WHAT CHANGED PKOF. PERCiVALL'S MttfD. 87 



bluntness of the molar teeth, which were filed. It 

 was after this that I saw the horse, and I must confess 

 I was at first quite as much at a loss to offer a satisfac- 

 tory interpretation of the case as others had been. 

 While meditating, however, after my inspection of the 

 horse, on the apparently extraordinary nature of the 

 case, it struck me that I had not seen the tushes. I 

 went back into the stable and discovered two little 

 tumors, red and hard, in the situation of the inferior 

 tusks, which, when pressed, gave the animal insuffer- 

 able pain. I instantly took out my pocket-knife and 

 made crucial incisions through them both, from which 

 moment the horse recovered his appetite, and by de- 

 grees his wonted condition. This case was the turn- 

 ing point in my practice, and caused me to look more 

 closely into dentition. 



" The cutting of the tushes, which may be likened 

 to the eye-teeth of children, costs the constitution 

 more derangement than all the other teeth put to- 

 gether; on which account, no doubt, it is that the 

 period from the fourth to the fifth year proves so crit- 

 ical to the horse. Any disease, pulmonary in particu- 

 lar, setting in at this period, is doubly dangerous. In 

 fact, teething is one cause of the fatality among young 

 horses at this period. 



" D'Arboval tells us to observe how the vital energy 

 becomes augmented about the head, and upon the 

 mucous surfaces in particular. He says: 'A local 

 fever originates in the alveolar cavities. The gums 

 become stretched from the pressure of the teeth against 

 them. They dilate, sometimes split, and are red, hot, 

 and painful. The roots compress the dental nerves 

 and irritate the periosteal linings of the alveolar cavi- 

 ties. These causes will enable us to explain many 



