TEETH. 81 
away, the fangs are thrust into the mouth by the contraction of the 
jaw-bones. 
Caries at first pains, but at last destroys all feeling or life in the 
tooth; the dead organ ceases to possess any vital quality; it loses all 
power of self-preservation, and is a mere piece of dead matter opposed 
to a living agent. In consequence, it 
breaks away, while the opposing molar 
projects more forward from the absence 
of attrition. The healthy tooth at last 
bears against the unprotected gum, 
upon which it presses severely, and 
provokes the greatest agony. The 
animal endeavors to prevent the prom- 
inent tooth from paining the Jaw by THE MOLAR TEETH HAVE BEEN GROUND SLANT- 
masticating entirely upon the sound en eee et ton 
side. Hunger is slowly, and perhaps 
never, satisfied by such imperfect comminution; the outside of the upper 
molars and the inside of the lower molars become slanting; the first 
being almost as sharp as razors, wound the membrane of the mouth and 
lay open the hand which is thrust into the cavity. 
If the disease be still neglected and permitted to increase, the stench 
grows more formidable; nasal gleet appears; the discharge is copious, 
accompanied by a putrid odor; osseous tumors commence; the bones of 
the face are distorted; the eye is imprisoned, and ultimately obliterated 
within the socket by actual pressure; eating becomes more and more 
painful, until starvation wastes the body and reduces the horse to a 
hide-bound skeleton. 
If such a case be taken early, its cure is easy and certain; the dead 
tooth must be extracted, and the prominent molar shortened by means 
of the adjusting forceps and the guarded chisel, invented by Mr. T. W. 
Gowing, veterinary surgeon, of Camden Town. Then the sharp edges 
must be lowered by the tooth-file, and if these things appear to occupy 
time, it is better done at two or even three operations, than unduly pro- 
long the agony of a sick animal. This being accomplished, all is not 
ended; the horse's mouth must, from time to time, be again and again 
operated upon; nor will the creature offer much opposition to the 
proceeding, if only proper gentleness be observed. 
Aged horses, from the contraction of the lower jaw, (which change 
is natural to increase of years in the equine race,) frequently have their 
upper molars ground to a knife-like sharpness. They wound the inside 
of the cheeks, cause a disinclination to eat, and provoke a dribbling of 
saliva. The cure is the tooth-file, which should be applied until the 
6 
