DISEASES OF THE FETLOCK, ANKLE, AND FOOT. 421 
dry box. The dressings are to be changed daily or even twice a 
day at first. When they are removed, all pieces of new horny mat- 
ter which are now firmly adherent must be rubbed off with the fin-. 
ger or a tent of oakum. As the secretion diminishes, dry powders, 
such as calomel, sulphates of iron, copper, etc., may prove of most 
advantage. The sulphates should not be used pure, but are to be 
mixed with powdered animal charcoal in the proportion of one of 
the former to eight or ten of the latter. When the soft tissues are 
all horned over, the dressings should be continued for a time, weak 
solutions being used to prevent a recurrence of the disease. If the 
patient is run down in condition, bitter tonics, such as gentian, 
may be given in 2-dram doses twice a day and a liberal diet of 
grain allowed. 
CORNS. 
A corn is an injury to the living horn of the foot, involving the 
soft tissues beneath, whereby the capillary blood vessels are ruptured 
and a small quantity of blood escapes which, by permeating the horn 
in the immediate neighborhood, stains it a dark color. If the injury 
is continuously repeated, the horn becomes altered in character and 
the soft tissues may suppurate or a horny tumor develop. Corns 
always appear in the sole in the angle between the bar and the 
outside wall of the hoof. In many cases the lamine of the bar, of 
the wall, or of both, are involved at the same time. 
Three kinds of corns are commonly recognized—the dry, the moist, 
ahd the suppurative—a division based solely on the character of the 
conditions which follow the primary injury. 
The fore feet are almost exclusively the subjects of the disease, for 
two reasons: First, because they support a greater part of the body; 
secondly, because the heel of the fore foot during progression is first 
placed upon the ground, whereby it receives much more concussion 
than the heel of the hind foot; in which the toe first strikes the 
ground. 
Causes.—It may be said that all feet are exposed to corns, and that 
even the best feet may suffer from them when conditions necessary to 
the production of the peculiar injury are present. The heavier 
breeds of horses generally used for heavy work on rough roads and 
streets seem to be most liable to this trouble. Mules rarely have 
corns. 
Among the causes and conditions which predispose to corns may 
be named high heels, which change the natural relative position of 
the bones of the foot and thereby increase the concussion to which 
these parts are subject; contracted heels, which in part destroy the 
elasticity of the foot, increase the pressure upon the soft tissues of 
the heel, and render lacerations more easy; long feet, which by 
removing the frog and heels too far from the ground deprive them 
