LAMPAS CAUSED BY TEETHING. 89 



speaking, may be said to terminate at the fifth year, 

 yet we must recollect it has been satisfactorily demon- 

 strated that there is a process of growth going on in 

 the teeth throughout the remainder of life ; so that, in 

 fact, at no period may the animal be said to be free 

 from the influence of dentition. This accounts for 

 lampas occurring in old as well as young horses, and 

 furnishes my mind with strong proof that the tumidity 

 of the bars of the mouth is dependent on operations 

 going on in the teeth, and on that cause alone. 



" What we nowadays understand by lampas is an 

 unnatural prominence or tumidity of the cartilaginous 

 bars forming the roof of the mouth. Naturally, the 

 bars are pale-colored, whereas in a mouth affected with 

 lampas they become red and tumid, losing their cir- 

 cumflecture, and swelling to a level with the crowns of 

 the incisor teeth, and in some cases even beyond them. 

 This apparent augmentation of substance is ascribable 

 to congestion of blood-vessels, but not to that alone. 

 I believe that in many cases there will be found to be 

 some serous and albuminous infiltration into the cel- 

 lular membrane attaching the bars to the hard palate, 

 and that this will account for the length of time the 

 swelling sometimes continues, as well as for the little 

 relief, in regard to their diminution, which in such 

 cases attends lancing of the gums. 



"Although in young horses it is, I believe, admitted 

 that lampas is caused by the cutting of the teeth, yet 

 in old horses there are those who ascribe its produc- 

 tion to other causes, and imagine it has a great deal to 

 do with a horse's health, or rather with his feeding. 

 That lampas may in some cases be the cause of tender- 

 ness in mastication, I do not deny; but, at the same 

 time, I think I may safely affirm that in nin,e cases put 



