42 NATURAL HISTORY 



In proportion as the toes are turned forward it requires a greater 

 strength of muscular action to throw the hody upon the toes ; for the 

 force or resistance of the body acts with the longest lever, and this lever 

 becomes less in proportion as the toes are turned out. Now, as this is 

 the case, we see a reason why young children, who are weak, turn their 

 toes out : they find that they can walk in this manner when they cannot 

 in the other way ; and, in proportion to their weakness, will they turn 

 out their toes*. 



We find, too, another circumstance that allows them to move ; which 

 is, the joint of the ankle being allowed to flex more than it otherwise 

 would be allowed to do if the raising power was sufficiently strong to 

 keep the foot extended. They find that they can throw their bodies 

 forward without being obliged to raise the heels ; which they are not 

 able to do, and which bends the leg forwards upon the foot. And in 

 this way are children allowed to move, which is allowing them to act 

 before they have strength to use their joints properly and give them 

 those determined motions that the mechanism of the parts require. 

 Therefore, the joints are obliged to submit to the inconveniences arising 

 from too great a weight of body. Mothers and nurses are so fond of 

 seeing their children walk, that they are always endeavouring to teach 

 them what they are unable to perform ; and, finding that a child cannot 

 really stand without a strength proportionate to the weight of body, 

 they have contrived ' leading strings ' to support the superabundant 

 weight, so that the child may be enabled to use its legs (that is, to set 

 one leg before the other). By the time it arrives at its strength of 

 standing perpendicularly, it has not, however, arrived at a strength 

 sufficient to support the body in motion, where it must be often thrown 

 out of the perpendicular, when one leg, for example, must be able to 

 raise the whole body upon its toes, while the other leg is in motion. 



But the child has unluckily, by this time, acquired a knowledge of 

 progressive motion and a desire for it ; yet has not acquired strength 

 equal to perform it properly : and, therefore, the muscles and joints 

 must submit to give way to the weight of body and to fall into those 

 positions that require the least strength of body to move in. 



Dancing-masters apply this position of foot, which arises from weak- 

 ness in children, to their profession : for, in many of their violent 

 motions, a greater strength is required than what the parts are capable 



* It is not to be supposed that the child turns its toes out by design ; but it is 

 in consequence of weakness. When the child endeavours to raise itself upon the 

 toes, the muscles are not able to do it, but the heel is brought forward, which turns 

 the toes out ; and at last the child gets a habit of it, and the foot naturally takes 

 this turn. 



