Our principal care is the preservation of the shape of the great toe and inside joint, not forgetting that the little toe is also entitled to care; still, the great one is much the most important, and if only one can be properly attended to, the little one must wait its opportunity. Its deformity consists in being bent and twisted under, and though the pressure causing this may also develop corns, and injury of the toe joint, the joint itself is not forced out of place, nor is the bad effect so common, nor so serious as in the case of the large one. [Illustration: FIG. 14.—COMPROMISE.] [Illustration: FIG. 15.—COMMON SOLE.] Figure 14 represents the sole of a crooked last, such as may occasionally be seen in use by some of our best boot-makers at the present time. Contrasted with the one beside it, which is a pretty fair specimen of right-and-left lasts generally, it is evidently nearer to the true form. In it, the line drawn from the middle of the heel to the middle of the ball region passes through the toe nearest the outside corner, leaving the greater space at the inside; while in the other the line passes through the toe at the middle, thus making it virtually only a _straight_ last, hollowed out a little the most at the inner side. For the purpose of giving the great toe a straight position, it is seen at a glance that the form of Fig. 14 is far superior to that of Fig. 15, though the tendency to distortion would still remain with it to a considerable extent. For the sake of a name to distinguish it, this may be called the _Compromise_. It is not so much in advance of the common styles that many people would notice the difference at all, and last-makers and shoe manufacturers might adopt it, and with a slight effort force it into general use, with great benefit to those feet that are still tolerably well-shaped, if not to their own direct advantage. At least, the acceptance of it is one step in the right direction for those who are not ready to make a more radical innovation. Our next form is something better. The reason for it is the rule given, some fifty or sixty years ago, by Dr. Peter Camper, of Amsterdam, who wrote an essay on the subject, in which he stated _that the proper form of shoe was such as to allow all the toes to lie parallel with a line drawn through the middle of the sole from heel to toe_. This, though not perfect, was, considering its date, a pretty good standard; but the shoemakers, if they were ever governed by it at all, have transgressed it since, until its intention has been entirely defeated. They have done this by narrowing the toe of the sole so much that the toes of the foot, instead of lying parallel to each other and to the line of the foot’s length, have had their ends drawn together at an angle till they were compelled even to lie one over the other.