THE UVUEETH. 323 
honest dealers have recourse to anvther deception, called Lishoping, by 
which an aged horse may be passed off upon an inexperienced person for 
a six-year-old. The plan adopted is to cut off all the nippers with a saw 
to the proper length, and then with a cutting instrument the operator 
scoops out an oval cavity in the corner nippers, which is afterwards burnt 
with a hot iron until it is quite black. It is extremely easy to detect the 
imposition by carefully comparing the corner nippers with the next, when 
it will be seen that there is no gradation from the centre to the corner 
nippers, but that the four middle ones are exactly alike, while the corners 
present a large black cavity, without a distinct white edge to it, the dentine 
being generally encroached upon without any regularity in the concentric 
Fic. 11.—Uprer Nirpers tN THE HiGgut-YEAR-OLD Hozs=, 
A Anterior maxillary bone. 3. 3. Corner nippers, showing the mark plainly 
1. 1. Central nippers, worn to a plane sur- enough. 
face. 4. 4, Tushes, more worn down than in the 
2. 2. Next pair, still showing a slight remnant lower jaw of the six-year-old mouth. 
of the cavity. 
tings. Moreover, on comparing the lower with the upper nippers, unless 
the operator has performed on the latter also, they will be found to be 
considerably more worn than the lower, the reverse of which ought 
naturally to be the case. Occasionally a clever operator will burn all the 
teeth to a properly regulated depth, and then a practised eye alone will 
detect the imposition. In the present day there is not so great a demand 
for six-year-old horses as was formerly the case, and purchasers are con- 
tented with a nine or ten-year-old mouth if the legs and constitution are 
fresh. Hence bishoping is seldom attempted excepting with horses 
beyond the age of eleven or twelve ; and the mere use of the burning-iron 
Naz 
