FEET AND BOOTS.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 1917, 24 February 1875, Page 4

FEET AND BOOTS.

From a professional journal we learn that kid gloves, though worn continually, nevW cause bunions, since the kid atretches to the hands ; but in the manufacture of boots, especially ladies'boots* unyielding canvas is used to line them, so that the leather si jit prevented from stretching and showing the true shapo and size of the foot. The foot enlarges when bearing the weight of the body, and also towards evening; hence, a boot thus made for a measure taken when the foot is suspended in the air and in the morning, is too small for the foot in the evening. Women's feet are generally measured in the air, but men's * hen they are standing on them. The high heels in ladies' boots,, too, will be always causing them to walk down hill, however level the path may be, thus driving the foot more to the front. By wearing short boots the great toe is brought sharply in contact with the end, and, as the tarsus and metatarsus will not yield much, and the metatatfsb-phalangeal joint will, a deflexion of the great . toe takes place outwards, and sometimes downwards. This the most frequent and worst form. This deflexion of the great toe is the source of great trouble, as bunions occur over the metatarso-phalangeal joint, soft corns on the second, third, and fourth toes, under which it lies, and, worst of all, a total loss of movement in the great toe. Numerous are the maladies which follow the wearing of distorted, small, or ill-fitting boots, such as deformities of the toes, bunions, corns, in-growing nails, painful burs», <fee. In order to study deformities of the toes, you should obtain a good v idea of a perfect foot. In a perfect female foot you find a great width and fulness of instep, wellmarked great toej long second toe, projecting a little beyond great toe, and ftfj|ry small—or in some cases altogether suppressed little toe. In the male the great toe in not-quite so prominent as the second. The feet of all persons cannot be deformed, nor can corns and bunions be produced in every one. It isdoubtless owing to their complete reactive nutrition, the repair that takes place in the night being more than enough for the day's waste. This is not impossible when it is remembered the complete repair that occurs after great muscular waste, as in athletes. The troubles then set up in the integuments," fasciae, and tendons of the toes, are rather to be regarded as diseases setup by the pressure and friction of boots. By the bye, the old classical models show us that the second toe naturally extends a little beyond the great toe; 'but that perfect type of foot' is disappearing under,the influence of improper covering. In every case in which the foof is deformed through wearing an illfitting boot, affections such as bunions and corns always appear, and they may also to persons who. have well-made feet. There is no distinct definition between bunions and corns, for the bunion is an enlarged and diseased bursa, and is commonly seated over the mctatarso-phalan-Seal joint of the great toe in cases where le toe is everted by the wearing of boots that are too small for the; feet; A. bunion may not only .bejformed in that j>lace, but any part bf tne foot which is subjected to friction and pressure may become the seat of a morbidly formed bursa. Over it a corn is frequently prbdJiced. A bursa may be regarded as a natural structure, developed to ward off pressure and protect the i joint beneath, and for that reaSbn it is enlarged; but it soph passes that degree of healthy character, and becomes the seat of morbid changes. These changes are:—Simple inflammation which a day's hard working will produce; goaty inflammation, in which case you may have difficulty in deciding whether, it is gout or notj excessivehardness and thickening of walls of bursa through repeated attacks of inflammation and suppuration, which not unfroquently takes place. It is a most painful affection, the pain being ielt not only at the ■eat of disease, but in some cases,up the limb as well. The integuments swell, and frequently there is lymphatic swelling, with enlargement of the glands. If communication between the bursa and the joint occurs in young persons, acute inflammation, destruction of the joint, will follow. Not so in old persons, for they can tolerate it; but although acute inflammation does not set in, the joint is spoilt through the loss of its cartilage. These art not all or even the worst of the effects of bunions, however, since they may lead to utter destruction and amputation of the foot, or to gangrene.—Pictorial World.