podiatry

podiatry, medical specialty dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of diseases and disorders of the human foot. The ancient Egyptian Ebers medical papyrus (c. 1500 bc) records some of the earliest remedies for foot problems, and other references to foot treatment are found in the medical literature of most succeeding centuries. The word chiropody derives from the first modern work that was primarily devoted to the medical care of the foot, a 1774 treatise by...