658 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tends to produce dislocations of the bones and to weakening of the 

 muscles. Doubtless much of the breaking down of girls at school 

 may be traced to some such cause as this. Boys' shoes, on the other 

 hand, generally have low heels and broad soles, and their wearers are 

 relieved from the special suffering which too vain mothers allow to be 

 inflicted on the feet of their daughters. 



The evils to which women are subjected from the causes we have 

 delineated do not stop with the sufferers who induce them upon them- 

 selves, but are transmitted to their children, an inheritance of acquired 

 weakness and suffering. 



Fig. 17. 



Some specimens of the shoemaker's art are shown, to illustrate how 

 far those artists are from adapting their work to what the feet require. 



Fig. 17 is the sole of an old lady's shoe, custom-made, for the 

 wearer, suffering from constant aching feet, wanted shoes cut for ease. 

 The heel is correctly cut, but the soles are made convex, or not curved, 

 as the dotted line indicates they should be, to the inner curve of the 

 foot ; the toes are narrowed, or rounded, turning the great-toe inward 

 and cramping the rest, and they allow nothing whatever for the elonga- 

 tion of the foot, and would look like stuffed puddings when the feet 

 were in them. They were cut of soft kid, but, except the low heel and 

 the soft material, they had not a single merit. They were cut in exact 

 contrariety to the shape of the feet, and did not bring about the relief 

 that was sought for in them. 



Fig. 18 is a sample of an improved cut of shoe for women and 

 misses. These shoes are worn by a small minority at present. They 



Fig. 18. 



Fig. 19. 



do not altogether escape the faults of other shoes ; some are wedge- 

 toed ; in others the heel is too high ; and oftentimes a fault in the sole 

 wrenches or distorts the foot. The best grades of these shoes are too 

 high in price for other than well-to-do people to enjoy them. 



