125 



some loss of blood, and this, however slight it may 

 be, nevertheless being taken from the immediate 

 part, must act as a local depletion. Now to deplete 

 is to check growth by abstracting the very source of 

 nutriment. The hemorrhage, however small, must be 

 injurious; and the mouth being made more or less 

 sore, the inclination to feed, as a natural consequence, 

 is diminished, thereby further checking the develop- 

 ment. I cannot see in what manner the extraction 

 of the milk teeth is to hasten the growth of the 

 permanent incisors ; but I can perceive that the 

 operation may have the opposite effect; and I have 

 known the practice to have been followed by the 

 non-appearance of the very tooth, the protrusion of 

 which through the gum, it was employed to quicken. 

 The tooth, which previously seemed to be on the eve 

 of piercing the gum, after the extraction of the milk 

 incisor never came up, — nor will any person who 

 has thought for an instant, wonder if the violence, 

 necessarily used, does occasionally injure or rupture 

 the delicate vessels and gelatinous tissues of the 

 pulp. More often the breeder's impatient inter- 

 ference breaks the tooth off at the neck and leaves 

 the fang in the jaw. This he has not the skill 



