Lumbrical muscles and contracted toes.

Dissection of fifty feet revealed a lack of correlation between absence of lumbrical muscles and the presence of contracted toe. This is at variance with assertions commonly encountered in textbooks of anatomy. Contracted toes were found in association with well developed lumbricals. Absence of lumbricals was not found to be associated with toe anomalies. These findings leave in doubt the function of lumbrical muscles of the foot.