CHIROPODY, the treatment by experts, male and female, of hand and human foot dia eases and malformations, first becoMing defies nicely known to science in the,latter part of the 18th century. In 1785 a publication anpeared in London under the title (Chiropodologm,° treat ing in a scientific manner the causes of corns, warts, bunions, etc., with a detail of the most successful methods of removing all deformities of the nails and of preserving or restoring to and hands their natural soundness and ty. IA hen this and subsequent announcements of a similar nature first became known, the name was made the subject of much jesting and ad yerse criticism. In a magazine then current the name was condemned as anew-fangled.'° This evidently did not discourage the cultivators or patrons of the science, for 'during the 4anie year, or early in 1786, a *chiropodist" opened his establishment in the English capital and did a thriving business.
By degrees the idea of having special care of the hands and feet spread throughout Great •Britain. One hundred years after• the establishment of a °Chirolx)dical Establishments in London, a novelist in a magazine story re ferred to a lady who had °finished her chiropo and in the sante year a popular London Weekly, by referring to the operations of chirocl odists!as gate the stamp of authbir ity that name as expressive of . the - craft specialty..
During the past 10 years chiropody has madhe vast strides inrpopular estimation as a useful. if not essential I actor.in the acquisition of 'perfect persoital comfort and cleanliness. •• In all large cities the list of operators in this line includes many men and women highly skilled in the prOPer treatment of diseased and malformed and feet. This is particularly true of the
United States, notably New York city, where all barber shops of any pretensions now have a woman in attendance who undertakes to cleanse and purify 'the hands of customers while 'they are-under soothing influence of razor and lather brush.
Latterly there has been a clear distinction drawn between the specialists who,, like the Women who have their headquarters in the pal aces of tonsorial artists, attend only to the hands, and others, nicOtly men, who give their attenbon. principally to the feet. The former announce themselves to be °manicures,' the ktiierArhiropodiset." • The as a rule, is fatly qualified in both divisions of the work The service of chiropodists and manicures has becomesso,etnential and elaborate that it now lemhraces, an•extended vocabulary of its own. Surgical instrument makers have a special &Part/tient for impLemesits used by chiropodical operators.. •The with• which these unple meats, many of them of razor-like keenness, are manipulated- by , competent operators is• little short of marvelous. Holding the hand or foot of the suWect.gently, yet with a vise-like grip they deftly turn 'their, wrists. to bring the instrm meats to.the !required position around or beneath each nail,,and,.although the slightest error in movement may the crippling• of the person under treatment, accidents of any kind are very rare indeed. , See Bunion; Cow; Nan.; Warr.