Page:Personal beauty how to cultivate and preserve it in accordance with the laws of health (1870).djvu/176

 instruments, technically called quadrilles. The corn is first softened by immersion in warm water, or by a drop of oil or glycerine. The foot is then held in a good light, and the centre of the corn loosened by passing the point of the quadrille gently around the circumference of the callous portion. This is seized by the forceps, and held to one side while the instruments loosen the other side. So the operation is continued, very gently and leisurely, until the whole callus is loosened and the corn picked out by the forceps. Under ordinary circumstances not the least pain need be given and not a drop of blood shed. This is the art and the mystery of corn doctoring.

It requires some skill, some command over the fingers and the nerves; it cannot be performed on one's self. This is disappointing. But we have not yet divulged all the "tricks of the trade." Here are some methods of curing one's own proper and peculiar corns without assistance from any one.

Take several small pieces of ordinary sticking plaster. Cut in them holes the size of the corn. Apply one over the other so as to surround the corn, but leave it exposed. Then in the opening drop a saturated solution of caustic soda, and cover with a thin piece of plaster. Renew this every other day for eight or ten days, and the corn will be gone.

Or cut the corn carefully with a knife not too sharp, taking care that it is not cut to the quick or to blood.