The Genesis of Chiropody
In consequence, a group of non-medical practitioners, styling themselves chiropodists, assumed to care for the foot woes of the public. They claimed no scientific knowledge of the feet, but announced their ability, acquired in the school of experience, to care for the minor foot-ills of the public which were largely induced by the wearing of badly constructed foot-gear. These practitioners were primarily usually itinerants. They went about from town to town carrying their kits, which contained knives and medications which they and their predecessors had found useful in plying their craft. They flourished in England in the eighteenth and in the nineteenth centuries, and soon after our government was founded they began to appear in the larger centers of the United States.
The knowledge which they acquired was imparted to their apprentices, who were usually their offspring, and so this practice was largely handed down from father to son.