Babyhood . lt life a foot that has retained thenatural shape of its anterior part. This isdue to a persistent pressure in wrong direc-tions made from early childhood upon thecoes by badly-shaped shoes and heel, ankle, and instep are pretty wellfitted to resist pressure, and hence are rela-tively but little injured by a bad shoe. Thetoes and the joints they make with the bodyof the foot yield to pressure, and the dis-tortion is thoughtlessly, or from a false notionof beauty, pressed fartherand farther until a remark-able degree of deformityis attained. The instanceof the Chinese d
Babyhood . lt life a foot that has retained thenatural shape of its anterior part. This isdue to a persistent pressure in wrong direc-tions made from early childhood upon thecoes by badly-shaped shoes and heel, ankle, and instep are pretty wellfitted to resist pressure, and hence are rela-tively but little injured by a bad shoe. Thetoes and the joints they make with the bodyof the foot yield to pressure, and the dis-tortion is thoughtlessly, or from a false notionof beauty, pressed fartherand farther until a remark-able degree of deformityis attained. The instanceof the Chinese dwarfedfeet is interesting chieflyas illustrating to what de-gree persistent compres-sion may alter the shape ofthe foot. The three cutswhich follow are from trac-ings made from feet, and il-lustrate in different degreesthe effects of pressure. Fig. 5 is a tracing of footof a child of about fouryears of age, sister to the «c 5. infant from whose foot Fig. 4 was was made by simply placing the foot. BAB YHOOD. 233 on the paper and following the circumfer-ence with a pencil. The plumpness of achilds foot is misleading, and at first glancethe foot may impress the reader as perfect inshape. Doubtless it was such at birth. Butit will be noticed that the middle line of thegreat toe, D C, no longer is a continuationof the line A C, but is bent outward awayfrom it. If the foot remained as at birth Dwould coincide with B. But bad shoeinghas crowded the great toe towards its nextneighbor until the natural gap between themis closed and they lie side by side. Fig. 6 is from a tracing of the foot of aman in middle life, who in early life suffer-ed the usual martyrdomfrom misfitting shoes,but by careful attentionto the construction of hisfeet regained a part of theflexibility of the foot. Thedivergence between thelines C B and C D is notgreat; but the smallertoes—particularly the littletoe—are crowded inwardstill, and probably willnever regain their fullfunction. Fortunatelythe
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