168 THE PATHOLOGY OF THE TEETH. 



with an irregular position of the upper grinders rela- 

 tively with the lower. 



•' Sometimes the horse, when at pasture, is unable to 

 take a sufficient quantity of food to keep himself in 

 condition, and consequently he is considered legally 

 unsound. But if fed from the manger he experiences 

 little trouble in collecting his food; nor will his ability 

 to masticate it be interfered with, except perhaps in 

 old age. 



" Treatment. — The treatment can only be palliative. 

 If the roof of the mouth should become diseased and 

 mastication impaired, the only remedy is to reduce the 

 lengtli of the lower incisors. The instrument generally 

 used is a file or a rasp, but the process is so tedious and 

 slow tinit it is seldom tiiat much good is done. If the 

 sliding-chisel could be brought to bear on them, their 

 length could be readily reduced. Talking on the sub- 

 ject with my friend, Surgeon Gowing, he suggested a 

 modification of this instrument which, I think, would 

 answer very well. 



*^-' Irregularities of the incisor teeth, both with refer- 

 ence to their position and number, are even more com- 

 mon than in the grinders, but they seldom cause actual 

 disease." 



Prof. William Williams, like Prof. Varnell, has per- 

 foraied his part in elucidating the subject of caries of 

 the teeth, and he has also illustrated the transmission 

 of vitality to them from the outside — through the me- 

 dium of the cement— after it has ceased to flow through 

 the pulp on the inside, the pulp having become con- 

 verted into dentine. It appears that anything that 

 disturbs th6 equilibrium of this flow of vitalit}*, which 

 is the secret of the growth of the teeth througliout 



