128 



PROCESS OF TEETHING. 



At seven years, (see Fig. 23,) the mark, in the way in which 

 „. ^ we have described it, is worn 



out in the four central nip- 

 pers, and fast wearing away 

 in the corner teeth ; the tush 

 also is beginning to he altered. 

 It is rounded at the point ; 

 rounded at the edges ; stil] 

 round without ; and begin- 

 ning to get round inside. 



At eight years old, the tush 

 is rounder in every way ; the 

 mark is gone from all the 

 bottom nippers, and it may 

 almost be said to be out of 

 the mouth. There is nothing 

 remaining in the bottom nippers that can afterwards clearly 

 show the age of the horse, or justify the most experienced ex- 

 aminer in giving a positive opinion. 



Dishonest dealers have been said to resort to a method of pro- 

 longing the mark in the lower nippers. It is called bhlwjmtg, 

 from the name of the scoundrel who invented it. The horse 

 of eight or nine years old, (see Fig. 24,) is thrown, and with an 

 engraver's tool a hole is dug in the now almost plain surface 



of the corner teeth, and m 

 shape and depth resembling 

 the mark in a seven-years-old 

 horse. The hole is then 

 burned with a heated iron, 

 and a permanent black stain 

 is left. The next pair of 

 nippers are sometimes light- 

 ly touched. An ignorant 

 man would be very easily 

 imposed on by this trick : but 

 the irregular appearance of 

 the cavity — the diffusion of 

 the black stain around the 

 tushes, the sharpened edges 

 and concave inner surface of which can never be given again — 

 the marks on the uppjr nippers, together with the general con- 

 formation of the horse, can never deceive the careful examiner 



Horsemen, after the animal is eight years old, are accustomed 

 to look to the nippers .'n the upper jaw, and some conclusion has 

 been drawn from the a ipearances which they present. It cannot 



T'vr 24. 



