Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 64, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 November 1909 — THE HUMAN FOOT. [ARTICLE]

THE HUMAN FOOT.

Man has been described as a parasite, bulbus at one end and bifurcated at the other. He certainly is the arch parasite, preying off all creation, but he is more than bifurcated at one end, for the bifurcations have for termini structures of remarkable and exquisite adaptability and beauty and a mechanical perfection which cannot be surpassed. It was the foot that made the head possible, and yet, ever since the beginning of the molicular movement of the wonderous convoluted mass which fills the dome of man, the foot has been regarded with contempt, no credit being.given to it for the great part it has played in his developement. The footwas imperatively necessary during the arboreal period of our existence, and had it then been encased as It now is, the conservation of natural resources would never have been considered for the proud parasite who has in the name of developement so energetically conducted his .compaign of devastation, would have been easily snuffed out In the struggle for existence. Why have we so neglected the foot, yes abused and deformed It, when it has been, is nofr and ever will be, an all important factor In our existence? Among civilized people the encasing and resulting deforming of the foot begins almost immediately after birth, and after ten years of age, all feet have been more or less deformed- In China, the male foot is nearer the normal than among the patent leather nations, but in the Flowry Kingdom, the female foot rivals in its deformity that of her sister of Christian lands. For any one who has- a trace of artistic sense or an iota of appreciation of beauty, it is a shock to behold- the feet of today. The anatomist, when he contemplates the mechanical excellence and rare beauty of the normal human foot, is filled with admiration of the Omnipotence which created it; but when he beholds the twisted, knarled knotted, bebunioned, becorned monstrosity of today, he sadly says: Only man is vile. Fable has it that tne peacock would die of pride if it were ifot for his feet, but curious man has made his feet ugly, because of pride. He first sought to protect them, for this became necessary when he abandoned arboreal life, but presently he began to confine them closer and closer, the sandal which carried Caesar’s legions to victory, being abandoned for the deforming tight leather box, now universally used. It was false pride that invented and developed the mishappen ugly shoe of to-day; which, inasmuch as it violates every canon of symetry, beauty and mechanical usefulness as reflected from the normal foot, constitutes a mlsr carriage of the human brain. Pride, vain glory and hyprocacy, assisted much by stupidity, invented the pointed and crooked shoe of today. Had we possessed the slightest appreciation of the natural symetry, the beauty and the mechanical excellence and usefulness of the human foot we would not now be suffering to such a degree from spinal and nervousi disorders. The French highheeled shoe is an instrument for public ill health, not equalled by all the bad smelling dead animal rendering establishments belonging to our cities. —By Dr. J. N. Hurty, State Health Commissioner.