376 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



infant can project at an angle from the next toe, and the space 

 between the big toe and the next is really the remnant of a space 

 similar to that seen between onr thumb and forefinger, when the 

 toe was used for grasping like a thumb, and was opposable. It is 

 not, as churchmen would have us believe, a relic of sandal-wear- 

 ing times, and a special provision of a deity for the patriarchs to 

 strap on their sandals: it is a relic of monkey ancestry taken ad- 

 vantage of by the ancients as the most appropriate place for the 

 sandal strap. The big toe further reveals its former thumblike 

 use in the fact that it and the thumb are the only two of the digits 

 in which the last joint can be bent at will and independently of 

 moving others. This can readily be exemplified in the thumb : 

 the baby is fond of showing its power in this direction with its 

 big toe. Further, a baby can move any of its toes independently, 

 and it can move them one from another so as to make a v between 

 any of them. As it grows older it loses this power and also the 

 j)ower of turning its ankle ; but that it has such power over its 

 muscles when young points to ancestors who used their feet more 

 than their hands as organs for picking iip small objects, and who 

 relied on their arms and hands for supporting their bodies. Now 

 we have reversed this process ; we require our feet merely as ped- 

 estals, and as such they would be quite as serviceable to us did 

 we possess but one toe. In time we may come to that monodac- 

 tylous condition, for abortion of the toes is proceeding very rapidly. 

 In a great measure we owe this to boots ; and the more we try to 

 hasten, unconsciously perhaps, this process of toe-abortion, the 

 more we shall suft'er. We sufi'er enough as it is in this respect. 

 Certainly the sandal- wearing ancients were not free from encour- 

 aging the toe-abortion ; for the examination of any old statuary 

 will reveal a very marked abortion of the little toe, as a conse- 

 quence of the strap-pressure ; and there is even a certain amount 

 of elevation of the outside of the foot from the ground, partial 

 atrophy. Though from a hygienic point of view sandals were 

 preferable to boots, nothing at all, except in extreme climatic con- 

 ditions, would have been preferable to sandals. Boots are a curse 

 to civilization. Every now and then one receives missionary cir- 

 culars asking for sympathy and pity on behalf of children run- 

 ning about without shoes and stockings, citing it as a terrible proof 

 of poverty. After all, it is the best thing for them ; many doctors 

 are prescribing " baref ootedness " in cases of limb-weakness ; and 

 it is a good thing for all young children. There has been too 

 much fussy meddlesomeness in these respects, particularly among 

 savage races. Thus, Mr. J. Theodore Bent says : " The mission- 

 aries who teach and insist on clothing among races accustomed to 

 nudity by heredity are responsible for three evils : firstly, the ap- 

 pearance of lung diseases among them ; secondly, the spread of 



