""Are you taking the Conjoint?" he asked Philip.

"Yes, I want to get qualified as soon as I can."

"I'm taking it too, but I shall take the F. R. C. S. afterwards. I'm going in for surgery."

Little does Philip know how much a handicap his clubfoot
would be in the operating room. In those days there were
surgeons who would slash you with a scapel if you could
not stand rock steady. Of course, operations had to be short in those days, because I don't think they had blood
tranfusions then, and surgeons prided themselve of speed
to avoid onset of shock. The chief of surgery at CMGH
still prided himself on his speed. The first time he had
a board certified anesthetist, when the anesthetist told
him the patient was ready, he snorted:"Hell, man, I'm
all through." And he was.

Do tell us a bit more about this club-foot surgery, Bill.

I'm very ashamed to admit I've have not read this novel--though I've certainly heard much of it alluded to over the years. But the greatness of the work aside, I'm fascinated by the club-foot--and how successful (or not) surgery may have been.

What did you mean about the doctor would slash you if you would not stand still? Phillip would have been lying down, yes? I took the reference to mean that he would be going in for surgery as a patient first. Did I misread your quote--and was Phillip going in to be a participant? Did you mean that those attending in surgery would be slashed by the Holder of the Scalpel if they shifted in movement?

Also, I'm interested because Lord Byron had a club foot, too, that apparently didn't slow him down.

Dear WW: Don't waste any time on Of Human Bondage. It got so stupid I quit reading it. Men have died, and worms have eatgen them, but not for love. Maugham wants us to believe that Philip would dump a pretty girl who was nice to him to go back to a disagreeable stupid bitch with only a pretty face, who never said a kind word to him until she was illegitimately pregnant by a bastard who had deserted her.

Point well taken, Bill, but what about this clubfoot business? Did you mean Phillip was to be the patient--and, if so, what did he have to fear of a quick-scalpelled surgeon?

Dear WW: What I was saying was that a man without two good feet could not tolerate hours of standing in OR.

Here's a URL about clubfoot:
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/orthopedicsurgery/peds/clubfoot.html

The article says it is found in one of each thousand births.
I did not know it was that common. I've only seen a couple of them. Of course I may have seen many persons since who
had it corrected when they were small. It is truly a horrible affliction if untreated.

my daughter was born with 'inward rotations of the foot, (ankle) with toe-ing in (pigeon toes) and curvature of her lower leg, and inward rotation at the hip. It was not as sever as the infant pictured, and she was treated from age 6 weeks or so with physical therapy, and later corrective shoes (till she was age 7) it affected both feet/legs, but was more evident in her left foot.

the orthopedist felt PT would be enough, and that she wouldn't need casts. he must have been right-- while her left foot is a half size shorter than right (which is almost normal!) she wears a woman's size 10! her feet are huge!

when tired, her feet tend to toe in a bit, but only to a degree a mother would notice.

For another literary case of club-foot, Madame Bovary's husband was briefly a local hero for carrying out a new type of surgery on a boy's club foot. The acclaim was short-lived however, as the boy's foot had to be amputated soon after.

Dudley Moore, the actor, had a club foot. it had been treated as a child, but it was still smaller, and not 'normal'(at least in his estimation)

he never allowed his foot to be photographed... (watch 10 again.. or Arther--he runs on the beach but we never see his feet, except from a long distance,(and then then he is wearing shoes! and while he is stumble-footed as a drunk, we never see he faulty footwork up close...

i don't think there is any noticable difference in his gate, (maybe an orthopedist would notice one) so what ever treatment he recieved, it must have worked.

Perhaps the most infamous clubfoot of the last century was Joseph Goebbels.