Diseases > Domestic medicine

DOMESTIC MEDICINE* 109
mortifications proceeding from this cause. All these,
and many other inconveniences attending the feet,
must he imputed solely to the use of short and strait
The size and figure of the shoe ought certainly to
be adapted to the foot. In children the feet are as
well shaped as the hands, and the motion of tho
toes as free and easy as that of the fingers: yet few
persons in the advanced periods of life are able to
make any use of their toes. They are generally, by
narrow shoes, squeezed all of a heap, and often laid
over one another in such a manner as to be rendered
altogether incapable of motion. Nor is the high heel
less hurtful than the narrow toe. A lady may seem
taller for walking on her tiptoes, but she will never
walk well in this manner. It strains her joints,
distorts her limbs, makes her stoop, and utterly
destroys all her ease and gracefulness of motion: it
is entirely owing to shoes with high heels and narrow
toes, that not one female in ten can be said to walk
well.
In fixing on the clothes, due care should be taken
to avoid all tight bandages. Garters, buckles, &c.
when drawn too tight, not only prevent the free
motion and use of the parts about which they are
bound, but likewise obstruct the circulation of the
blood, which prevents the equal nourishment and
growth of these parts, and occasion various diseases.
Tight bandages about the neck, as stocks, cravats,
necklaces, &c. are extremely dangerous. They ob¬
struct the blood in its course from the brain, by
which means headachs, vertigos, apoplexies, and
other fatal diseases are often occasioned.
The perfection of dress is to be easy and clean.
Nothing can be more ridiculous, than for any one to
make himself a slave to fine clothes. Such a one.