306 THE HORSE. 



'tural disposition to contraction is given, and the sole must suffer inlwo 

 ways, in being; pressed upon by the shoe, and being squeezed between 

 the outer crust and the external portion of the bar. The shoe is often made 

 unnecessarily narrow at the heels, by which this anoxic, seemingly less dis- 

 posed 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 neglects to pare away the horn 

 in the angle between the bars and the external crust ; or if he cuts away 

 the bars, he scarcely touches the horn at this point; and thus, before the 

 horse has been shod a fortnight, the shoe rests on this angle, and produces 

 corns. The use of a shoe for the fore feet, thickened at the heels, is, and 

 especially in weak feet, a source of corns, from the undue bearing there is 

 on the heels, and the concussion to which they are subject. 



Tlie unshod colt rarely has corns. The heels have tlieir natural power 

 of expansion, and the sensible sole at this part can scarcely be imprisoned, 

 while the projection of the heel of the crust and the bar is a sufficient 

 defence froni external injury. Corns seem to be, to a certain degree, the 

 almost inevitable consequence of shoeing, which, by limiting, or in a 

 manner destroying, the expansibility of the foot, must, when the sole 

 attempts to descend, or the coffin bone has a backward and downward 

 direction (see cut, p. 249), imprison and injure this portion of the sole; 

 and this evil .ponsequence is increased when the shoe is badly formed, or 

 kept on too^4^ng, or when the paring is omitted or injudiciously extended 

 to the bars^* | By this unnatural pressure of the sole, blood is thrown out, 

 and entei\ iiito the pores of the soft and diseased horn which is then 

 secreted: t|ierefore we judge of the existence and the extent of the corn by 

 the colouc/and softness of the horn at this place. 



.^The_^re is difficult; for as all shoeing has some tendency to produce 

 pressure here, it is difficult to get rid of the habit of throwing out this dis- 

 eased horn when it is once contracted. 



The first thing to be done is well to pare out the angle between the crust 

 and the bars. Two objects are answered by this ; the extent of the disease 

 will be ascertained, and one cause of it removed. A very small drawing 

 knife must be used for this purpose. The corn must be pared out to the 

 very bottom, taking care not to wound the sole. It will then be discovered 

 whether there be any effusion of blood or matter underneath. If this 

 be suspected, an opening must be made through the horn, the matter 

 evacuated, the separated horn taken away, the course and extent of the 

 sinuses explored, and the treatment recommended for quittor adopted. 

 Should there be no collection of fluid, the butyr of antimony should be 

 applied over the whole extent of the corn, after the horn has been thinned 

 as closely as possible. The object of this is to stimulate the sole to 

 throw out more healthy horn. In bad cases a bar-shoe may be put on, 

 so chambered, that there shall be no pressure on the diseased part. This 

 may be worn for one or two shoeings, but not constantly, for there are few 

 frogs that would bear the constant pressure of the bar-shoe ; and the want 

 of the pressure on the heel, generally occasioned by their use, would pro- 

 duce a softened and bulbous state of the heels, which would of itself be an 

 inevitable source of lameness. 



In the great majority of cases the corn is either confined to the inner 

 quarter of the foot, or crust. That this should be the case may be easily 

 imagined, from what we have said of contraction being most frequent in 

 the inner quarter. The shoe, unfettered on the inner side, may, in corn on 

 that side, be applied with great benefit if the country be not too heavy, or 

 the pace required from the horse too great. 



