In-Growing of the Toe-Nail

pain and annoyance to the patient that he is frequently obliged to go about bare-footed to obtain relief. Probably, the bug-bear "fashion" has much to do with the production of this deformity, and there can be no mistake that, instead of the shoe being made to fit the foot, the foot is squeezed into as small a shoe as it can enter, giving rise to much suffering and causing the in-growing of the nail, corns, bunions, &c. The treatment I have read of and seen practised hitherto, consists in the evulsion of the nail, close-cutting of the nail, and various other expedients have been resorted to, to remedy this defect. Jn the Lancet of Saturday, 18th April, 1866, ?so. 17, page 456, a case treated by Mr. Curling is reported, in which the whole of the bulbiform enlargement close up to the outer edge of the nail was cut out, leaving the in-growing nail exposed and overhanging the raw surface; and it is stated that Mr. Curling explained that when the surface healed, the cicatrix would contract and so make the nail overhang more and thus complete the cure. I have been in the habit of treating this deformity for many years successfully in a painless and bloodless manner, and it is my purpose to describe this in the present paper. Clipping the nail, as already stated, tends only to aggravate the disease ; evulsion of the nail again is but a temporary expedient, causing much pain and suffering to the patient; and cutting away of the bulb or projecting quick may possibly prove a more permanent remedy : but this is only realized by laying up the patient and putting him to pain in the process of operation. The manner in which I have been treating this disease or deformity, seems to have been very little known in practice.