]G THE IMPROVED ART OF FARRIERY 



the/;o?i^, which grow between the age of two and a 

 half and three years ; between three and a half and 

 four years the next pair of nippers called the middle 

 or dividers will be changed ; and the last important 

 change in the mouth takes place between four and a 

 half and five, when the corner nippers are shed to make 

 way for the new ones, when the colt changes its name 

 for that of horse, and the filly becomes a mare. 



By this time, too, the permanent molars or grinders 

 have hkewise been completed. As the horse advances 

 in age the cavities of the nippers gradually begin to 

 wear away : at six the mark of the front, an d by eight 

 years the mark or cavity of the corner nippers, has dis- 

 appeared ; the horse then is termed aged, and it re- 

 quires a vast experience to become a proficient in tell- 

 ing the age after this period. Dealers have at this 

 crisis been known to practise a species of decep ion 

 called bishoping, in order to procure a better sale for 

 their animals, but this fraud a careful eye will easily 

 detect. With an engraver's tool a hole is tiled in the 

 corner nippers, and then a hot iron is inserted, which 

 leaves a dark mark and cavity, but of a blacker nature, 

 and more strongly impressed, than in the natural tooth. 

 Some pull the foal teeth out, but this may be easilv 

 detected by rubbing the finger along the gum where 

 the tusks grow, which may generally be felt before the 

 corner teeth appear. 



M. Girard thus states his opinion after this : — 

 " At eight years old there is usually complete ob- 

 literation of the mark in the lov^er jaw, the nippers, 

 the dividers, and the corner teeth ; the central enamel 

 is triangular and nearer the posterior than the anterior 

 edge of the tooth ; the termination of the cavity next 

 the root appears near the anterior edge in the form 

 of a yellowish band, longish from one side to the 



