LAMENESS IN HOUSES. 
602 
tendency, from obliquity and weakness of foot in the wall, to 
spread at bottom, and over-shoot, as it grows down, the heels of 
the shoe ; — unless those parts are — as they ought to be in this 
kind of foot — made wider than the hoof, to allow for such 
spreading. The result of this over-shooting, or, as it is called 
by the smith, “ eating of the shoe into the foot,” of necessity 
is, to bring the heels of the shoe opposite to and down upon the 
sole of the foot, and this, especially when the horse is “ shod 
short,” is likely to end in contusion of the sole and corn. Indeed, 
from the sparingness and thinness in such feet, and from the 
growth of the wall hardly exceeding its wear and tear, consi- 
derable pains in shoeing are frequently required to keep them 
free from attacks of corn, and particularly when once they 
have suffered from the disease, and are in the habit of expe- 
riencing relapses. After a statement of this kind, we shall not 
be prepared to find corns coming in feet of the very opposite 
character, viz. contracted feet. Such, however, is the case ; 
though in them corns must certainly be ascribed to another class 
of causes. 
The Cause OF Corn is any impediment to the yielding or 
elasticity of the sole of the foot, whereby the sensitive tissue 
becomes contused or bruised between the coffin-bone above it 
and the horny hole below it. The shoe is usually the offending 
body; though it is possible for a stone, or dirt, or gravel, or 
any thing else, by lodging between the shoe and the sole, to 
produce the same result. A shoe, from being of improper shape 
or make, or from being improperly put on, in time “ eats its 
way into the foot,” and gives rise to corn, by lying against the 
sole, and so proving an impediment to its yielding or “ descent” 
during action, under the weight or force applied to it. If the 
horny sole cannot yield, the organic tissue must suffer compres- 
sion, if not actual contusion, every time the coffin-bone is forced 
down upon it ; and this is likely to occasion rupture of some of 
the delicate bloodvessels distributed through its papillary tex- 
ture, whence results extravasation of blood ( ecchymosis ) and 
consequent staining of the portion of horn opposed to the bruised 
part. This is the ordinary simple origin of corn. It is a rare 
occurrence in the hind feet, because hind shoes are made long 
and substantial at the heels, have, indeed, often calkins worked 
upon them; and because horses tread with more force upon their 
toes than upon their heels behind. The fore feet, on the other 
hand, are the peculiar, almost exclusive subjects of corn, be- 
cause in them the shoes, being apt to be short and close fitting, 
are more liable to eat their way into the sole, and because 
their soles yield or “descend” more at the angles, in conse- 
quence of the fore feet having to support more weight than the 
