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, and if the shoemaker calculates the length of the sole by that of the measured length of the foot, he makes the shoe too short. In such a shoe there is no possibility of the great toe ever attaining its true position; on the contrary, it is still more firmly fixed in its false direction, and all the consequent evils are thus intensified.

In order that the shoe may not pinch, the shoemaker is also in the habit, with the very best intentions, of making the upper leather very roomy towards the inside opposite the projecting ball of the great toe. This expedient, however, as will readily be perceived, has the great disadvantage of affording still greater facility for the further displacement of the root of the great toe.

Thus when the shoemaker flatters himself that he has made a very comfortable and particularly good fit, it turns out that he has actually increased the distorting pressure on the great toe, and thus favoured the exciting cause of the whole mischief.

Numerous examples have already shown us that the ordinary covering of the foot has many disadvantages; many attempts have accordingly been made to overcome these evils in one of these two ways:—

1. By making the shoe very broad;