THE TEETH. 265 



cavity in the corner nippers, which is afterwards burnt with a hot 

 iron until it is quite black. It is extremely easy to detect the 

 imposition by carefully comparing the corner nippers with the next, 

 when it will be seen that there is no gradation from the centre to 

 the corner nippers, but that the four middle ones arc exactly alike, 

 while the corners present a large black cavity, without a distinct 

 white edge to it, the dentine being generally encroached upon with- 

 out any regularity in the concentric rings. Moreover, on com- 

 paring the lower with the upper nippers, unless the operator has 

 performed on the latter also, they will be found to be considerably 

 more' worn than the lower, the reverse of which ought naturally to 

 be the ease. Occasionally a clever operator will burn all the teeth 

 to a properly regulated depth, and then a practised eye alone will 

 detect the imposition. In the present day there is not so great a 

 demand for six-year-old horses as was formerly the case, and pur- 

 chasers are contented with a nine or ten-year-old mouth if the legs 

 and constitution are fresh. Hence bishoping is seldom attempted 

 excepting with horses beyond the age of eleven or twelve ; and the 

 mere use of the burning-iron without cutting off the teeth will 

 seldom answer the purposes of the " coper." Formerly it was very 

 common to see mouths with the corner nippers burnt to show a 

 " good mark," and nothing else done to them; but, for the reasons 

 given above, the plan is now almost entirely abandoned. 



Irregularities in the growth of teeth are by no means un- 

 common in the horse, often caused by the practice of punching 

 out the milk teeth to hasten the growth of the permanent set. 

 Instead of having this effect, however, the teeth are induced to 

 take a wrong direction, and not meeting their fellows they do not 

 wear down as they naturally should. In punching out the corner 

 nipper it is very often broken off, and the fang is allowed to remain 

 in the socket. The consequence is that the picking up of the food 

 does not hasten the removal of the fang of the milk tooth, and in- 

 stead of accelerating the growth of the permanent tooth in the 

 natural position, it retards it and sometimes drives it to seek a 

 passage through the gums behind its proper socket. Here, not 

 meeting the corresponding nipper of the upper jaw, it grows like 

 a tush, and has sometimes been mistaken for a second tooth of that 

 kind. Some horses are naturally formed with "pig jaws" — that 

 is to say, with the upper longer than the lower — and in these cases 

 the whole set of teeth grow to a great length, and interfere with 

 the prehension of the food. 



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