226 DISEASES OF THE TEETH, ETC. 



horse wliicli we must not let slip our observation. Although 

 the period of teething, properly so called, may be said to be 

 terminated at the fifth year, yet we must recollect it has been 

 satisfactorily demonstrated, that, in him, there is a process 

 of growth going on in the teeth through the remainder of 

 life ; so that, in fact, at no period can the animal be said to 

 be exempt from the influence of dentition. This accounts 

 for lampas appearing in old as well as young horses, and 

 furnishes my mind with strong proof, that the tumidity of 

 the bars of the' mouth is dependent upon operations going 

 on in the teeth, and upon that cause alone. 



There was a time when, I must confess, I treated the 

 subject of dentition so lightly as to think that horses never 

 sufi'ered or became disordered from such a cause. Experience, 

 however, has altered my opinion. I can now, in practice, 

 frequently discover young horses with disorder or febrile 

 irritation upon them, the production or continuation of 

 which I hesitate not to ascribe to teething ; and I find these 

 views borne out by the relief obtained by the increased atten- 

 tion I am in the habit of giving to this assumed cause in. 

 my treatment. In illustration of this, I will here relate a 

 case which occurred to me many years ago ; the very one, 

 in fact, which proved the occasion of my looking afterwards 

 more closely into dentition. 



I was requested to give my opinion concerning a horse, 

 then in his fifth year, who had fed so sparingly for the last 

 fortnight, and so rapidly declined in condition in conse- 

 quence, that his owner, a veterinary surgeon, was under no 

 light apprehensions about his life. He had himself examined 

 his mouth, without having discovered any defect or disease ; 

 though another veterinary surgeon was of opinion, that the 

 difficulty or inability manifested in mastication, and the 

 consequent cuddingj arose from preternatural hluntness of the 

 surfaces of the molar teeth, which were, in consequence, 

 filed, but without beneficial result. It was after this that 

 I saw the horse ; and I confess I was, at my first examina- 

 tion, quite as much at a loss to offer any satisfactory interpre- 

 tation as others had been. While meditating, however, after 



