THE SOUTHE 



RN PLANTER. 



establishment is provided with nappers, pickers, 

 shears, stocks for filling, kettles for dyeing, &c. 

 Besides weaving very superior bed and negro 

 blankets, Mr. Bonsack makes a very heavy and 

 good article for overcoats, and jeans from the 

 very finest to the coarsest for servants, and very 

 good cloth, (all wool,) well fulled and dressed. 



There is also a woollen factory at Fincastle, 

 Botetourt county, owned and conducted by Ben- 

 jamin Ainer, of said county. Though on a 

 smaller scale, the excellence of its fabrics bear 

 unqualified testimony to his skill and enterprise. 



Both these establishments are in a state of 

 successful experiment. They are more or less 

 patronized and encourged by our farmers ; who 

 find it their interest to live (as they say,) within 

 themselves, as far as practicable. 



As our country between the Blue Ridge and 

 Alleghany is as fine as any country for sheep, 

 our citizens are paying some attention to that 

 stock and are introducing the Bakewell, Saxon, 

 and Southdown, into our folds. All over and 

 above our supply, we can barter for the cottons 

 of the South. 



The Virginians should make all their woollen 

 clothing — and the successful enterprise of these 

 gentlemen is furnishing the most incontestible 

 evidence of their ability to do so. 



A Planter. 



CORNS. 



Corns consist of a horny development of the 

 outer or scarf-skin, in technical language, epi- 

 dermis, arising from united pressure and friction, 

 which sets up an irritation on the spot (being a 

 law of all vital economy). The corn is a hard 

 tubercle with a crown and stem, or root, as it is 

 improperly termed, being exactly like a carpen- 

 ter's nail. The crown or head is flat or rough, 

 unless polished by rubbing against the shoe. — 

 The stem is conical, horny, and pointed : there 

 may be two or three stems, the points of which, 

 piercing down towards, or even quite through 

 the true under skin, and sometimes penetrating 

 the capsull of a joint when seated over such, 

 cause the well known exquisite pain by irritating 

 the delicate expansion of nervous fibrils with 

 which the skin, &c, in every part of the body, 

 is beautifully supplied. They are chiefly classed 

 into hard and soft. The latter being of the same 

 structure as the former, only, from being situate 

 in a part where they are kept moist, present 

 their characteristic softness and marceration of 

 crown ; in fact, the hard corn is most commonly 

 on the outside of the little toe, where the prin- 

 cipal pressure, with friction of the shoe, occurs. 

 The sides of the nails, the sole, and the heel are 

 obnoxious, also, to these pest of the feet. From 

 what has been stated, it will be evident, that to 

 cut off the head of the corn is only a temporary 

 relief, and not a radical cure; this is only ac- 

 Vol. IV.— 12 



complished by cautiously digging out the tail 

 or stem, which may be seen with a magnifier, 

 and which any steady-handed person may do 

 for themselves, by the following method, which 

 can be only very briefly described in this already 

 prolonged but useful note : Put a drop of oil on 

 the corn, where soaking in hot water and rub- 

 bing with a rough towel or the finger-nail will 

 not remove it (only practicable in an infant corn). 

 With a penknife cut away a little of the head, 

 if very large and protuberant, then cut cautiously 

 round it, so as to loosen it by degrees out of its 

 bed, and thus to clear the stem at last by means 

 of grubbing round it, as you would do in dig- 

 ging out a piece of stick frozen in the ice. A 

 sharp-pointed bodkin is the most accessible in- 

 strument to the generality of people, though an 

 imperfect substitute for the lancet-pointed qua- 

 drille of the chiropodist. By such means, deli- 

 cately and dexterously employed, the point of 

 the stem may be got at, when it may be forced 

 up, lifting at the same time the crown by the 

 fingers, or, far better, a small pair of forceps, or 

 strong tweezers: thus, with care, and without 

 pain, may this thorn, as it literally and figurative- 

 ly is, be removed. Not a drop of blood should 

 be drawn ; and, if all the stem or stems (where 

 more than one so acting for each), are eradicated 

 by dint of patience and cautious practice (pres- 

 sure on the spot will test the success of the 

 operation by the most welcome relief obtained 

 from all pain,) place a slip of diachylon plaster 

 on the part and round the toe, and then another 

 of goldbeater's skin, or oil silk, and leave it un- 

 disturbed for some days, when the plaster should 

 be removed ; first extracting any old stems ob- 

 served to have been left, thus guarding against 

 the continuance of the cause, a complete cure 

 may be effected. If a corn has excited inflam- 

 mation, known by redness around, the shooting 

 pulsating pains, rest and emollient applications, 

 such as a linseed poultice, a fig, &c, will relieve 

 it. Avoid, by all means, the cutting of a corn 

 till it bleeds, which may be very serious, espe- 

 cially in advanced life. A bunnion is a many- 

 stemmed corn, seated in tumefied flesh : bulbous, 

 flabby, scarf-skin comes off in flakes, stems like 

 millet seed, roundish and conical. Callosites 

 are only thickenings of scarf-skins, superficial, 

 insensible, they may be not only cured but pre- 

 vented, by rubbing with pumice stone or sand 

 paper. — The Art of Preserving the Feet. 



VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY. 



We are indebted to the author for " Observa- 

 tions on Vegetable and Animal Physiology, by 

 W. L. Wight, M. D." This little pamphlet of 

 twenty-seven pages, in the hands of any modern 

 philosopher, would have been unquestionably 

 amplified into a work of several volumes. In 



