264 



THE HOUSE 



tion. If the incisor teeth be rasped off on their 

 posterior edges, the grinders will then meet and lite 

 will be somewhat prolonged. It is humane either to 

 do this or to destroy the animal, rather than to let it 

 die by slow starvation. 



Having given somewhat lengthy and detailed 

 instructions for determining the age of horses by an 

 inspection of their teeth, it will assist materially in 



understanding the 

 instructions if the 

 teeth be studied in 

 a different way. 

 Fig. 78 shows an 

 entire permanent 

 incisor tooth. It 

 will be observed in 

 the left-hand cut, 

 that the face of the 

 tooth has not yet 

 been in wear and 

 that the inside of it 

 is not fully up. The cup is about three -eighths of an 

 inch deep. It is of such a curvature that when the 

 opposite tooth meets it they will come together much 

 as the jaws of an ordinary pair of pincers do, and not 

 like the jaws of a pair of tongs. 



In the second cut from the left is shown the same 

 tooth, the cross line indicating how much of the tooth 

 has been worn away by one year's wear. Nearly or 

 quite one -third and the broadest part of the cup is 

 gone. In the third cut from the left, the cross line 



FlQ. 77. A side view from life of the nippers of 

 an old timer. 



