xx FEET 343 



pressing the roots of the toes and the heel downwards and 

 towards one another so as greatly to shorten the foot, and 

 produce a deep transverse fold in the middle of the sole 

 (Fig. 28). The whole has now the appearance of the hoof 

 of some animal rather than a human foot, and affords a 

 very inefficient organ of support, as the peculiar tottering 

 gait of those possessing it clearly shows. When once 

 formed, the "golden lily," as the Chinese lady calls her 

 delicate little foot, can never recover its original shape. 



But strange as this custom seems to us, it is only a slight 

 step in excess of what the majority of people in Europe subject 

 themselves and their children to. From personal observation 

 of a large number of feet of persons of all ages and of all classes 

 of society in our own country, I do not hesitate to say that 

 there are very few, if any, to be met with that do not, in some 

 degree, bear evidence of having been subjected to a com- 

 pressing influence more or less injurious. Let any one 

 take the trouble to inquire into what a foot ought to be. 

 For external form look at any of the antique models, the 

 nude Hercules Farnese or the sandalled Apollo Belvidere ; 

 watch the beautiful freedom of motion in the wide-spreading 

 toes of an infant ; consider the wonderful mechanical con- 

 trivances for combining strength with mobility, firmness with 

 flexibility ; the numerous bones, articulations, ligaments ; the 

 great toe, with seven special muscles to give it that versatility 

 of motion which wap intended that it should possess ; and 

 then see what a miserable, stiffened, distorted thing is this 

 same foot when it has been submitted for a number of years 

 to the " improving " process to which our civilisation condemns 

 it. The toes all squeezed and flattened against each other ; 

 the great toe no longer in its normal position, but turned 

 outwards, pressing so upon the others that one or more of 

 them frequently has to find room for itself either above or 

 under its fellows ; the joints all rigid, the muscles atrophied 

 and powerless ; the finely-formed arch broken down ; every- 

 thing which is beautiful and excellent in the human foot 

 destroyed, to say nothing of the more serious evils which so 

 generally follow corns, bunions, ingrowing nails, and all their 

 attendant miseries. 



