TEETH. 



153 



ture's mode of declaring the duration of existence by signs and attri- 

 butes ; man, who in his impatience refuses to reckon age by those func- 

 tions which the body has perfected or which it has to mature — man 

 seizes upon the imperfect being, as a creature fitted for the accomplish- 

 ment of any kind of labor. There are, at five, no more bothering teeth 

 to cut. All are through the bone, and the mouth will soon be sound. 

 The animal must be in its prime, and the longest day or the hardest run 

 should not beat it to a stand-still. Therefore, show off your horseman- 

 ship. Mount, trot, prance, gallop, and leap, as you please. Everybody 

 says the horse at this time is in its prime. Tear on to plowed fields. 



FIVE-TEAR OLD. 



One npper comer permanent incisor has been cut. The lower corner milk incisor is still retained. 



Whip the brute over the widest ditch. Dig your spurs into the flanks 

 and take the stiffest hedge. The laboring beast may breathe a little 

 hard or possibly may reel : but, so the quadruped does the performance, 

 and is scarcely alive after it is accomplished — the owner can hail his 

 five-year old as a seasoned horse ! 



Were the writer to pursue this line of observation from year to year, 

 the features becoming more minute as time progresses, the investigation 

 might ultimately grow wearisome. As age increases, so do the bones 

 contract, till absorption at length commences : or at thirty years all the 

 appearances of strength, which were conspicuous, will have entirely van- 

 ished in the domesticated quadruped that has been subjected to hot 

 stables and hard food. The jaw no longer seems endowed with greater- 

 bulk than is needed for the discharge of its function. It has become 

 comparatively thin, and where it once was wide, it is now narrowed 



