LAMPAS is the term used by our common farriers to denote an unnatural prominence of the fleshy bars, crossing the roof of the mouth, just behind the upper incisive teeth. Many absurd notions are abroad respecting the origin and nature of this sup posed malady, (for we can hardly regard it in the light of disease,) and still more are the means which have long been, and among the lower farri ers even still continue to be, employed under the false cover of an asserted remedy: we allude to the cruel practice of cauterizing the swollen parts with a red hot iron. The veritable nature of this sup posed evil is neither more nor less than an inflam matory turgidity of the gums as well as palate, the natural concomitant of the process of dentition; so that we discover lampas in the intervals between the 2d and 3d,3d and 4th, and 4th and 5th years: and such being the true nature of the complaint, what can be more preposterously barbarous than the practice recommended in the Farriers' Dictionary, " to ap ply a hot iron to the parts, so as to burn the excres cence! away." With as much reason, and certainly (if there existed any at all) more necessity, might we introduce a heated iron into the mouth of a child suffering from the self-same malady—" cutting of the teeth;" when every surgeon knows that simple lancing of the gums is all that is required of him.
And this is all that is required, too, of the veteri nary surgeon. Lance the gums in cases when the animal manifests uneasiness or pain by refusing to eat his hay, and especially his corn, as usual; and give him scalded oats, bran or malt mashes, and green meat, &c. in fact any food easy of mastica tion.
BOrsY.—Hydrolhoras, or water in the chest, is by no means an unfrequent occurrence in young horses: it commonly comes on gradually, as a se quel of inflammation of the lungs; and when once established, is, unfortunately, without the reach of any known therapeutic means. .Rscites, or water in the belly, is a more rare disease. The author has met with two cases: one was a genuine case; the other turned out to be a sequel or consequence of inflammation of the membranes of the chest, fol lowed by hydrothorax. Its presence is but obscurely indicated: the only sure tests are, a sense of fluctu ation to the hand, and of guggling or undulation to the ear, combined with actual enlargement of the belly; rarely, however, has the practitioner been led to make these trials, from the fact of the disease being known to be quite out of the ordinary line of practice. In truth, we yet lack much information on the subject.