Page:Why the Shoe Pinches.djvu/40

 exactly to the foot," says the shoemaker, and his victim also readily consoles himself with this reflection, and attributes his long-endured infirmity of feet to every cause but the right one. In this expedient there is also, however, much deception, the very foundation on which it rests being quite untenable. It proceeds on the principle that there are primary differences in the structure of feet; this is an error. All feet are perfectly alike in the principles of their mechanical construction, and the only differences in our healthy feet are those arising from varying length and breadth. In the original form of the foot we never meet with those essential differences, designated by shoemakers straight or bent feet, and still less with such variations as arise from the position in which the great toe lies, or from the thickness of the ball at its root. Variations of the latter description only indicate how far the form of the foot has passed towards the shape of the shoe; in other words, to what extent the foot has become deformed by shoes worn at a former period.

For healthy feet, therefore, a drawing is superfluous; it is sufficient to have the length and breadth, and—most important of all—a knowledge of the structure of the healthy foot. To the management of feet already distorted I shall return hereafter.

The true form of the foot, moreover, is never attained by such a drawing. It is usually taken from a foot