FASHION SLAVES.

Hokitika Guardian, 9 July 1923, Page 1

FASHION SLAVES.

SAN FRANCISCO, -May 29 j Slaves to fashion in America have liven somewhat perturbed by a statement made by Dr Dudley J. -Morion, eminent orthopedic surgeon, who lias been working at Yale l Diversity on a cure for eluli feel, the foot expert having declared that toes are going out of fashion, in lad. lie stated that toes will lie worn shorter for the next “thousand' seasons,” until the little toe vanishes altogether, and all feet will become slender enough to tit the coveted double- A size. ■•The human foot is in a transitional stage at present as the result of the shoe habit,” Dr Morton said. "The high arch, for instance, is the artiiici.d creation "I tighl-litiitig shoes. Gorillas have no arch at all, and races which have not adopted shoes have a verv slight arch.

•■The high curve results when the I'iint is SO closely bound that it acts as a unit in leverage. H the loot continues to change along the line of its crescent tendencies, the outer side will atrophy, its lines will become much more slender, and the little toe will disappear. "Toes have already become much shorter. There was a time when mail had not developed lar beyond Hie great ape stage, that when the third toe was longer. "It is still longest during one stage of eiuhrvouu* development thus Midieating man's arboreal ancestry. As toes are no longer needed for tree climbing thev are dwindling away. Evolution means constant change; the man of the future will probably lie as diii’et'eiu from the man ot Jo-day as present, humanity is from the apes of the jungle. ■■Because l lie foot is in tins transitory state it can very easily he thrown out of gear. Bv wearing bedroom slippers in (lie house after a day in high heels a. woman does an inealculahk amount ut harm fo her loci and eoii.sei|Uemiv to her nervous system. The foot accommodates itself to high heels by the shot idling of t lie heel cord and ihe lowering and rolling over of the ankle hone. \\ lieu a change is stnlilciilv made in flat heels the slmrl eliod cod cannot adiust itself, and a very nicat nervous and muscular strain re-idi -. Even when t Imre is nn pain or apparent inconvenience the nervous tension is there jtM the same, and it Is likely to -how itself in headaches and other disorders that have no apparent connexion with the feel.” Dr Morion came into prominence a few months ago bv his dissect ion of tic ioot of John Daniels, a I’iligling Brothers’ Circus gorilla. St rncuirally. he discovered, the gorilla's loot M hall-way ln-tween i lie chimpanzee and