750 
FRANK H. MILLER. 
atrophic change in all parts of the body is of great importance, 
first in developing good teeth and retaining them. 
The matter of general and local exercise is so intimately as¬ 
sociated with the health, as to be, it appears to me, by its regu¬ 
lation in connection with feeding onr only hope of ameliorating 
the condition of the teeth which prevails among the dogs of our 
cities to-day. 
It is common in the examination of city-owned dogs, even 
comparatively young ones, to find their teeth so completely cov¬ 
ered with concretions as to be almost entirely hidden except at 
their extreme apices. Such animals, it will be usually, found 
have been in the habit of taking not only a great variety of 
food, but have taken it far in excess of their requirements, and 
usually in a soft pultaceous mass. There may not be the least 
evidence of disease of the teeth at the time of examination, yet 
there will be a foetid sour odor from the breath, even though 
scant evidences of decomposing food may be present. The 
tongue is white and coated in the centre with red margin. The 
secretions are abundant and tenacious. There is a lack of spirit. 
Bowels deranged and irregular, disinclination to take exercise 
and he tires easily. The gums present a variable appearance, 
but are usually dark purplish red near the margin, and bleed 
easily upon the slightest irritation. 
Such, in short, are the patients which only too frequently 
pass over our tables without any particular and careful diagno¬ 
sis being made, and oftentimes from very carelessness in the re¬ 
moval of the tartar, wounds are made, which give the first di¬ 
rect inroad for active disease to enter the alveolus and attack its 
contents, which almost invariably leads to irreparable loss. 
The conditions under which salts are precipitated from their 
natural solutions within the body are, as I have already stated, 
but imperfectly understood, but the close relation which inucine 
holds to calculi, whether salivary, biliary or urinary, goes far to 
indicate that their foundation is laid in catarrhal disturbances of 
mucous-membranes, and certainly in such cases as I have cited 
there is every indication of gastro-intestinal catarrh. 
