CORNS. 



177 



As we have before said in another part of the work, 

 nothing can be more injudicious than to allow shoes to 

 remain too long on : even if they are not worn, they should 

 be occasionally taken off and readjusted, to free the feet 

 from long-continued pressure on certain parts by the grow- 

 ing of the horny substance of the hoof. In shoeing, too, 

 the bars are very often cut away, and this renders it neces- 

 sary to be bevelled inward, so as to accommodate it to this 

 injurious and ridiculous shaping of the foot ; consequently 

 an unnatural disposition to contraction is induced by this 

 slanting inward direction of the heel of the shoe. From 

 this the sole is subjected to double liability to injury ; first, 

 by being pressed upon by the shoe, and, second, by being 

 squeezed between the outer crust and the external portion 

 of the -bar. This angle is less able to bear pressure than 

 any other portion of the foot, being more exposed to acci- 

 dental bruises and injuries of different kinds, in consequence 

 of the shoe being made unnecessarily narrow at the heel. 

 In the act of shoeing, while paring out the foot, the smith 

 is too apt to omit cutting away the horn between the angles 

 of the bars and the external hoof ; and if he does cut away 

 the bars, he hardly touches the horn at this point. Con- 

 sequently, before the horse has been eight days or a fortnight 

 shod, the shoe rests upon this angle, and the corns are thus 

 produced. It is plain that a shoe thickened at the heels 

 of the fore feet is certain to cause corns, in consequence 

 of undue pressure on the heels, especially in feet that are 

 weak. 



There can be little doubt but corns are mainly owing 

 to faults in shoeing, as well as the fact of shoeing itself, 

 however well performed, preventing the due expansion of 

 the horn when the sole is growing downwards, and thus 

 conlining and injuring this portion of the sole. And it 



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