A CLINICAL STUDY OF ODONTOMES. 
13 
This fourth tooth out of the way, it was seen that the fifth 
was similarly affected, and its fang was comminuted in the 
same manner, until proper opportunity was given to apply 
the punch at an angle which would permit our driving it into 
the mouth as with the fourth. 
Examination of the teeth (Fig, i. a and b) shows quite 
clearly that the original departure from health was in the de¬ 
velopment of the tooth follicle itself, by which an opening was 
left at the bottom of the central inversion of enamel and the 
secretion of cementum to bind the two inverted layers to¬ 
gether is wholly wanting. In these teeth, especially in the 
unerupted fifth, no evidence of caries is present, but the in¬ 
verted layers of enamel are bare and the space between them 
wholly devoid of cementum. Figs. 2, 3, 6, 12 and 15 only 
serve to emphasize the fact that caries as a primary affection 
of the molars of the horse, is very rare , while aberrations in the 
tooth follicle, resulting in a want of continuity of the inverted 
fold of enamel, and a want of cementum between the enamel 
plates, is common, and leads to early suppuration, later to 
caries and longitudinal splitting of the tooth, and not, as Hine- 
bauch states (Veterinary Dental Surgery, p. 78). “Caries 
commencing’’ “at the crown or table, is due to a portion of 
the dentine losing its vitality’* for, as he shows very conclu¬ 
sively in the same vol., (p, 73, Figs. 18, 19, and 20,) the open¬ 
ings in the crowns are not in a part where dentine exists, but 
between the inverted plates of enamel where cementum has 
failed to form. 
After the removal of these teeth, the sinuses were thor¬ 
oughly washed with a four per cent solution of carbolic acid, 
after which the sinus and alveoli were well filled with pled¬ 
gets of cotton batting, saturated with carbolized oil (1-16) 
with the surface thickly sprinkled with iodoform. This 
dressing was renewed daily, the dyspnoea rapidly disappeared, 
healthy granulations promptly appeared in every part, the 
bulging of the face receded, the openings in frontal and max¬ 
illary bones and in alveoli gradually closed, so that within a 
fortnight after the removal of the teeth, the animal left the 
infirmary, and continued to improve rapidly, making a good 
recovery, with but slight blemish, in about twelve weeks. 
