Chiropodism.
--A few days since we inserted a long and interesting article from
Dr. Schlosser. on the deleterious effects on the constitution of an injudicious mode of performing what is too commonly regarded as a very simple operation — of cutting corns.
These are too commonly regarded as mere excrescences, and that little is necessary but to scrape or cut off the external surface; whereas, the eradication of them, and that in a manner not to injure the flesh, is an operation of great care and delicacy, that can only without danger, be performed by one who has made that branch of surgery the special object of attention.
The extraction of teeth, and the cure of diseases in them or in the gums, were, a few years ago, considered as legitimately within the province of any one who was dubbed a Surgeon, till experience taught that that branch of the healing art required special application and study.
Few, now, who have the means, think of employing any but a regular dentist to attend to diseases affecting the teeth.
So intimate are the relations of all parts of the human frame with each other, that disease in any particular portion affects the whole system; nor does distance from what may be called the centre of the system diminish the intimacy of the relation; on the contrary, pains or disease of the extremities are, perhaps, more difficult of alleviation than in more central parts.
Bearing this in mind, there can be no difficulty in coming to the conclusion contained in the article from
Dr. Schlosser, to which we have already adverted, that consumption, with all the other diseases that affect the human system, may be produced by the unskillful removal of corns or cutting of toe nails.
We all know how difficult it is to treat sores or eruptions of the legs; and how irritating, painful and dangerous becomes the slightest wound on the foot, a part of the body as delicate and complex in its construction, as full of muscles and , as any one who will peruse
Sir Charles Bell's Bridgewater Treatise will pronounce the hand and foot to be. The surgical treatment of the foot, therefore, is as much an art to be cultivated, and one that entitles the practitioner of it to rank equally with any other class of the medical profession.
Indeed, we regard him a special benefactor, because his particular branch has not hitherto received the attention that other walks of the science have.--The younger branches of our families, male and female alike, enamored of the beauty of a foot of small and elegant proportions in others, have their own pedal extremities " cabin'd, cribb'd, confined," in boots or shoes of the form they desiderate, rather than possess.
The consequence ensues that corns and bunions are formed, and in a few years their walk becomes ungraceful, and is attended with severe pain.
They obtain, perhaps, temporary relief by paring or firing off the excrescences, which again rapidly form, and subject them again to the severest torture.
The fact is that these operations are at best but temporary expedients, at the same time that they are not unattended with danger, and require the utmost skill to perform them.
Dr. Schlosser, who has specially devoted himself to this branch of the art, having practiced very successfully in
Paris and
London, and nearly all the principal cities in the
Old and New Worlds, has recently taken up his quarters, for a very limited time, at the
Spotswood Hotel, where he directs his attention to the cure of
Corns, Bunions, Soft
Corns, and all diseases of the feet.
A number of testimonials to his skill in his profession have already been published, and we have had the satisfaction of personal inspection of the certification of many other persons residing in our own neighborhood, and in many of the leading cities on this continent, testifying to the completeness of the cures effected in their individual cases.
The total absence of pain in the treatment is treated by them as almost miraculous, and is certainty one of the highest recommendations, as it does away with the fear of irritation.
We would strongly recommend those in this city — and their name is legion — who are afflicted with disease affecting the feet, not to omit to avail themselves of the simple, painless and radical cure which
Dr. Schlosser's treatment will unsurely effect.
