81 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HORSE. ' 



aged on the obliteration of the mark from the lower incisor 

 teeth, which occurs by the completion of the eighth year : and 

 though it is far from being the natural term of age and debility, 

 or even of the decline of the vital energies, it too frequently 

 happens, that by that time bodily infirmities have been prema- 

 turely induced by over-exertion of their powers. Horses at 

 twenty years of age, are often met with in cases where the least 

 humanity has been bestowed on their management. Eclipse 

 died at the age of twenty-five ; Flying Childers, at twenty-siy. 

 Brom's mare Maggie reached more than twenty-nine years. 

 Bucephalus, the celebrated horse of Alexander of Macedon, 

 lived till thirty. The natural age is probably between twenty- 

 five and thirty. A faint and uncertain guide is found in the 

 register of the ages of the most celebrated racing stallions, re- 

 collecting, however, that several of them were destroyed on 

 becoming useless for the purposes of the turf. The united ages 

 of ninety-three of these horses amounted to two thousand and 

 five years ; or rather more than twenty-one and a half years to 

 each horse. 



As a matter oT civil economy, it is important to judge cor- 

 rectly of the age of the horse. This is chiefly accomplished 

 by observing the natural changes which occur in his teeth, the 

 periods at which they appear, are shed a.-d replaced, and the 

 alterations in their form and markings. 



The teeth of most animals offer some criterion by which their 

 age can be estimated with more or less accuracy. The teeth 

 are nearly the sole indices of t q age of the horse, ass, elephant, 

 camel, dog, and the polled vari ities of the ox and sheep ; while 

 in other domesticated animals, as the elk, deer, goat, common 



