Wart

a button-like projection of the skin consisting largely of a bunch of projecting papillae. Common warts come and go, especially on one's hands, in a capricious way that surgeons have been unable to explain. Warts are not confined to people. The homely wart-hog of Africa has repulsive warts on its face. "Warty as a toad" is an everyday expression. Boys frequently have an ill-founded notion that warts are likely to come from handling a toad. Other odd notions are connected with warts, one, that the juice of milkweeds cures warts, and another that it causes them. If a wart is of suitable shape, it may be removed by tying a succession of small, hard strings around it tightly at intervals of a day or two, each string being tied tighter than the last, until the wart is starved out by choking, and dries up and falls off. A short rubber band wound around a wart several times will have the same result. A salve of acetic acid, which is much the same as highly concentrated vinegar, applied with a camel's hair brush to the tip of the wart a few times, will kill it off. Other remedies are nitrate of silver and tincture of iron. A malignant wart should be let alone until a surgeon's advice may be had.