188 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



with greater facility a load which it was drawing. On themselves 

 they commence the practice, because somebody has set the example ; 

 then they get accustomed to the impediment, and think they can not 

 get on without it. Drinking is learned by just the same absurd 

 process. 



I had a workingman once in my employ who would undertake no 

 vigorous effort until he had tightened his belt. Once I got him to 

 test what he could lift with and without the belt, and he was obliged 

 himself to admit that he could do more without it than with it ; but, 

 he argued, he could not get on without it. That is what ladies say 

 about corsets. 



Respecting this belt for boys and men, there is a word more I must 

 say which is of serious import. When they put on the belt for the 

 sake of performing some feat of strength, they effect another danger- 

 ous mischief. Compressing the abdomen, they force, during the exer- 

 tion, the contents of the abdominal cavity downward under pressure, 

 giving no chance to resilience back again after the exertion or shock. 

 In this way they frequently cause hernia or rupture. I have seen, 

 professionally, several instances of this occurrence in boys, and among 

 workmen who wear belts this accidental disease is so common that it 

 is the rule rather than the exception to find it present. 



Other forms of tight pressure upon the body are open to serious 

 if not to equal objection. The wearing of shoes which compress and 

 distort the feet is a singularly injurious custom. Suppose I said that 

 nine tenths of the feet of the members of an English community were 

 rendered misshapen by the boots and shoes worn, the statement would 

 seem extreme, but it would be within the truth. The pointed shoe or 

 boot is the most signal instance of a mischievous instrument designed 

 for the torture of feet. In this shoe the great-toe is forced out of its 

 natural line toward the other toes, giving a reverse curve from what 

 is natural to the terminal part of the inner side of the foot, while all 

 the other toes are compressed together toward the great-toe, the whole 

 producing a wedge-like form of foot which is altogether apart from 

 the natural. Such a foot has lost its expanse of tread ; such a foot 

 has lost its elastic resistance ; such a foot has lost the strength of its 

 arch to a very considerable degree ; such a foot, by the irregular and 

 unusual pressure on certain points of its surface, has become hard at 

 those points, and is easily affected with corns and. bunions. Lastly, 

 such a foot becomes badly nourished, and the pressure exerted upon it 

 interferes with its circulation and nutrition. It ceases to be an instru- 

 ment upon which the body can sustain itself with grace and with easi- 

 ness of movement, even in early life ; while in mature life and in old 

 age it becomes a foot which is absolutely unsafe, and which causes 

 much of that irregular, hobbling tread which often renders so pecu- 

 liar the gait of persons who have passed their meridian. 



It sometimes happens for a time that these mistakes in regard to 



