Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1901-01-24
A TALE OF THE FOOT.
Is the Little Toe Disappearing With
Civilization.

10 ehe Iittte zoe disappearing With
Civilization.
Is the little toe disappearing? This
question is answered in the affirmative
by an editorial writer in the Atlanta
Journal Record of Medicine. who is
convinced that when our remote de-
scendants play This little pig went to
market with their babies the little
pig that "cried wee, Vice. will have
to be omitted The little toe, he says,
is degenerate and must 60 After quot
Ing numerous cases where organs
once Indispensable have disappeared
IN the march of progress, such as the
haidy coat of our simian ancestors,
and noting others that are fast going,
such as the yermiform appendix, he
goes on to say:
THE application of these facts of
more or less general acceptance lies
in a portion of the body which must
have undergone change commensu-
rate with the abridgement of function
the feet, or more properly the toes
The feet of the horse, the COW and
other even and odd toed animals have
undergone great alteration to estab-
fish the balance between organ and
function which must needs be adjusted
in working out the great principle of
design.
TO apply the same theory of pedal
evolution to man is a short and per-
fectly legitimate step forward.
Man must have lost very early
the prehensile power of the toes. In
fact, Lombroso regards the persistence
of this quality as g reach back to the
primitive type.
When with improved instruments
OF offense and defense man was able
to prevail in the struggle for existence
against savage and predatory animals
the necessity of his taking to the tall
timber when pursued by them was
rare, and hence the grasping power
OF the toes disappeared along with his
hair and his climbing muscles. Then,
too, he began to wear footgear, the
forerunner of the modern boot. 1t
would be an interesting study to fol-
low the development of foot covering
from the sandal to the present form
which conventionality, backed by very
unanatomical shoemakers, assumes to
dictate. But it is not germane to
our purpose further than to note that
the boot has become tighter as civil
zat1On has advanced The effect of
this has been widening separation
OF the analogy between the hands and
the feet, once very close. The move
mentS OF the toes are curtailed by rest
ing on more or less inelastic sole
and are further hampered by the lat
era! construction Of the shoe. The
law OF parsimony in nature, ably as
sisted by modern Crispins, is tending
to eliminate the least effective and
most exposed digit. Gnarled with
corns, Incurred, warped, with rudi
mentary nail or none at all, can it be
doubted that man is losing his little
toe?- Who in these Procrustean DAYS
OF shoes can show up an extremity
that could call forth that burst of adj
m1ration, Thy fEt are beautiful upon
the hills, 0 Benjamin. Thy feet are
beautiful Unless the signs of the
times be misread or there be a saving
reVersion to the original type, the
man OF the future will be three or
four toed animal, and perhaps that
singular affection ainhum is to be in
terpreted as a tour de force of nature
to abbreviate the course of a slowly
acting law. The little toe is degenerate
and must die"