SPAI^ISH HORSES AXD MULES— AXCIEXTS. 215 



gums, as also on hollowness of back. I have seen colts 

 — got ly aged stallions — having all these indications 

 of age before they had a full mouth ; and with cavities 

 and hollow backs before they had got colt's teeth." 



Suri^eon Brandt, who thinks shape indicates age as well after 

 the eiglith year as marks do before, says (" Age of Horses ") : — 

 " Some breeds, the Spanish for instance, require a longer time 

 to develop than others. The bones appear to be harder, the 

 teeth change somewhat later, and wear more slowly ; some- 

 times, after the fifth year, they appear one or two years younger 

 than they are. The age of crib-biters can be told by the corner 



teeth, "wllirh nre Sftlrlnm inini'ftd Slionlrl tliia 1^*» ±lifi <^asis. lanur 



Pliny did not compile Yarro (B. C. 116) and 

 Columella (A. D. 42) carefully. Varro (Book IL, 

 Cap. YII.) says : "It is by the teeth that they find 

 out the age of a horse." He then describes the 

 shedding of the teeth, concluding as follows : "Others 

 grow in their place, which, hollow at first, fill up in 

 the sixth year," etc. The error about the cavities 

 filling up stands to this day. Unlike the pulp cavi- 

 ties, they are not filled by nature with tooth ma- 

 terial ; they are obliterated by wear. Crlumella 

 (Book VI., Cap. XXIX.) not only describes the 

 marks, but the shedding of the molars also. In 

 Latin he says : " Intra sextum deinde annum, molares 

 super lores cadunt.'" So the error of Aristotle about 

 the non-shedding of the molars did not stand till 

 the sixteenth century. (See page 69.) Palladius 

 (about A. D. 400) and Vegetius (about the same 

 time) describe both the marks and the shedding of 

 the molars. Yegetius speaks of the wrinkles in the 

 upper lip, the number of wrinkles indicating the 



