EQUINE DENTISTRY. 
255 
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the probe soon found a small opening in the bone. An examin¬ 
ation of the tooth revealed also a small opening into the 
mouth along the external surface of the tooth from which a 
discharge was also issuing. As the whole alveoli seemed to 
be involved, I decided to extract the tooth, which was im¬ 
mediately done, and the tooth found to measuie within 
one-eighth of an inch of the combined length of the width of 
the jaw and the height of the adjoining tooth. 
And lastly, I will call your attention to an abnormal con¬ 
dition not often found, but, when existing, it proves to be a 
veritable thorn in the flesh, a cause of much misery to the 
possessor, with anxious wonderings and expense to the 
owner, namely a seventh molar. 1 have here for your ex¬ 
amination a specimen that came into my hands about one 
year ago; it is the bones of a head containing, in addition to 
the usual number of teeth, a seventh molar, with the lesults 
of its growth showing only tco plainly the history of a life of 
misery. 
The possessor of this extra molar was a beautiful mare at 
three and four years of age, and when with very little 
handling she trotted half a mile in i : 16, eighteen yeais ago, 
the owner thought he had one of the best and fastest the State 
afforded, and so offered to match her against anything of her 
age in the State, barring one. The following year he could 
not keep her in condition to do fast work, and as yeai after 
year went by she grew worse instead of better, and being 
disgusted he put her to breeding. But in time they noticed 
she did not feed even as well as usual, and at times would 
quid out some of her hay, so her teeth were dressed by home 
talent. Still she did no better, and at last, in her nineteenth 
year, a self-styled practical dentist was called in and he ex¬ 
tracted a portion of a decaying tooth—only a portion, for the 
balance still remains—and then dressed her teeth as he con¬ 
sidered they should be. At last, during her twentieth yeai, she 
received a kick, breaking her thigh, and was then destioyed. 
After death the condition of her teeth was noticed and a 
friend called my attention to it. 
Now, as you see, the extra molar is a left mfeiioi seventh, 
