40 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANATOMICAL VXD ANTHROPOLOGICAL 



DESCRIPTION OF THE DISTORTED FEET OF A CHINESE 



FEMALE. 



By JAMES CLARK, M.B., Ch.B., Second Assistant to the Professor of Anatomy, 



Aberdeen University. 



(Read 18th February, 1905.) 



The distorted feet of a Chinese female were presented recently to 

 Professor Reid for the Anatomical Museum by Mr. W. R. C. Middleton, 

 Medical Officer of Health, Singapore, and by the kind permission of 

 Professor Reid I have dissected one of them, and have the privilege 

 of exhibiting them to the Society. 



Owing to the peculiar superstitions of the Chinese these speci- 

 mens are very hard to get, and we are the more indebted to Mr. 

 Middleton on this account for giving us the opportunity of seeing 

 such fine examples. Enclosed with the specimens were the shoes 

 worn during life, which are of the usual Chinese variety, made of 

 brightly coloured cloth with canvas soles and/ long wooden heels 

 shod with leather. 



Mr. Middleton has furnished us with the following interesting 

 particulars of the subject from which the feet were taken: "The 

 woman's age was thirty-one. She was a full-grown, stout woman, 

 weighing about 11 stones and 5 feet 5 inches in height. The cir- 

 cumference of the leg at the calf was lOf inches, and there was at 

 least J inch of fat under the skin, so that the calf muscles showed a 

 good deal of atrophy." 



The legs have been sawn through below the calf, somewhat below 

 the mid point between the malleoli and the knee. The upper end of 

 specimen shows a considerable layer of subcutaneous fat, but 



