47 



becomes a horse. The recollection of their tempo- 

 rary character will cause them to be the more easily 

 distinguished : they look less solid and less firm ; 

 they are smaller, more white, and if ideas of beauty 

 and sentiment befit such a subject, have a prettier 

 and more innocent appearance. This is perfectly 

 true as a general rule, but nevertheless must not be 

 absolutely applied ; for I have seen rare instances in 

 which the milk teeth were, from constitutional or 

 other causes, so discoloured, as altogether to lose 

 their infantine and prepossessing character — the per- 

 manent incisors appearing cleanly by the contrast. 

 On account of so singular a circumstance occasionally 

 happening, if for no stronger reason, it is imperative 

 therefore, even at the risk of being tedious, to enter 

 minutely into this part of the subject. In colour 

 these teeth are white, because the coating of crusta 

 petrosa which originally invests them is particularly 

 thin, and soon, for the most part, disappears, ex- 

 posing the enamel ; their crowns are shorter, and the 

 neck is well developed, because their fangs are nar- 

 row and of less length. In the annexed wood-cut, 

 for the purpose of making the dissimilarity the more 

 conspicuous, a temporary and a permanent incisor 



