STRICTURES ON THIN-SOLED SHOES.

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system, this is the part in which the circulation of the blood may be the most readily checked; the part most exposed to cold and wet, or to direct contact with good conducting surfaces, it is the part of the system where such a check is most likely to take place. Coldness of the feet is a very common attendant on a disordered state of the stomach; and yet disordered stomach is not more apt to produce coldness of the feet, than coldness of the feet is apt to produce disorder of the stomach; and this remark does not apply only to cases of indigestion, but to many other disorders to which man is liable. Yet do we see the feet of the young and the delicate, clad in thin-soled shoes, and as thin stockings, no matter whether it is summer or winter time; no matter whether the weather is dry or damp, or whether the temperature of the atmosphere is warm or cold. But this is not the whole of the evil. These same feet are frequently, at different times of the same day, differently covered as to the stoutness of the shoes and their soles, and very often likewise as to the thickness of the stockings. I have often found, on investigating into the origin of cases of disease, that it has been a common practice to go out of doors in the forenoon, the feet being protected with lamb's-wool stockings, and warm and thickly-soled boots; and to sit in the afternoon at home, only having the feet covered with silk stockings and thin satin shoes. I have so often found this to be the case, that it would hardly surprise me were the practice found to be almost universal among the females of the middle

and upper ranks of society. To this common, and sufficiently inconsiderate practice, I have traced many cases of incurable disease. To this alone may be ascribed many a case of functional disturbance; this lays the foundation for many of those derangements, by which the first inroad is made into the constitution, the first step taken in undermining the health, the first of that succession of changes brought about, by which the young, and the lovely, and the healthy, are converted into the wasted victims of consumption, or become martyrs to other maladies as fatal, although less common. I am sufficient of a Goth to wish to see thin-soled shoes altogether disused as articles of dress; and I would have them replaced by shoes having a moderate thickness of sole,-with a thin layer of cork or felt placed within the shoe, over the sole, or next to the foot. Cork is a very bad conductor of heat, and is therefore to be preferred; if it is not to be had, or is not liked, felt may be substituted for it. The extreme lightness of the cork,the remarkable thinness to which it may be cut, its usefulness as a non-conductor not being essentially impaired thereby,—and the inappreciable effect it has on the appearance of the shoe; all seem to recommend its use for this purpose, in the strongest manner. I think that neither boots nor shoes should be used without this admirable provision against cold feet. There is sufficient objection to all shoes made of waterproof or impervious materials: they are apt to prove much too heating and relaxing; interfering with the due escape of the cutaneous exhalations. Thin shoes

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ought only to be used for the purpose of dancing; and then they ought only to be worn while dancing. The invalid or dyspeptic ought assuredly never to wear thin shoes at other times. As to the common practice of changing thin shoes for warm boots, and vice versâ, it is a practice that is replete with danger, and therefore rash and almost culpable.

I will venture to touch, as briefly as may be, on the extreme imprudence,-not to give what may be the mere effect of thoughtlessness, a worse name,— of having the morning, the walking, and the evening dress made of such very different materials, and in so very different a degree protective against the cold. How perfectly unreasonable it is to cover the neck and shoulders and arms at one period of day, and to leave them uncovered at another; to wear a warm thick dress at breakfast, made to cover duly the neck and arms, and a cold thin dress at dinner, leaving so much of the person entirely uncovered,—and in this imperfect attire, to expose the person to the cold air of passages, halls, stair-cases, or perhaps to the totally unmodified and unwarmed air of the evening or the night! It need not be said, how common this is, nor what a direct contravention it is of the organic laws. It should not be lost sight of, moreover, that such acts of imprudence may possibly, while the health continues in high and unimpaired vigour, be followed by no bad consequences; yet that the slightest cause of disturbance or exhaustion, such as sitting up one single night to a later hour than usual, or a slight attack of indiges

tion, or over-fatigue, or contracting cold feet, or any other equally probable circumstance, may destroy the happy equilibrium, and enable the cold to check the circulation of the blood in the skin, and thus to throw the blood upon some vital organ, giving rise to immediate disorder, and perhaps to ultimate and not remote disease :-a man may get drunk every night, and, in a state of intoxication, mount his horse, and ride a distance of some miles to his home, and he may do this for months without any accident; but these escapes do not lessen the amount of the risk which he runs; he is still liable to suffer, and perhaps to be killed, by the stumbling or shying of his horse, or by any other equally probable accident. The application is evident enough.

There is another custom, or habit, or usage, in the dress of my fair countrywomen, which must be noticed. It is that of covering the head with a cap in the morning, and leaving it uncovered in the afternoon or evening. It is an indefensible custom, and by no means free from risk.

It has often been urged, that so careful a protection of the surface of the body from the influence of cold, has a tendency to relax and enfeeble the system, to predispose it to suffer from accidental exposure to cold or wet, or to the other common causes of derangement or disease. There is no doubt that the system may be enfeebled, and disease indirectly induced, by too much clothing, and too little exposure to atmospherical influence; but, on the other hand, although some lives might be spared to survive a system of

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exposure to the atmospherical changes in these high latitudes, the larger proportion of the lives would be sacrificed; and more particularly during infancy, and indeed, more or less, throughout the immature

stages of life. The large mortality among the children of the poor, is to be referred to an undue exposure of their feebly acting and sensitive surfaces to the influence of the cold, as well as the other ways in which the laws and wants of the organisation are interfered with or unattended to. It by no means follows, moreover, from what has been said, that people's systems are to be overheated, or their surfaces relaxed, or their systems enfeebled, by an excessive amount of clothing,-an amount disproportioned to the requirements of health and strength. The single instance in which people appear to be apt to clothe themselves in an undue degree in this country, is the surrounding the neck with thick kerchiefs or shawls in cold weather. Unless when much, or unusually, exposed to the influence of cold, the risk of local relaxation from this practice, and of an unadvisable degree of chill when such extra clothing is removed, deserve consideration; and may lead to greater evils than such extra clothing is calculated to obviate. The same remark applies to the use of various warm articles of dress, made of fur, &c., worn round the neck and shoulders. They are usually much too heating, and consequently relaxing; and are only justifiable under circumstances of extreme and long continued exposure to cold, or in the instances of very delicate and