in their laced high-lows, and so accustom
themselves to a sort of stilt walking that they hardly
know how to use their feet, and want the
"support" of their work-a-day clumps when they put
on their Sunday shoes.

There are three joints of the foot, and of all of
them movement is crippled in such high-lows as
are worn by the English labourer. Men who are so
shod that they walk somewhat as if they had cork
legs, and do not execute the proper movements
of the foot, have the muscles of the foot and leg
ill developed, and the small and shapeless leg of an
English agricultural labourer thus becomes a
direct consequence of the make of his high-lows.
"Look," says Sir Charles Bell, " at the legs of
a poor Irishman travelling to the harvest with
bare feet; the thickness and roundness of the
calf show that the foot and toes are free to permit
the exercise of the muscles of the legs.
Look again at the leg of our English peasant,
whose foot and ankle are tightly laced in a shoe
with a wooden sole, and you will perceive from
the manner in which he lifts his legs, that the
play of the ankle, foot, and toes is lost as much
as if he went on stilts, and therefore are his legs
small and shapeless." We know that, according
to old tradition, "footmen" are still judged by
their calves. When they had real running to
do, the development of that essential muscle of
the calf was looked to as evidence of their ability
for footman's service. We need hardly say that
a man tumbles down when he fails to adjust the
weight of his body so that its centre lies over
his feet. The drunkard and the idiot have brains
so far wanting in this power of adjustment, that
they may be known by their gait. If we stoop
to pick anything up, only our long thighs enable
us to thrust so much of the body back as will
enable us to bend head and arms forward, and
to have our fingers on the ground.

In walking, one heel a little in advance of the
body first touches the ground, the toes follow,
and one arch is complete while the body, for the
briefest space of time wholly supported by it,
passes over. For that act of passing over, it is
raised entirely by the fore-part of the foot
making its leverage against the ground on the
great toe. The movement is not rigidly straight.
The foot comes to the ground with its toes
slanted a little outwards, the outer and hinder
edge of the heel first touches the ground (as we
find by the wearing of the boot upon a healthy
foot), the ball of the little toe next comes to the
ground (so that the boot sole wears rather upon
its outer edge), and the balls of the other toes
follow in swift succession, until that of the
great toe takes its hold upon the ground, when
from that toe, on the inner side of the foot, the
last impulse is given that sends the body over
to the other foot. A special long muscle
provided for this purpose works a tendon that
passes behind the outer ankle under the sole of
the foot to the great toe. Its work is, when
the ball of the toe is firmly pressed to the
ground, to lift the outer ankle, and so help to
raise the body. We find, then, that without
good muscle a well-set heel, a firm-set and
elastic bony arch, and a strong straight great toe,
there can be no good walker. We understand
also (as Doctor Meyer points out), that in a
healthy foot a straight line drawn down the
middle of the great toe, from the middle of its
tip to the middle of its ball, would, if continued,
pass exactly through the middle of the heel.
The smaller toes do none of the lifting. They
give lateral support, and give help in securing a
good grip of the ground, especially to those who
walk barefoot on difficult ways.

Now let us apply this knowledge to boot and
shoe making:

In the first place, it is clear that an elastic
as well as durable substance should be the
material of the foot-case. The best possible
material may, or may not be, leather. Hitherto
no attempts at improvement upon the material
have been fully successful.

In the next place, as to the make and fit.
There must be no inelastic sole, and no tight
lacing to impede the free movement of any of
the foot joints, though a tight lace never can be
so tight as some of the hard leather casings of
the bony arch of the foot, especially in
Wellingtons, which, in proportion as they compel
the use of a boot-jack, take the grace and health
out of the movements of the foot. The now
prevalent use of a light boot fastened only by
the imperceptible pressure of an elastic web let
into each side over the ankles, and so slipping
easily over the instep, is a change in the right
direction. Indeed, so far as regards the
movements of the ankle joint and of the arch of the
foot, the correct form of shoe is thus attained.

All that we have left us to do, is, to restore
the great toe to its place in nature. Dancing-
masters and shoemakers are alike enemies to
good walking. The dancing-master asks for a
tuming out of the whole foot, so that the rise
can be made only by an ungainly waddle over
the side of the toe, instead of along its length.
Taglioni herself could not walk; nobody who
has seen a ballet can have failed to observe the
curious waddle of the dancer, man or woman,
who with toes too much turned out, has now
and then to walk from one part of the stage
to another.

The bootmaker, ignorant of the relative use
and importance of the different parts of the foot,
has steadily persisted for centuries, and at this
day usually persists, in so shaping the shoe that
the great toe is forced upon the other toes more
or less out of its right line with the heel. Nine
civilised people in ten, perhaps, have their great
toes thus by a course of submission to misshapen
boots and shoes so far turned inwards, that a
line run down in the middle of them from point
to ball if continued would not fall anywhere in
the heel at all, but several inches away outside
the body. The necessary consequence is, that
the full strength of the natural lever for raising
the body is destroyed; the effort has to be made
at a disadvantage, and with pressure; the act
of walking loses some of its grace and much of
its ease; so that although the boot may be so
well adjusted to the spoilt shape of the foot, as