THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE FEET. 395 



THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE FEET. 



By T. S. ELLIS, M. E. C. S. 



DISREGARDING the action of those parts not affecting the feet, 

 the act of walking may, as I think, be thus described : The foot 

 put forward should reach the ground when nearly flat ; the toes, the 

 organs of feeling, should be the first to reach it, not the heel, which 

 could not be without some concussion, however slight. The heads of 

 the metatarsal bones and the toes are then pressed firmly against the 

 surface. The great-toe, having only two phalanges, is held down in 

 its whole length, the flexor tendon being attached to the final pha- 

 lanx close to the joint between them. The little toes touch at their 

 tips only ; their flexor tendons being also attached to the final phalanx 

 of each, traction on them causes a rising at the joint between the two 

 proximal phalanges as the tips of the toes are drawn backward. By 

 this arrangement, in the one case a firm, solid base is formed from 

 which the body can be propelled onward; in the other an additional 

 hold on the surface, by a ruditoentary action or grasping, is afforded. 

 As the body is moved onward, the extensors of the great and of the 

 little toes, without lifting them from the ground, where they are held 

 by the flexors, draw the leg forward, while the anterior tibial, in assist- 

 ing this movement, serves another purpose. It is attached to the crown 

 of the arch, and in action tends to prevent any sinking there as the 

 weight of the body comes upon that structure. This purpose is much 

 more effectually served in another way : the muscles of the calf allow 

 the heel with firmness and precision, but withal gently, to touch the 

 ground, and the step is completed. 



The heel is then raised, but the weight of the body is not borne, as 

 commonly stated, by the muscles acting on the heel and by them only : 

 the deeper muscles, the posterior tibial with the long flexors and the 

 long peroneal, acting round the inner and outer side of the ankle 

 respectively, all of them assist in raising the body and at the same 

 time have a most important influence in maintaining the arch. The 

 tibialis posticus, attached by its expanded tendon to the tarsus on the 

 under surface beyond the astragalus, the bone on which the weight of 

 the body rests, materially assists in supporting the arch from below. 

 The long flexors passing beneath the arch from one abutment to the 

 other are, in relation to it, as bowstrings to a bow, or rather, as the 

 two tendons cross each other, they may better be compared to the tie- 

 rods of a roof. 



This arrangement of the two tendons crossing each other is very 

 curious : that going to the great-toe is lowest in passing round the 

 ankle, in order to be, as nearly as possible, at the extremity of the 



