THE TEETH. 153 



one, and where difficulty is experienced in cutting through the 

 permanent set, and dislodging the temporary ones at the periods 

 when the change ought to take place, much benefit will deriv^e 

 from the administration of Calcarca phosphorica 3X ten grains 

 night and morning, so long as the difficulty lasts; not only will 

 this treatment help to bring about a normal developement of the 

 masticatory organs, but the general health of the animal which 

 will probably have suffered as a consequence, will rapidly improve 

 — an appreciation of this difficulty and the method of obviating 

 the same should be understood, especially by owners of race horses 

 who are probably greater sufferers from this condition than any 

 other class of horse, which fact may be accounted for by the artifi- 

 cial forcing to which these animals are subjected from their earliest 

 infancy. ' ' Caries' ' (or decay ) of teeth is a disorder that may affect 

 any class of horse and though it may not be of frequent occur- 

 ence, w^heu present it must be as painful and quite as inconven- 

 ient to the horse as the human subject; horses are generally so 

 patient and forebearing that they may for days be the subject of 

 this pain without an attendant noticing anything amiss; ultimately, 

 however, the animal goes off his food, or makes an attempt to 

 masticate it, and drops portions of it only partially comminuted into 

 the manger, this is called ' ' guidding;" in the worst cases the horse 

 will rest his head on the manger, against the side of the stall or 

 rack; this is the time for a careful examination of the mouth and 

 each individual tooth; a decayed tooth will generally exhibit some 

 discoloration, even if no portion is broken away; to test these a 

 few gentle taps with some instrument will enable the examiner to 

 detect if there is pain and soreness, if so it is reasonable to assume 

 that the' faulty tooth is discovered and the treatment should con- 

 sist of Merairiits corrosivus 6x, ten gr. every four hours, while the 

 food should be given in small quantities and be rendered soft by 

 steaming; bran and crushed oats in abundance without chaff or 

 hay of any sort; if the pain appears to continue after one day's 

 trial of Merciirius cor. it may possibly suggest the presence of an 

 abscess at the root of the tooth in which case Silicea 12, should be 

 given; and even supposing there is no abscess, which almost in- 

 variably yields to a course of Silicea this remedy frequently 

 proves successful in cases of caries where Mercurius cor. fails. 

 The remaining condition affecting teeth to which we shall refer 



