256 ANECDOTES OF ANIMALS. 



horses, which have been so from the moment they were 

 taken from their native forests ; but, generally speaking, 

 the horse becomes the protector, the companion, the 

 friend of his possessor. When dead, every part of him 

 is useful ; and when living, all his energies make him 

 one of the greatest blessings which a beneficent Creator 

 has bestowed on the earthly lord of all. 



Horses' teeth are so important a part of their history, 

 that although this book does not profess to treat of 

 science, it would be incomplete if I did not briefly point 

 out how distinctly they show the age of the animal. 

 First of all, however, it should be known that the 

 mouth seems to have been expressly formed for the bit, 

 by which man controls this admirable creature; for, 

 corresponding with each angle of the mouth is a space 

 between the teeth, in which it lodges with the greatest 

 convenience. The front teeth, or incisors, begin to 

 appear when the horse is fifteen days old, and amount 

 to six in number in each jaw. All from the first are 

 at the top or crown hollowed into a groove. The two 

 in the middle are shed and replaced at three years and 

 a half, the two next at four and a half, ancUthe two out- 

 side, called the corner teeth, at seven and a half and 

 eight. The grooves on the crowns become effaced, 

 and the tops of the teeth are more triangular, as age 

 increases. The females have no canine teeth ; but the 

 males always have two small ones in the upper jaw, and 

 sometimes two in the lower. The former appear when 

 they are four years old, the latter at three and a half ; 

 they remain pointed till the horse has attained six years, 

 and when he is ten they begin to grow loose, and expose 

 their roots. They have six grinders in each side of each 

 jaw, with flat crowns ; and the plates of enamel which 



