LAMPAS
,—called also LAMPERS, and LAMPARDS, is a spongey elastic enlargement of the roof of a young horse's mouth, just behind the nippers of his upper jaw, which frequently acquires such a luxuriance in growth, as to be equal with, or to exceed, the surface of the teeth, and is supposed to occasion pain to such horses in the mastication of their corn. Different opinions have been entertained, and are still supported, upon this subject; some considering it only a temporary operation of NATURE during the formation of the TEETH, which would contract, and disappear, upon their attaining their full and proper growth; whilst others, less comprehensive in their conceptions, less scientific in their reasoning, and more hasty in their decisions, maintain the necessity of radical extermination, and that too by a process no less severe than the red-hot iron, or burning cautery. The most critical examination of the case (whenever it occurs) does not seem to justify the necessity for, or the cruelty of, such operation: various are the means which may be brought into use for the most perfect completion of the purpose, without resorting to such as bear the traits of former barbarity, when the times were less enlightened, and the system of FARRIERY less improved.
Admitting the part to have acquired its prominence, or preternatural distension, (a mere elastic, spongey puffiness,) by a slight inflammation originally, and a proportional propulsion of blood to the finer vessels surrounding that particular spot, it follows, of course, that extracting from those vessels the contents with which they are overloaded, and compulsively distended, will lay the foundation of contraction, which, followed by proper constringents, will constitute a perfect obliteration, to the PRUDENT and HUMANE exclusion of a practice not more replete with cruelty during the operation, than with danger in its consequence. Whenever the LAMPAS are found so protuberant, as to justify an opinion, or produce a proof, that they occasion pain in mastication, it is then time enough, to pass the point or edge of a sharp penknife, or lancet, transversely, and longitudinally, over the puffy and prominent part, so as to let it BLEED in that state for a few minutes; then let it be washed with a solution of ALUM in water, and no farther inconvenience need be feared from a molehill, which the illiterate have long since magnified to a MOUNTAIN, without the least rational plea for its foundation.