152 VETERINARY HOMCEOPATHY. 



gent appreciation of the laws of physiology are now adopted; still 

 there is ample scope for improvement and were we writing a work 

 upon hygiene, the subject would furnish abundant opportunity 

 for the exercise of our best abilities; our present duty, however, 

 is to point out how indiscretion may be rectified, and the subjects 

 of indiscretion relieved of the sufferings they are compelled to 

 uncomplainingly bear. 



THE TEETH. 



There are various conditions affecting the teeth to which we 

 might refer, but we shall confine ourselves to one or two which can 

 readily be observed after careful examination by the novice, and 

 that are easily capable of relief. It is largely necessary to point 

 out how important it is that the teeth should be maintained in a 

 condition that fits them for thorough mastication; this is their 

 physiological function; it is the process or mechanical operation 

 by which the alimentary material is prepared for the chemical ac- 

 tion of the juices of the stomach and intestines, to act upon and 

 render soluble; and this especially applies to animals, such as the 

 horse, which feed on grain and vegetable products, which require 

 minute subdivision before they are rendered susceptible to the ac- 

 tion of the digestive juices. For the proper and satisfactory per- 

 formance of the act of mastication it is essential that the surfaces 

 of the crowns of the large molar teeth should be level so that 

 tliose of the upper and lower jaws should meet or approximate to- 

 gether as nearly as pos.sible. For various reasons due either to 

 the character of the food or the quality of the different substances 

 of which the teeth are composed, it frequently happens in horses 

 over seven years of age that some of the teeth wear more than 

 others and that consequently there are spaces left between .some of 

 them in which those of the upper and lower jaw do not meet 

 properl}^ and hence the mastication is imperfect or plugs of food 

 are imbedded between the teeth; to obviate this condition, the 

 rasp must be brought into action, or if one or two teeth have 

 proved themselves equal to an extraordinary resistance of wear 

 and are standing out prominently above the majority, they must 

 be sacrificed by cutting off their crowns to the level of the rest. 

 Between the ages of three and four years young horses require 

 special attention, as this period of dentition is frequently a trying 



