FASHION AND DEFORMITY IN THE FEET. 651 



of the bones (Fig. 11) is an abnormal growth which requires the saw, 

 knife, and gouge of the surgeon for its extirpation. The toes are es- 

 pecially liable to this disease. 



Fig. 12 is a specimen of splay or flat foot. It is caused by a break- 

 ing down of the arch of the foot, whereby locomotion becomes painful 

 and sometimes impossible. Impairment of the general health accom- 

 panies it ; in its worst forms a partial displacement of the bones occurs, 

 the toes turn up, and the sole grows convex, while the ankle is very 

 likely to thicken and lose strength by fatty degeneration. It is most 

 common among youth. Some writers attribute it to " vicious eversions 

 of the foot in attempts at polite walking" ; by others it is attributed 

 to overwork. It is most common among the children of the wealthy 

 classes. Old people are subject to it from a breaking down of the 

 tissues with age. For its cure local means must be used, and special 

 attention be given to the general health. 



Fig. 8. 



A disease called elephantiasis, sometimes necessitating amputation 

 of the whole limb, may result from injuries to the foot. A case of this 

 sort is found in the books, where a dislocation of the foot, caused by 

 drawing off a boot, induced the disease. 



It is now time to consider defects in shoes, by which most of these 

 diseases may be provoked or aggravated. 



Dowie, who was a practical as well as theoretical shoemaker, and 

 so full of enthusiasm that he studied the foot under skillful anatomists, 

 and sent all his journeymen to a course of lectures on the feet, enumer- 

 ates as the principal evils, that shoes are worn too short ; that they are 

 cut too narrow at the toes and in the sole; that the soles do not con- 

 form to the shape of the inner curve of the foot, nor to the line of 

 the great arch or instep and the great-toe ; that at the waist, or mid- 

 dle, the sole is too stiff and unyielding ; that the toe is vertically too 



