386 Dentition as indicative of the ^ge 
indications of age, only second in value to positive proof of the 
date of the animal's birth. 
How far the cultivation of breeds by artificial selection and 
high feeding has influenced the development of the teeth in 
common with other organs connected with nutritive functions can 
only be inferred from the great difference which exists between 
the accounts of the older veterinary writers on dentition of 
animals, and the facts which are familiar to the few experts 
of this generation who have taken the trouble to investigate the 
subject for themselves. 
In this country the most popular writer on veterinary science 
was Mr. Youatt, whose works on the horse, ox, sheep, and 
pig were published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful 
Knowledge. Youatt's remarks on the teeth are copied almost 
verbatim from M. Girard's work on dentition ; and it may be 
without hesitation asserted, that if Girard's description of the 
teeth of the ox, sheep, and pig were correct at the time when 
they were written, an improved system of breeding and feed- 
ing must have occasioned a very remarkable change in the 
rate of development of the teeth. In the year 1850 I com- 
menced some investigations on the animals which were bred 
on the Royal Agricultural College Farm, for the common 
purposes of supplying milk and meat, and not specially for 
purposes of exhibition. The cattle on the farm were chiefly 
Shorthorns, the sheep were Cotswolds, and the pigs Berkshire, 
and none of the animals were at that time referred to as pedigree 
stock, nor were they fed on the forcing system. The obser- 
vations of the first few months of 1850 sufficed to establish the 
fact that the teeth of cattle, sheep, and swine were developed at 
much earlier periods than those which were stated in Youatt's 
remarks, copied from Girard. 
From the animals on the College Farm the inquiry was 
extended to Mr. Stratton's valuable stock, near Swindon ; and 
to Mr. Kearsey's ram flock at Rodmarten. Among the more 
highly cultivated animals on these farms the process of dentition 
was not found to be more forward than among the stock on 
the College Farm ; and it is not generally more forward at the 
present time, after an intervening period of over thirty years of 
high feeding and careful breeding, in the improved races of 
cattle, sheep, and swine than it was then. 
The contention of exhibitors is that exceptional develop- 
ment is so frequent during dentition as to disturb any calcu- 
lations which are based on a rule. In reply it may be stated 
that the most competent observers do not accept that view. 
On the contrary, they arc aware that the alleged exceptions do 
not often bear a critical investigation. Numerous inquiries 
