DISEASES FROM FAULTY CONFORMATION 187 
laudable idea of relieving pressure on the part diseased. 
After what has gone before, we need hardly say that their 
well-meant efforts have a precisely opposite effect to the 
one they intend. 
The fitting of the shoe is, perhaps, to a greater extent 
responsible for the causation of corn than is the paring we 
have just described. 
A few of the evils connected with the shoe may, however, 
be justly described as unavoidable. We must shoe; we 
cannot shoe and leave a normal foot ! 
A shoe excessively seated, especially from the last nail- 
hole backwards, may be regarded as dangerous. In this 
case, with every application of the body-weight, there is 
given to the foot a tendency to contract, especially at its 
lower margin. Result: undue pressure upon the tissues 
around and the production of corn. 
On the other hand, varying with the form of foot, the 
seating may be insufficient. In the case of flat-foot, or 
dropped sole, for instance, insufficient seating will lead to 
undue pressure of the web of the shoe upon the sole, and 
in that way bring about bruising of the sensitive sole 
beneath. 
Shoes with heels or calks too high, by destroying the 
counter-pressure of the frog with the ground, serve to bring 
about a series of changes we have described under contrac- 
tion, and again result in pinching and bruising of the sensi- 
tive structures. 
The opposite excess—a shoe thick at the toe and thin at 
the heels—is blamed by Zundel for causing a like injury. 
In our opinion, the reason this author gives—namely, that 
the throwing of greater weight upon the heels leads to 
bruising of the sensitive structures—can only correctly 
apply to a wrongly-applied shoe of this type, and not*to the 
shoe itself. True, a shoe with a thick toe and thinned 
heels will throw an undue proportion of the body-weight 
upon the heels if the foot is not properly prepared for it. 
A wise man, however, will most certainly so cut down the 
toe for the reception of this shoe that, with the shoe in 
