Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1914-10-28
FEET OF
BY DIR. w. A. EVANS

S"s
Schools open this week Throughout a
good portion of the United States. FAR
eents, teachers and children are think
ing about school today. No public
movement has grown more rapidly
during the last 10 years than the in
spectlon of school children. Although
an organized group has opposed this
people has led them Alright, and school
inspection has developed with but little
hindrance.
In some places the system is elabor-
ated. Their are nurses, dentists, ply
s1clans and clinics. AT the other end
of the line is the simple method of
Hoag, where the teacher, the pupil, and
the parent fill out blanks and answer
questions. and there is almost no ma
chinery.
In some places the inspection is
merely to exclude contagion. In other
places to the inspection for contagioli
is added inspection for minor COM
munlcable ailments. In others there is
also physical examination, in others
dental examination, and in still others
the pupils have the advantage of help
from nurses.
The general subject Of school inspec-
ton is not in need of boosting from
me. Therefore. this article is devoted
to q division of the SUBJECTIVE are
OF the feet of school children.
We SOW in childhood by wearing
light shoes; we reap painful feet in
adult life. 1t does little good to talk
to the butterfly about the oncoming
winter. 1t has done little good to talk
to verdant youth about tight shoes.
But then the warning Boil the water"
does little good.
the new is this: The old appeal was
to the individuals; this one is to school
authorities.
"One million school children in the
United States Is per cent of the total
school p%opulation) have spinal curva-
ture. flat foot or some other moderate
deformity serious enough to interfere
to some degree with health"
This is the opinion of Prof. Thomas
ID. Wood. of Columbia university, given
in bulletin No. "a, United States bu-
eat of education.
This estimate. according to DR.. Hills
Cole, of the New York state health de-
partment, is an understatement rather
than an Overstatement.
Do no understand from this that we
are going to the dogs. The percentage
Is no higher than it was a few years
age. There is no prospect that these
100000 school children are doomed to
die or even to be seriously sick.
What the statement means is that
SAASoS 4sVVV,OVO CllO C1llluISH are
doomed to go through life more or less
incapacitated, more or less limited in
their earning capacity, and more or less
uncomfortable for the remainder of
their lives.
The only difference between now and
the past is that instead of putting up
with the condition, because it was in
evitable, we now know that it is not
inevitable. that it does % have to
be tolerated. n we are investigating
with the intention of making things
better for the people who are to be
doing h work of society for the next
80 years.
There is any amount of evidence that
painful feet are a most prevalent dis
order. DR.. Osgood says that one man.
ufacturer Of arch supporters made the
statement under oath that he sold 5000
pairs of arch supporters each month.
In the German army 10000 cases a
year Of painful feet are cared for. In a
large German o%rthopedic hospital one-
third Of all the cases treated were
cases Of painful feet.
Ewald examined 500 school children
and found one-third of them had pain
full feet and 60 per cent of them did not
carry their weight properly on their
feet. OF the girls at Wellesley, go per
Smith college Miss Rossiter found that
80 per cent of the girls had serious foot
trouble.
Said DR.. Berry, Of Troy, in the New
York Medical Journal:
ANY n doubling the frequent oc-
currence of pronated foot Cunning out
of the toes) should stand in front Of any
public school at closing time and OBJ
serve the feet Of the children as they
come out"
Some Of the tests for bad foot condi-
tons are easy of application. At the
front part of the pelvic bones. ordinar-
lily called the hip bones, there is a
small; easily located knob, called the
anterior spinoris process. 1t is easy
to locate this knob by touch through
the clothes.
When a child is standing a tape
passed from this knob through the
middle Of the kneecap should strike the
foot between the big toe and the Sec
ond toe. II this line strikes the foot
to h outside Of this point. say to-
ward the little toe. the person is pig
eon-toed. II it falls to the other side
OF h big toe. the person is said to
toe out, or to have pronated feet, or to
be slew-footed.
h latter position is much the worse
OF the two. for it tends to break down
the ~before-back arch in the foot, to
flatten the instep ana to cause the in
ner ankle to be carried lower than the
outer.
DR.. Brown carefully examined the
Feet OF 700 children in the Boston
schools n reported the results to the
international congress on school hy-
giene. Two-thirds Of the boys and two
fifths OF the girls bore their weight on
their feet correctly. One-third Of the
boys and more than one-half of the
girls stood on feet that either toed in
or slowed out.
Another easily observed point is the
condition Of the toes. When the toes
are found curled up, it is proof that the
arches and the tendons are not what
they should be. Generally 1t mean that
the arch under the ball from the big toe