CHAP. XLIV. 



GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON HORSES THAT 

 ARE AGED, OR PAST THE MARK OF MOUTH. 



THE teeth of horses, like those of the hu- 

 man species, become rusty and yellowish in 

 the course of time : a certain quantity of tartar 

 adheres to them, and gives them this appear- 

 ance. The older a horse grows, the harder 

 and more shrunk up are his gums, which gives 

 the teeth a long and naked appearance. If 

 any black speck rem.ain after eight years old, it 

 will, as we before observed, be very faint, much 

 polished, and not hollow, as in young horses, 

 but flat all over. In feeling the tusks in the 

 upper jaw, if they are found to be worn even 

 with the palate, the horse is old. In a young 

 horse, the inside of the tusks are hollow, or 

 channelled a little inside; but in old horses, 

 they are filled up, and become round. If the 



