RABBIT. 



would immediately take place. It is obvious that 

 this diseased growth will be more or less rapid ac- 

 cording to the degree of influence exerted by the 

 predisposing cause, and the length of time it has 

 operated. Perhaps, in the first stage of the malady, 

 its progress may be very gradual, and not much inter- 

 fere with the usual habits of the animal; but the 

 teeth having once attained such a length, that, under 

 any circumstances, their edges cannot be brought to 

 act upon each other, their growth must be much 

 more rapid, and ultimately prove such an inconveni- 

 ence as must often terminate in the starvation of the 

 sufferer. 



In one rabbit, preserved in the Museum of the 

 Cambridge Philosophical Society, the lower pair of 

 incisors are so prodigiously developed as to turn 

 completely over the nose, and to measure in length, 

 from the surface of the gum to their cutting edges, 

 no less than two inches and one-eighth ; their usual 

 length in ordinary individuals being only a quarter 

 of an inch. In another rabbit, that occurred in this 

 neighbourhood, but which was not preserved, both 

 pairs of incisors had very much exceeded their usual 

 length, there being also a great irregularity in their 

 mode of growth. The lower pair, when viewed toge- 

 ther, assumed the shape and appearance of the letter 

 V, diverging from one another at the surface of the 

 gum, and extending in opposite directions, to the 

 length of nearly an inch and a half : the degree of 

 divergency observed in the upper pair was nearly as 

 great as this in the lower, and their length about the 

 same, but tneir curvature very much greater, as 



