Boots and Deformities of the Feet.

Otago Witness, Issue 2883, 23 June 1909, Page 84

Boots and Deformities of the Feet.

When we consider how important a part the feet play in oui general health, it is remarkable that people have for so long tolerated the ridiculous custom which compels tliem to cramp their feet into such shapes that more or less crippling is almost universal amongst civilised men and women. There is, it is true, an increasing tendency to give ear to the voice of common-sense and to have our feet and our boots a little more adapted to one another.

To begin with, the whole weiorht of the body is supported on a very delicately constructed bony arch in each of out feet. The individual who invented boots seems to have been dissatisfied with this arch, and decided to tilt it by means of the raised portion of our boots known as the " heel." Only now are we coining to sac that the lower the heel the better the boot, and after a time we shall no doubt realise at last what is the obvious trath — namely, that the heel and t)-*e sole of a boot should be of the same depth.

Then again, we have only to look at the foot of a baby or of a savage to see that its widest part is at the toes. Yet thosrnakera have entered into a conspiracy to make that the narrowest part of our boots, consequently we got corns and bunions and hammer toas, to say nothing of ingrowing toe mails and' other minor ilia. If boots are required the only sensible thing is to have a tracing made of our naked foot as we stand on a sheet of paper, and to insist that our boots 'be made of the same size and shape as the tracing, and to have our heels cither absent or made as low as possible.