334 On the Teeth of the Ox, Sheep, and Pi(j, 
By the preceding tabular arrangement it will be seen that, as 
a rule, even under unfavourable circumstances, the dentition of 
the ox is completed before the fourth year of his age ; a fact 
which contrasts greatly with the statements of all our authors, as 
also with the opinions that are generally entertained by breeders 
of cattle. The author of the work on the Management and 
Diseases of Cattle, which has been before alluded to, thus wi'ites : 
— " At the commencement of the fifth year the eight permanent 
incisors will be up, but the corner ones will be small ; so that 
the beast cannot be said to be ^full mouthed' — i. e., all the 
incisors up — until it is six years old." 
On the present occasion I shall make no attempt to reconcile 
these conflicting statements with the conclusions to which I have 
arrived. It is necessary, liowever, to remark in this place that 
although the examples of both early and late dentition are 
selected from among our improved breeds of oxen, still the 
results of the examinations have been confirmed by the investi- 
gations of the ages of other breeds. In proof of this I may 
observe tliat the Sussex cattle which were exhibited in large 
numbers at the Lewes meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society 
were not found to offer more exceptions to the rules laid down 
than either the Short-horns, Herefords, or Devons. The same 
may be said of our other ?mimproved breeds. 
Among anomalies met with in the teething of oxen, the cutting 
of one tooth of a given pair, 4 or 5 weeks before the other, is 
the most frequent. The tooth thus put up out of regular order 
is likely to lead to an error with reference to the animal's age. 
My own observations go to show that in most instances it is a 
premature cutting of the one, and not a delay in the coming up of 
the other tooth, which produces the anomaly. I have noticed that 
this irregularity occurs far more frequently in the third and 
fourth pairs than in either the first or second. An example of 
this abnormal number is given in fig. 21, where we also find a 
persistency of the temporary incisors, which sometimes pro- 
duces an impairment in the collection of the food. These things, 
however, having been already explained, I pass on to the denti- 
tion of Sheep. 
DENTITION OF THE SHEEP. 
The lamb is usually born before any of the temporary teeth — 
incisors or molars — have penetrated the gums. In the calf some 
of the incisors are commonly cut at birth, as has been already 
explained ; and, as we shall see hereafter, the young pig inva- 
