494 
FORWARD MOUTHS FOR THEIR AGES. 
By J. HORSBURGH, M.R.C. V.S., Dalkeith. 
MEDICAL men and medical works teach us that Nature has 
rules that we by artificial means may alter a little; but she will 
not deviate from her regular course to any great extent. With 
regard to the age of the horse as indicated by the teeth, we are 
taught (and with the exception of a variation of, perhaps, a month 
or two) that horses shed the incisor teeth at two and a half, three 
and a half, and four and a half years old, respectively ; and that 
at four and a half, or before five years of age, the horse has what 
is termed a “ full mouth consequently, every horse with a full 
mouth must be five years old. 
Following this as an unvarying rule, many disputes have arisen, 
and judges following these rules, said to be unvarying, must ne- 
cessarily have been sometimes in error. My motive for writing 
you on this subject is to shew that there are exceptions, as the 
following cases will satisfactorily prove. 
A chestnut filly, by Canteen, was bought at a sale of part of 
His Grace the Duke of Buccleugh’s stud, in 1838, the*i a yearling, 
by Wm. Gray, Esq., Dalhousie Mains. In the spring of the fol- 
lowing year, or when she was said to be two years old, Mr. Gray 
was surprised, on going into the stable, to find she had a fine foal. 
He consulted me as to whether it might do her an injury to suckle 
it, or whether he should destroy it ; but, as the filly seemed very 
fond of it, I advised him to give her an extra allowance of food, 
and suffer her to rear it, which was done, the mother being sold 
to the Duke of Buccleugh’s hunt. Mr. G. now uses the produce 
of the filly as a riding mare. 
When the abovementioned filly was said to be four years old, 
and was intended to be broke, I was employed to give her physic, 
and, to my surprise, found her full-mouthed, the whole of the in- 
cisors being fully grown. This was early in the spring. I told 
Mr. G. that his mare was five years old, and that she must have 
been three tvhen she had the foal. He communicated the case to 
Mr. Marshall, His Grace’s groom, who, on examining his books, and 
from his own perfect knowledge, asserted she was only four years 
old, and also, that, when a year old, she had not been near any 
others but vearlings, consequently she must have been covered 
by a colt of her own age*. This statement, I must say, at the 
* I hereby certify, that a chestnut filly, by Canteen, was sold from His 
Grace the Duke of Buccleugh’s stud, in the year 1838, she being then one 
year old ; that she had a foal at two years old ; that I was applied to, when 
