O BSERVAT IONS. 27 



Nor Is there any matter in a horfe requiring 

 a nicer difcriminatlon in judgment, than to 

 afcertain to a certainty the age of a horfe by his 

 teeth only, having abfclutely feen two men of 

 abihties and experience on the oppofite fides 

 of a horfe's mouth, at the fame time declare 

 him of different ages -, when, by exchanging 

 fides, each changed his opinion, and the horfe 

 proved, by the common rule, to be coming a 

 year older on one fide than the other. Thefe 

 doubts in refped: to the certainty of age being 

 admitted, one fixed rule is incontrovertible — 

 that, after the mark (which is the general 

 guide) is obliterated, the longer the teeth are, 

 and the narrower the under jaw is towards its 

 extremity, the more the horfe is advanced in 

 years. 



But, as the age of the horfe is fo diftindly 

 abfiiracled from, and unconnedled with, the 

 difcription of difeafe which becomes more 

 immediately the fubjed: of difcuflion, I fhall 

 leave the former to the fubtle decifion of the 

 liable difputants, to whofe province it may be 

 faid to belong, and vvhom it more materially 

 .concerns. 



There 



