SHARP AND PROJECTING TEETH. 233 



on. It would appear that this irregular action is the result 

 of some original malformation of the jaws, whereby the 

 teeth have a wrong direction given to them, or, at least, do 

 not come into that complete apposition which is so essential 

 to their due masticatory operation. The wear, instead of 

 being level and uniform, takes place all on one side ; while 

 the opposite, unworn side continuing to grow, the conse- 

 quence, in process of time, is a production at once most 

 remarkable and unnatural: of this Mr. Henderson, V.S., 

 Park Lane, London, has in his museum a very beautiful 

 and extraordinary specimen. 



Not only are the teeth, when they have acquired this 

 unnatural shape, in a measure unfitted for the purposes of 

 mastication, but are, by their projections, apt to excoriate 

 and lacerate the sides of the cheeks or of the tongue,^ de- 

 pending upon which jaw they are situated in, and whether 

 their sharpened edges are slanting inwards or outwards. 

 What commonly leads to the discovery of this condition of 

 the teeth is, the horse being observed to cud his hay: either 

 he puts the cud out of his mouth after masticating it im- 

 perfectly, or else he retains and collects it between his 

 cheeks and grinders, where it exhibits externally the ap- 

 pearance of a swelling a little above the angle of the mouth. 

 At times a flow of saliva accompanies the cudding. And 

 in consequence of much of his aliment being thus lost to 

 him, the animal perceivably falls away in condition. 



The Remedy for sharp Grinders is the tooth-rasp. I 

 have in all the cases of this description which have occurred 

 to myself used this instrument with success, without having 

 had occasion for anything beyond it. The French prefer 

 breaking off the salient portions of the teeth by means of a 

 hammer and chisel, the mouth being kept open the while 

 with a gag, or a ball-iron ; in regard to which proceeding I 

 I can only repeat, I never myself found anything necessary 

 beyond the tooth-rasp. 



Projecting Teeth. — When once a tooth, whether it be 



' These excoriations, and the ulcers they occasionally give rise to, are noticed 

 in Vol. I. 



