DISEASES PECULIAR TO BREEDING STOCK. 299 



teeth which has drawn horsemen's attention to the wolf teeth 

 as the supposed cause of the evil. The wolf teeth, however, 

 come up with the first set of molars, and are therefore in the 

 mouth during the whole of early life and until the adjacent 

 teeth the front upper grinders -are shed. Whenever, 

 therefore, a young horse suffers from diseased eyes the owner 

 or attendant opens the mouth and finding wolf teeth con- 

 cludes that these are the cause of the trouble. The wolf 

 tooth is imbedded not more than half an inch in its socket, 

 while the adjacent grinders, and even the front nippers, ex- 

 tend into the bone for about two inches. These other teeth 

 are, therefore, far more likely to produce irritation than are 

 the wolf teeth, and, as a matter of fact, the congestion of the 

 palate, familiarly known as lampas, occurs close behind the 

 front teeth and not near the wolf teeth. In the shedding of 

 the back grinders, too, it is not at all uncommon to have so 

 much irritation caused that it extends to the throat and 

 causes sore throat and cough. But around the insignificant 

 wolf teeth it is rare to find any irritation at all, and that 

 only when they deviate from their true direction. The 

 temporary recovery from sore eyes after the extraction of 

 the wolf teeth is just what would have happened had the 

 teeth been left in place, and proves only that the disease ap- 

 pears and disappears alternately. 



The excitement attendant on teething is natural, yet it is 

 well to check this when it threatens to become severe or to 

 rouse sympathetic inflammation of the eyes. If costiveness 

 appears during the process the substitution for a portion of 

 the diet of soft mashes of wheat-bran, of fresh, succulent 

 grass, of roots, apples, or silage will prove beneficial. If 

 these are not available or are ineffective one or two ounces of 

 Glauber's salts may be given daily in the feed. If the old 

 teeth do not fall early and spontaneously, but remain en- 

 tangled on the crowns of the new ones after the latter have 

 cut the gums, they should be removed; if the gums become 

 red, swollen and tender, a slight scarifying of the surface so 

 as to let a little blood will usually relieve; and if new te^th, 

 and especially the tushes, produce tension and pain by their 

 pressure before cutting the gums, their eruption should be 



