The Human Foot
The Human Body is one of the most worthy objects of man’s study. It is the noblest as well as the crowning work of creation. In it material organization is carried to the greatest perfection. It surpasses, therefore, all other physical objects in exquisiteness of construction and in interest. How comes it, then, that most persons are so ignorant respecting it? Men, well informed in other matters, are usually altogether uninformed with regard to this. In every other branch of science we find amateur students pursuing the subject with zeal and success. Geology, Chemistry, Botany, Zoology, and even Comparative Anatomy have each their votaries; but Human Anatomy attracts no one. Why is this? Partly, I think, because opportunities for acquiring such information as is suitable and interesting are not so many as they ought to be.
It must be confessed, also, that we teachers of Anatomy are somewhat to blame. We are too prone, in our Lectures and Examinations, to dwell upon bare details, without enlivening those details with the many bright features of interest with which they are naturally invested; and we fail, therefore, to render it so attractive a science as it might be. The example of those able and animated teachers, John and Charles Bell, who laboured with some success to disperse the clouds that have ever overhung the horizon of anatomy, has been too much forgotten; and the flame which they kindled has almost died out under the chilling apathy of their successors. Truly glad should I be to see a change in this. I cannot but think that if the teachers of Anatomy took higher and more philosophical views of their science there would be no lack of interest on the part of the students. The interest so excited would soon spread beyond the limits of the profession; and there would thus be opened up to the public some of the products of that rich vein of knowledge and of that abundant material for thought which lie buried in the human frame.
I therefore willingly accede to your request for a Lecture upon some part of the anatomy of the human body, relying upon the intrinsic interest of the subject to make amends for my own deficiencies in expounding it; and I select the Human Foot, because a few of the more important points of its construction can be explained without much difficulty, because it affords a good illustration of some of the principles of animal mechanism, and because its form constitutes one of the great characteristics whereby man is distinguished from the lower animals. As an instrument of support and of locomotion it excels the foot of any other animal. It evinces its excellence by enabling man to stand upright in a way that no other animal can do; and so efficiently does the foot accomplish this and perform the task of carrying the body, that the hand is set at liberty to minister to the will. Thus is the foot instrumental in giving us an advantage over other animals, and in enabling us to provide the means of defence; and, thus, it aids us to carry out those wondrous works which are second only to the marvellous results of creative power.
We are accustomed to regard the hand as the great agent by which all this is attained, and we are apt to forget how much it is indebted to the foot. We do not reflect that, if the foot of man presented no distinguishing peculiarity, the hand, like the corresponding part in other animals, would be compelled to share with it the task of carrying the body, and could, therefore, not be devoted to the various offices which it is now free to perform. Little right has the hand to say to the foot, “I have no need of thee.”