202 THE ANATOMY AND DISEASES OF THE NOSE AND MOUTH. 



increasing age. At eleven or twelve, the lower nippers change their original 

 upright direction, and project forward or horizontally, and become of a yellow 

 colour. They are yellow, because the teeth must grow in order to answer to their 

 wear and tear ; but the enamel which covered their surface when they were 

 first produced cannot be repaired, and that which wears this yellow colour in 

 old age is the part which in youth was in the socket, and therefore destitute of 

 enamel. 



The general indications of old age, independent of the teeth, are, deepening 

 of the hollows over the eyes ; grey hairs, and particularly over the eyes and 

 about the muzzle ; thinness and hanging down of the lips ; sharpness of the 

 withers ; sinking of the back ; lengthening of the quarters ; and the disappear- 

 ance of windgalls, spavins, and tumours of every kind. 



Of the natural age of the horse we should form a very erroneous estimate 

 from the early period at which he is now worn out and destroyed. Mr. Blaine 

 speaks of a gentleman who had three horses that died at the ages of thirty- 

 five, thirty-seven, and thirty-nine. Mr. Cully mentions one that received a 

 ball in his neck, at the battle of Preston, in 1715, and which was extracted at 

 his death, in 1758 ; and Mr. Percivall gives an account of a barge-horse that 

 died in his sixty-second year. 



There cannot be a severer satire on the English nation than this, that, from 

 the absurd practice of running our race-horses at two and three years old, and 

 working others, in various ways, long before their limbs are knit or their strength 

 developed, and cruelly exacting from them services far beyond their powers, 

 their age does not average a sixth part of that of the last-mentioned horse. 

 The scientific author of the " Animal Kingdom " declares, that " it may be 

 safely asserted, that more horses are consumed in England, in every ten years, 

 than in any other country in the world in ten times that period, except those 

 which perish in war." 



This affair has, with the English, been too long considered as one of mere 

 profit and loss ; and it has been thought to be cheaper to bring the young 

 horse early into work, and prematurely to exhaust his strength, than to 

 maintain him for a long period, and at a considerable expense, almost useless. 

 The matter requires much consideration, and much reformation too. 



DISEASES OF THE TEETH. 



Of the diseases of the teeth in the horse we know little. Carious or hollow 

 teeth are occasionally but not often seen ; but the edges of the grinders, from 

 the wearing off of the enamel or the irregular growth of the teeth, become 

 rough, and wound the inside of the cheek ; it is then necessary to adopt a sum- 

 mary but effectual method of cure, namely, to rasp them smooth. Many bad 

 ulcers have been produced in the mouth by the neglect of this. 



The teeth sometimes grow irregularly in length, and this is particularly the 

 case with the grinders, from not being in exact opposition to each other when 

 the mouth is shut. The growth of the teeth still going on, and there being no 

 mechanical opposition to it, one of the back teeth, or a portion of one of them, 

 shoots up considerably above the others. Sometimes it penetrates the bars 

 above, and causes soreness and ulceration ; at other times it interferes partially, 

 or altogether, with the grinding motion of the jaws, and the animal pines away 

 without the cause being suspected. Here the saw should be used, and the pro- 

 jecting portion reduced to a level with the other teeth. The horse that has 

 once been subjected to this operation should afterwards be frequently examined, 

 and especially if he loses condition : and, indeed, every horse that gets thin or 

 out of condition, without fever, or other apparent cause, should have his teeth 



