Podiatry: Strange Foot Facts

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Mar-Ray, strange foot facts and goldfish

Late Autumn of last year Jenny and I bought this house in a picturesque village in Leicestershire. Good property in Leicestershire, as elsewhere in nice parts of Britain, are few and far between. But when Mar-Ray came on the market we jumped in straightaway and bought it, without even a survey report. Mar-Ray is an architect designed 1950's detached villa, complete with Mediterranean style balcony off the master bedroom. Jenny, being an architect herself, professes to have a modicum of taste, and flatly refuses to let me actually call the house 'Mar-Ray', although that's the name on the terracotta plaque built into the wall. I don't know what the original back garden looked like, but we are thankful that Margeret and Raymond featured a pear tree and damson tree in their original plans - both are now mature trees and have reached the stage where they take little looking after, yet bear plenty of fruit year after year.

Planting vegetables is always a good way to use up empty flowerbeds. As well as the curly yellow beans, peas and beefsteak tomatoes, we've planted several purple garlic bulbs (split into cloves, of course!) and herbs (lavender, basil, sweet marjoram, sage etc). Seeds and garlic bulbs are from the Italian Seed Company, via a recommendation of one of my London patients. The seeds are germinating nicely. The garlic (Jenny's department) is coming on a storm, with leaves already several inches high. But what has this to do with feet?...

Strange foot facts

• Did you know that if you rub a raw garlic clove on the sole of your foot, you can smell it on you breath several hours later? Garlic also has wonderful anti-bacterial and effective healing qualities, when eaten regularly.
• There are normally 26 bones in the human foot (some people have extra digits or extra accessory bones called sesamoids - Marilyn Monroe had six toes !). There are countless muscle attachments and ligaments. Expert STILL don't know exactly how the foot functions as efficiently as it does.
• In olden days, people rubbed the sap from Houseleeks into their feet on a daily basis to soften corns.
• The traditional footbath is one of the most therapeutic treatments for tired feet. Place a handful of fresh or ¼ cup of dried herb (choose from Bay, Lavender, Sage, Sweet Marjoram or Thyme) with a tablespoon of sea-salt into a bowl of hot/warm water. Add feet.
• In 1884 the concept of selling shoes in boxes in pairs (right foot and left foot) occurred in Vicksburg, USA at Phil Gilbert's Shoe Parlor on Washington Street.
• The Chinese custom of foot-binding was initiated after an Empress was born with a club foot. The technique to emulate this disfigurement was carried out enthusiastically by the upper classes, who bound children's feet in tight bandages, thereby distorting and disfiguring the natural foot. Sadly this was only phased out last century - outlawed in 1911. And talking of children...
• Babies feet appear flat, but actually have a fat pad where you and I have a hollow we call the arch.
• A baby who has just learned to walk takes around 176 steps a minute.
• Children's feet often grow faster in the spring and summer.
• Your child's feet can sweat up to half a pint of perspiration a day.
• Children's feet tend to grow rapidly - around two sizes a year - in the first four years.

I don't know if it was Mar or Ray who wanted the garden pond. I do know that I am in a pretty strong position to advise anyone who is thinking about a garden pond not to bother. Jenny and I inherited Freddie (the goldfish) and several frogs in our pond. Our pond diary (short version) reads something like this.

Winter - defrosted the pond (seemed like every day but was probably really only five or six times a week).

February - fished out dead frog.

March - tipped a load of frogspawn off the net (put over the pond to stop leaves going in) and, inadvertently, into the deepest part of the pond.

In April we introduced a small shoal of Golden Rudd to the pond. We were assured they were hardy and would be no bother. Out of the original seven, we think we may have two left. We're not sure though, since the ultra-violet filter had to be turned off so that we could treat the skin and gill-flukes which had attacked the fish. The pond, for a little while crystal-clear, is now the colour of lettuce soup. Algae, blanketweed, and fish disease (flukes, fungus, whitespot etc etc) are all excellent reasons for not having a pond in the first place. Kevin, the guy who cuts our lawns, has supplied us with a couple of replacement fish, and he assures us that the pond (and wildlife) will be fine. We remain to be convinced.

Useful addresses:

Italian Seed Co (strongly recommended) is at www.seedsofitaly.com

Please feel free to use the enquiry form at www.ortho-pedclinic.com for all foot-health and foot-related matters.
David Holland BSc(Hons), MSc(Dunelm), MChS
Consulting Podiatrist.