A human foot is composed of three parts, so far as its bones are concerned. These are the toes, or the very movable bones in the front of the foot (1), and then there are five slender bones (2) placed side by side, and reaching from the toes to the pieces forming the back of the foot or ankle. The five bones thus parallel, and situated between the beginning of the toes and the ankle-bones, are counted from within outwards. That attached to the great toe is the first, and that to the little toe is the fifth. These are called metatarsal bones, and give length and narrowness to the foot, and they can be readily felt with the finger on our own bodies. [Illustration: BONES OF THE ANKLE AND FOOT OF MAN.] [Illustration: BONES OF THE ANKLE AND FOOT OF THE GORILLA.] Behind them are the seven bones of the “tarsus,” or ankle, all connected together in a strong arch, and jointed in front to the five bones just mentioned, and above to the two bones of the leg. The hindmost part of the ankle or heel is formed by the heel-bone, os calcis (3), which forms the back part of the arch of the sole. The Achilles tendon is united to it behind, and above it is jointed with a bone, on which rest the bones of the leg, the astragalus bone (4), so called from the Greek word, which means a “die,” for the boys and men in the olden time tossed these bones, and played with those of the sheep as modern boys do. There are two bones of the ankle just in front of these; one in contact with the heel-bone is called, from its shape, the cuboid or cube-shaped bone (5), and the other, jointed to the astragalus, is, from its faint resemblance to a boat or hull of a ship (navis), termed the navicular bone (6). In front of these two are three others placed side by side, and jointed in front to some of the metatarsal bones. They are called, from their wedge-shaped outlines (wedges for the arch of the foot), cuneiform bones (7), and there are the inner, middle, and outer of them. The inner is curved on its front surface, and has a joint there for the end of the slender (metatarsal) bone of the great toe. It is longer than the next wedge-shaped bone, so that just a little spot of the second slender bone of the second toe touches it close to the corresponding one of the great toe. This inner wedge-shaped bone, the metatarsal bone of the great toe, and the joints of the toe itself, are all on a line, which is parallel to the bones of the next and other toes. The middle and the outer wedge-shaped bones have each a slender metatarsal bone attached to them, and the two remaining slender metatarsals are jointed on to the cube-shaped bone which projects in front of the heel-bone (os calcis). It is the length in front, and the solidity and arched form of the ankle, together with the _parallel_ direction of all the slender metatarsal bones, which give the human foot its beauty of form, strength, and ability to sustain the weight of the body flat on the sole.