SHARP AND PROJECTING TEETH. 235 



Of late years dental human surgery has undergone con- 

 siderable improvement. The old tooth-key is laid aside to 

 make room for retraction-forceps, so constructed that, once 

 the body of the tooth, close up to its neck, firmly clutched 

 by them, a strong pull, or rather dy^aw, extracts the tooth. 

 Not in human surgery alone, however, but in veterinary as • 

 well, I am happy to be able to add, has this department of 

 our art received important melioration. In the year 1849, 

 M. Gowing, V.S., London, read a paper before the Vete- 

 rinary Medical Association, introducing to their notice a set 

 of tooth instruments of his own construction, which he, as 

 well as many other veterinarians, had at times experienced 

 great lack of in practice. His own trials of them had quite 

 confirmed his expectations. They consist of a pair of giant for- 

 ceps (see frontispiece, fig. 1), with serrated beaks ; the extreme 

 end of one of the handles of which is furnished with an eye, 

 while that of the other has a ferrule screw. A shaft, to 

 operate as a lever, runs through the eye, and screws into 

 the ferrule screw, a contrivance which renders it so powerful 

 an instrument, as to require soundness of tooth, and care 

 on the part of the operator, lest in the operation the tooth, or 

 even jaw, become fractured. For the purpose of cutting 

 down teeth which have grown out beyond the level of the 

 others (from want of pressure from opposing teeth), Mr. 

 Gowing has invented a dental sliding chisel (fig. 2). In its 

 use a balling-iron and a twitch are required. And when 

 the instrument is adjusted so that the active chisel is brought 

 into contact with the anterior part of the tooth, a sharp blow 

 is to be given to it, which is to be repeated, if required, once 

 or even twice. Sometimes it will be necessary to cast the 

 animal for examination and operation, though standing is to 

 be preferred. But, as all the irregularities met with in the 

 teeth cannot be overcome with the same instrument, Mr. 

 Gowing has made another, consisting of a solid or entire 

 piece of steel. This is the lateral repeller (fig. 3). Its 

 use is to prevent the concussion of the jaw, while the 

 operator with a chisel strikes off any projecting angle of tooth. 

 The chisel Mr. Gowing has adopted is the guarded chisel 



