57 



pated — I am not satisfied that any rule drawn from 

 them can be depended upon. For that reason I shall 

 hereafter present the reader with figures of the tables 

 taken from authenticated mouths, rather than amuse 

 him with speculations, which, however imposing they 

 may seem to the ignorant, practice soon discovers to 

 be no more than remote and plausible possibilities. 



3 1 . Some judges depend upon the tushes as indi- 

 cative of the age, and taken in conjunction with 

 the other parts they afford corroborative evidence ; 

 singly, however, they should not be relied upon, nor 

 should too much weight at any time be placed upon 

 their appearance. In the first place, the tushes are 

 cut irregularly ; they may appear in the mouth be- 

 tween the second and third, and they may not 

 pierce the gums so late even as the eighth year ; 

 the periods named being of course the extremes. As 

 a general rule, however, they come up between the 

 fourth and fifth year. The custom, however, which 

 Nature so frequently disregards, can afford no posi- 

 tive guide to the judgment, and the wear which may 

 begin thus early or late, should not be too particularly 

 insisted upon. The tushes when they first show are 



