PLUGGING CAKIOUS TEETH. 105 



having the further advantage of not requiring those adjust- 

 ments and unsatisfactory changes which the common instru- 

 ments necessitate to be made. For extraction, nothing 

 beyond these forceps is wanted : they answer every purpose." 



A smaller pair of forceps, especially useful for loose teeth, 

 are shown at Fig. 57. I cannot, however, quit this subject 

 without drawing attention to Wendenburg's simple forceps, 

 and to the more complex ones of Pillwax. The engravings 

 suggest how, by affording lever power, the first (Fig. 58) 

 proves of service, and how, by a simple screw action with the 

 second instrument (Fig. 59), a tooth may be drawn out verti- 

 cally from the jaw. 



I have yet one instrument to allude to, and that is Mr 

 Gowing's gum lancet, drawn at Fig. 60, which, from its 

 length, enables us to scarify the gum without inserting the 

 hand through the balling-iron, and thereby obstructing the 

 view of the part to be operated upon. 



PLUGGING CAKIOUS TEETH. Dental surgery has not 

 received that attention from the veterinary surgeon which it 

 merits, and it is only the great importance of this much- 

 neglected subject, from the serious and curable diseases inci- 

 dental to the teeth of young horses in particular, that I have 

 ventured to encroach so much on my space for the remarks 

 in the foregoing pages. One great obstacle to extraction of 

 the teeth of the horse, has undoubtedly been the difficulty of 

 so filling the space left as to check the growth of an opposing 

 tooth, and prevent the accumulation of material which putri- 

 fies and injures the gums and jaws. I had a favourable 

 opportunity, two years since, to try gutta percha as a stop- 

 ping for teeth in a bay gelding which, for a whole year, had 

 baffled several veterinary surgeons, with a facial fistula com- 

 municating with diseased teeth. I removed one of the latter 

 and opened the sinuses. By great care the parts healed, but 



