CHAPTER VIII. 

 DENUDING OF THE TEETH. 



This is an affectation which rarely attacks the 

 teeth of the horse, though quite frequently affecting 

 the teeth of the human family. It consists in a 

 gradual wasting away of the enamel and underlying 

 dentine on the external or labial surfaces of the inci- 

 sor teeth, first attacking the central, then the lateral, 

 and finally the corners. It begins nearest the table 

 surface and forms a horizontal groove, which is very 

 regular and smoothly constructed. After the enamel 

 has been removed and the dentine exposed it rapidly 

 continues its inroads upon that tissue. So rapid is 

 this destruction of the dentine that it sometimes 

 undermines the enamel to such an extent that it is 

 broken off in shell-like pieces. The dentine assumes 

 a brownish or grayish color with disintegration of 

 its structure. 



The process of this affection is exceedingly vari- 

 able, sometimes so rapid that the dentine becomes 

 exposed in a few months, while at other times its 

 progress is very slow, requiring a number of months 

 or years to remove the enamel. In all cases it is 

 much more rapid in the horse than in the human 



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