CORNS 599 



however, it is met with at the inner heel, from the shoe being overgrown 

 by that part of the foot when kept on too long. The outer nails do not 

 allow it to work in the contrary dii"ection, and if there is a clip on the 

 outer quarter this is rendered still more improbable. If, therefore, shoeing 

 is properly managed, corns may always be prevented, and we shall see in 

 the directions for shoeing, at Chapter xxxviii., how this is to be managed. 

 At present I have to consider how they are to be relieved or cured when 

 they are already established. 



The ordinary mode op treating corns is simply to cut them out, 

 leaving the bar and heel of the crust full, and thus taking all pressure off 

 them. This enables the horse to do his work for about ten days, but then 

 the shoe must be removed, and the paring-out repeated, a process which 

 weakens the already weak crust by making additional nail-holes in it. The 

 shoe at the same time is generally " sprung," that is, it is so bent or filed 

 that the heel does not fully bear upon it ; but this does not last many 

 hours, and is of little real utility. The plan answers well enough for the 

 purposes of fraudulent sellers, as the horse runs sound for about ten days ; 

 and when he fails, and on taking off his shoe he is discovered to have a 

 corn, it is impossible to prove that it existed at the time of sale by any 

 evidence but that of the smith who shod him previously to it. Excepting, 

 therefore, in very slight and recent cases, in which it will sometimes be 

 followed by success, this plan of treatment is only palliative, and what is 

 worse, it tends to increase the weakness of the foot and consequent tendency 

 to the disease. 



For the curative plan we must do something more than merely take 

 the pressure off the sole ; the bar and heel of the crust must also be relieved, 

 and the sensible sole must be stimulated, by a proper application, to secrete 

 healthy horn, as well as by pressure on the frog. If the horse is to be 

 rested, this can be done easily enough by taking off his shoes, but he may be 

 kept at work by putting on a bar shoe (Fig. 123, Chap, xxxviii.), and cutting 

 down the bar and crust, so as to throw all the pressure off them upon the 

 frog. A double purpose is effected in this way. First, the sensible sole is 

 relieved of the constant pressure which the crust bears upon it laterally ; 

 and, secondly, the jar on the frog, communicated through the shoe, from the 

 ground, induces a healthy action in the foot, and the sole has a greater 

 tendency to secrete healthy horn. There is no doubt in my mind that all 

 horses would work much better, and keep their feet in much sounder con- 

 dition, if their frogs could be brought into use, without being guarded as 

 they are by the ordinary shoe. This part is intended by Nature to take 

 upon itself great pressure ; and if it has not its natural stimulus it becomes 

 weak itself, and, moreover, it does not stimulate the surrounding parts to a 

 Iiealthy action, as it ought to do. The bar shoe is inconvenient for many 

 purposes, and, therefore, it is not generally applied ; but as a curative agent 

 these objections are to be disj)ensed with, and then it will be found to be 

 extremely valuable, not only in relieving the diseased part (the corn), but 

 in giving a healthy action to its seat, the sole. The smith should therefore 

 pare down the crust at the heel, so that when the bar shoe is applied it will 

 allow a penny-piece to be insinuated between the two surfaces. With this 

 the horse does his work comfortably on the road ; and in process of time, 

 that is, in two or three months, the heel grows up, and takes its own share 



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