76 On Scientific Physical Training 
desirable to show how a foot is to be developed, and what 
are the general bad influences acting upon its development. 
In the skeleton of the foot we find the big toe is very 
straight, quite in a straight line with the other toes. 
Adults and children whose parents have taken care of 
this point since they were born, have the big toe as 
straight as it should be. In models I have by me, there is 
one where the big toe has begun to move on one side and 
to approach the next toe, instead of remaining in a straight 
line. Another example will show how one of the toes is 
already pushed out. The result will be that as the foot 
continues to grow, a badly-formed foot will be produced. 
Here is again a specimen of what is wrongly called a 
beautiful foot. We see ladies dress in tiny boots, and this 
model shows the deformity of the foot when taken out of 
that tiny boot. Here are two boots made for the same 
foot. One has the high heel, the narrow sole, the pointed 
toe, and high instep; the other, which is made to accom- 
modate the natural form of the foot, has a very large basis 
and no heel. I am sure, if we were destined to havea 
high heel, nature would have given it to us. The shoe 
which I propose for a man, as it should be worn, is made 
with a bend in the sole, which is not required to be elastic. 
All that is necessary is to have the bend thinner, wide 
-soles, and the inner side of the boot in a straight line. 
This is the most comfortable boot, and it will enable a 
man to march much better and much longer than any 
other kind of boot. We find that a great obstacle to the 
-adoption of the proper form of boot lies partly with the 
public, whose ideas of a beautiful foot are wrong, and partly 
with the shoemakers, because, everything now being made 
for the trade, and on a large scale, they do not like to 
make an article which is not yet generally used, and which 
wants any particular care in making. So that, should any 
shoemakers wish to do the right thing, they would meet 
with some impediments. I point this out because one 
great object towards the adoption of a proper physical 
training is to change our ideas about certain matters. I 
am told that amongst soldiers, boots are not worn with 
comfort until they have been torn and mended again in the 
barracks. How far that is true I do not know, but it was 
mentioned to me as a fact when I made inquiries on this 
subject. Many of the rejections of recruits, in consequence 
of complaints of the foot, which affect the powers of march- 
ing, are partly the result: of this cause—the improper form 
