160 



TEETH. 



tooth, and while the smaller fang is by pressure being also absorbed, the 

 colt receives no consideration at the hands of the groom or of its master. 

 Both are equally ignorant of the necessity for kindness ; but each re- 

 gards any indication of pain as one of those visitations of disease to 

 which young horses are said to be peculiarly liable. 



When the foal has shed the front milk teeth, the entire of the service- 

 able or visible portion of these members is displaced. They are en- 

 dowed with no power to supply any diminution of their substance, 

 neither are they capable of renewal; whereas the long peimanent 

 incisor may be viewed as all tooth, and possessing no fang ; for as the 

 upper portion wears, so does the lower part protrude or supply its place. 

 The two teeth, however, present a strong contrast when considered as 



A MIIK AND A PERMANENT INCISOR TOOTH. 



organs, both occupying one cavity, and both united to fulfill the like uses 

 in the same animal. The illustration last displayed represented a per- 

 manent and a temporary incisor ; the uneven mark dividing the milk 

 tooth indicates the appearance of the organ after the absorption of the 

 fang causes it to be cast from the mouth, while the dotted line shows the 

 shape and the extent of the fang previous to its absorption by pressure. 

 The amount of root natural to the permanent incisors enables those 

 organs, as years increase, to alter their arrangement, length, and direc- 

 tion, without being displaced. In youth, the united front teeth compose 

 a curve, or almost a semicircle. In age, the same members incline 

 toward a straight, or at best form an irregular line. In the colt, the 

 teeth are flat, smooth, and filbert shaped ; but in the old animal, they 

 are decidedly long and angular. When the permanent teeth first appear, 

 they are nearly perpendicular ; but when they have been a long time ex- 

 posed, they protrude almost in the horizontal direction. Looking, from 

 the side, at a young mouth, the spectator can behold half the nippers; 



