of the human foot, resulting from the pressure of the shoe. Several well-marked cases having come under my notice in rather rapid succession, I wrote the paper above alluded to, to make known, once for all, my opinions on the subject.
The matter excited much attention amongst those who had the opportunity of seeing this paper, and many medical men recognised, with great interest, the importance of the question involved. From the most varied sources I have since been urgently requested to recast this essay in a separate form, so that its contents might become known to a still wider circle of readers.
I confess having hesitated somewhat to comply with these demands. My scruples were overcome, however, by a consideration of the great importance of the subject, and I yielded the more readily that anatomists so distinguished as Peter Camper and Sömmering had preceded me with similar lucubrations,—the former with his paper "On the Best Shoe," and the latter with a treatise "On Stays." Moreover, it especially behoves anatomists to speak out on such subjects, since, from the nature of their studies, they have at hand the proper material for settling such questions.
The subject treated of by Sömmering concerns only one half of mankind; and of this half, only those who are sufficiently foolish voluntarily to sacrifice comfort, health, and beauty to an absurd fashion
