72 STABLE MANUAL AND HORSE DOCTOR 



part of the body stare out, and ^ive a rigidity of appearance 

 which well accords with the actual state of the body. So 

 much greater is the absorption of parts now than their 

 increase, that even the diseased deposits of more youthful 

 times, as windgalls and bony exostoses, are lessened or 

 disappear altogether ; the mouth likewise will present 

 some appearance beyond these noted by the French writers. 

 The incisors are sloped outwards and project, the upper 

 corner one is often sawed in two parts by the action of the 

 lower, which, in turn, loses its outer edge by the wear ; 

 the whole of the teeth become yellow and stand wide apart 

 at the roots, which are gradually being thrust up out of 

 the jaw by the filling up of the alveolar cavities with bony 

 deposit. 



It is an absurd piece of pedantry, as every horseman 

 knows, to date the decay of a horse from his becoming 

 " aged " in professional phrase. At seven and eight he is in 

 his full bloom of his strength and fully matured powers, 

 and, but for inordinate or premature hard work, is at a 

 point of perfection which will last in full vigour for a 

 period corresponding with the more extended manhood of 

 the human being. A short parallel will elucidate our 

 meaning, and show the error of allowing the idea of eight 

 years as fixing the period of decay in the horse. 



Blaine is here our authority : ** A very considerable 

 attention to the subject, over a wide field of observation, 

 has impressed the writer with the propriety of drawing the 

 following comparison between the ages of horses and men ; 

 that is, at these several periods of comparison, the 

 constitution of horses and men may be considered as in an 

 equal degree of perfection and capability for exertion, or of 

 debility and decay, according as youth or age preponderates. 

 Thus, the first five years of a horse may be considered as 

 equivalent to the first twenty years of a man ; or thus, a 

 horse of five years may be comparatively considered as old 

 as a man of twenty ; a horse of ten years, as a man of 

 forty ; a horse of fifteen, as a man of fifty ; a horse of 

 twenty, as a man of sixty ; of twenty-five, as a man of 

 seventy ; of thirty, as a man of eighty ; and of thirty- 

 five, as a man of ninety. So far from this comparison 

 being too much in favour of the horse, we are disposed to 

 think it too little so. Horses of thirty-five years of age 

 are as common as men of ninety, provided it be taken into 



