282 



PROFESSOR MOLL.ERS TOOTH SHEARS. 



(Fig. 283) may preferably be employed. In this instrument the power 

 of the screw acts directly on the cutter. The upper anus are for holding 

 the instrument in position. It is used in the same way as the shears, and 

 will be found very useful. 



Metznik has invented a shears in which the strength of the hands, 

 acting through a series of levers, is found sufficient to cut teeth without 

 having recourse to a screw (Fig. 284). It is of service, but would be better 

 if the limbs were narrower and more easily movable. Even when using 



Fig. 281. — Tooth shears. 



Fig. 282.— Tooth shears. 



interchangeable jaws, it is occasionally found too narrow for broad teeth 

 and too broad for narrow ones. 



PREMATURE WEAR OF THE TEETH. 



Defective resisting power in the teeth and the consumption of 

 hard food sometimes produce premature wear, so that the animal 

 becomes unable properly to grind its food. This condition is met 

 with in herbivora as well as in carnivora. Dralle found all the molars 

 in a twelve-year old horse so much worn and so loose, that they could 

 be partially withdrawn from their sockets with the ringers. Pallin 

 wrongly described this condition in a thirty-year old horse as perio- 



