102 THE DISEASES OF THE DOG. 



after it has reset is somewhat difficult and is not to be 

 undertaken by every bungler. The gum must.be deeply 

 lanced ; and a small scalpel made for the purpose answers 

 better than the ordinary gum lancet. The instrument 

 having been passed all round the neck of the toothy the 

 gum is with the forceps to be driven or pushed away, and 

 the hold to be taken as high as possible ; firm traction is 

 then to be made, the hand of the operator being steadied 

 by the thumb placed against the point of the permanent 

 tush. As the temporary teeth are almost as brittle as 

 glass, and as the animal invariably moves its. head about 

 endeavouring to escape, some care must be exercised to 

 prevent the tooth being broken " (Mayhew). The molars 

 of older animals may be displaced by tartar. If a loosened 

 tooth is diseased it should at once be removed, but other- 

 wise when cleaned it may become again firmly fixed in the 

 jaw; of course this cannot be anticipated in very old 

 animals. The teeth of the dog are easy of removal, 

 whether artificially or accidentally* because they do not 

 mutually support each other as those of herbivora, nor 

 have they such large fangs deeply embedded in the 

 jaw. 



Cutting the tushes is an operation which is sometimes 

 necessary ; with puppies, to prevent them tearing things, 

 when it is done simply by a pinch with bone forceps ; or in 

 older animals when unusually fierce, or if they have been 

 exposed to rabies inoculation, to reduce their power of doing 

 harm j in them the process of rasping is generally resorted 

 to. Loss of the incisors is of little importance and not 

 likely to interfere with the tenacity of the animal's grip ; 

 indeed, in those breeds where the under- shot condition of 

 the lower jaw is natural, early displacement and loss of 

 the incisors is to be anticipated as a physiological process. 

 The non-occurrence, in so far as we are aware, of denti- 

 gerous cysts and superfluous, irregularly-placed molars in 

 the dog, is probably due to the comparative simplicity in 

 structure of his "molars ; and to the same cause we must 

 also attribute the infrequency of hollow molars from caries 

 of the crown. 



