FORWARD MOUTHS FOR THEIR AGES. 
495 
time I did not think correct. There might have been some mis- 
take in the books. The mare, thought I, must be five years old, 
notwithstanding all the assertions made to the contrary. 
I have now good reason to alter that opinion. About the end 
of the year (1845) I examined an entire colt, Young Excepton, 
the property of Mr. Thomas Cossar, of this place. He has tra- 
velled hereabouts this season as a stallion. His sire, Excepton, 
who also belongs to Mr. C., gained the Highland Society’s pre- 
mium of £50 at Edinburgh, in 1843. His pedigree I inclose : — 
This colt I found had shed his four corner incisors ; the young 
teeth were well up, exactly what I should have expected in a colt 
four-and-a-half years old. I have examined him often since, and find 
that his mouth presents all the characters of a five-year-old. He 
has never been out of Mr. Cossar’s possession, he having brought 
him up purposely for a stallion. He was foaled about the end of 
May 1842. 
I examined a chestnut colt, half brother to the above, on the 
16th Dec. 1845, for insurance. He belongs to Mr. Wm. Scott, 
flesher, Pathead (about six miles distant from this), by whom he 
was bred, and in whose possession he now remains : his corner 
incisors were just shedding then. I examined him a few days 
ago for the* purpose of writing this, and found them fully up. 
The tushes are about half an inch long. Indeed, he possesses 
such a mouth as would have removed all hesitation at one time 
from me of giving a certificate that it belonged to a five-years-old 
horse. Mr. S. tells me he was foaled on the 14th May, 1842. 
I am sorry I cannot give you the appearances of his mouth at an 
earlier age. I have no doubt, had it been looked to, the change in 
the other teeth would have been observed equally early. I am not 
aware that there are any cases of this kind on record, and shall be 
glad to hear that, in future, more attention is paid to such cases. 
she was four years old, by Mr. Gray, who told me that Mr. Horsburgh, ve- 
terinary surgeon, said she was then five years old; that I examined my book, 
wherein a correct registry is kept, and from that, as well as from my own 
certain knowledge, found she was then only four years old, she having been 
foaled in the month of May. 
Dalkeith Palace , 
July 21, 1846. 
(Signed) 
M. Marshall. 
