748 
FRANK H. MILLER. 
more sound, than we of temperate climes with the greatest pos¬ 
sible variety of foods, including the phosphate-yielding cereals. 
Few animals or men, indeed, exist who have enough to eat of al¬ 
most any kind of food, but gain the elements of tooth requirements, 
provided, however, they live lives calculated to keep the entire 
organism in that state of health which is necessary for the main¬ 
tenance of any one particular tissue of slow recuperative power 
as is the case notably of the teeth. 
While convinced that decay of the teeth of dogs can at times 
much impair their general health and comfort and not infre¬ 
quently aid in precipitating serious and even fatal gastro-enteric 
complications of decidedly mycotic nature, I feel that such cul¬ 
minations are at most in the greater number of instances agg'ra- 
vation of pre-existing derangement, and that the teeth suffer 
much more as a direct result of disorders of the digestive tract 
than vice versa. 
Having practiced both in the country and city I have no hesi¬ 
tancy in saying that patient for patient at all ages, the percent¬ 
age of dental disintegration in city dogs will more than double 
those in rural districts. Why is this? It is because those ani¬ 
mals which are most highly prized as companions by those 
livino- in cities, are from the verv nature of their “ blue blood 
or breeding, originally endowed with formative teeth possessing 
lessened possibilities of healthy growth and development, and 
being developed, of lessened resistance to the inroads of disease 
than those bred with less design as to the attainment of type, 
etc., as is notably the case in rural districts, or would it be wiser 
to turn to the “ high tension ” diet, so to speak, which prevails 
among city dogs as compared with their country cousins, as a 
plausible reason? While these considerations both seem per¬ 
fectly plausible, it would be manifestly incorrect to attribute to 
either of them alone, the cause of these manifestations, or even 
attribute to them conjointly the greatest cause for dental decay, 
inasmuch as it would make the basis of our observation the 
Fuxus dog, and that would seriously modify the deduction by 
passing over the state of affairs which prevails in this respect 
