LECTURE vn. 181 



laterally compressed. The whole leg has the appearance of a 

 wooden leg covered with skin^ from the absence of fleshy 

 muscles. 



The foot of the NegrOj says Burmeister, produces a dis- 

 agreeable impression. Everything in it is ugly : the flatness, 

 the projecting heel^ the thick fatty cushion in the inner 

 cavity, the spreading toes. Let us examine these characters. 

 We have seen that the character of the human foot lies mainly 

 in its arched structure, in the predominance of the metatarsus, 

 the shortening and equal direction of the toes, among which 

 the great toe is remarkably long, but not hke the thumb op- 

 posable. In every public bath you may observe the following 

 marks left by the wet feet : a round spot behind correspond- 

 ing to the heel, in front a transverse spot almost pear-shaped, 

 the thick part inwards, formed by the ball. Sometimes there 

 is a small line, corresponding to the external margin of the 

 foot, running towards the heel-spot, but rarely reaching it ; 

 the anterior, or ball-spot, corresponds to the articulations 

 between the toes and the metatarsus ; the toes in standing 

 leave no marks, but do so in progression. The whole middle 

 part of the foot does not touch the ground. Persons with flat 

 feet, in whom the middle of the sole touches the ground, are 

 bad pedestrians, and are rejected as recruits. If the same rule 

 were applied to Negro regiments, the Pacha of Egypt could 

 not have placed his soldiers at the disposal of the Emperor of 

 the French for the Mexican Expedition. The Negro, says an 

 American song, cited by Burmeister, makes with the cavity of 

 his foot a hole in the ground. The Negro is a decided flat- 

 foot, which, indeed, may be seen also in the skeleton, but 

 much better in the living man, as the fat cushion on the sole 

 not only fills up the whole cavity but projects beyond the 

 surface, so that the ball and the heel do not exactly He on the 

 same plane with this pad. The toes of the foot are longer, 

 narrower, more moveable and spreading than in the European, 

 the great toe somewhat shorter than the second, but long 

 and narrow and more removed, so that here we have again a 

 decided approach to the form of a hand. But as we have seen 

 the formation of a foot instead of a hand is an essential human 



