it is at least certain they are “pressed to earth” in a way that is wrong; and knowing this, it shall be our duty to set forth their wrongsand rights as well as we may, hoping to effect some improvement in the manner of their treatment.
The natural object and intention of the foot is the support of the body, and the carrying of it, in all its movements, lightly, easily, safely, and gracefully. To this object it is as beautiful and wonderfully adapted as the eye and ear, those special objects of wonder, to the functions performed by them. Its perfection may be most frequently seen in the graceful steps of the dance, though often also in the ordinary walk, while its capabilities may be judged of by the fact, not so generally known, that men deprived of their hands have succeeded in making their toes do the work of the fingers in writing. Anatomy recognizes the fact, that in the number and character of the bones, joints, and muscles of the foot and leg, and the connection of the femur or thigh-bone at the pelvis, there is a strict similarity or correspondence with those of the hand and arm, and the connection of the latter at the shoulder-blade. This justifies the conclusion, that all the variety of motion, and complete adaptation to an infinite number of uses, which exists in the hand, exists also to a less degree in the foot, and can be brought out and exhibited, much of it at least, under circumstances requiring its development. There is no reason for scepticism as to the foot’s concealed powers—none for withholding the admiration due to its perfect performance of the offices for which it is designed.
Nature, when allowed free scope for her work, does itthoroughly and handsomely. Healthy children are born with arched insteps and straight toes. Notice the foot of the little urchin who runs barefoot in summer time around the outskirts of our cities and villages, and there is no fault to be found with it. Though the parents’ feet have flat insteps, crooked toes, and big joints, those of the child are regular-shaped and sound. There seems to be an intention to give every one a fair start in the race of life with good pedal extremities. It is not at all probable that old father Adam went perambulating about his garden with the “hollow of his foot making a hole in the ground,” or that his great toes pointed off in the direction of the little ones, as though they had a secret affinity for them, while the others were forced upward out of place, in order to cover up the affair; nor that our beautiful mother Eve wandered among the flowers withherfeet disfigured by corns and large joints. If they had been, would the serpent have cultivated her acquaintance in the way he did? On the contrary, does not every painter and sculptor represent her with feet beautiful and shapely, like every other feature of her person? Did the old Greek, Phidias, make flat feet on his statues, and ornament them with corns and callosities? Did old Hercules have a big toe-joint on which to rest his club? Or did the ancients of the Golden Age know about such things at all? The Art of the world has never recognized them as beautiful or natural. We venture to say that in all the painting and sculpture of the past they cannot be found. They areentirely unnatural and deformed, belonging to the days of modern civilization. Nature makes her feet, except in rare instances, with arches well-marked and strong, and toes that point directly forward in the line of the foot’s length. Yet the deformities spoken of are very common at the present time, and in this most intelligent part of the world. We believe, judging from a dozen years’ experience in the making of boots and shoes for individual feet, that those more or less deformed constitute the rule, and the healthy and well-formed ones the exception. Such disfigurements and distortions are thrust upon our attention every day—crooked feet—short, stumpy feet—feet that tread inward, and those that tread only on the outside edge—flat feet—crippled feet—and feet so disproportioned that the part which should be an inch smaller than the instep is often half an inch larger—feet with large ankles, and feet with long heels—swelled feet, and feet that are nothing but bones—feet that turn inward and outward, and backward—feet with flat insteps—with big joints—with great toes that lie crosswise of the smaller ones—with small ones that grow over each other—with nails grown in, or to one side—with hard corns, and soft corns, little and big—with callosities on insteps, and heels, and ankles—with chilblains all over—feet with weak ankles that have lost their uprightness—sweaty feet—sensitive feet that take cold by wetting, and give their owner a consumption—and dirty feet that deserve to be diseased if they are not.
The causes of these depravities, diseases, and deformitiesare many and various. Thick and stiff leather coverings have had much to do with corns and callosities. False taste and fashions, bad habits of changing shoes, unnatural-shaped lasts, awkwardness in gait and movement, muscular weakness, and perhaps other causes that we do not yet know, have combined to produce flat insteps, crooked toes, large joints, weak ankles, and all the rest.
The subject is one in which all who have not lost their feet are more or less interested. To those who have children it is more especially important. While much may be done to reform the feet of adult persons, and it is intended to hold out all possible encouragement to them to attempt it, still it is with the children that the main work of correcting, improving, and educating must be effected. If a child’s feet are trained up in the way they shouldgo, they will not be likely, when they are older, to depart from it, and incur those penalties appropriately attached to an abuse of the foot’s nature.
The particular causes of the more important of these troubles will be shown in the succeeding chapters, and suggestions for their remedy or prevention given.