THE STRUCTURE OF THE HUMAN FEET, ETC.
“There is nothing more beautiful than the structure of the human foot,”
says Sir Charles Bell; “nor perhaps any demonstration which would lead a
well-educated person to desire to know more of anatomy than that of the
foot. The foot has in its structure all the fine appliances you see in a
building. In the first place, there is an arch, in whatever way you
regard the foot; looking down upon it, we perceive several bones coming
round the astralagos, and forming an entire circle of surfaces in the
contact. If we look at the profile of the foot, an arch is still
manifest, of which the posterior part is formed by the heel, and the
anterior by the ball of the great toe; and in the front, we find in that
direction a transverse arch: so that, instead of standing, as might be
imagined, on a solid bone, we stand upon an arch composed of a series of
bones, which are united by the most curious provision for the elasticity
of the foot; hence, if we jump from height directly upon the heel, a
severe shock is felt; not so, if we alight upon the ball of the great
toe, for there an elasticity is formed in the whole foot, and the weight
of the body is thrown upon this arch, and the shock avoided.”
Another writer, on the “diseases of the feet,” thus alludes to the
beauty and perfection of the human foot in its natural state:--
“The matchless forms of sculptured beauty which the destroying hand of
time has left us in the works of the mighty masters of the classic time,
exhibit to us the finest specimens of what the foot would be, if allowed
its free and uninterrupted action.
“We are immediately struck with the admirable manner in which it is
organized, both for the support of the frame and for motion; its
flexibility, its power of action, its form, seem all to have been the
result of the examination of the most perfect human models. We see that
there have been no artificial coverings, no compression, no restraints;
that the gait must have been free, firm, and elastic; that the natural
and healthful action of every muscle, tendon, joint, and bone, was fully
studied and expressed. There is no stiffness, no contraction of the heel
or the sole of the foot; to the toes are given their proper functions;
we see that only the sandal has been worn, merely to cover and protect
the integument under the broad and expanded foot, there have been no
ligatures, no unyielding bandages, no cramping compresses--all is alike
free, healthful, natural.
“We well can comprehend, on examining them, how the Macedonian phalanx
or the Roman legion, performed its long day’s march. We can see how ten
thousand Greeks pursued their daily wearying course through the
destroying climate of Asia, marching firmly, manfully, alike across the
arid sand, the mountain pass, or the flinty plain.
“We are almost led to the wish to see the European soldier similarly
prepared for his toilsome march, unencumbered by the unyielding shoe,
which sometimes becomes in the day a source of greater annoyance than of
comfort to him. He would be enabled to undertake fatigue and privations
for which he is now totally unprepared. He would find an elastic tread,
a firm command over his muscular system, follow upon such a plan. He
would be capable of making a charge upon the enemy with greater
steadiness, and enabled to bear the shock which he is now less capable
of resisting. In this respect we should do well to imitate the native
soldier of India, who, under the English banner, has followed a Clive, a
Hastings, or a Keane, when the British soldier has almost sunk from the
insuperable difficulties which attend wearing all parts of the dress he
has been accustomed to do in England, forgetful of the climate in which
he is placed.”
For upward of twenty years as a bootmaker, I have made the feet my
study, and during that period many thousand pairs of feet have received
my attention. I have observed with minute care the _cast_ from the
antique as well as “the modern instances,” and I am obliged to admit,
that much of the pain I have witnessed, much of the distortion of the
toes, the corns on the top of the feet, the bunion on the side, the
callosities beneath, and the growing-in of the nails between, are
attributable to the shoemaker. The feet, with proper treatment, might be
as free from disease and pain as the hands; their structure and
adaptation to the wants and comfort of man, as we have seen, is most
perfect. Thirty-six bones and thirty-six joints have been given by the
Creator to form one of these members, and yet man cramps, cabins, and
confines, his beautiful arrangements of one hundred and forty-four bones
and joints, together with muscles, elastic cartilage, lubricating oily
fluid, veins, and arteries, into a pair of shoes or boots, which,
instead of protecting from injury, produces the most painful as well as
permanent results. Many volumes have been written on the cause of
corns, and it has been my lot to wade through many of them, without
gaining much for my pains. I have therefore arrived at the conclusion,
notwithstanding all that has been said to the contrary, that corns are
in all cases the result of pressure.
I am confirmed in this opinion by one of the most respectable
chiropodists of the present day (Mr. Durlacher), a gentleman who has had
a considerable experience in the treatment of corns and bunions. He
says:--
“Pressure and friction are unquestionably the predisposing causes of
corns, although, in some instances, they are erroneously supposed to be
hereditary. Improperly-made shoes invariably produce pressure upon the
integuments of the toes and prominent parts of the feet, to which is
opposed a corresponding resistance from the bone immediately beneath, in
consequence of which the vessels of the dermis are compressed between
them, become injured, congested, and, after a time, hypertrophied.
“When corns are produced by friction and slight pressure, they are the
result of the shoes being too large and the leather hard, so that, by
the extension of the foot, the little toe, or any prominent part, is
constantly being rubbed and compressed by its own action.
“This may continue on and off for months, or even years, before any
inconvenience is experienced, but, progressively, the cuticle increases,
and is either detached from the dermis by serum being poured out between
them, similar to a common blister, and a new covering produced, or the
epidermis thickens into layers adhering to each other.”
Chiropodists have been in the habit of classifying corns into--
1. Hard corns.
2. Soft corns.
3. Bleeding corns.
And these classes have been subdivided into many varieties, but it is
enough, in a treatise on the feet and their covering, to allude to the
cause of torment generally, as a hard substance and a soft one, pressing
into the foot, as the Roman name emphatically describes it, “clavus
dura”--a small tack.
The approach of a corn, as all who ever felt it know, commences with a
slight inflammatory smart on the prominent part of the little toe; then
comes on the excessive burning, the throbbing, the stabbing: “a little
longer, yet a little longer;” and then the point of the tack begins to
enter, the outer skin is penetrated, the next membrane becomes inflamed,
and, from the delicate “network” of the rete mucosum, an increased
quantity of secretion is poured out: gradually a substance is formed,
hard, horny, and with a sharp point, that descends deeper and deeper
into the foot, until not unfrequently it reaches and enters the
blood-vessels and very joints themselves.
All attempts at cure must be directed to the point of the corn. It has
been usual to salve and plaster and cut the head of this tack, generally
with little or no success--call it a thorn in the foot, “spina pedum,” a
name given to it by some practitioners; and how absurd this palliative
treatment appears--every one knows that the thorn must immediately be
extracted, and if we delay, great pain is the consequence, and soon
nature expels it herself.
Some balsams and tinctures have been much spoken of by the older writers
on the different excrescences, but modern practice has very judiciously
excluded them, from their insufficiency to produce any good effect. The
radical cure is more dependent upon surgical than medical means.
“Although I have devoted,” says Mr. Durlacher, “nearly thirty years
practical experience to the investigation, and have tried various
chymical and other remedial agents, yet I have never been able to
discover any certain cure for corns. Nevertheless, men are found bold
enough in their ignorance and presumption, to assert, by public
advertisement, that they possess an infallible nostrum, capable of
thoroughly eradicating corns; and others who pretend to extract them,
seek to aid their trickery and charlatanry by exhibiting small spiculæ
as the roots of the corns they have extracted, although it is a positive
fact from the structure of the skin, that such an assertion must be
false, and the whole proceeding the veriest imposition imaginable.”
The reader must, by this time have arrived at the conclusion, that the
whole mischief is to be laid upon the covering of the feet, and not on
the feet themselves. In some instances it may be admitted that the feet
are peculiarly exposed to injury from the delicacy of the skin; some
persons are constitutionally predisposed to corns, the slightest
friction or pressure being sufficient to cause irritation, or, as in
some cases, to develop a corn that has sometime been lying dormant. The
illustrations given in former chapters of fashions, will sufficiently
prove the cause of distortion of the feet; and the result of this
infliction of pain for the sake of fashion, has been a plentiful harvest
of corns.
Every one who has corns knows and feels that pressure is the cause; “no
one knows better where the shoe pinches, than he who wears it.” Yet few
persons know why it hurts, or are aware how the remedy should be
applied.
Sometimes a shoe is too large, often too small, very often too short,
but generally the wrong shape altogether. The fault is not so much in
the shoes themselves, as in the lasts from which they are made; there
the cause is to be found, and there it has been my study for many years
to apply the remedy.
The best materials may have been used for sole and upper leather; the
most exquisite closing and stabbing been put in till the work “looked
like print;” the workmanship may have been “firstrate,” but deficient in
the primary and most essential part--the suitable form of the last on
which the article was to be moulded. The boot or shoe would not be a
suitable or comfortable covering for the foot, and the unfortunate
wearer again finds that he has put his feet into the “shoemaker’s
stocks.”
Every one who wishes to be comfortably fitted, should have a pair of
lasts made expressly for his own use; experience has taught me, and
doubtless many other masters who have had much to do with bespoke work
for tender or peculiar feet, that no plan is equal to this to secure a
good fit and save inconvenience and disappointment for the future.
The length and the width are now every-day affairs, but the judgment of
fitting is another thing, and here is the true skill.
A last fitted up to the length and width may do or it may not; it may do
by chance, or fail of necessity; but if fitting be anything, it is a
skilful adaptation of the last to the true form and requirements of the
foot generally.
[Illustration]
The outlines, 1, 2, 3, will show the direction and bearing of three
different feet, neither of which would be comfortably fitted, if the
length and width were the only points attended to. For No. 1 we require
a straight-formed last, with an equal proportion of wood on each side
the centre line. No. 2 requires considerable fulness of the inside
joint, to allow for a bunion; the great toe requires a bed for the ball
to rest in; the waist must be very hollow, else the quarter will bag;
while No. 3 requires a wide flat tread and great thickness of wood, for
the toes which are covered with corns.
Many persons have an idea that right and left shoes are a comparatively
modern invention, but the illusions and illustrations to the contrary,
in pages 39-44 disprove this; straight lasts are decidedly a modern
invention, and notwithstanding what many persons say to the contrary,
are decidedly inferior to a well-formed right and left pair.
The great evil has been that all right and left lasts, of late have been
_crooked_. It was thought in abandoning the straight last with its
faults, that a perfect fit could be secured in rights and lefts; and
from one extreme, as is generally the case in fashion, the opposite was
adopted, and a twisted right and left made the matter still worse.
It was thought nothing could be right and left but that which took a
decided turn, and the consequence has been that for years lasts have
been made with an ugly twist inward, where no wood was required, and on
the outside, where the toes with all their tenderness and liability to
injury have required thickness and breadth, nothing has been left.
I have pointed out this fault to last-makers a thousand times--have
stood by them at their work, and have seen the part--where, of all
things, I wished the room to be left--cruelly sliced off, or rasped
away: the consequence to the unfortunate wearer of a shoe or boot made
on that last must have been, months of torture.
Some workmen, however, have at last seen the error they have all along
been committing, and adopted the improved form, wondering how it was
never thought of before.
[Illustration]
No. 1 represents a sketch of the foot and the sole usually formed to
fit it. No. 2 is a well-formed sole, straight, suitable, and far more
elegant.
The _straight_ last has often been a better right and left for certain
feet, than the _pair_ made for them, the room having been given at the
part most wanted, which was the chief thing: and although the hollow of
the foot was not at all fitted, and the quarter gaped outside, yet it
was easy. On the other hand the right and left was deficient on the
outside, and having nothing for the second, third, and little toe, they
were cramped together, and the consequences were immediate pain, a hard
corn on the joints of the little toe and a soft one between the others.
All this may be avoided. The form of the feet should be taken in outline
on a sheet of paper, and the prominent toes noted down at the time, and
immediately after a pair of lasts made suitable in every way.
But instead of this, hundreds of shoemakers in the country have been
making all their lifetime, from some old misshapen pieces of wood, that
perhaps had done service to their fathers and grandfathers, and been
patched and altered to suit the wants of a whole parish. Even in town,
where we have last-makers at our elbow, we have been far from doing what
we ought in this matter. Instead of fitting the foot to the shoe, the
business of the tradesman certainly is to shape his last so correctly
that the shoe should fit the foot.
Petrarch is said to have nearly lamed himself from the attempts he made,
and the pinching he underwent, to display to his Laura a neat foot.
Cases of this kind are frequently met with every day, where every
sacrifice is made for this end, and pinching all over the foot may be
tolerated, and no bad consequences ensue for a time; but the pinching at
one place is the point which ought immediately to be “reformed
altogether.”
It is extremely amusing to witness, on the other side, the care some old
gentlemen take to get their shoes made easy; while the Petrarch of the
present day, orders his boots to be _smart_, and threatens his bootmaker
that if he can get into them, he “won’t have ’em,” the old gentleman of
experience and wisdom comes with two pairs of thick lamb’s wool
stockings on, which his friend who accompanies him waggishly says, are--
“His youthful hose well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank;”
he looks knowingly in return and whispers, that he put on two pairs of
the thickest stockings he had, on purpose to deceive the shoemaker.
In the early English translation of “Lazarillo de Tormes,” is this
passage: “If you bid a shoemaker who has been thirty years at his trade
make a new pair of shoes with broad toes, high in the instep, and tight
about the heel, he must pare your feet before he pleases you”--a sly,
but sarcastic allusion to the imperfect fitting of the shoemaker, and an
admission of the pride of the wearer.
Ladies and gentlemen, and even children, should have their own lasts,
and be sure they are carefully and correctly made to the feet.
It would, however, be expecting too much that for a single pair of shoes
or boots, a shoemaker or bootmaker should make for his customer a pair
of lasts, free of charge; as prices are now, he would be a considerable
loser--the customer might never favor him with another order, he seeks a
cheaper shop--goes abroad or dies. The lasts on which a skilful workman
has been employed for perhaps a whole day, and which cost at least four
or five shillings, are left on his hands perfectly useless.
For my own personal comfort I would weigh my own lasts which have been
carefully made, in a scale against their weight in silver, and consider
them cheap; numbers of our nobility and gentry, in effect, do the same,
and to a much greater amount, for their personal comfort, in matters of
the teeth, eyes, chest, hair, hands, and ears. Then why not a little
sacrifice, a little more liberality, to those important members--the
feet.
No such remuneration, however, as I have hinted at would be expected;
five or six shillings generally would remunerate the maker of a pair of
lasts, and the better the fit the greater satisfaction to all.
We have now seen the fashions from the earliest period; many of the
shoes from their form and material must have been comfortable; the broad
shoe of Henry VIII., wood engraving p. 46, was one of that class, and
the slashed specimens in p. 47 sufficiently show where the shoe pinched
in 1577, and how relief was sought and obtained: even the very worst of
all the fashions might have been made comparatively comfortable had due
attention been paid to the form of the lasts.
The poet Gay gives a caution on this matter, and if the value I attach
to my lasts be their weight in silver, I am free to confess Gay’s lines
are worth their weight in _gold_.
“Let firm well-hammered soles protect thy feet,
Through freezing snows and rains and soaking sleet.
Should the big last extend the shoe too wide,
Each stone will wrench the unwary step aside;
The sudden turn may stretch the swelling vein,
The cracking joint unhinge, or ankle sprain;
And, when too short the modest shoes are worn,
You’ll judge the seasons by your shooting corn.”