The Oakley herald. [volume] (Oakley, Idaho) 1908-1961, 1914-08-07
THE FOOT.

"8 90 tHc TcUuit Oh experiment.
conducted by M. Lahy over q period Of
ten years that persons who work con
stantly In the midst Of harsh noise
show symptoms of exceptional fatigue
due to excessive blood pressure while
working. followed by depression Of the
vital forces" And Emile Gautier, the
well-known scientist. 10 quoted ~ com
pairing city noises ito blows Of q ham.
mer upon the nervous syutem," and
stating that such noises frequently
repeated tend to cause 1eurasthenia In
persons naturally sensitive to noise
There is not the shadow Of a doubs
as to the truth OF these observations.
And, further, we venture to state that
there IL not competent specialist Of
more than I'VE years experience In
any country In the world wto cannot
snow In his records many cases Of
mental exhaustion from the over use
OF whatever organ falls within his spe-
cial held Of observation, be It the eye,
ear. nose or any other part.
We have long been familiar with the
phenomena of reflex irritation a. a
factor in human suffering. but the sub
ject has never received the attention
1t deserves and that 1t il destined to
receive from this time on.
We do not have to be conscious of
irritation to suffer the reaction from
over stimulation. And here we have
an Illustration of the effect of inertia
on the human mind: for the scientific
gentleman who will 80 clearly point
out the cause Of many cases OF human
wreckage among his clients is usually
himself victim of the same irritation
from another point. Obviously he lacks
either In intellectual integrity or in
that broad grasp Of principle approx
imating genius, or he would recognize
In the fourteenth century type of con-
traption he wears on his feet source
OF irritation OF vastly more destructive
power than can possibly flow from eye,
ear or nose
Every normal baby boz: into this
world has q foot so shNped that q
straight line drawn from the center of
the end OF the big toe through the GEN.
ter OF Its base will pass through the
center of the heel Of the foot. This
Imaginary line was discovered many
years ago by man named Meyer and
has since been known as Meyers
line,' and on the preservation of this
line depends foot comfort and, to a
very large degree, general health and
happiness as we'll
Inc foot Is composed OF 26 bones,
more or less movable Fourteen of
these belong to the toes, the remaining
IL being series Of odd shaped bones
forming two arches. The weight of
the body Is carried on the astragalue,
the highest bone in the arch. These
two arches are held up by two sets of
originating In the heavy calf
muscles. One set, running down under
the heel bone and extending from heel
to toes. strings the longitudinal arch
up just as bowstring strings a bow: |
others running down the inside of the
leg turn under the arch of the instep |
and. extending across the sole of the |
foot are anchored to a bone near the |
base OF the little toe. stringing up the |
crosswise arch. The give and pull of |
the calf muscles on these tendon ropes
that hold up the arches forms a won
derfully efficient set of springs and in
sures an easy. graceful, swinging and |
ever enduring gait II they are permit
ted to operate.
When the entire weight of the body
Is thrown on the foot In taking a nor
nal stride the longitudinal arch will
expand approximately three-uuarters
)f an inch and the cross arch about
,ne-half inch. II this free action be
1ot permitted then II means weaken
ng the muscles OF not only the entire
leg and hips but Of the back and abdo-
men as well, besides disturbing the
In general and converting
he natural walk into 4 waddle. Few
people walk these days-they cannot;
hey tire too easily because their CEN
.er OF gravity is displaced
1t would be much less harmful II
my person thoroughly convinced that
nature had made a mistake In shaping
he human foot should have his feet
eshaped to suit with saw and knife
han to devote life time to moldinR
hem into conventional lines by the
sual daily hammering, which is bru-
al and disastrous because each step
AIKEN means a blow on the brain
issue.
Nervous exhaustion is a powerful
actor in the stupefaction of multi
udes who imagine they are i'll, and
he key to the puzzle is without doubt
0 be found In the fact that It is
pong the class showing the greatest
istortion OF Meyers line" that the
asst majority of the most aggravated
ypes q neurasthenia are to be found.
ANY pressure that can possibly dis
ort Meyers line" is at the same
me applied to this special sense area,
nd this brings us face to face with
he question of nerve cell exhaustion
trough foot irritation-a subject on
hich the average individual Is ex-
eedlngly sensitive because 1t touches
n the style OF the shoe. an article OF
pparel In which there has been little