ANIMAL DENTISTRY. I7 



narian to float the teeth of horses: not because it is difficult, 

 tedious or dangerous, but because animal dentistry is re- 

 garded as a trifling accomplishment that the uneducated can 

 master. The intimate relation of the condition of the teeth 

 to the general health is becoming more and more recognized, 

 and when the value and importance of veterinary dentistry is 

 universally recognized l)y the veterinary profession and lay 

 public, and when it becomes more generally admitted on all 

 sides that the veterinary patient receives the same relative 

 benefits from dental operations as the human subject, animal 

 dentistry will then take its place among the useful branches 

 of veterinary science. The limited number of patients will 

 probably always prevent the evolution of animal dentistrv 

 into a special profession. The veterinarian will, therefore, 

 be required to perfect himself in the practice of this art. 



There were tv/o potent factors concerned in the evolu- 

 tion of human dentistry — the college and the practitioner. 

 The same influences are essential to the healthy evolution of 

 animal dentistry. The college must devote more time to 

 the art and the practitioner must become more proficient, 

 even though the increasing importance of animal dentistry 

 cannot be met by the birth of a new profession. The subject 

 deserves to be brought out more prominently in the litera- 

 ture on surgical subjects, in order to foster and maintain its 

 sesqui-special relations to veterinar}^ surgery as a whole. 



