258 First and Second Toes in Man 



character longer than the male. These results by no means agree with 

 the observations of Braune (1884), who stated that the second toe was 

 always the longest in the embryo. Volker (1905) supports this conten- 

 tion when he writes that, "in all its elements as well as in its position, 

 the foot of the new-born child is analogous with that of the monkey." 

 P. Harrison (1883) examined the feet of fifteen foetuses (8 male and 

 7 female) and found them to be 11 L, S E, 1 S. He does not state 

 the ages or the relation of the type to the sex. It would be valuable 

 to have radiographs of foetal feet and babies' feet at intervals from the 

 sixth foetal month to the age of two, thus showing the change from the 

 foetal to the adult condition. 



The result of the examination of 14 foetal skeletons is shown in 

 Table IV, from which it appears that there was not one L type. This 

 result is probably incorrect as 11 of the 14 are over six months old. 

 The error is probably due to the difficulty of preparing and mounting a 

 foetal skeletal foot, for, to get accurate results as regards the relative 

 lengths of the toes, it would be necessary to retain the foot in the flexed 

 position and certixinly not to place it flat on the ground. 



III. The Relation of the Toe-types to the Anatomy of the Foot. 



There has been considerable diversity of opinion as to whether type 

 L or S was the more common. Thus, in the plates of Vesalius' anatomy 

 (1543) the second toe is generally represented as the longer, but in one 

 diagram, the two feet differ. Unfortunately it is impossible to state 

 how far these diagrams are conventional or actually represent Italian 

 conditions. Passing on to the " Anthropologia Nova" of Drake in 1707, 

 one finds the woman of Table XXI and the man of Table XXII both 



