4 
W. L. WILLIAMS. 
a frame-work, attempt to learn something of direct practical 
value to the veterinary practitioner regarding odontomes as 
seen in the horse. 
In our experience in a horse-breeding district we find that 
a very large majority, we will venture to say fully 75 per cent, 
of the serious dental affections are due directly to aberrations 
of the tooth gum. 
This proportion will probably not hold good in all sec¬ 
tions of the country, and certainly not in large cities, for the 
most evident reason that these aberrations of the tooth gum 
naturally occur for the most part during the early stages of 
dental development and would consequently be seen far more 
often among young animals on the breeding farm, than 
among the mature work animals of large cities. 
The editor of the Journal of Comparative Medicine and 
Veterinary Archives, in a foot-note to Dr. Sutton’s paper, 
states that odontomes in the horse occur most frequently from 
the fifth to the seventh year, which differs widely from our 
experience, nearly all of our cases occurring in animals from 
six months to three years old. 
Many of them failed to be presented for treatment at so 
early an age, but they usually had a very trustworthy history, 
dating back to the second or third year as the beginning of 
the disease. 
We recall but one case, that of Chester B., Figs. 8, 9 and 
10, in which the history, if at all obtainable, did not clearly 
indicate an early origin of the disease. 
As a rule, the younger the patient, the more rapid and 
threatening the growth of the odontome. 
We have met with no cases of odontomes of the canines, 
and so far as can now be remembered none of the temporary 
molars, but one of the incisors, all others being confined to 
the permanent pre-molars and to the molars. 
The superior molars apparently suffer more often than the 
inferior, in the proportion of about four or five of the 
former to one of the latter. This apparent difference in sus¬ 
ceptibility may not be true, since in many cases inferior odon¬ 
tomes frequently pursue a more benign course, and not inter- 
