VETERINARY DENTAL SURGERY. 217 



finger and thumb upon one, each on opposite sides, 

 and pressing them inward, it will be found that the 

 bone can, to some degree, be compressed, causing 

 pain, a condition which is mistaken by many and 

 thought by them to be due to loosening of the same 

 within the alveoli. An animal thus affected finds 

 difficulty in eating, and is apt at any moment in his 

 movements to rupture tendons from their attach- 

 ments, or the bones themselves may give way on 

 the animal rising from a recumbent position or tak- 

 ing a false step. I have seen instances in which the 

 metacarpals and metatarsals were fractured by the 

 animal stepping from a box stall to the passage-way 

 floor, which was not more than six inches below 

 that of the box. 



POST MORTEM. 



One interesting case which I will give (instead 

 of citing many), of a pony which did not show evi- 

 dence of the disease other than the rami enlarged 

 transversely, and a short groggy gait while being 

 ridden by a boy, stumbled and fell upon his left side 

 on a dirt road which was rather soft. When he 

 arose it was found that he had fractured the scapula 

 crosswise above the tubercle of the spine. On being 

 destroyed a few days later, the autopsy revealed 

 nothing important as concerned the internal organs, 

 but on examining the bones it was found that the 

 periosteum was easily detached from most of the 



