46 OF THE TEETH. 



even these venerables were mere babies to the barge-horse 

 of the Mersey and Irwell Navigation, who was well known 

 to have been in his sixty- second year when he died. 



It is true, that these are not very common instances ; 

 yet it is not the natural economy of the animal which makes 

 them so rare, but their early application to full exertion, 

 and the unremitting continuance of it, whereby their race 

 has begun frequently before they are three years old ; before 

 five, their utmost speed is exerted after the hounds in 

 winter, and as hackneys against time in the summer ; at 

 seven, blind, foundered, and spavined, they gallantly shine 

 in the mail or stage ; at eight, they falter in the fish cart ; 

 and, before ten, worn out with disease and inanition, their 

 reputed old age gains them an honourable exit at the 

 slaughter-house. 



Hence it must be at once evident how small a propor- 

 tion of a horse's natural life is eight years ; and yet this 

 past, the majority of persons begin to consider him as aged, 

 and unfit for service. The more we see and observe of 

 horses, the more we shall be astonished at the want of 

 attention and consideration this evinces. A long acquaint- 

 ance with these animals has induced us to draw the 

 following comparisons between their ages and that of man ; 

 that is, at these several periods of comparison, the consti- 

 tution of horses and man may be considered as in an equal 

 degree of perfection and capability for exertion. Thus, 

 the first five years of a horse may be considered as equiva- 

 lent to the first twenty years of a man ; or thus, that a 

 horse of five years may be comparatively considered as old 

 as a man of twenty ; a horse of ten years, as a man of 

 fort}'^ ; a horse of fifteen, as a man of fifty ; a horse of 

 twenty, as a man of sixty ; of twenty-five, as a man of 

 seventy ; of thirty, as a man of eighty ; and of thirty- 

 five, as a man of ninety. So far from this comparison 

 being too much in favour of the horse, we are disposed 

 to think it too little. Horses of thirty-five years of age 

 are as common as men of ninety, provided it be taken 

 into the account that there are twenty human subjects for 

 every horse ; and, unquestionably, a horse of forty-five is 

 less rare than a man of a hundred and ten. 



