676 
DEPARTMENT OF SURGERY. 
treatment indicated in each case must be followed up carefully. 
6 . IridoEyeutis and Eyelitis. —Both of these are gen¬ 
erally only secondary conditions following iritis or choroiditis; 
some cases, however, are of a traumatic origin resulting from 
wounds or foreign bodies in the ciliary region. The use of sub¬ 
conjunctival injections in either of the above mentioned dis¬ 
eases is to increase absorption, and by accomplishing this the 
exudates which usually accompany the disease are lessened, 
and the danger of adhesions diminished ; but the procedure, 
without other measures, is not sufficient to effect a cure. 
SURGICAL ITEMS. 
Domestic Animal Dentistry .—The practice of veterinary 
dentistry is so extremely distasteful to the college professor and 
better class of veterinary practitioners that the dental operations 
are usually consigned to the student, the assistant surgeon, the 
stableman, the horseshoer or the non-graduate veterinary dentist. 
The apathy and antipathy of the well-to-do practitioner and 
teacher of surgery toward the art of domestic animal dentistry 
dates from the earliest history of veterinary science and at this 
time, the beginning of the twentieth century, it may still be 
truthfully referred to as a neglected branch of veterinary surgery. 
The best and most elaborate text-books on veterinary surgery,for¬ 
eign and domestic, cover the entire subject in a few pages, while 
the teacher of surgery in the various schools where strenuous ef¬ 
forts are made to augment the skill of students in other depart¬ 
ures, frequently dismiss dentistry with only a brief mention of 
the more complicated operations allied thereto. A methodical ef¬ 
fort to develop the skill and dexterity upon which successful 
dentistry so largely depends is seldom undertaken in our col¬ 
leges, and is still less frequently acquired after graduation. In 
this, as in other departments of surgery, we are fostering an en¬ 
thusiasm for difficult operations which bring only nominal re¬ 
sults and entirely neglect simple, popular procedures which are 
almost universally satisfactory to our clientele. The reason is 
obvious. Veterinary dentistry, especially horse dentistry, is 
laborious, difficult and even dangerous until a certain degree of 
skill has been attained, which facts are responsible for the incli¬ 
nation to slight the work or else willingly consign it to others 
as both undignified and unimportant. We have all seen our 
learned professors roll their sleeve to cope with a putrid fistula 
of the withers or a foetid uterus, but rarely have we seen them 
undertake to demonstrate the proper use of dental instruments. 
