FIG. 11. 



BONES AND JOINTS OF THE EXTREMITIES 57 



jolt, instead of which we descend in a semicircle, 

 the centre of which is 

 the point of the heel. 

 And when the toes 

 have come to the 

 ground we are far 

 from losing the ad- 

 vantages of the struc- 

 ture of the foot, since we stand upon an elas- 

 tic arch, the hinder extremity of which is the 

 heel, and the anterior the balls of the toes. A 

 finely formed foot should be high in the instep. 

 The walk of opera dancers is neither natural nor 

 beautiful ; but the surprising exercises which they 

 perform give to the joints of the foot a freedom 

 of motion almost like that of the hand. We have 

 seen the dancers, in their morning exercises, stand 

 for twenty minutes on the extremities of their 

 toes, after which the effort is to bend the inner 

 ankle down to the floor, in preparation for the 

 Bolero step. By such unnatural postures and 

 exercises the foot is made unfit for walking, as 

 may be observed in any of the retired dancers 

 and old figurantes. By standing so much upon 

 the toes, the human foot is converted to some- 

 thing more resembling that of a quadruped, where 

 the heel never reaches the ground, and where the 

 paw is nothing more than the phalanges of the 

 toes. 



