THE TONGUE. 203 



and mouth carefully examined, and especially if, without any indication of sore 

 throat, he quids— partly chewing and then dropping — his food, or if he holds 

 his head somewhat on one side, while he eats, in order to get the food between 

 the outer edges of the teeth. A horse that has once had very irregular teeth is 

 materially lessened in value, for, although they may be sawn down as carefully 

 as possible, they will project again at no great distance of time. Such a horse 

 is to all intents and purposes unsound. In order to be fit for service, he should 

 be in possession of his full natural powers, and these powers cannot be sus- 

 tained without perfect nutrition, and nutrition would be rendered sadly imper- 

 fect by any defect in the operation of mastication. Not only do some diseases 

 of the teeth render the act of mastication difficult and troublesome, but from 

 the food acquiring a foetid odour during its detention in the mouth, the horse 

 acquires a distaste for aliment altogether. 



The continuance of a carious tooth often produces disease of the neighbouring 

 ones, and of the jaw itself. It should therefore be removed, as soon as its real 

 state is evident. Dreadful cases of fungus hsematodes have arisen from the 

 irritation caused by a carious tooth. 



The mode of extracting the teeth requires much reformation. The hammer 

 and the punch should never be had recourse to. The keyed instrument of 

 the human subject, but on a larger scale, is the only one that should be 

 permitted. 



This is the proper place to speak more at length of the effect of dentition on 

 the system generally. Horsemen in general think too lightly of it, and they 

 scarcely dream of the animal suffering to any considerable degree, or absolute 

 illness being produced ; yet he who has to do with young horses will occasionally 

 discover a considerable degree of febrile affection, which he can refer to this 

 cause alone. Fever, cough, catarrhal affections generally, disease of the eyes, 

 cutaneous affections, diarrhoea, dysentery, loss of appetite, and general derange- 

 ment, will frequently be traced by the careful observer to irritation from 

 teething. 



It is a rule scarcely admitting of the slightest deviation, that, when 

 young horses are labouring under any febrile affection, the mouth should be 

 examined, and if the tushes are prominent and pushing against the gums, 

 a crucial incision should be made across them. " In this way," says Mr. 

 Percivall, " I have seen catarrhal and bronchial inflammations abated, coughs 

 relieved, lymphatic and other glandular tumours about the head reduced, cuta- 

 neous eruptions got rid of, deranged bowels restored to order, appetite returned, 

 and lost condition repaired *." 



THE TONGUE. 



The tongue is the organ of taste. It is also employed in disposing the food 

 for being ground between the teeth, and afterwards collecting it together, and 

 conveying it to the back part of the mouth, in order to be swallowed. It is like- 

 wise the main instrument in deglutition, and the canal through which the water 

 passes in the act of drinking. The root of it is firmly fixed at the bottom of 

 the mouth by a variety of muscles ; the fore part is loose in the mouth. It is 

 covered by a continuation of the membrane that lines the mouth, and which, 

 doubling beneath, and confining the motions of the tongue, is called its frcenum, 

 or bridle. On the back of the tongue, this membrane is thickened and rough- 

 ened, and is covered with numerous conical papilla, or little eminences, on 

 which the fibres of a branch of the fifth pair of nerves expand, communicating 



* Percivall's Hippopathology, vol. ii., p. 1 73. 



