accidents, and like causes, weakened parts are more susceptible to its influence," and then mentions cases in which first attacks, instead of appearing in the usual seat were limited to the knee or other parts that had suffered from previous injuries. At page 354 he remarks, that "the metatarso-phalangeal joint is one which is subject to pressure and injury from having to support the weight of the body," and he adds, thereby affording impartial evidence as to the evil effects of an improperly shaped shoe, that he has, in many individuals who had never experienced any symptoms of gout, "very commonly found distinct evidence of injury on the surface of the cartilage, both of the head of the metatarsal bone and of the cup-like cavity of the phalanx" All this clearly points to a weakened part, and the merit of our author is in directing attention to the true cause of its production, for the metatarso-phalangeal joint is not, as Dr. Garrod says, actually injured by having to support the weight of the body, but by its having to do so in a constrained and unnatural position.
I may add, what must be well known to most professional readers, that Professor Meyer is the most recent and approved authority on the structure and mechanical adaptations of the foot and lower limbs. His researches on standing, Das aufrecht Stehen, (Erster und zweiter Beiträge zur Mechanik des Menschlichen Knochengerüstes), and on the knee-joint, Die Mechanik des Kniegelenks, ap-
