and stated. To neglect so simple and reasonable a precaution, is to incur a needless hazard. By adopting it, the proprietor would be prepared to meet objection; and the idle reports that every year get into circulation would be quashed at their birth. A firmer basis for the authenticity of the age would be established than the reputation of the owner; and gentlemen would not annually be subjected to having their characters questioned by a host of interested ignoramuses. The turf is bound to adopt some measure of this kind for its own defence, especially as the honour of its members is, on every occasion, called into question, and a single instance of suspicion, seems, in the public eye, to warrant a general aspersion. 46. _When rising five years old all the horse teeth are in the mouth, but the corner teeth have yet to meet._ The peculiar sign of this particular age is the loss of the corner temporary incisors. It is scarcely possible to mistake the last milk tooth of the four year old, for the horse incisor which is characteristic of the fifth year; the difference between them is so great, that no person ought to confound one with the other. The corner milk tooth is often by the third year worn almost to a stump; its table being somewhat triangular, or occasionally round. By the fourth year it generally becomes a mere stump, or so changed in appearance that it contrasts in size with the other nippers, and seems incapable of performing any active function. At first, the permanent tooth when it makes its appearance, strikes us by its greater breadth, the gum not then having sufficiently retracted, or the tooth sufficiently grown to allow its after length being estimated. When the corner teeth are in the mouth, some time will elapse before they touch, but the incisors are then arranged so as to represent almost a semi-circle. The annexed wood-cut will convey an idea of the manner in which they are placed, and also of the shape of the tables of the central and lateral nippers, at the time when the corner teeth do not approximate, although they are through the gums. [Illustration]