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selves deceived ; and consequently every purchaser 

 should take the precaution pointed out, no matter 

 whence, or from w^hom, he may be buying a horse. 

 Were all to act in the way indicated, much law 

 would be spared, and a great deal of anger allowed 

 to slumber. The dealers are not the rogues the en- 

 lightened public are fond of believing — many among 

 them are as honourable as all men should be — 

 some of the class, however, never let a horse escape 

 out of their hands unmutilated. The teeth invariably 

 receive the primary attention : if long, they are, by 

 the application of a file, reduced to the length which 

 the self-taught equine dentist supposes proper to 

 youth. An acid is also applied to the enamelled 

 surface, in order to render it white. No vast good 

 is effected, but if the means were not designed to 

 impose, no great harm would perhaps be done. The 

 acid is not allowed to corrode the tooth, and the 

 diminution of the length may possibly in some 

 degree benefit the animal. The welfare of the crea- 

 ture, however, is not the object sought — the hope is 

 to cheat ; but no person who ought to be trusted, or 

 even to trust himself to purchase a horse, should be 

 so imposed upon. Whiteness is no sign of youth in 



