Rough on Bootmakers.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 11 March 1890, Page 2

Rough on Bootmakers.

~+ A correspondent of a contemporary .who ..Buffers from heavy "boot bill,'.!we are all acenstomed to, cites the following article that J appeared some time ago in the*' " Lanoet^ aud as it recommends a course, which is also the che&psat, we reproduce it, to enable economist* to back their action with such justification. Can children, go barefoot without injury?" says, •' This • question is every now and again proposed for discussion ; and whan, it is so we are compelled to give the same answer. On physiological grounds it is manifestly a sound practice to accustom children to develope the circulatory and muscular systems of the lower extremities, precisely as those of ihe hand are .developed, by free use and exposure. It is not supposed to be either necessary [or desirable tlvit children whould wear g'avesfor hygen'c purposes- When the hands of little folks are thus decoratbd, the parental idea is confes. sedly to give them, what is conventionally regarded as a . gauteel appearance. No one thinks a child out to be protected from the weather so far as its aands are concerned. On the contrary, is is recognised that the upper extremities should be kept warm by exercise and. habitual exposure. Precisely • the same viiw holds good with regard to the lower extremities. Contact with bodies that abstract heat, even more than the earth abstracts it, is an almost constant condition of child life. In short, it is , entirely in deference to fashion, raid the usages, of society that .children wear foot coverings. There is much to be said in favor of a more natural pratice. The foot is an organ of wondrous complexity, regarded as a. bony, and nmsoular apparatus. It is, more over, provided with nerves and blood vessels of especial intricacy. TJie softest and most flexible shoe to a very great extent, and a boot almost entirely, reduces this organ to the character of a jointed block, with little self movement. Obviously this reduction must detract npt only from the efficiency of the foot.Jout of the organism as a whole. If the Wood* vessels of the foot and! leg are fully developed, as they can only be when the foot is habitually exposed, the quantity of blood wbjefc the lower extremities can be made to receive, i'nd if need be attract for & time, is very considerable. We can only say that children who are allowed to go bare-footed eiyoy almost perfect immunity from the danger of "cold " by accidental chilling of the feet and they are altogether healthier and huppierthan those who, in obedience to the usages of social life, have their 'ower extremities permanently in* valid, and, so tosay, carefully swathed, and put away in rigid cases. As regards the poorer classes of children, there can' be .no sort of doubt in the mind of anyone that it is incompur ably better they should go barefooted than wear boots that let in the wet, and stockings that are nearly always damp and foul." , V