60 



ever, must not be converted into an assertion ; for in 

 some instances the wolf's teeth are retained, and, 

 in a few heads, will remain after the horse has 

 reached an age far beyond that of colthood : their 

 presence, therefore, rather leads our expectations 

 than confirms our judgment. 



33. The mode in which the horse cuts his teeth 

 remains to be pointed out. It is generally said, that 

 the tooth, originally growing in its circumscribed 

 cavity, pushes its way through the parts which 

 oppose its entrance into the mouth. So mechanical 

 an idea is characterized by a small amount of physi- 

 ological knowledge, and it is time the notions which 

 attributed development to mere force were discarded. 

 The tooth is first a pulpy mass, very soft and highly 

 vascular ; the superior part, or that part which pri- 

 marily shows itself above the gum, is the first to 

 become consolidated. Enamel and ivory are there 

 simultaneously deposited, and gradually these extend 

 towards the fang. When a portion of the fang is 

 completed, and the time has arrived for the tooth to 

 be cut, those structures which oppose the egress of 

 the tooth are absorbed ; the absorption taking place. 



