In the native AUSTRALIAN the leg is commonly still more lanky, there being less calf than in the African; and in the MONKEY the heel is quite horizontal, the sole is flat, and the muscular fibres of the leg are continued low down, close to the ankle, instead of being concentrated higher up; so that the leg has nearly the same thickness from the knee to the foot, and there is no calf at all. Indeed, in the GORILLA (see fig. at page 90) the circumference of the leg increases towards the ankle. Thus, the calf may be regarded as the characteristic of MAN; and a well-developed calf is a characteristic of the higher members of the human species. The pride, therefore, which is felt in a well-formed leg is not altogether a senseless folly, but finds some excuse in the fact that its foundation lies deep in the laws of physiology and ethnology. It must be confessed, that the fashion which, in the last century, dictated the knee-breeches, the silk stocking, and the shoe, evinced a truer appreciation of the dignity and beauty of the human figure than do the modern investments, which quite cover up the limbs, encumbering their movements and hiding the beauty of the leg and ankle. In the addition of the _high heel_ to the shoe we recognise an effort to improve upon the original, by exaggerating one of the peculiar features of the human foot; but it results in a failure, as is invariably the case with such strainings after a greater perfection than nature has given. It increases the apparent height of the person and of the arch of the instep; but it throws the weight too forward upon the toes, and detracts from the length and security of the step. Moreover, by causing disuse of the elevators of the heel, it interferes with the full growth of the calf. [Illustration: Fig. 20. Chinese.]