MITCHELL- — BREEDER G AND REARING OF HORSES. 99 
of working stock, of Horses and Males for farming and 
other operations. 
It will save both time and argument to start at once with 
the opinion of Mayhew, whose experience may be taken as 
representing pretty fairly the present state of veterinary 
science on this important topic. He asserts on physiologi- 
cal grounds which are fully borne out by the statements of 
the soundest writers of the old school, such as Percival 
White, Nimrod, by Carson and Youatt among moderns, 
and by the latest French authorities “ that the eager spirit 
i( of gambling which keeps up the two-year-old stakes, has 
11 done more than anything else to ruin the once famous 
11 breed of English horses, because the speed exacted from 
41 an immature animal and the severity of training impede 
“ the development of the frame and originate chronic affec- 
4 1 tions which are either incurable or take years of repose to 
11 efface.” It is unnecessary to enter into the arguments 
adduced in support of this statement, as every candid mind 
must admit the physiological facts on which they are based, 
to the most important of which your attention will be occa- 
sionally directed in the course of these remarks. I shall 
proceed then to state with regard to the horse’s growth, that 
his permanent teeth which have been gradually replacing 
the milk set, are not fully formed till the animal has com- 
pleted his fifth year ; up to that period their presence is a 
constantly recurring source of irritation not unattended with 
danger ; even when fully formed, these teeth only mark the 
age of adolescence which precedes that in which any animal 
can be fairly called upon to exert his expected powers. He 
is as far from being full-grown and capable of full endur- 
ance as the boy whose milk teeth have been just replaced 
by the permanent set. Common observation shows that the 
