90 THE CANINE TEETH. 



of ten the cause of loss of appetite will be found else- 

 where. The reason why lampas appears in aged horses 

 is, in my opinion, as before stated, on account of the 

 continuance of the process of growth in the teeth 

 throughout hfe, with the nature and laws of which we 

 are, in our present state of knowledge, too little ac- 

 quainted to pretend to say why it should exist in one 

 horse and not in another, or why it should only at 

 times appear in the same horse. 



"Is lampas a disease? The complaints which daily 

 reach our ears persuade us it is. Every groom having 

 an unthriving horse, or one that does not feed, is sure 

 to search for lampas. If he finds it, in his mind the 

 cause of lack of thrift is detected, and the remedy 

 obvious — burning. Many a horse has been subjected 

 to this torturing operation, and has thereby got added 

 to his other ailments a foul, sloughy, carious sore on 

 the roof of his mouth. 



"Supposing that lampas be owing to the teeth, do 

 not the teeth require removal, and not the bars of the 

 mouth? In cutting or burning away lampas we mis- 

 take the effect for the cause. If lampas is not produced 

 by the irritation of teething, then I would like to be 

 informed what does cause it." 



Prof. Youatt says of lampas ("The Horse," p. 219); 



"It may arise from inflammation of the gums, 

 propagated to the bars when the colt is shedding his 

 teeth — young horses being more subject to it than 

 others — or from some febrile tendency in the consti- 

 tution generally, as when a young horse has lately 

 been taken from grass, and has been over-fed or insuf- 

 ficiently exercised. It is well to examine the grinders, 



