FASHION AND DEFORMITY IN THE FEET. 657 



the muscles are soft and most sensitive to strains. As a rule, chil- 

 dren's shoes are too short and too tight, and no allowance is made in 

 them for the growth which is all the time going on, or trying to go 

 on, in the foot. Evidently an injury cramping the growth at this 

 time can not be remedied ; and if the children have any tendency to 

 become bandy-legged or knock-kneed, badly shaped shoes, especially if 

 they have high heels, will aggravate the evU and make it more lasting. 



Fio. 16.— Pbopeb PoeiTiON of thb Foot upon thb Qboukd. 



Andr6, an old French writer, is quoted by Camper as saying that 

 high-heeled boots produce curvature of the spine in children. The 

 shifting of the body from foot to foot to get ease contributes to this 

 effect in one direction, and the bending forward of the body to pre- 

 serve equilibrium in another, while the soft condition of the bones 

 and muscles is a helping influence to it. 



Fio. 10. 



It should be remembered, too, that children suffer most from in- 

 growing nails caused by short shoes. Flat-foot, which is also most 

 common among children and youtb, is largely the result of convexity 

 of the inner sole — a too common fault of children's shoes. In such 

 shoes the center of gravity of the body is thrown out of its relations 

 with the corresponding point in the foot, and eversions take place. 

 The continuous strain between the foot and an improperly fitted shoe 



TOL. XXIV. — 42 



