DENTITION IN THE PIG. G3 



The angularity of form, sharpness of bones, and grey colour 

 of the hair are not readily hidden, but teeth can be filed and 

 marked, and horns scraped. Making false marks in the teeth 

 is termed ' bishoping,' a practice common amongst horse- 

 copers. Why it should be called bishoping I cannot say, 

 but it strikes me that the name was originally adopted as in- 

 dicating cheating or cunning, for which prelates were long 

 reputed famous. This opinion is strengthened by the follow- 

 ing circumstance: It is not usually known that when a 

 horse is taken to a forge to be shod, that, instead of putting 

 new shoes on, old ones are sometimes placed in the fire, heated 

 and shaped to pass for new. Such shoes have always a red, 

 rusty look, and in Italy are called ' cardinals.' There is 

 evidently connection between the term ' bishop ' and ' car- 

 dinal/ as both are used to designate a fraudulent practice, 

 though, with regard to the last, as applied to old shoes, it is, 

 perhaps, derived from the red colour, which is that of the 

 cardinals' stockings. 



The grey hairs of animals are sometimes painted this is 

 called ' gypping.' In old horses the remarkable depressions 

 behind the orbits are sometimes pricked and blown up with air ; 

 this is called, in horse-coping language, ' puffing the glym.' 



It should be remembered that with animals as with the 

 human subject, a well-authenticated certificate of birth is 

 more reliable than the opinion of a professional man as to 

 age, however experienced he may be, and in the large majo- 

 rity of instances, not liable to be misled. The fraudulent 

 tricks can readily be detected by us, and the cases of most 

 difficulty are those of animals in which the wear of the teeth 

 does not go on regularly, and other signs of age may develop 

 tardily. Just as we see hale, old men of seventy, who are 

 taken for being fifty or little more, so may we see a fresh, old 

 horse at twenty retain a remarkably youthful appearance. 



