12 PHYSIOLOGY AT THE FARM. 



As in the human body, so in the horse, a temporary set of 

 teeth, termed the milk or deciduous teeth, precedes the permanent 

 teeth. Between four and five years old the permanent teeth are 

 completed, and thus the young animal, from being a colt or a 

 filly, becomes a horse or a mare. As in the human body, there 

 are in the horse three kinds of teeth the incisors or front teeth, 

 called in the horse nippers canine, in the horse called tushes 

 and molar or grinding teeth. The teeth are more numerous 

 in the horse than in man, as there are forty teeth in the horse, 

 while in man there are but thirty-two. As in the other mam- 

 mals belonging to the farm, the teeth do not, like those of man, 

 form two close unbroken lines along the upper and under jaws. 

 There is a space, on each side of each jaw, between the incisors 

 or nippers and the grinding or molar teeth. In this space, 

 though far from large enough to fill it up, there is the canine 

 tooth or tush, on each side above and below. This canine 

 tooth does not, for the most part, appear in the mare, so that 

 the mare has only thirty-six teeth. The tush or canine tooth 

 is described as rudimentary in the mare that is, all the four 

 canine teeth or tushes are formed within the jaw, but are not 

 cut so as to appear beyond the gums, or, if they appear, it is 

 only in very old mares. The forty teeth in the horse consist 

 of twelve incisors or nippers six above and six below ; and 

 twenty -four grinding or molar teeth six above and six below, 

 on each side of the mouth ; together with four tushes, properly 

 tusks, one above and one below, in each of the interspaces of 

 the jaw between the front row of incisors and the side row of 

 grinding teeth. 



In the horse there are twenty-four milk teeth or deciduous 

 teeth namely, twelve incisors in the front of the mouth six 

 above and six below ; and twelve grinding teeth three above 

 and three below on each side of the mouth. The four tushes 

 are not shed that is, these are permanent teeth ; no more are 



