The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1918-01-24
they find NO. is FOOT AT CAMP
Army Making Careful Study of Feet 742 Ho Cases In Hospital

| serve In the army OF lHe Illteu
States doesn't always mean dis
charging them from service and
sending them to their homes.
Sometimes it means making
them fit. When a man has tu-
berculosis there is danger that he
will infect others. and because tu-
berculosis is a difficult disease to
cure and the cure costly in time
and money, Uncle Sam doesn't at.
tempt to make soldiers from tn.
berculous material.
But in the case of foot trouble
it is better to get rid Of the trou-
bic than it is to get rid OF the
man.
This is the province Of the or
theopedic experts, headed at Camp
Lewis by Capt. Il. A. Rich, former
Tacoma physician.
OILY 100 Sent Home.
Since the mobilization of the
first draft only a few more than
100 soldiers have been sent to
their homes because of foot dis
ease.
The small number is due partly
to the careful inspection of Sc
lected mems feet by the local
board examiners, according to
Capt. Rich, and partly to the fact
that there are few foot maladies
which the base hospital physicians
cannot cure.
However, because they are more
or less easy of cure, Goes not go
to say that they are not of i'm
portance.
"An army Is no stronger than
the feet of the men composing It,
says Capt. Rich. "A man may
have gall stones, for example, and
while suffering can fight, but a
man with blister or an liberated
bunion is useless on the fighting
line. You'll find him in his bunk,
usually"
SO the greatest of care is used
in the inspection of the fighter s
feet and even tho they may not
give him trouble in the training
camp, If there is reason to believe
that under greater strains they
would give him pain, he Is made
an "out patient" and treated reg
ularlly at the base hospital "hoof
ward" There are 742 such out
patients now.
AS a rule, according to the ex-
perts, 1t is the men from the coun-
try who has the poorest feet. City
men, they say, have far less foot
disease despite the allegation that
fashionable shoes are productive
of corns.
The men from Montana and
Idaho are more often seen in the
base hospital than those from
California and Washington and
Oregon cities.
Longer and Broader.
Then, too, the foot of the coun-
try man is bigger proposition,
say the doctors. 1t averages con-
siderably longer and broader than
those of the city men.
Capt. Rich and his fellow work
ers have just concluded the meas
urement of 5000 pairs of soldiers
feet on a special order from the
war department. The figures were
taken in all Of the cantonments
and will be compared and used as
the basis for the ordering of the
next shipments of shoes.
The measurements here
show that the average foot is
10 inches long, nine inches
diagOnally measured across
the ball of the foot, 3 inches
around the wrist (above the
ankle), o IL inches around
the iBstep and IL 3-S inches
around the heel. The small
est foot inspected was @ 3-8
inches long, while biggest was. Z.
too big to be measured by the
instruments at hand. It was
ID IL inches long and fit a
10 shoe. -.
Many a man, say the doctors,
has been rated as a Stacker" by
his company commander when in
fact he was a good soldier with
aching feet.
After the first two weeks In
camp there is a short period when
the new soldiers feet give him
acute trouble.
During this time the regimental
physicians are busy distributing
foot powders and good advice and
before the end of another week
the feet are toughened so that the
days march brings no undue dis
comfort.
| Shoe Must Fit.
In the supplying Of the men
with shoes the physicians are
scrupulously careful. The shoe
must fit. 1t is a product of the
most careful workmanship and de-
sign and built on absolute scienti-
fic principles but all Of its good
points will be lost II it doesn't fit
the man who wears 1t.
The army shoe has the hair
side OF the skin out, because that
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