256 TEKTH. 



615, — Soon after four years old a tusk, or round pointed 

 tooth, will be coming through the gums, at some distinct 

 distance behind the nippers. These do not often appear in the 

 mare, 



616. — At five years old the six nippers will be complete, and 

 nearly level. The centre ones nearly smooth on the top, but 

 the outside ones with depressed, dark centres, and high, sharp, 

 outside edges. 



617. — These sharp edges on the outside, with holes in the 

 centre of the teeth, will wear out fast, so that at six years old 

 they will be gone from the two centre nippers, and nearly gone 

 from the next pair. 



618. — At seven years old all the nippers in the lower jaw 

 will be smooth and level on the top, or perhaps a slight depression 

 in the outside pair only. 



619. — We will now leave the lower jaw, and consult the top 

 one, because here the teeth do not wear so fast as in the moving- 

 lower jaw, so that at seven years old there are often marks and 

 depressions left in four of the upper nippers ; and at eight years 

 old the two outside ones may still l)e expected to carry a small 

 hole and distinct mark. 



620. — After this we must be guided by a slower and less 

 definite change, that is always goiug on with the horse's teeth. 

 "When the nippers first appear they are wide across the mouth, 

 and narrow from back to front. Bat they continually increase in 

 thickness in the latter direction, so as to entirely alter their shape, 

 and eventually to reverse the position of the long and short 

 sides. 



At about fourteen years old they will be as thick in one 

 direction as in the other, and at twice that age they will be 

 nearly double the length, from front to back that they are across 

 the mouth. 



(521. — There is a constant alteration going on with the 

 tusks, although it is not so regular and definite as the early 

 changes in the nippers. 



When the horse is five years old, the tusk is sharp at the 

 point, round on the outside, and quite concave on the inside, 



