DISEASES FROM FAULTY CONFORMATION 197 
the conformation of the animal does. A vicious predis- 
posing conformation. once there is there always, and 
although the injury resulting from it may easily give way 
to correct treatment, the same injury is bound to re-occur 
when the animal is again put to work. 
Although with care suppurating corn, like other cases of 
suppuration within the hoof, may yield to treatment, the 
owner of the animal should, nevertheless, be warned that 
the condition is a serious one, especially should the joint 
become affected. It may so happen, as sometimes in fact 
it does, that the animal may die as a result of the infective 
fever so set up. From no surface in the body can absorp- 
tion take place quicker than from the synovial membrane 
of a joint. So soon, therefore, as this membrane comes in 
contact with septic material, so soon does a severe septic 
fever make its appearance. The septic matter has gained 
the blood-stream, and the patient succumbs te septic 
poisoning. 
Apart from death occurring naturally, the changes taking 
place in the joint in the shape of bony growths or of actual 
anchylosis may be so severe as to render the animal useless, 
and slaughter may have to be advised. 
Treatment.—We have already said that by far the most 
active cause in the production of corn is the shoe. It 
follows from this that it is to the shoeing we must largely 
look for a successful means of their prevention, and that 
the treatment of corn in its most simple form is really a 
matter for the smith, and not for the veterinary surgeon. 
The faults in connection with the shoeing we have men- 
tioned fully when treating of the causes of corn. From 
those we learn that a shoe with a flat-bearing surface, or 
one moderately seated but flat at the heels, is the correct 
shoe for nearly all feet. The heels of the shoe should not 
be too high, should not be too short, and should be wide 
enough apart from each other to insure the wall of the foot 
obtaining a fair share of the bearing. Finally, even with 
the present method of shoeing, whenever it is possible to 
allow the frog to come to the ground, it should be en- 
