DEFECTS. 101 



DEFECTS TO BE DETECTED IN THE AGE AND EYES. 



As to the age of horses, we would observe, that the 

 number of years which the animal has lived is indicated, 

 up to his seventh year, by marks in the teeth of both jaws, 

 but principally of the lower jaw, wliich vary every year 

 until the eighth, when they become obliterated ; they are 

 difficult to learn, and impossible to explain without the 

 aid of diagrams, which will be furnished in this chapter, 

 with more minute directions for ascertaining the age. 

 There is a system of jockey rascality by which false marks 

 are forged on the teeth of aged horses, making them to ap- 

 pear to be six or seven years old, which may deceive, and 

 often do deceive, novices, but are thrown away on judges 

 and old hands. This system is called Bishoping^ and is 

 executed by the use of a file and the usual cautery. There 

 are, however, some signs of extreme age in the horse 

 which can easily be recognized by any one, some of which 

 are infallible. One of these is the fact that in a young 

 horse the crown of the tooth is oblong or rather obovate 

 in form, lengthwise^ or in the line of the jaw-bone : but 

 that in very old horses the crowns change their shape and 

 become oblong or obovate across the jaw-bone. When, 

 therefore, the tooth has assumed this form, or has even 

 become much modified from the longitudinal shape, it 

 is certain that the horse is too old to be a desirable acqui- 

 sition. A second sign is the length of the teeth from the 

 root to the crown, and their angular protrusion like those 

 of the hare or rabbit; in both which particulars the in- 

 crease is regular with the increase of age. Indeed, the 

 degree of this protrusion is said to be so certain and in- 

 fallible, that a machine has been invented by the French 

 veterinarians for measuring the angle of protrusion, by 

 which it is alleged that the exact age can be ascertained 

 up to any known period of equine life. Without under- 



