The foot becomes flat and flexible, and can no
longer serve as a lever. Many men and women thus become permanently
crippled; they cannot step off their toes, but must shuffle along on the
inner sides of their feet. But if the case of the overworked muscles
which maintain the arch is hard in grown-up people, it is even harder in
boys and girls who have to stand quite still for a long time, or who
have to carry such burdens as are beyond their strength. When we are
young, the bony levers and muscular engines of our feet have not only
their daily work to do, but they have continually to effect those
wonderful alterations which we call growth. Hence, the muscular engines
of young people need special care; they must be given plenty of work to
do, but that kind of active action which gives them alternate strokes of
work and rest. Even the engine of a motor cycle has three strokes of
play for one of work. Our engines, too, must have a liberal supply of
the right kind of fuel. But even with all those precautions, we have to
confess that the muscular engines of the foot do sometimes break down,
and the leverage of the foot becomes threatened.
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