Question: What are the effects of this on the children? Dr. Samuel Smith: Up to twelve or thirteen years of age, the bones are so soft that they will
bend in any direction. The foot is formed of an arch of bones of a wedge-like shape. These
arches have to sustain the whole weight of the body. I am now frequently in the habit of
seeing cases in which this arch has given way. Long continued standing has also a very
injurious effect upon the ankles. But the principle effects which I have seen produced in this
way have been upon the knees. By long continued standing the knees become so weak that
they turn inwards, producing that deformity which is called "knock-knees" and I have
sometimes seen it so striking, that the individual has actually lost twelve inches of his height
by it.