22 



ELEMENTS OF HIPPOLOGY. 



The back teeth, molars, are 

 six in number on each side of 

 each jaw; those in the lower jaw 

 are'shown in Figure 10. 



In addition to these twenty- 

 four molars, another molar some- 

 times appears in front of the 

 others, more often in the upper 

 jaw than the lower, and rarely in 

 both jaws. These molars are ru- 

 dimentary and usually tempo- 

 rary, appearing before the colt is 

 a year old and usually disappear- 

 ing before he is three. They 

 sometimes remain indefinitely. 

 These teeth are usually called 

 wolf's teeth, but are sometimes 

 called blind teeth, from a fan- 

 cied influence on the horse's sight. 



The molars are difficult to 

 examine on account of their loca- 

 tion, and their usefulness as evi- 

 dence as to age ceases at live, 

 when all the temporary ones 



„ ,„ rn T T have been replaced by perman- 



FiGUBE 10. — The Lower J AW- . , ,i i. j. u 



Bo'nbin Plan, Showing Teeth .ent teeth, whose aspect changes 



slowly. 



The changes in the other teeth are quite regular up to that 

 age. For this reason, inspection of the molars to determine age 

 is rarely resorted to. 



The inspection of the incisors, the twelve teeth in the an- 

 terior portion of the horse's jaw, is the usual means employed to 

 approximate the age of horses. In inspecting them, the fol- 

 lowing details are examined: 



First: Whether they are temporary or permanent. 



The common names for the incisors, naming them each way 

 from the middle of the jaw, are center, intermediate, and 

 corner. Digitized by Microsoft® 



