OBSERVATIONS. 27 



Nor IS there any matter in a horfe requiring 

 a nicer difcrimination in judgment, than to 

 afcertain to a certainty the age of a horfe by his 

 teeth only, having abfolutely 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 refpecft 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 rnore the horfe is advanced in 

 year5. 



But, as the age of the horfe is fo diftinftly 

 abftracted from, and unconnected with, the 

 defcri::^tion of difeafe wh'ch becomes more 

 immediately the fubje(fl of difcuffion, I (hall 

 leave the former to the fubtle decifion of the 

 ftable difputants, to whofe province it may be 

 faid to belong, and whom it more materially 

 concerns. 



There 



