CORNS. 



381 



A com is the result of a bruise, involving the structures of the 

 sensitive sole, appearing as an ecchymosed spot in the triangular 

 space included between the bars and the wall at the heel ; oc- 

 curring in the fore feet, and almost invariably in the inside heel ; 

 and caused by bad shoeing. Corns are not horn tumours, as 

 taught by Gamgee and others, but they may become so, if the 

 cause be long applied. 



The ordinary seated shoe is the most irrational invention that 

 ever emanated from a man's brain. It is a thing that bears 

 upon no part of the sole except upon the spot that is incapable 

 of bearing such pressure. It is dished out — made concave — all 

 round the foot except at the heels ; and the result is corns. A 

 corn consists essentially at first of a bruise and extravasation of 

 blood, from rupture of the small vessels, which insinuates itself 



Fig. 75. 



into the homy texture, and gives it the characteristic red appear- 

 ance ; it terminates occasionally in suppuration, partial necrosis, 

 horn tumour, or in the formation of bony spiculas on the plantar 

 surface of the pedal bone, as represented in the sketch. 



