THE PROCESS OP TEETH IXG. 229 



Are there any circumstances to guide our judgment after this ? Tliere 

 are those which will prepare us to guess at the age of the horse, or to 

 approach within a few years of it, until he becomes very old ; but there 

 are none which will enable us accurately to determine the question, and 

 the indications of age must now be taken from the shape of the upper 

 surface of the nippers. At eight, they are all oval, the length of the oval 

 running across from tooth to tooth ; but as the horse gets older, the teeth 

 diminish in size, and this commencing in their width, and not in their 

 thickness. They become a little apart from each other, and their surfaces' 

 are rounded. At nine, the centre nippers are evidently so ; at ten, the 

 others begin to have the oval shortened ; at eleven, the second pair of 

 nippers are quite rounded ; and at thirteen, the corner ones have that 

 appearance. At fourteen, the faces of the central nippers become some- 

 what triangular. At seventeen, they are all so. At nineteen, the angles 

 begin to wear off, and the central teeth ai-e again oval, but in a reversed 

 direction, viz. from outward, inward ; and at twenty-one they all wear 

 this form. This is the opinion of some Continental veterinary surgeons, 

 and ]\Ir. Percivall first presented them to us in an English dress. 



It would be folly to expect 

 perfect accuracy at this advanced 

 age of the horse, when we are 

 bound to confess that the rules 

 which we have laid down for 

 detei'mining this matter at an 

 earlier period, although they are 

 recognised by horsemen generally , 

 and referred to in courts of justice, 

 will not guide us in every case. 

 Stabled horses have the mark 

 sooner worn out than those that 

 are at grass ; and a crib-biter 

 may deceive the best judge by 

 one or two years. At nine or ten the bars of the mouth become less pro- 

 minent, and their regular diminution will designate inci'easing age. At 

 eleven or twelve the lower nippers change their original upright direction, 

 and project forward or horizontally, and become of a yellow colour. They 

 are yellow, because the teeth must grow in order to answer to their wear 

 and tear ; but the enamel which covered their surface when they were, 

 first produced cannot be repaired, and that which wears this yellow colour 

 in old age is the part which in youth was in the socket, and therefore des- 

 titute of enamel. The gums have receded and wasted away, and the 

 tushes are worn to stumps, and project directly outward. 



In connection with the age of the horse should be mentioned the valu- 

 able information, for which we are indebted to Professor Simonds, of the 

 Royal Veterinary College, on the age of other domesticated animals — in 

 two lectures delivered before the Royal Agricultural Society of England, 

 and which were published at the request of that body ; he very clearly 

 elucidated the development of the teeth as indicative of the age of the ox, 

 the sheep, and the pig. The result of his investigations, most systemati- 

 cally pursued, would appear to be, that the ox has his teeth fully developed 

 at from three j^ears to three years and nine months old, the sheep at from 

 three years to three years and a half, and the pig at one year and a half. 



