228 
ON DISEASES OF THE DENTAL APPARATUS 
rection where the teeth of the file are placed. In using this latter 
instrument it is necessary to have the mouth kept open, and the 
tongue drawn out at the contrary side to that where the defect 
exists, in order to give the operator full scope to use his strength 
to advantage in filing down the inequalities. 
However, both these modes of operating can only be efficacious 
in those cases where the projections exist in a slight degree. 
When the difficulty in the performance of mastication is caused 
by too considerable an exuberance of a molar in one or other of 
the arcades, the two operations which we have just described 
would occupy too much time in their employment ; and, however 
great the perseverance may be in their use, perhaps the desired 
result would not be obtained, or, at least, there would be much 
danger of injuring the dental apparatus in acting so long a time 
on so hard and dense a structure. Moreover, we may add, that 
the employment of the rasp would be entirely useless where there 
exists a wolf’s tooth, or sundent, according to the French, that 
is to say, a deviation of one of the molars either within or with- 
out the arcades. In these circumstances it is better to have re- 
course to chiselling off the projecting tooth, by means of the tooth- 
gouge. 
To practise this operation, the animal may either be thrown 
or remain standing. The latter position, when the animal is suffi- 
ciently docile, is preferable to all others, being more convenient 
for the operator, while it permits the more easy rejection from the 
buccal cavity of the fragments detached by the gouge. 
If we operate standing, the head of the animal must be ele- 
vated and held nearly in the horizontal position, and the mouth 
kept open by a vigorous assistant with the speculum iris, or a 
common balling-iron if this cannot be procured ; the tongue must 
then be drawn out and held aloft by the assistant at the opposite 
side to that where the operation is to be performed. 
A second assistant should place himself behind the operator 
armed with a heavy hammer or light sledge, and whose office is to 
strike a smart but limited blow on the head of the gouge at each 
command to that effect. Every thing being thus arranged, the 
operator should assure himself by touch of the position of the ex- 
uberant tooth, and the dimensions of its projections. This exami- 
nation being finished, he introduces the gouge, and slides it along 
the tables up to the projecting tooth, and then applying the cutting 
edge of the instrument to it, at the same level of the other dental 
tables, and holding it firmly in this position, he commands the 
assistant to strike. If the blow has been fairly made, the tooth 
breaks, and the fragment falls from the mouth ; but if the first per- 
cussion has been insufficient, the manoeuvre must be repeated. 
