WARTS AND CORNS. 397 



the best plan is to amputate it, as it requires the greatest caution 

 and tact to remove them by arsenic or any other caustic without 

 destroying, also, as much ol the penis as is taken away by the 

 knife.. 



CORNS. 

 These troublesome results of bad shoeing, or subsequent 

 neglect of the feet, make their appearance in the sole of the foot, 

 in the angle formed between the crust and the bar (see fig. 20 (E), 

 Chap. XXVI.). Where the foot is properly prepared for the shoe, 

 and the smith seats the heel of the crust and the bar on a 

 level surface, no corn will make its appearance in a healthy foot ; 

 but if a corn has previously existed, or if the shoe is allowed to 

 press upon the sole at E ("see fig. 20, Chap. XXVI.), the delicate 

 blood-vessels of the sensible sole are ruptured, and, instead of se- 

 creting a sound horn, capable of bearing the slight strain upon it 

 which is required, a fungoid growth is formed, presenting a reddish 

 appearance, and exquisitely sensitive. This morbid substance 

 does not at all resemble the hard corn of the human subject, which 

 is a thickened secretion of cuticle, but it bears some comparison 

 with the soft corns that form so often between the toes, and give 

 so much trouble in their removal. It is, in fact, a new growth of 

 a semi-fungoid character, partly made up of granulations and 

 partly of horny matter, the two being closely united. The corn 

 may arise from improper pressure made on this part of the sensible 

 sole, either directly from the shoe, or indirectly by pressing a thin 

 brittle crust inwards upon it. Generally, 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 direction, and if there is a clip on the 

 outer quarter this is rendered still mqre improbable. If, there- 

 fore, shoeing is properly managed, corns may always be prevented, 

 and we shall see in the directions for shoeing, at Chap. XXVI., 

 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 weaken^ 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 

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