Procrustes ante portas : Why the shoe pinches : a contribution to applied anatomy / by Hermann Meyer ... ; translated from the German by John Stirling Craig.

  • Meyer, Hermann.
Date:
[1861]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Procrustes ante portas : Why the shoe pinches : a contribution to applied anatomy / by Hermann Meyer ... ; translated from the German by John Stirling Craig. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

    15/62
    amples of this. The second toe is here pressed upwards above the great toe, and is thus only partially seen in looking at the sole of the foot. But we also occa- sionally find one of the other toes displaced, and I have frequently observed the small toe lying transversely across the backs of the others. In both cases it very constantly happens that, in addition, one or more of the smaller toes are compelled to lie bent up, so that the first joint resembles a knob. This defect also becomes permanent. It is clear that all these evils must become much greater if, in addition to its otherwise unsuitable shape, the shoe is made too short, since in this case the point of the great toe receives an additional backward pressure, which forces it still more against the smaller toes, and displaces its root still further inward. Such very marked distortions as are represented in the figures above are cer- tainly not very frequent, yet they occur much oftener than we should expect. That even apparently healthy feet are not quite free from traces of these defor- mities is exemplified by Fig. 14, which at the first glance seems to be perfectly sound; on trying to draw on it the line seen in Figs. 3 and 4, we shall discover however, that even here the great toe is directed obliquely outwards. HOW THE SHOE GETS TRODDEN ON ONE SIDE. The first consequence of the existence of such an unnatural relation between the sole of the shoe and the sole of the foot, is that the foot, e«pecial- ly while on the ground in walking and standing, exerts a counter pressure on its covering. The upper leather is to a certain extent compelled to take the nat- ural form of the foot. With dry and hard upper leathers this modelling process is slow and gradual, but with flexible materials the change takes place rapidly. Aware of this, we never put on our best shoes in rainy weather, because they would very soon lose all pretentions to elegance by acquiring the form of the foot, which as we have seen is very different from the shape of a fashionable shoe. Since, then, the structure of the foot is such that the point of the great toe, the middle of its root, and the central point of the heel, lie in one straight line, it is natural that the upper leather should assume a shape in which the recipro- cal relation of these three points can be maintained; and this shape is actually obtained in one of the two following ways:— Either the point of the great toe pushes itself into a continuation of the line which can be drawn through the centre of the heel and its own root, and in this case the upper leather is pressed over the inner edge of the front of the sole. Or (and this is more usual) the heel moves its centre into the line which can be drawn through the length of the great toe, and then the upper leather is forced over the inner edge of the heel. In either case the shoes are said to be trodden on one side; and about this we grumble, while in truth this treading on one side is in reality a treading straight, the result of a victory gained by ill-used nature over unnatural constraint. These two methods of treading on one side are the only examples of it which oocur in walking with sound and properly formed feet; and hence they are fre-