XX 



FEET 



345 



is no such symmetry. The first or inner toe is much larger 

 than either of the others, and its direction is perfectly parallel 

 with the long axis of the foot. The second toe may be a little 

 longer than the first, as generally represented in Grecian art, 

 but it is more frequently shorter ; l the others rapidly decrease 

 in size (Fig. 29, A). The modification which must have taken 

 place in the form of the foot and direction of the toes before 

 a, boot of the ordinary form can be worn with any approach to 

 ease is shown at Fig. 29, C. (p. 344). Often it will happen 



FIG. 30. English feet deformed by wearing improperly-shaped shoes. 

 From nature. 



that the deformity has not advanced to so great an extent, 

 but every one who has had the opportunity of examining many 

 feet, especially among the poorer classes, must have met with 



1 It seems to be a very common idea with artists and sculptors, as well as 

 anatomists, that the second toe ought to be longer than the first in a well- 

 proportioned human foot, and so it is conventionally represented in art. The 

 idea is derived from the Greek canon, which in its turn was copied from the 

 Egyptian, and probably originally derived from the negro. It certainly does not 

 represent what is most usual in our race and time. Among hundreds of bare and 

 therefore undeformed feet of children I lately examined in Perthshire, I was not 

 able to find one in which the second toe was the longest. As in all apes in fact, 

 in all other animals the first toe is considerably shorter than the second, a long 

 great toe is a specially human attribute, and instead of being despised by artists, 

 it should be looked upon as a mark of elevation in the scale of organised 

 beings. 



