IN HERBIVOROUS ANIMALS. 223 
nounce the attempt. They then remain before their mangers full 
of food, and seem, to have no appetite. 
Oats, an aliment more divided, and which the animals prefer to 
all others, are often swallowed before they have been sufficiently 
ground or bruised ; they, however, take a very long time to eat it, 
which contrasts strikingly with the number of their efforts. The 
nose plunged into their feed, they fumble and nibble a long time at 
it, and damp it with an abundance of saliva, without appearing to 
diminish sensibly the quantity. At this degree of imperfection in 
the masticatory apparatus, wet grains, or those held in suspension 
in water, or gruel, are the only aliments that can freely pass the 
narrowness of the pharynx. 
It may easily be conceived that, if such a state of things is pro- 
longed, the whole economy does not delay to feel its baneful influ- 
ences. The insufficiency of nutrition soon produces, in fact, a 
general meagreness ; the coat tarnishes ; becomes dry and staring ; 
the muscular energy diminishes, and, with it, as a natural conse- 
quence, the capability for the performance of labour. The least 
exertion makes the animals sweat, and they are heedless of the use 
of the whip : the mucous membranes become discoloured ; the 
pulse weakens, and, sometimes, cold infiltrations appear in the 
extremities. To see animals thus transformed in so short a time, 
persons would willingly believe in the influence of some grave 
organic lesion having worked a most injurious change in the entire 
constitution. 
All these symptoms are common to the different diseases of the 
dental apparatus, and are already sufficient to lead to a positive 
diagnostic; but this diagnostic can only acquire all its precision 
and rigour when the buccal cavity shall have been explored. We 
obtain by this examination the particular signs of each of the 
alterations that opposes itself to the functions of mastication. 
In examining the interior of the mouth, kept open by the aid of 
a speculum oris, or even by the drawing out of the free part of the 
tongue, and holding it with the third and fourth fingers and thumb, 
the index being straightened and placed between the inner side of 
the lip and the gum of the anterior part of the upper jaw, at the 
space between the grinders and tushes, while the other hand is 
left free to aid the inspection by taxis, the inquirer easily recog- 
nises the cause which places obstacles to mastication. 
If it be one or another of the irregularities that we have above 
signalized, such as the exuberance of a tooth, the vicious inclina- 
tion of the tables, the projections too marked of the columns of 
separation of the canulse, & c., the sight is ordinarily sufficient to 
recognise them, insomuch as that the teeth are frequently soiled 
by the greenish remains of aliments at the side where the obstacle 
