•264 First and Second Toes in Man 



A'^olker, whose work extended to many races besides Europeans, fliinul 

 that in all races, the second metatarsal was longer than the first. 



The next measurements taken were the total lengths of the toe 

 bones plus the metatarsals, that is, the complete anatomical digit. Here 

 again my findings agi-ee with Volker, that the second digit (la culumne 

 metatarso-phalangeale) is in all cases the longer, and this, whetlter the 

 foot is of the L or of the S type. 



The findings from the throe sets of measurements, (1) that the 

 average length of the first phalanges (bony toe) is always gi-eater than 

 the second; (2) that the second metatarsal is in all cases longer than 

 the first, regardless of toe-type ; and (3) that the whole second digit is 

 constantly longer than the first, throw no light upon why there are L 

 and S toe-tyjDes. Hence, the relations of the phalanges, metatarsals and 

 digits have been calculated in percentages, the first digit or any of its 

 constituent parts being reckoned as 100 (see last two lines of Table VI). 

 Fnjm these numbers is obtained the imp(jrtant result that both for right 

 and left feet, the second digit in the S tgpe is proportionately longer than 

 in the L type. ' 



IV. The Inheritance of Toe-types. 



In (irdt'r to study the inheritance of toe-type, tracings were obtained, 

 in the manner already described, <if 808 persons (Table VII), of these 381 

 were offspring of known parents (Table VII, A), 1.50 had one known parent 

 (Sub-tables B and G), 92 were members of fraternities (Sub-table D), 

 and 18-5 were the parents of persons in Tables A, B, C, D who do not 

 therefore appear in these tables. It is at once apparent that the propor- 

 tion of the various types among these 808 persons is not the same as 

 among the 2301 persons (Table II) I had personally examined. This 

 discrepancy, however, is not due to the faultiness of the toe-tracings, 

 but to the fact that these were made from selected cases, whilst the 

 feet examined may be regarded as an average of the population. There 

 were great difficulties in obtaining the tracings, as there are strong 

 prejudices connected with the naked foot, so that, in order to see the 

 inheritance in the hylirid generation, very special efforts were made to 

 obtain families where »S', A and B toe-types were known to exist, and 

 tithcr families had to be neglected. The large proportion of females 

 among the tracings is explainable on the same gi'ound, as it was possible 

 for me to persuade more females than males to submit themselves to 

 what appeared an ordeal. There is, therefore, for two reasons, selection 

 and sex, a larger pi-oportion of S type and therefore of A and B types 

 than would normally occur in the general population. 



