THE EVIL EFFECTS OF HIGHHEELED BOOTS.

Manawatu Times, Volume III, Issue 9, 17 November 1877, Page 2

THE EVIL EFFECTS OF HIGHHEELED BOOTS.

M. Ominus lately made some sensible, though, we fear, vain, remarks on the subject of high-heeled oobte, at a meeting of the Parisian Medical Society. Since the introduction of the narrow, oblique highheols on which ladies now endeavour to progress, with a motion resembling, that of a mechanical doll, M. Ominus had been consulted by several young women of fashion who have sorely suffered from the prevailing mode. > It is scarcely necessary to observe that the weight of the body is shifted by the high heel from the calcaheum to the arch of vthe foot/ Which was intended to distribute weight andi not sustain it... The symptoms of which the patients, if we may .«p r r^cdm|>lain:'- .;c^.itH(B^are isevereupaiiis m ihe-muscles of the ; leg, excited by^ walking, and extending upwards from the; sole of the foot along the external and anterior border to the calf, to the muscles of the thigh. When the symptoms are severe, and give rise, as they often ; jd6, to general disturbance,^ theyyare quietly, set down: j^tp incipient hysteria but the>phyi siologist quickly discovers the cause, and traces it to the work unnaturally thrown on certain muscles. Hence J arise, m the first instance, undue I pressure on the plantar arch, which has a tendency to give way ; .displacement and perhaps slight separation of articular surfaces ; application to the ground of the heel and toe at one and the same time ; and irregular flexion and direction of the great toes from painful contraction of the * plantar muscles. The muscles <)f the leg*, chiefly those of the calf, being obliged to struggle continuously against the ; constanf tendency of the promenader tQ-be projected forwards, are affected with severe cramps, and , the peroneus longus especially continues to stifferi for a eprißi|derable time after -the other muscles*. J ln some cases the pain mounts to the knee, or even to the thigh ; and m delicate {females, nertous:symptoms r resembling those of hysteria, >are apt to ensue.— f : ; ' :