208 ON THE TEETH OF CATTLE, AS INDICATING THE AGE. 
A new change now takes place : not only is the enamel gradu¬ 
ally more and more worn off, but the two centre teeth will be 
evidently smaller than the others; the face will likewise be 
changed, the inner as well as the outer edge, and more than the 
outer, will seem to be worn down, and the mark will change from 
the appearance of a broad line to a triangular shape ; and at eight 
months, or before that time, the centre teeth will not be above half 
the size of the next pair; and these likewise will be evidently dimi¬ 
nishing. 
At eleven months the four centre teeth will be diminished in 
the same way, and vacuities will be seen between them. 
At fifteen months, the six centre will be thus shrunk ; and at 
eighteen months the eight incisors will present a curious and di¬ 
minutive appearance. The process of diminution having been 
longer established in the centre ones, they will be the smallest of 
the set; but even the corner ones will scarcely retain half their 
original size, and the vacuities between them will almost equal 
the width of the teeth. The faces of the teeth will be length- 
O 
ened with the triangular mark diminishing, but another more or 
less deeply shaded, and principally in the central ones, coming 
around the original mark. 
The process of diminution is now retarded in the other teeth 
and accelerated in the middle ones until the expiration of the 
second year, when they are pushed out and give way to the two 
central permanent incisor teeth : therefore a two-year old steer or 
heifer has the two central permanent incisors coming up, and 
the other six milk teeth remaining. 
At three years old the beast will have four permanent incisors, 
and four milk teeth; but these latter will now be very small, and 
will often scarcely exceed the size of a crow-quill, with a slight 
expansion of the head. 
At four years old there will be six permanent incisors, and 
two shrunk and useless milk teeth, and very frequently pushed 
back by and concealed behind the third incisors. These six 
teeth tolerably developed, and the two shadows of remaining 
milk teeth being thrust behind, probably misled Mr. Parkinson, 
a very respectable agricultural writer, but a wretched practitioner, 
to say that at four years old cattle were full-mouthed. That is 
not the case until the expiration'of the fifth year, when the eight 
permanent incisors are up : even then the corner teeth are small, 
and they do not attain their perfect size, and the beast is not 
properly full-mouthed, until the end of the sixth year. 
In the fourth and fifth years cattle are sometimes strangely an¬ 
noyed by the diminutive milk teeth, which occupy the same 
socket with the others and press upon the gums, and cause con¬ 
siderable inflammation. Thev are now not very firmly fixed, and 
4 / %r * * 
