[1] Treatise on the Human Skeleton, p. 395.
[2] It does not appear that the legend is based upon any peculiar ideas of susceptibility attached to the heel among Eastern nations; nor can the passages in Scripture, that the Serpent shall bruise man’s heel (Genesis iii. 15); “For the greatness of thine iniquity are thy heels made bare” (Jeremiah xiii. 22), be adduced as indicating the existence of such an idea. There are some other myths resembling this one of Achilles; but in them a different part of the body missed the protecting influence. Thus, Ajax was wrapped by Hercules in the skin of the Nemæan lion, and was, thereby, rendered invulnerable, except at the pit of the stomach where the edges of the skin did not quite meet; and he killed himself by running his sword in there. In the Niebelungenlied, the hero, Siegfried, is represented to have rendered himself invulnerable by smearing himself with the blood of a dragon which he had killed. A leaf, however, adhering to his back, prevented the contact of the fluid with one spot. The secret was unwarily communicated by his wife Krimhild to his enemy Hagan, who took advantage of the information to plunge his sword into the fatal spot while Siegfried was stooping down to drink at a rivulet.
The lesson inculcated by these myths seems to be that all men, even heroes, have their weak points.
[3] It is a remarkable statement by a correspondent in The Times, Jan. 14th, 1861, that in the pillage of the Summer Palace of the Emperor of Pekin “all the ladies of the Court must have had natural-sized feet, all the slippers found in their rooms being large; not a single cramped-footed shoe was seen.”
[4] In Walking the hind leg moves first, then the fore leg of the same side; and both reach the ground before the hind leg of the opposite side is raised. So that at one time there are three feet on the ground, at another two, but never less than two.
In Trotting, especially quick trotting, one foot is raised at the same instant that the opposite one is put down. This renders it difficult to make out the sequence of the movements.
[5] In ancient times warriors were wont to cut off the great toes as well as the thumbs of their captives to disable them for further service (Judges i. 6, 7).
[6] Why the Shoe pinches, a contribution to Applied Anatomy by Hermann Meyer, M.D. Professor of Anatomy in the University of Zurich, translated from the German by John Stirling Craig, L.R.C.P.E., L.R.C.S.E., price sixpence.
The preceding four figures and the two following are taken from this pamphlet with Mr Craig’s permission.
[7] In deference to custom we call the palm the front of the hand; and, therefore, we speak of the thumb as the outer and the little finger as the inner digit: though it would better accord with the ordinary position of the part, with its correspondence with the foot and with comparative anatomy, to reverse these terms.