r entirely
disappears as soon as the abscess opens. When the injured tissues are
much inflamed, as may happen in severe and recent cases, the heel of the
affected side, or even the whole foot, is hot and tender to pressure. In
dry corn and in most chronic cases all evidences of local fever are
often wanting. It is in these cases that the patient goes well when
newly shod, for the smith cuts away the sole over the seat of injury
until all pressure by the shoe is removed and lowers the heels so that
concussion is reduced to a minimum.

If a corn is suspected, the foot should be examined for increased
sensibility of the inside heel. Tapping the heel of the shoe with a
hammer and grasping the wall and bar between the jaws of pincers with
moderate pressure will cause more or less flinching if the disease is
present. For further evidence the shoe is removed and the heel cut away
with the drawing knife. As the horn is pared out, not only the sole in
the angle is found discolored, but in many instances the insensible
laminae of the bar and wall adjacent are also stained with the escaped
blood. In moist and suppurative corns this discoloration is less marked
than in dry corn and even may be entirely wanting. In these cases the
horn is soft, often white, and stringy or mealy, as seen in pumiced sole
resulting from founder. When the whole thickness of the sole is
discolored and the horn dry and brittle it is generally evidence that
the corn is an old one and that the exciting cause has existed
continuously. A moist corn differs from the dry one in that the injury
is more severe. The parts affected are more or less inflamed, and the
horn of the sole in the angle is undermined by a citron-colored fluid,
which often permeates the injured sole and laminae, causing the horn to
become somewhat spongy.

A suppurative corn differs from others in that the inflammation ends in
suppuration. The pus collects at the point of injury and finally escapes
by working its way between the sensitive and insensible laminae to the
top of the hoof, where an opening is made between the wall and coronary
band at or near the heels. This is the most serious form of corns, for
the reason that it may induce gangrene of the plantar cushion,
cartilaginous quittor, or caries of the coffin bone.

_Treatment._--Since a diversity of opinion exists as to what measures
must be adopted for the radical cure of corns, the author will advise
the use of those which have