Page:Transactions of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia (ser 03 vol 05).djvu/201

 FOOT-BINDING IN CHINA.

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the embroidered shoe on, they make no concealment of their little feet. Binding is begun in infancy at Nmgpo, and not at five, six, or seven years, as in Canton, Swatow, Tie Chin, and, as a rule, in Southern ( !hina. The bandage used, is only about half the width of that in Swatow, or about an inch wide, and the tail of the strip is wound around the heel-piece of the shoe, which is put on before the binding is completed. The time when the first binding is done, she cannot state exactly, but she has often seen very small children with bound feet, carried about by their mothers — the youngest being certainly not more than thirteen months old. I have already stated that the Ningpo ladies are said to have the smallest feet in China ; which is thus accounted for, as I presumed might possibly be the case. My informant saw the casts now in the Mutter museum, when at Dr. Carrow's house, in Canton, and was struck with their large size, as compared with the feet she had so often seen under shoe and bandage in her own school. She says that, in Ningpo, the bandages are removed from the feet every two weeks; but that even with this more frequent change, the odor in a closed school-room is enough to sicken the stomach of an American or European, and a very free ventilation is essential to the comfort of the teacher. She also says that scrofula is very common among the Chinese, hut she has never seen it as a result of the foot-pressure ; in which she confirms the opinion, before quoted, of Mr. Williams, now a Professor in Yale College.

In consequence of the very early foot-binding in Xingpo, which is almost universal in the city proper, women are much more rarely seen in the streets than at Canton and Hong Kong, and have a greater difficulty in walking; their step being like that of one upon stilts. Their feet are more upon a level than those bound at five or six, and the women wear a much lower heel than in Canton.

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