DECAY OF THE DQG’S TEETH. 
745 
^ of the anti-strangle serum as soon as it is put on the market. 
Irritants must be avoided, and, as in cases of tetanus, any cause 
of excitement as well. 
[Written Specially for the American Veterinary Review.] 
DECAY OF THE DOG'S TEETH. 
By Frank H. Miller, D. V. S., New York City. 
In selecting this subject to present before Review readers I 
C do so feeling my personal incapacity to treat the matter with 
V that thoroughness which its importance would warrant, but 
J trust that my remarks may cause other veterinarians of perhaps 
riper years and greater experiences and opportunities of clinical 
observation to come charitably forward and correct me where I 
have erred and support me where weak, that if possible veteri¬ 
nary science may include a more perfect understanding as to 
.why dumb animals are so subject to dental defect and loss. 
As heretofore, when you have kindly indulged me by allow¬ 
ing me access to the columns of your valuable journal, I have 
not selected some rare pathological condition but very infre¬ 
quently coming under the observation of the general veterina¬ 
rian, but as then I select with pleasure one of those conditions 
which is constantly presenting itself for treatment, a condition 
indeed which from its very frequency and insidiousness, is no 
doubt as imperfectly studied and understood as any to which 
animals are subject. 
It is true that in the two words “ tartar ” and “ caries ’’ the 
veterinarian has a vocabulary which, if judiciously manipulated, 
will in a sense satisfy the client, but how unsatisfactory they 
seem to be, when we for ourselves come to consider those 
changes in anything like a scientific manner. Those terms as 
applied in the study of pathological changes, as seen in other 
' parts of the body, appear to me to lend ns but a very imperfect 
light as to the condition or conditions under which the ultimate 
loss of the dental structure takes place. Fordhe purpose of this 
paper I will almost entirely confine myself to that condition 
1 
