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is very small. After the sixteenth year, all is con- 

 fusion, and there remains no sign which could 

 warrant any person in pretending he could pro- 

 nounce the age by the teeth. It is true that certain 

 tokens may induce a conviction that an animal is 

 much older than sixteen, and this conviction may be 

 so justified as to amount almost to a certainty ; but 

 no man, I imagine, could form any opinion with 

 regard to the number of years by which a horse 

 exceeded sixteen, or pronounce a decision that 

 should have any appearance of exactitude. They 

 who pretend to an ability of this kind, may, in a 

 few solitary instances, strike the point ; but repeated 

 failures will show that there is no positive principle 

 in operation to guide the judgment. Indeed the age 

 is most correctly told during the periods of dentition, 

 and up to the sixth year. After the sixth year, the 

 certainty is not so great, but a very fair, if not a 

 positive judgment can be pronounced until the 

 eighth year is accomplished. After the eighth year, 

 no man should give an unqualified opinion con- 

 cerning the age of a horse. After the twelfth, 

 whatever may be pronounced should be oflfered only 

 as a conjecture ; and, after the sixteenth, the practi- 



