Delaware State journal and statesman., 1862-12-09
NATURAL SHAPE OF THE Foor.

A contributor to can tho Year Round"
states that several treatses have lately been
published in London by professors Of ANATOMY,
especially DR.. Humphrey Of the Cambridge
University and DIR. Meyers OF Zurich. which
have been instrumental in iustituting a reform
in making Boots and shoes By the London shoe
makers.
The boOtmakers ignorant OF the relative use
and Importance of the different parts of the foot
have steadily persisted for centuries and at this
day usually persist, ia so shaping the shoe that
the great toe is forced upon the other toes more
or less out of its right line with the heel Nine
civilized people out Of ten perhaps, have their
great toes thus by a course OF submission to mis-
shapen boots and shoes SO far turned inward,
that line, run down in the middle of them, from
point to bail, it continued would not fall any.
where 10 the heel at all, bat several inches out.
side the body. The necessary consequence is
that the full strength Of the natural lever, the
toe, for raising the body is destroyed; the effort
has to be made at disadvantage and with pres
sure, and the act Of walking loses some Of its
race aud much Of it's ease.
Professor Meyers states that although a shoe
may be easy, it is not to be held shat it is ways
made right. The foot may have been distorted
by wearing improperly made shoes, aud the per-
son may have become accustomed to the bad
shaped shoe. Lasts have usually been made
slanting outward at the toe, aud shoes made from
such tend tu bend the toe out OF its proper line
Thus in foot unwarped from It's primitive shape
a straight line drawn down the middle of its
ball, Ii continued, passes exactly through the
middle OF the heel. The smaller toes do none Of
the lifting. They give lateral support, an help
III occurring good grip Of the giounl esprcially
10 those who walk barefoot ou difficult ways
The reason why SO many persons have enlarged
tue joints is because they have been accustomed
to wear narrow angular toed boots aud shoes, by
which the ioiuts have been thrust out Of line il
walking.
According to this writer, if well made uair
Of boots DO placed side by side 80 their heels
touch their sides also will touch through the
whole space in front Of the instep from the place
Of tue ball Of the great toe to the end OF it, They
will diverge only at the rounded ends, whero the
great toe rounds of into the little toes, along
whose line, and nowhere else, auy possible point
lug of II shape Of the boot sole can be allowed
There is NO better rough test OF the degree to
which pair Of boots has been adapted to q mir
Of feet, than TO place them with their inner sides
together, and observe the cut Of the soles. The
more they dverge from each other between the
place OF greatest breadth and eud Of the toes the
worse they are the more they tend to be in
contact along that line, the better they are and
when they quite touch throughout that line, they
are what they ought to be. To secure this, to
secure also sole of which the greatest breadth
corresponds truly with the grentest breadth of
the tread, and which, moreover is contriyrd to
allow room enough for the play of the foot in
walking, including its lengihehng and shortening
with the ringing curve of its arch, is to secure
what We ought to have, by compelling shoe
makers TO understand the true history of their
trade. There must be no incastic sole, and no
tight lacng to impede the free movement of any
OF the foot joints. The now prevalent use Of a
light boot fastened only by ihe imperceptible
pressure OF an ealstc web let into each side over
the ances, and so slipping easily over the inslep,
is a change IN the right direction.