Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Our feet and their coverings : a review. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![Camper, which contains many valuable suggestions, some, however—as those relating to the position of the buckle, and to enormously liigh heels—are more applicable to the period at which, it was written than to the present day. In his own part of the work, Mr. Dowie unsparingly denounces the evils inflicted upon mankind by his fellow-craftsmen, among whom he lias long been known as an ardent reformer. The chief peculiarity of the book consists in the advocacy of flexible, instead of rigid soles, an object which is to be gained by the introduction of a piece of a material called ‘ elasticated leather,’ at the waist, or middle part of the shoe. Dr. Humphry’s work is an amplification of two lectures delivered at Cambridge. Addressed to un- scientifio readers, it is written in language the most popular, but bears ample evidence of the extensivo knowledge and careful consideration of the subject which might be expected from so accomplished an anatomist. It is divided into two sections, the first devoted to the foot, the second to the hand. Although it might be supposed that the well-known Bridgewater Treatise of Sir Charles Bell had exhausted the latter subject, Dr. Humphry has contrived to bring together much that is novel as well as interesting in relation to the uses of this most important member, and has enlivened the dry details of structure by numerous references to comparative anatomy and to social customs, as those of shaking hands, wearing the ring on the fourth linger, the preferential uso of the right to the left hand. The last question has very often been asked, but never satisfactorily solved. Dr. Humphry, after dismissing as untenable any supposed anatomical reason for the disparity of the two limbs, arrives at the conclusion that “the superiority [of tho light hand over the left] is acquired, tho tendency to acquire the superiority is natural.” This specializing](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22309822_0017.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
