OF THE TEETH. 43 



however, that a closer examination would detect this judg- 

 ment was not quite in accordance with established signs ; 

 for if the colt were really four years old, the age the 

 breeder intended to make him appear, the middle nippers 

 should have undergone considerable attrition ; the corner 

 temporary teeth would also show the effects of wear ; 

 neither of wdiich appearances would, in the present instance, 

 occur. Further examination into the mouth, in such case, 

 may likewise show, that although the colt or filly has already 

 five grinders, yet that the first of them are of the milk set, 

 and the posterior one only belongs to the permanent or 

 horse set. The difference however is not very easily told 

 between the temporary and permanent grinders, though the 

 size, supposing the animal submits to such an examination 

 as will permit of a careful comparison, is some guide. 



A fraud, comparatively very common, is that of passing 

 off a four-year old for one of five years, particularly w^here 

 the colt is a promising and somewhat early one. This 

 however is only a fraud inasmuch as the seller passes off a 

 colt for that which it is not. When however the teeth say 

 five, other developments generally declare the same, and a 

 year of youth and actual service is a positive gain to the 

 purchaser. The idea that dealers can hasten the growth 

 of the permanent teeth by punching out or drawing the 

 temporary ones is now wholly disbelieved in. A man may 

 retard, but he cannot hasten growth by cruelty ; the more 

 any animal suffers the less it grows. 



We now have to speak of positive deceptions practised 

 on the teeth of the horse : thus, wlien a dealer becomes 

 possessed of a horse whose teeth bear more actual marks 

 of age than either his limbs or spirit, it is an object worthy 

 his attention to give such teeth a more youthful appearance. 

 The principal part of this art consists in the operation 

 called bishoping (supposed to be derived from a man of 

 that name, one of its earliest or most expert practitioners), 

 which consists in the making an artificial cavity in the 

 upper surface of the nippers, by means of a sharp hard 

 tool, and rendering the cavity permanently black with a 

 heated pointed instrument : but the strokes of the graver 

 detect the imposition, and the two inner grooves of the 



