Sept. 4, 1885.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



number of small bones — no less than twenty-six. Even 

 the most solid part of tbe foot, from the beel to the 

 instep, that upon which the ankle rests, is in seven 

 pieces, and there are five more in front of these before 

 the toe bones are reached. These twelve bones form an 

 arch upon which the whole of the body rests, and this 

 arch is specially constructed to combine firmness with 

 elastric spring, and in the forward or toe-part of the foot 

 the fourteen bones, with their muscles, tendons, and liga- 

 ments, we find arrangements for considerable flexibility. 

 None of the bones of the foot directly touch each other 

 as bones ; the junctions of all are lined with cartila- 

 ginous matter, preventing vibratory jar. 



A very important function, but little understood, of 

 this complexity is to enable the foot to co-operate with 

 the other builers of the body in protecting the brain 

 from concussion. In ranning and jumping, a mass 

 weighing from 150 to 250 lb. is repeatedly falling' to the 

 ground, and striking it with considerable violence. If it 

 were a rigid mass, a vibratory shock would travel through 

 it up to the skull at each collision with the ground, and 

 such a shock would seriously damage the brain, arresting, 

 or more or less completely stopping, the mental functions. 

 But we are protected against such vibratory shock — first, 

 by the structure of the skull, which is made up of several 

 pieces, and thus cannot vibrate as a whole ; by the thick, 

 elastic cartilages that lie between each of the twenty- 

 four pieces of the spine ; then by the cartilages of the 

 hip and thigh-bones ; by other cartilages in the knee- 

 joints ; and finally, by those of the ankle and the complex 

 mechanism of the foot already described. As the maximum 

 weight rests on the foot, its elastic response is primary 

 and important. 



It is evident that a tight boot made of material yielding 

 so little as thick leather, must cripple and frustrate the 

 functions of this beautiful and beneficent mechanism. 

 This is shown by the tottering steps of a tightly-booted 

 human being. The tottering step of old age is largely 

 due to the decay, the withering or drying up of and con- 

 solidating of the springs above described ; but a young 

 man or woman, or even a boy or girl, may be, in this 

 respect, brought prematurely to a condition of old age by 

 tight boots. This description applies not only to the 

 torture-chambers of imbeciles who intentionally squeeze 

 their feet iu order to make them appear iinnatui-ally 

 small, but to ordinary average boots, such as an average 

 boot-maker supplies when they are " made to measure." 

 In order to obtain a respectably fitting boot or shoe I 

 have found it necessary to wear two or three jaairs of 

 thick woollen socks one over the other when going to be 

 measured. A conventional fit for this enlarged foot 

 becomes a decent fit for (lie actunl fdof. 



According to the nat iir;il ,-,1 i-;irl iir.' nf liuniau tms. tlirv 

 should spread out wiili ^[.:ll■, lutunu v.wh ntliir, 

 forming the widest purl ,.f (he fn,,t wIku it is planted .m 

 the ground. They should also, by virtue of the muscles 

 attached to them, exert some prehensile power in climbing, 

 and in the final projecting effort of running. The victims 

 of ordinary boots inherit degenerate feet, in which these 

 functions are practically annulled, and before they attain 

 middle age the large toe is actually turned inwards, and 

 all the toes squeezed together. The naked foot of a full- 

 grown fine lady is usually a very disgusting object ; that 

 of an infant or a Uighlaud lassie is very beautiful. 



The supply of sweat glands is— area for area — more 

 abundant on the handset han on any other part of the body, 

 and next to the liands, the feet arc the best supplied. 

 The kssiiu we should learn from this is obvious enough. 

 Both hands and feet should be specially free to perform 



their natural functions of superabundant exhalation. 

 The wearing of leather gloves, merely for appearance 

 sake, should be denounced as contemptible fopperj-. 

 Protection of the hands from cold, from dirt in excep- 

 tional cases, or from mechanical injury, as in trimming 

 thorn hedges, &c., is, of course, a full justification of the 

 practice ; but the housemaids' gloves, gardeners' gloves, 

 driving gloves, &c., are very different from the fineer- 

 pinching hand-prisons of the fop. I have heard of women 

 who have reduced themselves to such a condition thai 

 they are liable to take cold if their hands are wetted by 

 water of ordinary temperature. Poor things ! 



But what shall we say of the condition of ordinary 

 average conventional feet? What a satire upon our 

 ordinary practice of foot-clothing is the almost universal 

 dread of wet feet ! The human foot, with its special 

 sole integument, is specially constructed for exposure to 

 cold and wet ground : and, when it has not been artificially 

 injured by false imprisonment, no inconvenience follows 

 its free exposure to rain-sodden or snow-covered grotmd 

 dtiring the course of ordinary locomotion. Young ladies 

 in English boarding-schools are martyrs to chilblains. 

 Highland girls, who walk bare-footed to school through 

 frost and snow, and rain and sleet, rarely know what 

 such things mean, and the slight acquaintance they have 

 is of recent origin, since their partial adoption of southern 

 foot-gear. 



I have no hesitation in positively afiirming that who- 

 ever is liable to take cold by temporarily wetting the 

 feet has diseased feet. This form of disease very fre- 

 quently reaches the stage of putrescence of the perspira- 

 tion of the feet. We hear of many remedies for this, 

 and of their failures, but there is one that will not fail if 

 persistently applied, that is, continuing bare-footed and 

 usually wet-footed. I know that it is not easy — in most 

 cases practically impossible — to apply this fully, andcautioH 

 should, of course, be used at first, but if every available 

 opportunity were used of absolutely tmcovering the feet, 

 and at all other times wearing the most loose and porous 

 shoes or slippers, with soft, absorbent woollen socks, 

 great relief would be afforded. 



If there was no such things as tin-tacks, pins and 

 needles, broken glass and crockery, I should be disposed 

 to advocate the total abolition of boots, shoes and 

 stockings, and the furnishing of all street-doors with 

 water-troughs and towel-mats for the use of entering 

 inmates and visitors. Natural asperities of ground 

 (barring thorns), are easily overcome by the remarkable 

 facility with which the sole of the foot thickens when 

 exposed to mechanical irritation. It is a fact not gene- 

 rally observed that this hard intcgumentarv structure 

 extends not nnly .-vev the l.nttoni ,.f (lir T.."!, 1 :< i : 



1 n-LT 



."•'. 



■1.. ;,:- i'l,: 



;;.!. 





demonstration of the nutur;:! tlii'. 

 the skin of the foot on tlir apjiiir 



lants. If the whole of the w.a'K II ;• 



exposed, such callosity woulil i^ ' ■ ^ ., — I 



would be protective instead of painful. The corn is a 

 thorn in the flesh, a local spear-like hardening, that pene- 

 trates the surrounding tenderness instead of covering and 

 protecting it. 



My first experience in baref. . t v.ilkliiL. <[,i,s as far 

 back as 1841. In the autumn cf ilin \ : I \.:!satthe 

 Athol Gathering, then a genuine 1 liL^liln!;! f. ^tival of 

 the peasantry (subsequently a fashionaMe aristocr.atie 

 assembly). On the morning after the ball at the Brig of 

 Tilt, wliere I was the only trousered Sassenach, I strj-ttd 



