DISEASES OF THE TEETH AND MOUTH. 263 



The colt's nippers are not set in the jaw-bones, as a great 

 many suppose they are, but rest upon them in a sort of sad- 

 dle-fashion, and are attached to the jaw by a bony adhesion, 

 having a small, shallow socket, but no appearance of fangs 

 or roots, like the permanent teeth. This setting, however, 

 is sufficiently firm for all the purposes that Mature intended 

 the colt to use the teeth for, embracing scarcely any thing 

 more than the procuring of such food as grass, hay, oats, 

 and other provender easily masticated. But hard food, such 

 as corn, especially when it is fed in the ear, does very ma- 

 terially injure his teeth. The great strain to which its 

 mastication subjects them is exceedingly liable to produce 

 soreness and inflammation that, in turn, often become the 

 exciting causes of other forms of disease, especially of those 

 whose seat is in the head. 



SHEDDING. 



Closely connected with teething, and, in the beginning, 

 coincident with the latter stages of that operation, is the 

 process of shedding, which is the replacement of the milk 

 by the permanent teeth. The first set of teeth do not come 

 out, and the lacerated gums then heal over, as is the case 

 with children, but the second tooth comes up immediately 

 under the first one, and lifts it entirely out of the gums. 

 What is still more remarkable, while this is going on, the 

 under part of the milk tooth .is being gradually ground or 

 worn ofl:*, and its substance absorbed by the surrounding 

 parts, so that there is but a small portion of it left by the 

 time the permanent tooth reaches the top of the gums. As 

 the under tooth comes up from its bed in the jaw, the gums, 

 being lifted up with it, retain their hold upon the other un- 

 til the second is near enough through to subserve the needs 

 of the animal in eating ; then, all at once, the gums peel ofl:' 

 from the upper tooth, which drops out, and they now sink 

 down around the new one ; their swelling and soreness sub- 

 side, and all is right in the mouth again. 



For a considerable time previous to their removal, the po* 



