64b CORNS. 



whole of the wound. In these exten-sive openings the Friar's 

 balsam will not always be successful, but the cure must be effect- 

 ed by the judicious and never-too-severe use of the caustic. Bleed- 

 ing at the toe, and physic, will be resorted to as useful auxiliaries 

 when much inflammation arises. 



CORNS. 



In the angle between the bars {c, Fig. 47) and the quarters, 

 the horn of the sole has sometimes a red appearance, and is more 

 spongy and softer than at any other part. The horse flinches 

 when this portion of the horn is pressed upon, and occasional or 

 permanent lameness is produced. This disease of the foot is 

 termed corns : bearing this resemblance to the corn of the human 

 being, that it is produced by pressure, and is a cause of lameness. 

 When corns are neglected, so much inflammation is produced in 

 that part of the sensible sole, that suppuration follows, and to 

 that, quittor succeeds, and the matter either undermines the homy 

 sole, or is discharged at the coronet. 



The pressure hereby produced manifests itself in various ways. 

 When the foot becomes contracted, the part of the sole inclosed 

 between the external crust that is wiring in, and the bars that 

 are opposing that contraction (see Fig. 47), is placed in a kind 

 of vice, and becomes inflamed ; hence it is rare to see a con- 

 tracted foot without corns. When the shoe is suffered to remain 

 on too long, it becomes embedded in the heel of the foot : the ex- 

 ternal crust grows down on the outside of it, and the bearing is 

 thrown on this angular portion of the sole. No part of the 

 sole can bear continued pressure, and inflammation and corns 

 are the result. From the length of wear, the shoe sometimes be- 

 comes loosened at the heels, and gravel insinuates itself between 

 the shoe and the crust, and accumulates in this angle, and some- 

 limes seriously wounds it. 



The bars are too frequently cut away, and then the heel of the 

 shoe must be bevelled inward, in order to answer to this absurd 

 and injurious shaping of the foot. By this slanting direction of 

 the heel of the shoe inward, an unnatural disposition to contrac- 

 tion is given, and the sole must suffer in two ways, — in being 

 pressed upon by the shoe, and squeezed betw^een the outer crust 

 and the external portion of the bar. The shoe is often made un- 

 necessarily narrow at the heels, by which this angle, seemingly 

 less disposed to bear pressure than any other part of the foot, is 

 exposed to accidental bruises. If, in the paring out of the foot, 

 the smith should leave the bars prominent, he too frequently neg- 

 lects to pare away the horn in the angle between the bars and 

 the external crust ; or if he cuts away the bars, he scarcely 



