Petrus Camper, "On the Best Form of Shoe," translated from Dutch into English by James Dowie, The Foot and Its Covering (London: Hardwicke, 1861): xxvii-44.
Plate I, Fig. 1. The foot is divided into three parts, of which the principal, N, E, is called the Tarsus; E, D, the Metatarsus; and D, A, the Toes.
Plate I, Fig. 2. The change which takes place in the foot when we walk is of great importance: the great toe, A, K, then rests upon the ground; the metatarsus, or instep, rises from b to B; and the line d, c, lengthens and extends to B, increasing the interval c, B, which is in this figure 1/4 of an inch French measure, and, in consequence, a whole inch in nature.
The soles of our shoes and boots, which are generally made of the strongest leather, become, in consequence of this elongation of the foot, too short in proportion. The shoe then pinches the heel, and produces still worse effects upon all the toes, especially the great toe; for as the sole cannot yield from c to B, A yields towards c, and the great toe is bent as at f, forming the [blue] angle e, f, D, together with the rest of the toes. Thus are produced corns upon the joints, and other painful deformities of the feet.
Plate I, Fig. 3. The astragalus, R, M, I, which supports at R the whole weight of the body, is thus sustained by two [red] oblique lines, R, B, R, A.
The great toe becomes bent towards P, and the higher the heels, the greater will be the distortion,—the centre of gravity, R, acting more and more in the line R, a; and the higher the heel and the smaller the sole, the greater becomes the risk of falls and sprains.
Plate II, Fig. 6. As the leg rests on the foot, and the centre of gravity acts in a line perpendicularly, a line designated by Borelli linea propensionis, and represented by R, S, in Figs. 3 and 6, it follows that this line ought always to be observed.
The best position for the buckle or fastening of a shoe is, therefore, directly over the top of the instep, neither too high nor too low, exactly over the spot where the triangular ligament connects the tendons of the extensors of the toes with the bones of the tarsus and metatarsus, at O, N,.
Plate I, Fig. 4. It is more than probable that in those persons whose feet have not been distorted by the use of high heels, the heel-bone receives the anterior part of the astragalus (H) upon the eminence M, L, which is then divided into two small sinuses (E and F, Fig. 4), separated by a space, K.
The sole of the foot is generally of the form represented in Fig. 8; the part comprising the toes, E, D, B, in F, E, occupying about one-third of the whole length of the foot.
The toes are naturally all parallel to the diameter A, B, as I have represented them in Fig. 8, which is the outline of a foot that has not been distorted by ill-made shoes.
There is an old and most unreasonable custom of making the shoes for both feet alike, from one and the same last, with the additional absurdity of giving the sole a certain arbitrary form, as at A, O, D, S, B, R, E, N, Fig. 8.
Has anything really changed
since Camper's day....?! |
| The [red] sole, A, N, E, R, B, S, D, O, Fig.8, copied from the latest Parisian pattern, was intended for the [blue] sole of the foot, A, I, Z, K, M, A, Fig. 8!! |
Plate I, Fig. 5. Very frequently, however, we find but one sinus, as at E, F, Fig. 5.
It appears to me very probable, then, that these sinuses become united from the pressure to which they are subjected by high heels, causing the obliteration of the division K.
Plate II, Fig. 7.
Plate II, Fig. 9. The erect position being a necessary prelude to walking progression, it may be well, in idscussing this subject, to look to what the celebrated Borelli has left us in his excellent work on the Animal Motions. Our principal business being to explain the manner in which we raise our fett from the ground in walking, we may turn to Fig. 9, where A, C, B represents the length of the leg and foot, turning upon the hipjoint at A. C indicates the knee. Let us imagine that a man standing on his right foot begins to walk along the street, G, F, it is certain that if there should be a stone, E, B, at B, he will strike his foot against it; but if the heel of the shoe should be of the height E, B, the centre of movement at the hip being thus raised to D, he will avoid it, because the foot will pass from H to I.
www.shoesonthenet.com/terms.html
Beauty is Shape by Pauline Weston Thomas for Fashion-Era.com
The Cultural Body Alterations University of Iowa Medical Museum
www.bata.com/just_fun/foot_shoecare/anatomy.htm
Advertisement, 1961. (I. Miller Shoes)
Bernard Rudofsky, The Unfashionable Human Body (Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1971): 116.
Bernard Rudofsky, The Unfashionable Human Body (Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1971): 113.
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Miriam Claude Meijer, Ph.D.
04/05/05