THE SITUATION AND ASPECT
OF AN OLD CORN UPON A
LARGE, FLAT FOOT.
THE DEEPLY-SEATED AND SMALL,
SCARLET SPOT WHICH DECLARES
THE PRESENCE OF A NEW CORN.
An old corn is the least serious, especially when it is easily cut away; it appears as a black mark upon the surface of the horny sole, and is little thought of when it can be speedily removed by the knife, because this shows the horse had a corn, but at present is free from such an annoyance. When, however, a superficial corn cannot be scooped out with the drawing-knife, but becomes brighter and brighter as more and more horn is cut away, till it assumes the scarlet aspect of a new corn, the matter is rather grave, because it denotes the horse to have had, and not to have been free from, corns during the growth of the present sole.
The new corn, as has been just intimated, consists of a portion of blood effused into the pores of the horn, and is of a bright-scarlet color. The size is of some consequence, as it best intimates the extent of the injury; if the stain be small and deep seated, it is of least moment.
The sappy corn is the consequence of a more gentle bruise, when serum and lymph only are effused—the horn being thereby merely rendered moist, not discolored. This species of corn is not very common, and by proper shoeing is readily removed.
The suppurating corn is the worst of all; it engenders heat in the foot, and causes excessive lameness; it creates all that anguish, a shadowy taste of which the human being endures when pus is confined beneath the substance of the finger-nail. The foot cannot be put to the ground; the arteries of the pastern throb forcibly; the countenance is dejected; and every symptom of acute suffering in a large body is exhibited.
Corns, which in man are found on the lower members, in the horse are generally witnessed only upon the fore feet. The writer has rarely seen an instance of their presence behind; but in whichever foot they appear, they must be the production of an instant, though, probably, the suppurative may be an exception; yet from these always being suddenly observed, even this species are said to be of instantaneous origin. A horse, when progressing, makes a false step; a sanguineous or sappy corn is by that faulty action established. The same horse may trot home perfectly sound, and be put into the stable for the night a healthy animal; but on the following morning it may be discovered standing on three legs. Pus may, in the interval, have been secreted, and the corn may have assumed the suppurative character.
