214 THE TEETH AS INDICATORS OF AGE. 



tical use. The facts that follow, however, are of more 

 or less use, and are worthy of perusal. Prof. Youatt 

 says: 



" The indications of age, independent of the teeth, 

 are deepening of the hollows over the eyes ; wrinkles 

 over the eyes and about the mouth ; gray hairs, par- 

 ticularly over the eyes and about the muzzle; the 

 countenance and general appearance; thinness and 

 hanging down of the lips ; sharpness of the withers ; 

 sinking of the back; lengthening of the quarters, and 

 the disappearance of windgalls, spavins, and tumors of 

 every kind. * * * At nine or ten the 'bars' of 

 the mouth become less prominent, and their regular 

 diminution will indicate increasing age." 



Of another deception Prof. Youatt says: 



" We form some idea of the age of the horse by the 

 depth of the pits above the eyes. There is at the back 

 of the eye a quantity of fatty substance, on which it 

 may revolve without friction. In aged horses, and in 

 diseases attended with general loss of condition, much 

 of this disappears. The eye becomes sunken, and the 

 pit above it deepens. Dishonest dealers puncture the 

 skin, and, with a tobacco-pipe or tube, blow into the 

 orifice till the depression is almost filled. This, with 

 the aid of 'bishoped' teeth, may deceive the unwary. 

 The fraud may be easily detected, however, by press- 

 ing on the part." 



"Frank Forester" (William Henry Herbert), says 

 (" The Horse of America," vol. i, p. 72) : 



" Much stress is laid by many persons on the depth 

 of the supra-orbital cavities, and more yet on the length 

 extreme protrusion of the nippers beyond the 



