Authentic Science Fiction Monthly, No. 56 — page 116: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION as much weight to bear and receives about twice as much wear. it is not surprising that about halfway through our lifetime, the knee cartilage frequently wears out. When this happens, the ends of the bones start to grow again, but they grow irregularly, into ridges and bumps. These bony ridges grinding against each other with every step cause arthritis of the knee—a condition that can also be caused by other things. Lower down, the foot bones also have to take relatively twice as much weight as they take in the lower animals. The little bone behind the great toe has to support half the body’s weight with each step we take. The other half of the body’s weight is dis- tributed throughout the other bones, but all of them take a beating. The tremendous forces continually applied to these bones as a result of the upright posture causes flat feet and a whole host of other aa ts painful and crippling con- ditions. It is not only the fact that we walk about upright that causes all these troubles. An- other important factor is that we so often stand up suddenly. If you’ve ever watched a cow or a horse get up from a lying down position, you must have noticed how slow and clumsy is the operation. Slow and clumsy it may be, but it’s easy on the poor old feet! Humans often rise to standing from a sitting or lying position many times a day. They do it smoothly and quickly. But every time, the load on their bones, heart, liver, etc., jumps from near zero to a maximum in a split second. This constant ““ham- mering”’ effect has cumulative results—a gradually increas- ing predisposition towards aching backs, painful knees, failing hearts, floating kidneys and all the other complaints that are the price we have to pay for standing on our feet. comiclooks.corn