170 



his wishes, and he will therefore reflect whether 

 the employment of the necessary violence might not 

 fracture the jaw as well as extract the tooth. Some- 

 thing has been gained by rupturing the arteries and 

 nerves. The pain and course of the disease has, in 

 a degree, been checked. The molar is no longer a 

 part of the body, but a foreign substance ; and 

 Nature, if left alone, will proceed in her own way to 

 eject it. The course, however, that Nature, if un- 

 aided, would pursue, might be too slow to prevent 

 evil consequences. The operator, therefore, discon- 

 tinues his attempts for the present ; and though some 

 foolish persons will think slightly of him, for not 

 at once doing the thing he desired to accomplish, he 

 orders the animal to be let up, and led back into the 

 stable. Many a proprietor has been so displeased 

 by this, that he has thereupon sought other advice ; 

 and the next operator has pleasingly surprised him, 

 by extracting, with ease, the tooth which the first 

 wisely forbore to wrench out of the jaw. The fact is, 

 that the time which intervened had made a material 

 change ; the molar had become loose, and he who 

 properly refused in the first instance to drag it forth, 

 would now, had he been permitted, have taken it 



