The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-07-26
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
EREDERIo ,. HAsKIN. Director.
WashingtOn. D. Q.
ARE LITTLE TOES SUPER
FITOTS?

they have both support and opposltlon
from science.
Society women abroad are said to be
having their little toes cut off in order
to wear narrow shoes, and women in
this country are asking curiously what
the result will be- There is an old
off a part of her heel to wear the
slipper meant for the airy fairy
heroine. She got the slipper on, but
she hobbled so that 1t was obvious that
it was not a fit. American women
are asking whether the narrow shoes
will fit these European women SO that
they will have the poise that comes
from normal foot comfortably shod,
or whether the missing toe will leave
them rather wobbly, like the character
in the fairy tale.
A government doctor who prefers
to be nameless expressed his unofficial
opinion. He believes that the loss Of
one toe would not seriously hamper
locomotion' in an individual who did
not demand too much of her feet. In
other words, the very lapguid woman
who needs exert herself only to
ge& from her drawing room to her
limousine might have her little toe cut
off without feeling any particular loss.
But few women of this energetic
age save their feet to this extent. The
woman in society, supposedly seden-
tary type, often has to stand and look
pleasant for long stretches of time.
Sports and dancing which play so
large a part in the social whirl demand
foot comfort if any pleasure is to be
derived from them. This doctor
thinks where poise and balance are
important, as in most sports, the abb
sence of the little toe would prove
handicap. For ordinary walking there
would probably be no discomfort, at
least for a time. When they are en-
cased in tight shoes, the toes do not
function as they do when a person
walks barefooted, and grips the
ground with them.
Trouble May Come Later.
However he thinks that later there
may be trouble, thru weakening OF
verse arch at the base of the toes. Ex-
perts say that the weight of the foot
is properly distributed when a balance
is preserved between the three points
of the triangle made by the foot The
heel is one of the points and the 9TH
ers are at the base of the first and
fifth toes. A good deal of the trouble
with arches is attributed to the foot's
being allowed to bend inward. The
weight of the body is then on the in
side of the foot and the pressure is
too great there for the arches. They
roll over inward, and become painful.
If the fifth toe is removed there would
be more difficulty in maintaining the
proper weight distribution, the doctor
thinks, and the foot would tend to
eventually discomfort.
A teacher of ballet dancing agrees
with this opinion. Both hold that the
outer toes are important for balance.
When you grip the floor with the out
side of the foot the weight is properly
distributed and the arches are raised
as they should be, the ballet dancer
says. If you try this when you are
not wearing a shoe you can see his
point easily. Then let the foot bend
in ha a sink and the foot
lose it's proper alignment.
Ballet dancers are taught in their
first lessons to throw their weight to-
ward the outside of the foot. They
have to put extra force into the mus
cles to keep them taut because they
are standing with their toes out, a
position which naturally causes the
foot to bend in. Because of the example
of the dancers, many persons walk
with their toes out thinking it must
neglect, however, to exert the extra
pull on their muscles to distribute the
balance properly. Tight shoes also
tend to make a person toe out.
Toeing out is regarded by experts
as a cause of corns, bunions, ingrow-
ing nails, and arch troubles They
urge that every one should toe in as
Indians and barefoot walkers do.
The theory that all of the toes are
needed for balance is opposed by a
British woman who claims that the
ancient Greeks. our ideals of physical
perfection, balanced on the inside OF
the foot, mainly on the great toe.
She submits pictures of statues illus
terested in the same subject have sub
mitted evidence that the Greeks ball
anced on five toes, throwing the
weight toward the outside. So the con-
troversy remains unsettled.
English Expert Against Toe.
Jones, seems to believe like the Brit
ish woman that man has little use for
the outer toes. He says that usually
1T is but a poor thing; it's nail is ill
developed, and at times no nail Is pres
ent. 1t is particularly liable to that
circulatory disturbance which mani
tests itself in chilblains, and not I'M
commonly 1t seems in a poor state of
nutrition. Most people possess but lit
tie power of movement in il and its
skeleton shows that its atrophic con-
dition has affected the bones and
joints, for the last two phalanges are
often fused together, making it short
of a joint as compared with the
axis is not straight, and the toe is
bumped up and also bent laterally.
All of this. the anthropologist says,
might carelessly be laid to the result of
wearing shoes. He believes that shoes
are not mainly responsible. He points
out that in barefooted races the
stumpy fifth toe is not unusual. His
conclusion is that man is trusting to
his first digit and that all the others
are undergoing a process of compare
tive atrophy; that man is tending
towards the development of q foot
which is unique, a foot in which the
first digit is the dominant and in the
end perhaps the sole surviving MEM
Der.
The British student of feet does not
seem to have gone into the health side
of the matter. He is reporting a ten
dency. Anyway, anybody who wants
to have a few toes amputated can get
a variety of opinions and advice. Some
doctors will say that in the long run
the loss of the little toe would be as
announcement as the loss of the little
finger. Others cheerfully think that