408 



Professor Flower 



[May 7, 



the toe to the heel will divide a fashionable boot into two equal and 

 similar parts, a small allowance being made at the middle part, or 

 " waist," for the difference between right and left foot. Whether the 

 toe is made broad or narrow it is always equally inclined at the sides 

 towards the middle line, whereas in the foot there is no such sym- 

 metry. The first or inner toe is much larger than either of the others, 

 and its direction perfectly parallel with the long axis of the foot. The 

 second toe may be a little larger than the first, as generally repre- 

 sented in Grecian art, but it is more frequently shorter ; the other 

 rapidly decrease in size (Fig. 15, A). The modification which must 

 have taken place in the form of the foot and direction of the toes 

 before such a boot can be worn with any approach to ease is shown at 

 C. Often it will happen that the deformity has not advanced to so 

 great an extent, but everyone who has had the opportunity of examining 

 many feet, especially among the poorer class, must have met with 

 many far worse. The two figured (Fig. 16), one (C) from a labouring 

 working man, the other (A and B) from a working woman, both 



Fig. 16. 

 ABC 



English Feet deformed by wearing improperly-shaped shoes. From nature. 



patients at a London hospital, are very ordinary examples of the 

 European artificial deformity of the foot, and afford a good comparison 

 with the Chinese. It not unfrequently happens that the dislocation 

 of the great toe is carried so far that it becomes placed almost at a 

 right angle to the long axis of the foot, lying across the roots of the 

 other toes. 



The changes that a foot has to undergo in order to adapt itself to 

 the ordinary shape of a shoe could probably not be effected unless 

 commenced at an early jDcriod, when it is young and capable of being 

 gradually moulded into the required form. It seems perfectly mar- 

 vellous that anyone who had ever looked at a healthy pair of human 



