6 
W. L. WILLIAMS. 
slowly exudes and may so continue for several years, the 
crown of the tooth presenting no marked abnormality. 
The second, and less effectual mode of relief, consists of 
the burrowing of the pus up along the side of the tooth, in 
one of the lateral grooves, finally finding exit into the mouth. 
This may afford some relief, but usually only of a temporary 
character, as it opens up a new source of danger by permit¬ 
ting food, during mastication, to pass down along the tooth 
into the alvelous and the original pus cavity, where, fermen¬ 
ting and decaying, it acts as a very dangerous irritant, result¬ 
ing in an increase in the size of the opening about the tooth 
and a very rapid and serious increase in the size of the pus 
cavity which may now attain a capacity of one to two pints, 
with bony walls one inch or more thick, the cavity lined 
usually with a smooth pyogenic membrane, and filled with 
irregular masses of detached dental tissue, sometimes pieces 
of detached bone, and nearly always a large quantity of pus, 
mixed with decaying food ; presenting altogether the most 
repulsive, fetid mass possible. 
In this stage, marked signs of serious constitutional distur¬ 
bance rapidly supervene, the coat is staring, the animal fever¬ 
ish, extremely debilitated and emaciated, the mouth very 
offensive, and unless promptly relieved by surgical interfer¬ 
ence, will probably end in the death of the animal. We 
remember well two fatalities of this kind; both in the 
inferior maxilla of high-grade, two-year-old draft fillies, and 
both were lost through an error in diagnosis by the attending 
veterinarian. 
The cases not coming under our care we failed to observe 
the animals either immediately prior or subsequent to 
death, so that the immediate cause of death can not be 
stated. Dr. Sutton, in his paper previously 7 quoted, suggests 
septic pneumonia, from, we would infer, inhalation of pus, as 
the probable cause of death ; but, as previously noted, all his 
fatalities, as well as ours, occurred in cases where the lower 
jaw was affected, when we should naturally expect that 
suppurating odontomes of the upper jaw, with escape of 
septic matter into the nasal passages, would be more likely 
to be followed by death from septic pneumonia. 
