THE HUMAN FOOT. 143 



horse's hoof can deny that every one of the numerous 

 ills which beset a horse's hoof is caused by the iron 

 shoe and its adjuncts namely, the knife, the rasp, the 

 nail, the ' oils,' and the stopping. Let us impartially 

 compare the advantages and disadvantages, and see 

 on which side the balance inclines. 



We may take ourselves as examples. 



We, who have been accustomed through all our 

 lives to have our feet defended by boots and shoes, 

 would be lamed and bleeding in a few minutes if our 

 artificial protections were removed, and we were 

 obliged to run or even to walk for half a mile on hard 

 ground. Yet the human foot was not intended by the 

 Creator as an instrument for maintaining bootmakers, 

 and is perfectly capable of bearing its owner over 

 ground which would cut the best made boots to 

 pieces. 



Military life, in which the soldier has to walk 

 for considerable distances daily over all kinds of 

 ground, affords a good test of the powers of the human 

 foot. Next to the commissariat, which feeds the men, 

 scarcely any department causes such anxiety as that 

 which deals with the feet on which the army is con- 

 veyed from place to place. ' The army that can 

 march best is the best army,' writes Lord Wolseley ; 

 ' and the regiment that can march best in an army, 

 is the best in that army.' (' Soldier's Pocket Book,' 



