84 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



it is in a straight line with the heel. A central straight line drawn from the 

 point of the great toe to the middle of its root, if continued, Avould pass 

 very exactly to the middle of the heel. By the misfitting hoot commonly 

 worn, the point of the toe is pressed inwards, the root outwards. 



The practice adopted by many of having a last made of the exact size and 

 model of the foot, is condemned by Dr. Meyer, if the foot has been pre- 

 viously injured in consequence of wearing ill-fitting boots or shoes. If a 

 cast be made of a distorted foot, and a boot fitted to that, it is bad, because 

 thereby the distortion is confirmed. It would be much the better, therefore, 

 says the Doctor, so to form the boot that the conditions of healthy walking 

 are allowed for, and the bones, at least to some extent, can gradually right 

 themselves. To a foot shortened by distortion he would fit a shoe adapted 

 to its healthy size. But of a pair of boots made so as to content the eye of 

 an anatomist, who knows what work is done by every bone, the main char- 

 acteristic is, that when they stand side by side, with their heels in contact, 

 the inner margins of the front part of the soles are along the whole edge 

 corresponding to the sides of the great toes, also in contact. If it be desira- 

 ble to point the toes, they must be pointed only from the outer side, after the 

 place of greatest breadth in the foot has been properly respected. A certain 

 sense of a turn inward belongs to the shape of boots so made, but if they 

 fit perfectly they will insure to the foot the utmost ease and power; and, as 

 their shape is of the ordinance of nature, they are no doubt really as elegant 

 as those of which the pattern is a bootmaker's invention. 



Dr. Meyer says that two or three persons in Zurich have had their boots 

 made on these principles without exciting special remark so immediately 

 is the propriety of the change admitted even by the arbiters of fashion. As 

 an evidence of its utility, a London journal mentions the fact that marching 

 soldiers, who often break down in consequence of their shoes, would be 

 rendered vastly more efficient if they were made in accordance with the 

 structure of their feet. 



ATMOSPHERIC WASHING-MACHINE. 



At the last meeting of the British Association, Mr. J. Fisher called atten- 

 tion to a new washing-machine, the action of which was derived from 

 streams of air forced through water from below, the most effectual tem- 

 perature of the water u^ed being about 140 Fahrenheit. It was stated that 

 machines on this principle, driven by steam power, had been for some time 

 in successful use, in manufactories in England, for cleansing soiled laces. 



IMPROVEMENT IX THE MANUFACTURE OF STARCH. 



A patent has recently been issued in England for submitting starch 

 after it is deposited in the manufacturing process to the action of a hydraul ic 

 press, in suitable boxes, so as to press all the water out, instead of evaporat- 

 ing all the moisture in artificially heated rooms, according to the usual prac- 

 tice. A great saving in fuel is thus effected by well-known and very simple 

 means. 



NEWSPAPER ADDRESSING MACHINE. 



The following is a description of a newspaper addressing machine, in- 

 vented by R. & D. Davis, of Elmira, X. Y., and recently introduced practi- 

 cally in several of the large newspaper offices of New York. The machiu- 



