62 DISEASES OF THE TEETH. 



disappears, though sometimes it is necessary to remove one. 

 This is effected by forceps, which are billed or necked with 

 a deep fossa or notch, so as to enable the operator to get a 

 firm hold of the tooth close to the gum. 



Attention must be paid to the direction of the teeth in 

 drawing them, the upper incisors curving upwards and back- 

 wards, and the lower ones downwards and backwards. To 

 prevent injury to the alveolus or tooth socket, the incisor to 

 be removed should be shaken and loosened, before much 

 traction is employed in order to withdraw the tooth. I may 

 mention, that it is most frequently a temporary incisor, with 

 a short slender fang, that we are called upon to extract, and 

 this is attended with very little difficulty. 



PECULIARITIES AND DISEASES OP THE MOLAE TEETH. 

 Bouley justly states that it is rare to see supernumerary 

 molars, yet he remembers a case in which a horse had double 

 rows in the upper jaw. This, says Bouley, must have arisen 

 from the dental papillae, or, as he calls them, ' pulps/ having 

 exceeded the proper number in the development of the den- 

 tal apparatus. The so-called wolf's tooth, often seen in front 

 of either row of molars, and serving no purpose in the process 

 of mastication, must be regarded as a supernumerary, and 

 various prejudices prevail regarding its evil effects. There 

 may be some foundation in truth for some opinions in favour 

 of the wolf's teeth being injurious, from the fact that they 

 occasionally, but very rarely, deviate from the straight direc- 

 tion, and interfere somewhat with mastication. 



Amongst the abnormal developments of teeth we must 

 class a series of interesting cases, in which tumours, com- 

 posed entirely of tooth substance, are formed at the root 

 of the ear, in the vicinity of the petrous temporal bone. 

 According to Lafosse, they are the result of deviations from 

 a normal method of development of true teeth. In 1856 



