SYNOPSIS OF CONTINENTAL VETERINARY JOURNALS. 533 
the animals immediately they leave the show grounds,, they 
were followed to the shambles of the butcher. “ What good 
is it/ 5 says M. Laverriere, “ to know that such an animal is 
of such a race, and that it came to the Palais d 5 Industrie 
with a certain weight acquired in a certain time if we ignore 
the practical bearing of all this—what it supplies to the 
consumer, how it is adapted to his taste, &c. ? Do the 
breeder and feeder derive from this any indication for the 
future ? Do they learn whether the animal they pre¬ 
pare with so much trouble fulfils the requirements of the 
consumer ?” Here we find put into words the general 
thought suggested by the exhibition of fat cattle, and it is 
the most interesting outcome of the labours of the author of 
this paper that “ the meat of the most highly fattened prize 
beasts is not liked by the consumer.” 
In a note on the Involution of the Teeth of Bovidce M. 
Sanson announces some observations made on animals at 
Grignon, which confirm the uncontested fact that an abun¬ 
dant and regular diet promotes the rapidity of development 
of the teeth. In six animals of different breeds, with known 
date of birth and replacement of all the incisors, the develop¬ 
ment was completed in four years, the maximum time being 
forty-six months and five days, the minimum forty-one 
months and twenty-one days. From this M. Sanson con¬ 
cludes that it would be better at shows to classify the young 
animals according to the state of their dentition, rather than 
the declarations of age by the exhibitors. The control of 
these declarations is impossible; their correctness is very fre¬ 
quently doubtful, hence result inconveniences, which would 
be avoided by placing in one category all young bovines with 
permanent centrals ; in another with also permanent primary 
intermediates, &c. To this might be reasonably objected 
that it would be inconvenient, as preventing recognition of 
that precocity which the show especially is designed to pro¬ 
mote; but the professor of Grignon thus meets this objec¬ 
tion : ‘It has no value, since the notion of the time which 
has elapsed since birth, compared with the number of teeth 
cut, is not the only measure of this precocity. By examining 
the incisive teeth of any animal of any age it is easy to judge 
whether or no it has developed hastily. In precocious 
subjects the time elapsing between the eruption of the cen¬ 
tral and corner teeth is especially shortened. In ordinary 
cases the interval between the evolution of each pair of teeth 
is prolonged. During that period the pair which has been 
cut is used to a certain degree by friction with the dental pad. 
The enamel which ordinarily invests the tooth thus becomes 
