C INTRODUCTION. 



The teeth of the ox consist only of two kinds, namely, the 

 sharp-edged, or incisors, which perform the office of cutting 

 the substances presented to them, in the manner of shears 

 or chisels, and the molar teeth, which are situated farther 

 back in the jaw, and are designed for grinding or bruising. 

 In the ox, there are 8 incisors in the lower jaw, and none 

 opposite in the upper. In place of incisors in the upper jaw, 

 there is a kind of cartilaginous pad, against which the incisor 

 teeth press in the act of dividing the food ; and it is by means 

 of the incisors and this pad, that the ox partly cuts and partly 

 tears the herbage plants on the ground. He has 8 incisors, 

 then, in the lower jaw, and 6 molars in the upper jaw, and 6 

 in the lower, on each side, in all 32 teeth, disposed thus : 



Molar. Canine. Incisors. Canine. Molar. 

 Upper jaw, .6 6 



Under jaw, .6 8 6 



The Ox, like most of the ruminating tribes, is furnished 

 with horns, which are the weapons of defence given to him. 

 In certain cases, under the influence of domestication, the 

 horns disappear, yet even then the animal instinctively strikes 

 with his forehead, which, in the absence of horns, is strength- 

 ened by a greater expansion of the frontal bones. In other 

 cases, the horns become short and lose their sharpness, or 

 even assume a direction which unfits them for inflicting 

 wounds, as in the following figure of a Bull of the Long- 

 horned Dishley Breed. 



Fig. 11. 



