The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1881-02-03
LADIES COLUMN.
The Hirh-Heeled Crime.

&4C &&4A4-&6SS4S& ~ 444Ss
An English physician has done
what it would be well if more doc
tors would do in print. DR.. Pullln
has spoken out very plainly to
mothers upon the evils of high
heeled shoes for growing girls and
children, and as his letter to the
London Lancet puts matters very
forcibly, it is herewith given at
length:
SIR:-WIll you kindly let me say
q few words on the consequences of
the present fashion of high-heeled
boots and shoes, and especially of
the unnatural situation of the fash
ionable heel?
have at present under my care
two serious cases of ''sprained an
kle," " solely arising from their use.
The parties tripped, and, losing
their balance, were unable to recov-
er themselve without falling, which,
in the one, resulted in the partial
laceration;of the internal, and in the
other of the external, ligaments OF
the ankle-joint, and both threat
en- to end in permanent partial
disability.
Again, about a month since, /
was consulted respecting a young
lady, aged sixteen, whose parents
were greatly alarmed at supposed
spinal affection. under which they
believed their daughter to be suffer
ing. After an ordinary walk, but
more especially after ascending the
hills in the locality, she experienced
distressing feeling of nausea, and
an amount Of pain and heat over the
dorsal and lumba regions, extend
ing, more or less, through the
whole lower extremities, and fol-
lowed By an amount of painful
WEAKNESS that wholly disabled her
for days after, the more muscular
parts being painful on pressure.
My professional knowledge of both
parents and child guided my dag
nosis and prognosis of the case.
That the spine was all right, and
the means of cure simple, felt no
doubt. l ordered the boots she
generally wore to be brought to me,
and found the heels raised two
inches, tapering to the size of a
shilling, and to make matters worse,
instead of corresponding to the sit
uation of the natural heel, they
were situated Immediately under
the arch of the foot. / recon-
mended rest in the horizontal posi-
ton for two or three days, and
shoes with half inch soles, of the
breadth of the natural heel, and the
toes broad in proportion, to be sub
stituted for those previously worn.
The cure was complete. No nau-
sea, no WEAKNESS, no pain or dis
comfort after four-mile walk, have
been experienced since.
In walking under the previous
condition, every intention OF nature,
anatomically speaking-was frus-
trated, and the symptoms com
plained of precisely those to be ex-
pected. Not only were the frmness
of step and ease in walking lost,
through the natural spring and
muscular action of. the foot being
destroyed, but every muscle whose
tendon extended to the foot must
have been abnormally strained, the
upright position of the body pre-
served under difficulties, and the
center of gravity and adjacent
nerve centers seriously irritated-a
state OF things which 1 need not
tell my professional brethren, il
perpetuated from youth to woman
hood, must inevitably end in mis-
chief of some kind; and the sooner
the voice of the profession is
raised against such an absurd and
pernicious practice, the better.
THos, III. ). PULLIN, NJ, d.