16 ANIMAL DENTISTRY. 



of sacredly g-uarding dentistry from becoming obsolete in 

 the veterinary profession, and from passing to the willing 

 specialist, who, through deficient fundamental technical edu- 

 cation cannot keep pace with the advancement continually 

 being made in the other branches of veterinary surgery. 

 Animal dentistry is unpopular, not so much because it is 

 difificult, tedious and even dangerous, but because it is re- 

 garded as of minor importance in the veterinary colleges 

 and by the better class of veterinary practitioners, who will-* 

 ingly stigmatize animal dentistry as an unimportant "side 

 issue" by relegating dental operations to the student, the, 

 assistant, the stable-helper, the horse-shoer or the horse- 

 dentist. 



Only a few years ago, at the urgent request of a sufifering 

 patient, the family physician would condescend to pull an 

 aching tooth, but he was never specially provoked if such a 

 patient had consulted the watchmaker or the locksmith, who 

 in many localities had earned enviable reputations as expert 

 tooth-pullers, and who finally became the first recruits in the 

 new profession of human dentistry. The duty of the veteri- 

 narian of today toward the tooth-rasping horse-shoer or the 

 professional horse-dentist bears a striking resemblance to 

 the relations between the physician and tooth-pulling lock- 

 smith of a few years ago. The able physician in those days 

 willingly consigned the tooth-ache patient to the locksmith, 

 or the barber, or the watchmaker, because dental operations 

 were then considered as an unimportant "side issue," rather 

 beneath the dignity of the learned therapeutist. But, in 

 spite of this apathy, dentistry asserted its importance and 

 soon became a part of the curriculum of the foremost uni- 

 versities of the world. 



This is precisely the status of animal dentistry today. 

 The veterinarian consigns dental operations to others be- 

 cause it is rather beneath the dignity of the learned veteri-; 



