61. _The instruments used in connexion with the teeth of the horse_ are not very numerous. _The gum lancet_, shaped like that used by the human surgeon, and employed after the same manner, is seldom required, save for the tushes, when any knife will be found equally if not even more convenient. The rasp or file, for it is either, according to the taste of the surgeon, though most commonly the former, consists of the necessary part that gives the name to the instrument attached to a long lever, which is inserted into a handle. Its employment is rather laborious than difficult, and demands more endurance than skill on the part of the practitioner. Several of different degrees of coarseness should be used, and during the operation, a pail of water ought to be at hand, so that the roughened surface may be constantly washed and moistened, to increase its cutting power, and prevent it becoming clogged. The rasp, however, though fitted to reduce any slight inequality, or take down the sharp edges of the teeth, is not sufficiently operative to level the long projections that are often found in the horse's mouth. For that purpose a guarded chisel has been employed; but the blow of the hammer or mallet very often fractures the alveolar cavities, and the cutting edge, despite the guard, generally wounds the mouth. The rasp may be tedious, but the chisel is dangerous; and neither one or the other are proper for the purpose, though till lately, these rude tools were the only dental instruments the veterinary surgeon could boast of. A want of some more surgical and appropriate means of shortening the projecting molars has long been seriously felt; and that want the ingenuity of Mr. T. W. Gowing, the esteemed practitioner of Camden Town, to whose inventive genius the members of the veterinary profession are so largely indebted, has at length supplied. The instruments he has constructed have two grand recommendations: they are equally simple and effective. Seeing how little complexity they exhibit, it seems strange that no one should have previously thought of them; but the same thing is generally said of every invention of real utility. The only difficulty in these matters is to catch the idea, and this Mr. Gowing has most happily accomplished. He has produced a complete set of veterinary dental instruments; discarding all of those which have hitherto been employed, with the exception of the mouth rasp, which he leaves untouched. Instead of the old tooth key which was so formidable to look at, but so difficult and often impossible to use, he employs a pair of forceps, of which the following wood-cut will give the reader some idea. [Illustration]