of the Animals of the Farm. 



31 



trace remaining. The small circles in the tables of the teeth 

 merely indicate the apex of the inverted cone in which the 

 infundibulum originally existed, and any good observer looking 

 at the two mouths would decide that " Kremlin " was older than 

 " Epirus." It is, however, quite certain that both horses were 

 of the same ao-e, and both of them much older than the teeth 

 indicated them to be. 



A method of judging the age of the horse up to thirty years, 

 by noting the length of a groove in the upper corner incisors, is 

 referred to by Mr. Sidney Galvayne in his pamphlet on horse 

 dentition. The groove to which Mr. Galvayne attaches so much 

 importance is really a groove in the fang of the upper corner 



Fig. 22. — (a) Groove at the side of the upjjer corner Incisor at teu 



years of age. 



incisors. It is not seen until the horse has reached the age ot 

 ten years, by which time the alveolar cavity has become shallow, 

 the tooth has grown in length in proportion to the wear, and 

 a portion of the fang — with the lateral groove — is exposed. 

 This appearance is shown in the above illustration (Fig. 22) from 

 Mr. Galvayne's book. 



According to the author, eleven years elapse before the 

 lateral groove extends to the bottom of the tooth, and the age 

 is to be judged during that time by the extension of the groove 

 year by year. As the incisor is worn the fang grows longer, 

 and the walls of the alveolar cavity are absorbed. 



It is evident that the extension of the groove year by year 



^n 



