NARROW JAWS AND SMALL FEET 141 



should also be large, in fact, nearly as broad as the broadest part of the 

 sole. The inside of the shoe should be three quarters of an inch longer 

 and a half inch broader than the foot that it is meant to cover. Inci- 

 dentally, people that wear such shoes and learn to take hold of the 

 ground with their toes do not fall down and break their bones in slip- 

 pery weather. 



A friend of the writer's, a middle-aged man who has had his 

 share of falls on slippery steps and icy pavements every winter, last 

 winter escaped without a single hard fall because he was wearing low- 

 heeled, broad-toed shoes, which the shoe-maker assured him were " a 

 size too big for him." Here is a hint of value for stout people who are 

 afraid to go about in slippery weather and who can not always have on 

 a new pair of rubbers. 



Just as our jaws suffer from non-development, which is the founda- 

 tion of our adenoids, mouth breathing, poor digestion and mal-assimi- 

 lation, not only because of our poor and irregular teeth, but because 

 we do not get enough oxygen in our systems when we are growing for 

 proper development, so we suffer from weak and malformed feet because 

 these have not only not been developed by exercise, but have not even 

 been allowed to grow to their natural size. Then we wear an arch sup- 

 porter to still further cripple a weak foot and wear high heels under 

 the mistaken impression that they keep up the instep. Of course when 

 the arch gives way, as it often does because it is too weak to spring back 

 after it has spread out in stepping under the weight of the body, a 

 supporter in the shoe must be temporarily worn. Yet every effort 

 should be made to strengthen that arch by running, walking on the 

 toes in the bare feet, applying massage and electricity to the muscles 

 of the calf, and toning up the general system. 



The breaking down of the arch is really of more significance as an 

 indication of general bodily weakness than as a local deformity, and its 

 treatment should be quite as much general as local. 



We shall not get perfect manhood or womanhood until we obey 

 nature's obvious laws and allow our children's feet and jaws to develop 

 as they were intended to do. 



