View of the muscles in the sole of the foot. 1 The muscle which draws the great toe from the other toes; 2. the muscle which draws the little toe from the other toes; 3. the muscle called the short flexor of the toes, which assists in bending the four smaller toes.] 208. The muscles which extend the toes and bend the foot are seated on the fore part of the leg (fig. CIII.); split into tendons like the analogous muscles of the fingers (fig. CIII. 2); and are bound down by a ligament (fig. CIII. 3), exactly the same in name, disposition, and office, as that which belongs to the hand (fig. CIII. 3). Numerous minute muscles are placed in the sole of the foot (fig. CIV.), which act on the toes as the small muscles in the palm of the hand act on the fingers (fig. LXXXVI.). 209. Such are the moving powers which put in action the complicated mechanism provided for the function of locomotion. And these powers are adequate to their office; but they are what may be termed expensive powers; agents requiring a high degree, of organization and the utmost resources of the economy to support and maintain them. Hence in the construction of the framework of the machine which they have to move, whatever mechanical contrivance may economize their labour, is adopted. The construction, form, and disposition of the several parts of that framework have all reference to two objects: first, the combination of strength with lightness; and secondly, security to tender organs, with the power of executing rapid, energetic, and, sometimes, violent motions. The combination is effected and the object attained in a mode complicated in the detail, simple in the design, and perfect in the result. The weight of the body transmitted from the arch of the pelvis to a second arch, formed by the neck of the thigh-bone, and from this, in a perpendicular direction, to a third arch formed by the foot, is ultimately received by the heel behind, and by the metatarsal bones and the first phalanges of the toes before, and more especially by the metatarsal joints belonging to the great and little toe, which have a special apparatus of muscles, for the purpose of preserving steadily their relative situation to the heel. The weight of the body is thus sustained on a series of arches, from which it is, in succession, transmitted to the ground, where it ultimately rests upon a tripod: forms known and selected as the best adapted to afford support, and to give security of position. Columns of compact bone superimposed one upon another, and united at different points by bands of prodigious strength, form the pillars of support. But these bony columns never touch each other; are never in actual contact; are all separated by layers of elastic matter which, while they assist in binding the columns together, enable them to move one upon another, as upon so many pliant springs. The layers of cartilage interposed between the several vertebræ; the layer of cartilage interposed between the vertebral