few days of age, it could, in strict accordance with the established custom, be sold as a two-year-old; and the entry being in the stud book, of course the point would not be disputed. The colt is bought and taken into an ordinary stable, where all the horses not being thorough-bred advance a year when the 1st of May appears; and when that day dawns, the blood colt, not eighteen months of age, rising with the rest, is called three years off. Now in such a case, the man who judged by the teeth would be certain to be wrong; and if it is possible under any circumstances for truth to be discredited, we may imagine that many apparent mistakes would, on inquiry, be cleared up. The age of a horse is seldom correctly stated even in a court of law. Witnesses swear by the customs of men, and it never seems to occur to them that Nature has not yet given in her adherence to the codes by which their consciences are narcotized. Horses are born at all times and seasons. The regular breeder, it is true, takes care towards the observance of the regulations; but all who may think proper to have "a foal out of the old mare when she's done up for work," are by no means nice in that particular. Stallions are paraded for "service" in the autumn, and there are to be found men who will argue stoutly in favour of a "late get." 4. _The teeth more frequently contradict an arbitrary calculation than disagree with fact._ The mouth declares only the positive age, reckoned from the actual day of birth, and I know of no evidence of a similar description which may be more confidently trusted. Occasional exceptions are to be found, and of these notice will be hereafter taken; such exceptions, however, are not sufficiently frequent to upset the rule, and were the testimony of the teeth to be rejected, I know of no other that could be substituted. We are therefore necessitated to retain the test, and consequently should know how to apply it. Almost every one within or about the stable pretends to be able to do this, but some even of those who have studied the subject are not capable of doing it correctly. The evidence is often true when the judgment is false, and in this circumstance, perhaps, lies the chief danger of the test. A knowledge of the teeth is by no means universal; but where that knowledge is profound, though the test may seldom disappoint, yet because it will occasionally do so, the indications of the mouth ought to be corroborated. To proceed summarily (as in the case of the Queen of Cyprus) upon an inspection of the teeth, is certainly not justifiable, since the mouth may possibly be eccentric, or the judgment pronounced upon it may be erroneous. The teeth in every horse case are of importance. The suggestions to which they give rise should not be disregarded; yet at the same time no opinion of a final kind should be based upon their showing. The utmost that the inspection of the teeth could warrant is a doubt, certainly a strong one, as to the reported age