FRACTURE OF THE PREMAXILLARY BONE. 267 



are usually partially macerated in the saliva. The significance of 

 these growths in young animals has not been explained. Frick 

 saw a young sporting dog whose tongue was thickly coated with 

 such growths. The condition is seldom of importance, does not 

 interfere with eating and disappears spontaneously. Treatment 

 consists in snipping off the growths with scissors or enucleating them. 

 Fowler's solution of arsenic internally is useful. 



Fibromata, sarcomata and carcinomata are seen in oxen and 

 horses. They only receive surgical treatment when in or near the 

 tip of the tongue, whence they can be removed by amputation. 

 When seated further back treatment is useless, and the patient had 

 better be slaughtered. 



Mucoid cysts have frequently been seen at the base of the tongue 

 in horses. In many cases they have caused no complication, and 

 have only been discovered after death apparently from an epileptiform 

 fit. In other cases they have caused difficulty in swallowing, breathing 

 and mastication. Pedunculated cysts may be removed with the 

 ecraseur ; the flatter kinds are laid open and their interior destroyed 

 with the cautery or by dressing with tincture of iodine. 



(3.) FRACTURE OF THE PREMAXILLARY BONE. 



Such fractures are caused by falling or running against obstacles ; 

 in horses by kicks, in dogs by blows. Sometimes the nasal process 

 alone breaks ; sometimes the alveolar portion with one or more 

 incisor teeth is involved ; sometimes the bodies of both bones are 

 broken. 



Diagnosis is based on the painful character of the swelling, and 

 on the result of examination of the bone, which lies almost imme- 

 diately under the skin. Transverse fractures of the body of this 

 bone produce results similar to those of the body of the under jaw ; 

 the upper incisor teeth and the alveolar margin of the bone appear 

 movable, or are more or less displaced backwards. The upper lip 

 often hangs down oblicpuely, so that on casual examination this 

 injury might be mistaken for facial paralysis. So long as the fracture 

 is confined to a single alveolus or to the nasal process, it heals rapidly 

 and completely. Transverse fractures of the body give greater 

 trouble, especially when the alveolar margin and the incisors are 

 movable, or when a complicated fracture exists. 



Treatment aims at fixing the fragments in position with wire 

 in the same way as in the lower jaw. In complicated fractures strict 

 antiseptic precautions must be observed. In some cases the incisor 



