INFERIOR EXTREMITY OF THE HEAD. 79 



6. The Palate (Fig. 25). 



Situation ; Limits ; Anatomical Base. The palate, which 

 forms the anterior or superior wall of the buccal cavity, has for its 

 osseous base the superior maxillary, incisive, and palatine bones. 

 These are separated from its mucous membrane by a thick layer of 

 erectile tissue, most abundant anteriorly. It is limited in front by the 

 superior incisors; laterally, by the superior molars and the superior 

 interdental spaces ; behind, by the attachment of the soft palate. Only 

 a portion of it is visible in the examination of the cavity of the mouth. 

 Its surface is of a- rose color, sometimes pigmented in different portions 

 of its area. It presents transverse arches, with the concavity behind 

 disposed symmetrically on each side of the median line, and separated 

 from one another by transverse furrows. 



With the exception of the width, which is most marked in the 

 finer races, the palate has no appreciable beauty or defect. 



The thickness varies according to the age and the physiological 

 conditions. The palate may become congested and inflamed, projecting 

 beyond the table of the incisor teeth and thus preventing mastication. 

 This state is vulgarly termed lampas. It, however, is not pathological, 

 but physiological, due to the irritation of dentition. 



Huzard 1 the elder has long ago shown the uselessness and cruelty 

 of the practice of removing the swelling of this region by excision 

 with the knife or by cauterization with the actual cautery. These bar- 

 barous procedures impede mastication and tend more to diminish than 

 to increase the appetite, as is shown by the animal's willing but inef- 

 fectual attempts. They are still performed at the present time by far- 

 riers and empirics, who call it burning the lampas. Scarifications 

 practised for the same reason are not without accidents. They are 

 made posterior to the third bar of the palate and not less than an inch 

 from the edge of the gums of the molar teeth, so as not to puncture 

 the palatine artery. 



B. The Mouth in General. 



All the secondary regions which we have studied in the preceding 

 chapter should be in harmony with, one another, so that, as a whole, 

 they may fulfil their functions. The mouth, indeed, requires examina- 

 tion not only from a physiological point of view, but from that of the 

 exterior also, in that it is the organ in which is lodged the instrument 

 to guide the animal, called the bit. 



1 Bourgelat, Trait6 de la conformation exterieure du cheval, 5e ed., p.^81. (Note de Huzard 

 pere.) 



