228 CARIES OF THE TEETH. 



charging into the mouth by the food that fills up the cavity, 

 generally find an opening into the nose, "discharging their fetid 

 matter through that channel. The animal while in this condi- 

 tion is often treated for catarrh, commonly called distemper. 

 The discharge still continuing, and becoming more and more 

 fetid, the animal is at last supposed to be in a glandered con- 

 diiion and killed. 



The first case of this kind which came under the author's 

 notice occurred in the year 1853. Having occasion to visit the 

 yard where dead animals are boiled, the peculiar appearance of 

 one horse lying upon the ground attracted his attention. Upon 

 inquiry he learned that he had been killed as a glandered horse; 

 but failing to recognize any such marks as might be expected 

 in that disease, he made a very careful examination of the head 

 and found the real cause of trouble to be, not glanders, but a 

 carious tooth, of which but three small ribbon-like fragments 

 remained. This horse was but seven years old. An abscess 

 had formed at the root of the tooth, discharging itself into the 

 nostril, whence it was ejected. Another horse, with similar 

 symptoms, pronounced glandered by two eminent veterinary sur- 

 geons, w^as destroyed at the same place in the year 1859. The 

 author's examination disclosed the fact, that the first two molar 

 teeth were almost entirely destroyed by caries, and that a large 

 abscess had formed at their roots, which extended into and 

 completely closed up one nostril, causing an immense tumor on 

 the right side of the head. 



The difficulty of examining the molar teeth of the horse, to- 

 gether with the silence of veterinary authors on this important 

 subject, are the only assignable reasons for the little informa- 

 tion given us relative to a disease of such common occurrence. 



