The period at which it commences is uncertain. It may, as a rule, be said that a babe begins to cut his teeth at seven months old. Some have cut teeth at three months; indeed, there are instances on record of infants having been born with teeth. King Richard the Third is said to have been an example. Shakspeare notices it thus:-- "YORK.--Marry, they say my uncle grew so fast, That he could gnaw a crust at two hours old. 'Twas full two years ere I could get a tooth, Grandam, this would have been a biting jest." When a babe is born with teeth, they generally drop out. On the other hand, teething, in some children does not commence until they are a year and a half or two years old, and, in rare cases, not until they are three years old. There are cases recorded of adults who have never cut any teeth. An instance of the kind came under my own observation. Dentition has been known to occur in old age. A case is recorded by M. Carre, in the _Gazette Medicale de Paris_ (Sept 15, 1860), of an old lady, aged eighty-five, who cut several teeth after attaining that age! 59. _What is the number of the FIRST set of teeth, and in what order do they generally appear_? The first or temporary set consists of twenty. The first set of teeth are usually cut in pairs. "I may say that nearly invariably the order is--1st, the lower front incissors [cutting teeth], then the upper front, then the _upper_ two lateral incissors, and that not uncommonly a double tooth is cut before the two _lower_ laterals; but at all events the lower laterals come 7th and 8th, and, not 5th and 6th, as nearly all books on the subject testify." [Footnote: Sir Charles Locock in a _Letter_ to the Author.] Then the first grinders, in the lower jaw, afterwards the first upper grinders, then the lower corner-pointed or canine teeth, after which the upper corner or eye-teeth, then the second grinders in the lower jaw, and lastly, the second grinders of the upper jaw. They do not, of course, always appear in this rotation. Nothing is more uncertain than the order of teething. A child seldom cuts his second grinders until after he is two years old. _He is, usually, from the time they first appear, two years in cutting the first set of teeth_. As a rule, therefore, a child of two years old has sixteen, and one of two years and a half old, twenty teeth. 60. _If an infant be feverish or irritable, or otherwise poorly, and if the gums be hot, swollen, and tender, are you an advocate for their being lanced_? Certainly; by doing so he will, in the generality of instances, be almost instantly relieved. 61. _But it has been stated that lancing the gums hardens them_?