536 
XletoieU). 
Quid sit pulchrum, quid turpe, quid utile, quid non.—H or. 
Traite de VAge du vAL, par feu N, F. Girard, &c. 
[Continued from p. 4/6], 
For the use of those of our readers who may possess the first 
edition of this excellent and generally accurate work, we 
translate the recapitulation of the signs of the dog’s age, as de¬ 
pendent on the teeth, given by M. Girard, sen. 
** Dogs are born with their eyes closed, which they open from 
the tenth to the fifteenth day after their birth. They usually 
have all their milk teeth, or, in case of the contrary, these pro¬ 
trude through the gums in a very short time afterwards. From 
two to four months the central, and often the next pair of the 
incisor teeth, fall. In a varying space, according to the kind of 
dog, and between the fifth and eighth month, the animal has all 
his adult teeth, and his mouth is full. 
At one-year old the teeth have all a peculiarly fresh and 
white appearance; the incisors, and the canine teeth or tushes, 
are especially neat and perfect; the membrane of the mouth is 
of a rose-colour; the muzzle is sharp. 
At fifteen months the inferior central incisors begin to be 
worn, but the mouth has all its freshness ; the tushes and the 
incisors are perfectly white. 
From eighteen months to two years the wearing of the inferior 
central incisors is complete, and the next pair begin to be 
changed. 
From two to three years and a half the fleur-de-lys of the 
second pair of incisors is effaced ; the superior incisors begin to 
be worn; the mouth has lost much of its freshness ; there is a 
sensible alteration in the incisors, and the tushes begin to be 
rounded and to have a tarnished appearance. 
From three and a half to four years the wearing of the central 
incisor teeth of the upper jaw is complete; the teeth become of 
a dirty-white colour, and, perhaps, the tushes are beginning to 
be yellow. 
From four to five years the wearing of the second pair of in¬ 
cisors in the upper jaw is complete. At this period also, great 
dogs, who have many bones to gnaw, have all the incisors 
rounded, and more or less altered. 
After five years, an inspection of the teeth furnish exceedingly 
vague indications of the age, and so variable, that it would be 
presumptuous to speak with any degree of positivity. The only 
means of judging of the age, when it does not much exceed five 
