CORNS. 
177 
As we have before said in another part of the work, 
nothing can be more injudicious than to allow shoes to 
remain too long on : even if they are not worn, they should 
be occasionally taken off and readjusted, to free the feet 
from long-continued pressure on certain parts by the grow¬ 
ing of the homy substance of the hoof. In shoeing, too, 
the bars are very often cut away, and this renders it neces¬ 
sary to be bevelled inward, so as to accommodate it to this 
injurious and ridiculous shaping of the foot; consequently 
an unnatural disposition to contraction is induced by this 
slanting inward direction of the heel of the shoe. From 
this the sole is subjected to double liability to injury ; first, 
ny being pressed upon by the shoe, and, second, by being 
squeezed between the outer crust and the external portion 
of the bar. This angle is less able to bear pressure than 
any other portion of the foot, being more exposed to acci¬ 
dental bruises and injuries of different kinds, in consequence 
of the shoe being made unnecessarily narrow at the heel. 
In the act of shoeing, while paring out the foot, the smith 
is too apt to omit cutting away the horn between the angles 
of the bars and the external hoof; and if he does cut away 
the bars, he hardly touches the horn at this point. Con¬ 
sequently, before the horse has been eight days or a fortnight 
shod, the shoe rests upon this angle, and the corns are thus 
produced. It is plain that a shoe thickened at the heels 
of the fore feet is certain to cause corns, in consequence 
of undue pressure on the heels, especially in feet that are 
weak. 
There can be little doubt but corns are mainly owing 
to faults in shoeing, as well as the fact of shoeing itself, 
however well performed, preventing the due expansion of 
the horn when the sole is growing downwards, and thus 
confining and injuring this portion of the sole. And it 
