f,86 CORN. 



flection, or, as may be better understood, the extreme point 

 of the heel. They happen in a similar way under fast 

 exertion that a blister does to our heel under hard 

 marches. The ecchymosis which follows the injury, and 

 which is called the corn, is nothing else than an after effect, 

 due to gravitation of the blood-stained serum which is 

 exuded. The corn is a reality, as its name implies ; it 

 consists in a horn tumour, at the angle above indicated. 

 These tumefactions reach to various proportions, from that 

 of enlargement and increased density of the common horn 

 lamina, to their obliteration, and, in the place, an intruding 

 growth of smooth horn, more dense than that of any part of 

 the hoof normally. 



The writer first published an account of these horn tum- 

 ours in 1859-60, when some specimens were presented to 

 the Museum of the Eoyal College of Veterinary Surgeons 

 of London. The discover} 7 led to further observation, and a 

 more accurate understanding of the whole subject by the 

 author than he had up to that time arrived at. 



This effort of nature to fence out and strengthen, as man 

 mutilates and weakens, offers a warning lesson to those who 

 cut and destroy the sole of the hoof : we find that the more 

 it is scooped away, and the external cavity deepened, so, 

 relatively, does the intrusion increase upwards, the tissues 

 and cartilage making way by their becoming absorbed. 



These baneful conditions protracted, lead on to further 

 complications, which, indeed, always progress simultane- 

 ously when any one source of injury is perpetually in force. 

 The most common form by which the approaching crisis 

 manifests itself in inveterate cases is by suppuration. 



This last state seldom arises until after the horse has 

 endured long suffering from corns ; it is not usually until 

 the internal horn tumours are formed that sloughing of the 



